Hardcore Amazon shoppers rejoice! If you are a frequent Amazon hunter like I am, you would know that prices for items can fluctuate over time. You're probably then asking yourself how in the world would you know if you are buying an item when it's at its lowest price point? Or more importantly, are you buying that item when it is at its peak price point? By default, I believe Amazon does have give you a heads up for item prices that have changed for items you put in your cart in the past but I'm not exactly sure how it works. However, you can take the guesswork out now by using the Ookong Firefox browser add-on!
A lot of people think I am really cheap person because I always try to look for the lowest price for items I purchase online. However, that's not really the case. Now, I'm not a rich person by any means but I'm not exactly poor either. There's just a satisfaction a lot of shoppers get when they know they bought their items for as low of a price as possible. Hunting for deals online is considered a challenge and actually fun for many people believe it or not. One of my favorite places to shop online is none other than Amazon. I have been a loyal shopper for about 6-7 years now and I've racked up a lot of Amazon points on my Amazon credit card (which I highly urge anyone to get if you are a frequent shopper like I am).
To get to the point, the Firefox addon Ookong allows you to track item price history on the Amazon webstore. Once installed, every item you visit will have a new Follow This Item button which will tell Ookong to keep tabs on the item pricing. The best part? Well of course price difference notification! When an item in your Ookong list drops below a certain percentage or amount, Ookong will then notify you of the price change.
Ookong
You can download the Ookong Firefox addon from here.
Once installed, you'll notice the little Ookong icon in the lower right corner of your browser.
Simply head to Amazon and continue browsing the site like normal. When you stumble upon an item of interest and want to either track or look at it's price history, simply click on the Follow This Item button.
To view your item list under Ookong, simply click on the icon and select Following List from the menu option. You'll then be taken to your Ookong page where it will give you a view of all the items you are currently tracking with Ookong. From there, you get to see the pricing history for each of your product. You get to see the product's highest price point, the lowest price point and what the current price is at. The other important part you shouldn't miss out on is the graphical chart. Although very simple, it sort of gives you a picture of when (if any) the price changes have occurred over the month. It's a really broad overview but something is better than nothing right?
When Ookong detects that a price drop has occurred for a item in your watch list, it will prompt you with a nice message:
Sadly, Ookong doesn't have web login access to sync your item list so if you are using more than one computer, you'll have to manually import your Ookong list from a file. Fortunately, Ookong makes this really easy. You can export your Ookong list on your current computer and configure other settings by clicking on the Ookong browser icon.
If you aren't fond of installing yet another Firefox addon, you'll be glad to know that you can also see item pricing history directly from Ookong's website as well. Strangely, you can create a web account with Ookong and from what I'm guessing, be able to save your item list. Not sure why that feature isn't integrated with the Firefox addon but I'm also guessing it will be implemented in a future update.
Also, if anyone has other methods of keeping tabs on Amazon product pricing changes and whatnot, please do tell!
In the End...
While I don't particularly dig the name, I do admit Ookong will help me a great deal when snooping around Amazon for the cheapest deals on products of interest. For some Amazon items, they already list the old price, which is grayed and slashed out, with the new and lower pricing. In those situations, Ookong doesn't really do much. For the many other times though, Ookong will give you a pricing history and you get to decide for yourself whether you should wait out a bit more for it to drop in price or just pull the trigger since the price history shows no sign of change for the product or the price is at its lowest point. Ookong isn't a fortune teller so you shouldn't treat it as one. It can't tell you when the next price change will occur, or if it ever will drop again. It is just a simple tool to help you see the pricing history for your product on Amazon, nothing more and nothing less. You can hope for a price drop to occur by looking at the graphing chart for a trend but again, nothing is guaranteed. As with all things, you could keep waiting and waiting and waiting for that perfect price drop to happen but by the time that happens, a better product will most likely replace it or you'll find a better product. Long story short, be decisive but smart at the same time on your purchase decisions!
Happy shopping!
