I always thought there was something fishy about Amazon’s best sellers lists, and now we have proof.
The Kindle Scribe Colorsoft currently sits at #52 on Amazon’s Best Sellers list for Kindles, despite the fact that it hasn’t been released yet and Amazon hasn’t sold a single unit.
Neither of the other two new Kindle Scribes appear on the list yet, just the Colorsoft version. Are they already trying to boost the perceived popularity of the new Kindle Scribe Colorsoft?
There’s definitely some shenanigans going on here because there’s no reason for a device that hasn’t been released yet and hasn’t been available to order in any form to appear on a best sellers list.
As you can see in the screenshot above, right there at the top of the page below the best sellers title it says, “Our most popular products based on sales. Updated frequently.”
Whenever Amazon announced new Kindles in the past they started taking pre-orders right away, even two months in advance in some cases. But this time they aren’t accepting pre-orders for the new Kindle Scribes for some reason. So how can it appear on the list when Amazon hasn’t accepted any orders yet, not even pre-orders?
I’m sure it’ll get blamed on a “bug” in the system, but Amazon’s best sellers lists have been suspect for years. They’re clearly doing things not based on sales in some cases. And I’ve noticed in the past how some models get grouped together to show higher sales, while other similar models get posted separately. If they’re going to promote these best sellers lists they should at least be accurate.
#52? Just think how much higher it would be if they actually had any in stock. I would guess it’s pre-orders. Maybe time travel is involved?
That’s what I thought – it probably was calculating all of the “email me when available” clicks. Not interested at all. I can’t believe the prices – especially the one without a light.
I was wondering the same thing about the email signup working its way into the equation, but neither of the other ones show up on the list and they have email sign-ups too. None of it makes any sense.
I agree that these lists are probably “cooked”. That said, I was able to preorder one sometime during October. It might have been due to some bug, and I had to try a few times, but I was able to successfully pre-order the 64 GB Kindle Scribe ColorSoft.
Now if they would just release the damn thing…