Amazon gives non-Prime members free shipping at $35 or more of eligible items. Instead of simply letting users get the product with free shipping, they’ve added a discount that prices it exactly one cent below the $35 limit, while only subsidizing the price with $3.38, which is about half of what they’ll then charge you for shipping.
IFixit is generally good quality/value in my experience if it’s actually them and not some knockoff/drop shipper. Granted haven’t had a need to buy anything of theirs for years because the one I have keeps being great.
That kit is $40 on their site. Weird that it’s cheaper on Amazon in the first place.
No, Amazon does this on purpose. If you want to sell on Amazon, the search and recommendation algorithms will make your product hard to find unless you have Amazon fulfillment. But if you sign up for Amazon fulfillment, not only do you have to give Amazon a bigger cut of the price, you have to agree to never sell your product for less than Amazon does, even on your own website with your own fulfillment.
The FTC sued Amazon for this practice, and that case is progressing. But who knows if the Trump administration is going to maintain the lawsuit, or if the court will rule against Amazon.
They do, but I’ve also seen it the other way around, where the price on Amazon is the price on the manufacturers site plus shipping. Usually for more reputable/niche products. IFixit I would’ve thought would be big/popular enough to do that but I guess not.