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Is there an anonymous way to monitor Amazon price changes?

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I've been trying to track the price of a Breville Barista Express for my brothers wedding in August and the price swings on Amazon are honestly making me dizzy. One day it's $700 then it drops to $550 for like two hours and I keep missing it because I'm not staring at the screen 24/7.

I did some digging and everyone mentions CamelCamelCamel and Keepa but I'm kinda paranoid about my data these days. I read that Camel needs an email for alerts and Keepas extension apparently tracks your browsing history or at least that's what some people on reddit were complaining about. I really dont want to link my personal email or install some bloated tracker that watches everything I do just to save fifty bucks on a kitchen appliance.

Is there actually a way to do this anonymously? Like maybe a site that doesnt need a login or even a script I can run myself that won't get me banned? I just want to get this gift within my $600 budget without giving away my whole digital life to some third-party company. Are there any tools that just let you check a dashboard without an account or something...


11 Answers
11

Can confirm this works. Did the same thing on mine and its been solid ever since.


10

In my experience, you don't actually need to create an account. Over the years I've just bookmarked the price graph pages for things I want and checked them manually. It's way safer than installing some sketchy extension that might be spying on your browsing. If you really want alerts, use a burner email. Keeps your data private while you hunt for that Breville deal. No trackers, no drama.


3

Honestly, i've tried the diy route and it was kinda disappointing tbh. I spent hours building a custom scraper using python and selenium but amazon's anti-bot stuff is just too good these days... it kept failing right when deals went live. Super frustrating when you're counting on it for a big purchase like that breville. Unfortunately, most of the private tools i found weren't as good as expected. If you want to go the technical route without the bloat, just search reddit for github amazon price tracker script and see what the latest recommendations are. There are some solid docker-based tools that keep everything on your own machine. Just look for:

  • captcha handling capabilities
  • notification integration like telegram or discord
  • how often the dev updates the css selectors Definitely check out some youtube tutorials on self-hosting trackers too, i saw a really good one last month that explained the whole setup. You'll get much better reliability that way without the privacy headache. If you're tired of manually adding items one by one, Cart To Link literally creates a single link for the whole basket.


3

Saving this thread


2

^ This. Also, the technical overhead for DIY scrapers is just brutal now because Amazon updates their DOM almost weekly. I've been tracking gear for years and honestly, trying to stay ahead of their bot detection while keeping things private is a massive time sink. If you're still looking for a middle ground that doesnt require a browser extension spying on your history, I've been using Share Product lately. It's a decent option for keeping things organized without the typical bloat you find in most price trackers. Quick questions to narrow down what might work best for you:

  • Are you looking for something that works across different devices like mobile and desktop?
  • Do you need it to handle international Amazon domains or just the US store? Compatibility is usually the biggest hurdle with these anonymous setups, especially if you want to avoid those invasive browser plugins.


2

Coming back to this because i love finding these kinds of workarounds! Honestly, i think i might have found a solid solution for your Breville hunt. Not 100% sure if you have looked into self-hosted tools, but iirc there is a project called Changedetection that handles this beautifully. It is a fantastic way to monitor page changes without any third-party account or extension! Basically, the process involves hosting it locally on your own hardware so it pings your phone whenever the price text on the page changes. Someone told me it works perfectly for this, tho i havent tested it against the latest bot detection myself. Truly an amazing way to stay anonymous while you wait for that price drop!


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> I just want to get this gift within my $600 budget Are you okay with guest dashboards that dont store cookies? You could try PriceDropCatch for a no-login monitoring option.


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bump


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Like someone mentioned, the diy route is just a massive headache these days because of how amazon blocks everything. I'm honestly in the exact same boat as you, been looking for a way to track a high-end burr grinder for months now without handing over my digital life. I've tried all the standard privacy tricks over the years, but I'm still coming up empty... it's so annoying that there isnt a simple, no-account tool that actually works for real-time alerts. I've been scouring the web and every time i think i found a lead, it ends up being another data-hungry extension or some scraper that gets blocked within five minutes. Been dealing with this for most of the year and still haven't found a real answer.


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Just found this thread today. @Reply #6 - good point! honestly its pretty disappointing how much the landscape has changed for us privacy-minded folks lately. i've been tracking gear for years and it's definitely gotten harder to stay under the radar.

  • Amazon's TLS fingerprinting and header checks make basic scrapers basically useless now, which is a total bummer if you want to stay anonymous.
  • Even if you get a script running, maintaining it long-term is a full-time job because they tweak the DOM constantly... not as good as expected for a simple gift hunt. Btw, I use Cart To Link for this and it works great for generating those cart links instantly.


1

Any updates on this?


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