This Nautilus Elliptical Was the King of Price Errors

News

By RC Staff

19 March 2023

If you were looking to buy an elliptical online during July 2022, you might have noticed something strange about the price. Certain listings for the Nautilus E616 were marked down, sometimes significantly below MSRP.

While consumers were quick to notice and buy up the remaining stock, the ellipticals actually restocked several times over the course of the month. Resellers who were alert and watching stock could buy and sell ellipticals through July. These would prove to be an easy flip for anyone with a little money and time, regardless of experience in reselling fitness equipment.

What is the Nautilus E616 Elliptical?

Falling squarely in the middle of Nautilus’ elliptical lineup, the E616 is a cross between affordability and capability for an elliptical. Relatively inexpensive compared to other machines, the original MSRP for the E616 was around $1,400. However, following the release of the more advanced E618 model, the price for the earlier model was lowered, and the Nautilus E616 costs $1,100.

This update to the price took place in early July of 2022. After receiving the new MSRP from Nautilus, retailers were quick to update with the lower price. Cleverly though, most of them would show the previous MSRP of $1,400 with a slash through, and highlighting the new price. While not outright stated, this gives the implication of a sale and entices buyers.

Things would start getting weird pretty quick.

Why did the Nautilus E616 resell?

Several days after the new MSRP rolled out across brick-and-mortar retailers and their websites, something strange happened. The Nautilus Store on Amazon would list the E616 on sale for just $360. This was no third-party seller either; the Nautilus Store is Nautilus’ official sales portal on Amazon, and it was unclear just why they had marked it down so heavily.

Word of the sale spread in resellers’ circles, and the stock would quickly sell out as people discovered it. Despite many expecting orders to be canceled, and the price to be corrected, orders would be shipped out promptly. At this point, nobody really knew what was happening. If it was a sale, wouldn’t they be advertising it? And why would the price be so low?

Things got even more bizarre though, as BestBuy’s price for the elliptical would soon be updated to match the Nautilus Store’s. As part of their official Price Match guarantee, BestBuy will lower their price to match any competitor’s, including an Amazon listing. Since the E616 was listed for $360 through Nautilus’ official store, not a third-party, BestBuy would match the price.

It’s unclear if BestBuy’s price matching was the result of an algorithm detecting the price, or a customer alerted them to the price, but it would turn this incident from an ordinary price error to a legitimate cook.

See, while the Amazon listing for the E616 only loaded a small amount of stock over a few days, BestBuy would restock them. Several times. Using monitors that alerted them to new stock being loaded, resellers could simply wait for the next restock on BestBuy’s site and load up with new ellipticals.

BestBuy would go on to restock the ellipticals several times through the month of July. Ideally, you would buy for in-store pickup, and then sell the ellipticals locally through Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace. Home Gym equipment is still very popular, and these would reliably sell for upwards of $600, usually nearing $800 in densely populated areas.

It's not over just yet

The fun would come to end in late July, when the Nautilus Store adjusted their price back to the previous MSRP of $1,100. Following this, most people expected BestBuy would soon fix their price as well.

Except, they didn’t. It took several months for BestBuy to update their price. Eventually, the listing was removed completely, presumably to make way for newer models.

In any case, if you were in the market for fitness equipment, or you just want to make a little extra cash, the Nautilus E616 some time was an incredible opportunity. At $360, you quite literally could not find a better deal on an elliptical unless you built one yourself.