Items That Do Not Have Offers; Determining Parent Items - Amazon Product Advertising API Developer's Manual

Product Advertising API Developer Guide
<BinName>$25-$49</BinName>
<BinItemCount>316</BinItemCount>
<BinParameter>
<Name>MinimumPrice</Name>
<Value>2500</Value>
</BinParameter>
<BinParameter>
<Name>MaximumPrice</Name>
<Value>4999</Value>
</BinParameter>
</Bin>
</SearchBinSet>
<Bin>
<BinName>$0-$24</BinName>
<BinItemCount>280</BinItemCount>
<BinParameter>
<Name>MinimumPrice</Name>
<Value>0</Value>
</BinParameter>
<BinParameter>
<Name>MaximumPrice</Name>
<Value>2499</Value>
</BinParameter>
</Bin>
</SearchBinSet>
This response shows that there are 316 items in this product category that cost between $25 and $49
and 280 items that cost between $0 and $24.
Knowing what price ranges are available for a product category enables you to use the MaximumPrice
and MinimumPrice parameters in a second ItemSearch request to retrieve items only in the specified
price range. Using one of the offer response groups in the same request enables you to display the prices
of the items in a specified price range.

Items That Do Not Have Offers

There are two kinds of items returned by Product Advertising API:
• Regular items
• Parent items
A parent item is an abstraction of a collection of items. For example, shirt is a parent item. A shirt that is
a specific size and color would be a child of the parent item, which is called a regular item. Each regular
item has an item identifier, such as an ASIN. That means that a red, large shirt would have a different
ASIN from the same shirt that is blue and size large. The child items are also called variations.
Because a parent item is an abstraction, it cannot be sold so it does not have an OfferListingId.

Determining Parent Items

How do you determine if the item returned in a response is a parent item? If you use either the Variations
or VariationSummary response groups in a request, the responses will include a VariationSummary tag
if the item is a parent item.
Secondly, if you use one of the offer response groups, parent items do not have offers. So, the summary
would be as follows.
Returning Prices
API Version 2011-08-01
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