Ah, true, the terminology is incorect yes :P

I think what some hypothesized is correct.  Amazon is counting those who sign up for emails as "buys."  There is no other reason that the Switch stayed so high in the Top 100 when it had been sold out for days.  And it even went up and down for awhile, too.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe any other product has ever done that. 

Don't get me wrong, though, if that's true it's still good news for the Switch and Nintendo, but it just throws off the charts.

Yes, I agreed with that until I read the description. Amazon didn't even know if they were going to get any more stock so it's unlikely they'd accept more sign ups until they're certain they were getting more.

I mean to receive emails when pre-orders are available, again.  At least, that's the only thing I can come up with that makes any sense.  Even if it was just Amazon promoting it, it doesn't make sense for them to have it all over the charts like that.  There had to be some factor making it move around like that.  And email sign ups are the only thing I can think of.

Well, no, the reason it jumped - as was pointed out in the posts above yours - is because the Neon bundle became available and was sold out in like 10 minutes. 

That's a different SKU.  I'm talking about the normal Switch SKU.  It stayed in the Top 5 for the longest time, even though it was sold out.  Then, it very slowly started trending down.  But, on the way down, there were times it would jump up a few spots, then go back down.  Like I said, that's the first time I have noticed a sold out item behave that way.  Usually it's only a few hours before it starts to quickly start dropping down the charts, until it is completely gone within a day or so.

I think Amazon may have either changed their algorithm to count those wanting to be emailed when the product is available as "sales" or it's always been the algorithm and other products just dropped much quicker because not as many people signed up to be emailed, since the product was available elsewhere.

That was an odd bit but I had seen that before and it didn't effect the monthly or yearly and it has slid off the chart as it should. 

Also, the sales of the Neon bundle the moment it became available kinda puts a ding in that.  Because clearly there were a ton of people who were still eagerly looking to get the Switch.  So those people would have been looking for that email to alert them, so if Amazon was counting those then surely the Switch would have stayed higher longer.  I highly doubt that the email thing is being counted. 

Oh dang! I love how the Switch just shoots up to the top!

They aren't. It only reached 3rd this time so if my theory is correct it should fall down the charts quicker because it didn't have a huge day of sales to hold them high up the charts once out of stock like original shipment. 

Like I said before, the weekly and monthly represent actual 1:1 sales so look at those if you want a better picture. The hourly definitely represents sales of a week or more but the older the sales the less weight they have on the charts. 

I think its an easy thing to figure out, albeit a complicated problem.

Its all about rate of sales. And that affects hourly rankings more than it affects daily, weekly and subsequently; monthly rankings and in that order of relevance.

for instance, If amazon gets there hands on say 2k allotments of the NS and puts them up for pre-order, and all those units sell out in an hr, if its taken everything but the top 2 items in the hour charts say 3 days to sell just shy of 2k units, then the NS will leapfrog to 3rd position. And it will remain high in the charts for however long it takes anything to outsell it (sell more than those 2k units) in relation to time.

Remember, 2k is just an example here, since we couldn't possibly know what allotments they have and how much anything else is selling.

I don't think amazon really cares who is up or down on the charts. A company that big can't afford to care. Furthermore, if you think about it it, amazon potentially stands to gain more from platforms that are currently on the market and in stock with large libraries of games and accessories to sell to consumders, than taking preorders for something thats not out yet. Cause they don't take the money for those pre-orders until they are shipping out your item.

I think swordfish and I are thinking along the same lines here.