Buy.com Price Typo Leads to Flood of Monitor Orders

Astute Internet shoppers, trying to take advantage of what appears to have been a typographical error, flooded Aliso Viejo-based Buy.com Inc. with orders over the weekend.

The Buy.com Web store had priced a high-end Hitachi America Ltd. computer monitor at hundreds of dollars less than the company’s cost.

Within hours the news spread across online discussion groups and mailing lists, and about 1,600 customers rushed to buy the monitor, according to Wired News, an online news service.

Company officials declined to comment, and it was unclear whether the company would honor the orders at the lower prices.