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Exactly - and while that low barrier of entry gives Amazon a significant problem with fraudulent items and listings of dubious quality, it also adds a ton of br

Exactly - and while that low barrier of entry gives Amazon a significant problem with fraudulent items and listings of dubious quality, it also adds a ton of breadth to the marketplace and makes something that actually lives up to the phrase, "The Everything Store." As an example, I found myself in the market for a laser cutter recently. Consumer entries start in the low/mid 4-figures, and Glowforge doesn't appear to be right around the corner. So I figure, the best bang-for-your-buck option is to buy a cheap Chinese model and swap out the cruddy bits. Now where am I going to get a cheap Chinese laser cutter, a nice open-source CNC controller board, and if things go hooey-shaped, a more robust power supply, ventilation, and/or cooling system? Walmart? No, the alternatives to something like that are more along the lines of ebay. The turnaround time would be significant, and I'd still have to vet all of the listings I consider to hopefully avoid fakes. Ditto for AliExpress, and double for TaoBao. Amazon offers prime shipping on most of those items, though, and they have a decent returns policy to boot. The breadth of their catalog is nothing to sneeze at.

MR4D 9y ago
Great post! Seems like Walmart should consider buying eBay if they ever want to compete.
grogenaut 9y ago
I would love some links on where you're doing your research on laser cutters. My wife recently suggested I buy one which is like, oh god how did this happen, I must make this happen as fast as possible before this opportunity goes away!
- leggomylibro 9y ago
  I kind of just googled around for information; there isn't a whole lot of well-collated stuff, so I definitely could have missed a better option, but it looks like if you're not going to shell out for a very expensive commercial/industrial unit or wait <undefined> months for Glowforge, you're probably looking at a K40. There's a pretty good wiki for it on the lasercutting subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/lasercutting/wiki/k40 https://www.reddit.com/r/lasercutting/wiki/k40 You'll quickly notice that it's not a terribly good laser cutter, although it does come with the 40W necessary to be one and can be upgraded further. There are a variety of upgrades you'll want, but if your budget is $1K, the laser cutter itself will cost you less than half of that; they run $400-450 on ebay. So if this were a Top Gear challenge, you're sitting pretty to improve your cheap lemon with your remaining cash: * The default controller only works with Windows and the software it comes with is likely pirated. If you're used to working with 3D printers, get a RAMPS board and put Marlin or something on it. There are a few guides for going from there to more open control software, or even running off of an SD card with no PC. * Ventilation. Apparently the stock fan doesn't fit that well, and there's no system to blow debris off of the bed when a cut is in progress. That could be a fire hazard and/or bio hazard since the dust from stuff like acrylic is not good for you. * Cooling. It's water-cooled, with a small aquarium pump that you stick in a bucket of water. It looks like that's probably fine if you aren't going to run the laser constantly, but you could always get something with more flow. * Some users say that you should ground the metal housing manually with a thick strand of wire. That's a mildly worrying piece of advice. So it sounds a little hair-raising, but all in all it seems like a manageable risk, and the price is right.
  - grogenaut 9y ago
    Thanks!
dragonsh 9y ago
Buy on TMall or JD or some other reputed seller not Taobao. If you are in China you use alipay or WeChat you are better protected then with amazon in USA. China's ecommerce eco-system is decade ahead of amazon model. So they can't even compete there.

MR4D 9y ago

Great post! Seems like Walmart should consider buying eBay if they ever want to compete.

grogenaut 9y ago

I would love some links on where you're doing your research on laser cutters. My wife recently suggested I buy one which is like, oh god how did this happen, I must make this happen as fast as possible before this opportunity goes away!

leggomylibro 9y ago
I kind of just googled around for information; there isn't a whole lot of well-collated stuff, so I definitely could have missed a better option, but it looks like if you're not going to shell out for a very expensive commercial/industrial unit or wait <undefined> months for Glowforge, you're probably looking at a K40. There's a pretty good wiki for it on the lasercutting subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/lasercutting/wiki/k40 https://www.reddit.com/r/lasercutting/wiki/k40 You'll quickly notice that it's not a terribly good laser cutter, although it does come with the 40W necessary to be one and can be upgraded further. There are a variety of upgrades you'll want, but if your budget is $1K, the laser cutter itself will cost you less than half of that; they run $400-450 on ebay. So if this were a Top Gear challenge, you're sitting pretty to improve your cheap lemon with your remaining cash: * The default controller only works with Windows and the software it comes with is likely pirated. If you're used to working with 3D printers, get a RAMPS board and put Marlin or something on it. There are a few guides for going from there to more open control software, or even running off of an SD card with no PC. * Ventilation. Apparently the stock fan doesn't fit that well, and there's no system to blow debris off of the bed when a cut is in progress. That could be a fire hazard and/or bio hazard since the dust from stuff like acrylic is not good for you. * Cooling. It's water-cooled, with a small aquarium pump that you stick in a bucket of water. It looks like that's probably fine if you aren't going to run the laser constantly, but you could always get something with more flow. * Some users say that you should ground the metal housing manually with a thick strand of wire. That's a mildly worrying piece of advice. So it sounds a little hair-raising, but all in all it seems like a manageable risk, and the price is right.
- grogenaut 9y ago
  Thanks!

dragonsh 9y ago

Buy on TMall or JD or some other reputed seller not Taobao. If you are in China you use alipay or WeChat you are better protected then with amazon in USA. China's ecommerce eco-system is decade ahead of amazon model. So they can't even compete there.