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> I don't trust it right now to provide me things that aren't counterfit That might be true for a small percent of HackerNews readers that are also Daringfireb

> I don't trust it right now to provide me things that aren't counterfit That might be true for a small percent of HackerNews readers that are also Daringfireball readers - but the world at large still trusts Amazon; that's the whole point of the article, really. As anecdotal evidence, an Amazon Investment might be the only way to convince me to become a Prime member (if that'd be a required precondition). I'd almost certainly use it, if allowed.

lsc 9y ago
so, I trust amazon too (at least the 'shipped and sold by amazon' brand... I consider everything else to be more like ebay) But... I just don't see how amazon would get me away, say, from vanguard. There are already good retail brokerages, and I don't see why I'd want to go through amazon instead of another company.
- virgilp 9y ago
  There are lots of ways, of course: A. Going global: a lot of those "good retail brokers" are US-only. Sometimes it's dumb - I already have an ETrade account & signed all the paperwork including stuff relevant for my foreigner status... But ETrade will only let me trade my employer's stock, nothing else. B. Bundle stuff that others can't match - e.g. Prime C. One account, with good actual security (few appreciate that but some will) D. Maybe new financial products that others can't match (I think Amazon is in a position where they might pull that off)
  - fujiters 9y ago
    Brokers are often limited in which countries they'll accept clients from, but that's to avoid all the overhead of filling the appropriate tax forms to each government (and maintaining the knowledge of what the rules in each country are).
    - virgilp 9y ago
      That's exactly my point - Etrade already does all the tax forms for me, I don't understand why they won't allow me to have a full account. Probably some "blanket policy". As for Amazon, I would expect them to eventually expand globally if they were to offer such services (which is not what I expect from most US brokers).
  - lsc 9y ago
    You have some good points, especially about scaling the international stuff, something I hadn't thought of. That does sound compelling but B? I don't see why I want to bundle my stocks with my television series. And, I'm not sure Amazon has security that is any better than Vanguard.
    - virgilp 9y ago
      I don't think Vanguard's security is better than Amazon's [1]... Technically they could be more secure than Amazon despite running stuff on AWS, but still, I'd say Amazon's track record on security is pretty good - and pretty much the entire Enterprise world relies on it. [1] E.g. they obviously run stuff on AWS: http://www.vanguardjobs.com/job/7980466/ts03-cloud-architect-malvern-pa/ http://www.vanguardjobs.com/job/7980466/ts03-cloud-architect...
      - lsc 9y ago
        I find that... terrifying
stormbeta 9y ago
I don't know, I've seen a lot of trust erosion in the last few years even just among people I know (many of whom don't even work in tech), largely driven by them getting burned by problems with sketchy third-party re-sellers. Unless you're paying close attention, it's not obvious to the average consumer that so many products are being sold by independent resellers vs Amazon themselves, so people aren't as careful as they might be on, say, eBay.
- sct202 9y ago
  Amazon's reputation is starting to converge with Walmart imo.

lsc 9y ago

so, I trust amazon too (at least the 'shipped and sold by amazon' brand... I consider everything else to be more like ebay) But... I just don't see how amazon would get me away, say, from vanguard. There are already good retail brokerages, and I don't see why I'd want to go through amazon instead of another company.

virgilp 9y ago
There are lots of ways, of course: A. Going global: a lot of those "good retail brokers" are US-only. Sometimes it's dumb - I already have an ETrade account & signed all the paperwork including stuff relevant for my foreigner status... But ETrade will only let me trade my employer's stock, nothing else. B. Bundle stuff that others can't match - e.g. Prime C. One account, with good actual security (few appreciate that but some will) D. Maybe new financial products that others can't match (I think Amazon is in a position where they might pull that off)
- fujiters 9y ago
  Brokers are often limited in which countries they'll accept clients from, but that's to avoid all the overhead of filling the appropriate tax forms to each government (and maintaining the knowledge of what the rules in each country are).
  - virgilp 9y ago
    That's exactly my point - Etrade already does all the tax forms for me, I don't understand why they won't allow me to have a full account. Probably some "blanket policy". As for Amazon, I would expect them to eventually expand globally if they were to offer such services (which is not what I expect from most US brokers).
- lsc 9y ago
  You have some good points, especially about scaling the international stuff, something I hadn't thought of. That does sound compelling but B? I don't see why I want to bundle my stocks with my television series. And, I'm not sure Amazon has security that is any better than Vanguard.
  - virgilp 9y ago
    I don't think Vanguard's security is better than Amazon's [1]... Technically they could be more secure than Amazon despite running stuff on AWS, but still, I'd say Amazon's track record on security is pretty good - and pretty much the entire Enterprise world relies on it. [1] E.g. they obviously run stuff on AWS: http://www.vanguardjobs.com/job/7980466/ts03-cloud-architect-malvern-pa/ http://www.vanguardjobs.com/job/7980466/ts03-cloud-architect...
    - lsc 9y ago
      I find that... terrifying

stormbeta 9y ago

I don't know, I've seen a lot of trust erosion in the last few years even just among people I know (many of whom don't even work in tech), largely driven by them getting burned by problems with sketchy third-party re-sellers. Unless you're paying close attention, it's not obvious to the average consumer that so many products are being sold by independent resellers vs Amazon themselves, so people aren't as careful as they might be on, say, eBay.

sct202 9y ago
Amazon's reputation is starting to converge with Walmart imo.