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That's a way to allow people to pay more for a slightly lower chance of receiving counterfeit products. It's not a way to reduce counterfeit overall. As I poin

by ikeboy 7y ago

That's a way to allow people to pay more for a slightly lower chance of receiving counterfeit products. It's not a way to reduce counterfeit overall. As I pointed out elsewhere in this thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22107150 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22107150, commingling doesn't significantly affect counterfeiting. My question above was "What policy do you believe would prevent new sellers from selling counterfeits while still allowing legitimate sellers?". Abolishing the commingling program doesn't do that.

0xffff2 7y ago
So your position is that Amazon itself knowingly sells counterfeit items? Otherwise I don't see how stopping commingling gives a "slight" reduction in the chances of receiving a counterfeit item when buying directly from Amazon.
- ikeboy 7y ago
  The chances of receiving a counterfeit in general are very low. And there are some who've accused Amazon of selling counterfeits directly, so the odds there aren't 0. The relative reduction is probably large, but if it's something like one in 100k instead of one in 10k, that's a slight reduction on an absolute level.
  - 0xffff2 7y ago
    >The chances of receiving a counterfeit in general are very low. Well, that's open for debate, and the concrete data is so scarce that it's hard to have any meaningful debate, but I thin we disagree here. >And there are some who've accused Amazon of selling counterfeits directly... Got a link for such an accusation? I've only ever seen them accused of commingling third party inventory with their own, which sometimes results in receiving a counterfeit item when buying directly from Amazon, but that's a very different thing from Amazon procuring and selling counterfeits.
    - ikeboy 7y ago
      Lawsuits. William Sonoma and Mercedes Benz have both sued Amazon claiming they sold counterfeit. Popsockets recently told Congress that Amazon had sold counterfeits (although as I commented in the recent HN thread on that (see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22079904 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22079904), popsockets has been bullying other sellers in ways I view as illegitimate, so I take anything they say with a grain of salt.) This is nothing unique to Amazon, by the way. I could show you lawsuits against Walmart and Costco for selling counterfeits. Every massive retail company that doesn't buy 100% from the manufacturer is going to eventually have some leaks. You buy from the grey market, vast majority of the time you get legitimate cheaper product, occasionally someone scams you. Oh, and Apple famously sued Mobile Star LLC claiming that they had sold Amazon counterfeit products through Vendor, which was "sold and shipped by Amazon.com". Links to all above cases: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/6173730/daimler-ag-v-amazoncom-inc/ https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/6173730/daimler-ag-v-am... https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/4495986/apple-inc-v-mobile-star-llc/ https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/4495986/apple-inc-v-mob... https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/8418854/williams-sonoma-inc-v-amazoncom-inc/ https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/8418854/williams-sonoma...

by ikeboy 7y ago

0xffff2 7y ago

So your position is that Amazon itself knowingly sells counterfeit items? Otherwise I don't see how stopping commingling gives a "slight" reduction in the chances of receiving a counterfeit item when buying directly from Amazon.

ikeboy 7y ago
The chances of receiving a counterfeit in general are very low. And there are some who've accused Amazon of selling counterfeits directly, so the odds there aren't 0. The relative reduction is probably large, but if it's something like one in 100k instead of one in 10k, that's a slight reduction on an absolute level.
- 0xffff2 7y ago
  >The chances of receiving a counterfeit in general are very low. Well, that's open for debate, and the concrete data is so scarce that it's hard to have any meaningful debate, but I thin we disagree here. >And there are some who've accused Amazon of selling counterfeits directly... Got a link for such an accusation? I've only ever seen them accused of commingling third party inventory with their own, which sometimes results in receiving a counterfeit item when buying directly from Amazon, but that's a very different thing from Amazon procuring and selling counterfeits.
  - ikeboy 7y ago
    Lawsuits. William Sonoma and Mercedes Benz have both sued Amazon claiming they sold counterfeit. Popsockets recently told Congress that Amazon had sold counterfeits (although as I commented in the recent HN thread on that (see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22079904 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22079904), popsockets has been bullying other sellers in ways I view as illegitimate, so I take anything they say with a grain of salt.) This is nothing unique to Amazon, by the way. I could show you lawsuits against Walmart and Costco for selling counterfeits. Every massive retail company that doesn't buy 100% from the manufacturer is going to eventually have some leaks. You buy from the grey market, vast majority of the time you get legitimate cheaper product, occasionally someone scams you. Oh, and Apple famously sued Mobile Star LLC claiming that they had sold Amazon counterfeit products through Vendor, which was "sold and shipped by Amazon.com". Links to all above cases: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/6173730/daimler-ag-v-amazoncom-inc/ https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/6173730/daimler-ag-v-am... https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/4495986/apple-inc-v-mobile-star-llc/ https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/4495986/apple-inc-v-mob... https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/8418854/williams-sonoma-inc-v-amazoncom-inc/ https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/8418854/williams-sonoma...