4 ms·

I don't understand why people willingly use Amazon for most buying or selling at this point. That said, in response to this, I would probably format the book's

I don't understand why people willingly use Amazon for most buying or selling at this point. That said, in response to this, I would probably format the book's PDF edition so that an aspiring republisher would have to do a lot of work to get it print-ready.

witheld 4y ago
I think most people don’t actually care if anything is real. Even if it’s a safety hazard, even if someone is getting screwed- it’s basically an internet flea market.
eropple 4y ago
Speaking only for myself: because...I don't see it in the stuff that I buy? I've bought tools from Amazon fairly recently. They're things that you could totally counterfeit if you were interested in doing so, but at the same time they're things that I can immediately identify as being either legitimate or indistinguishable from such. Like, I purchased a set of iGaging double squares on Amazon and tested them against my surface plate and my Starrett square. They pass. Maybe somebody's counterfeiting the thing and selling it at the same price to me, but it's also not a worse product, so I couldn't tell. I don't doubt that there's a lot of counterfeiting going on, because it's the internet, but it probably depends on what you buy as much as anything else. I'd be much more worried about substandard quality from buying things from the bajillion sellers with what sound like generated names (because they all look the same but did this one swap out component X for one that's a couple cents cheaper?) because there's no good way to control for it--but in those circumstances Amazon's return policy is also pretty great.
- BeetleB 4y ago
  I often avoid Amazon, but do purchase from them occasionally. If it's available for just a few dollars more, I buy it elsewhere. Just recently I found something $15 cheaper at Amazon and decided to go with them. I got something that very likely is used (some of the internal packages had been opened, outer container/box had creases, and had been clearly taped closed, etc). It was a time sensitive item so I couldn't return it and get a new one in time. Fitting that just when I told myself "Oh what the heck - I'm saving $15, let's just go with Amazon" I end up getting a used item sold as new.
  - CommitSyn 4y ago
    Often Amazon is more expensive or the same price as other retailers.
    - eastbound 4y ago
      I believe Amazon increases the price with time, for a given customer. Now I can’t find anything cheap on Amazon, all the crap seems to be at +15€ compared to shops.
      - CommitSyn 4y ago
        It would be interesting to make a new account to test that. I assumed it's because they have so many millions of customers locked in with free ("free") prime shipping that they know they'll be fine price matching upwards as long as it's a similar price elsewhere online, because they are who most people I know think of when you "need something like tomorrow" and don't want to go shopping. I think a lot of sellers also include the shipping cost in the price of the item and ship it to Amazon so it can be PRIME-eligible.
- CommitSyn 4y ago
  I don't buy books much, but it's definitely an issue with electronic tools. Scales, calculators, heart rate and oxygen monitors, computer accessories, or really anything with cheap electronics that aren't _too_ complex and sells well is counterfeited. If you can find the components on tindie, then they can likely find them mass-produced and cheaper, and if it sells well and makes sense to have someone design a copy and manufacture it then they're going to. Whether it ends up on Amazon specifically is a different question. Typically it's a matter of when and how long, not if. Obviously this becomes an issue with tools because unless it's an exact copy being made in the same factory (which does happen with outsourced Chinese products and this is typically when you'll see /almost/ exactly the same product with 10 different listings and 10 different brand logos on them), it doesn't have the R&D and QA that the original product has. Even if they are made in the same factory, they don't necessarily have the same quality, latest software, or warranty of the original. Where the American company that outsourced that oxygen meter may have opted for the medical grade, consumer-safe plastic and tests each batch, the counterfeiters are happy to use the cheapest materials they can find, which are at best only lower-quality, and not actively unsafe. Counterfeiters make money through active deception, and money is the goal, so they will _never_ pay for the best materials and tech. If they can source the metal made with lead for 5% cheaper than the non-leaded equivalent, it's not even a question. They are going for the cheaper option, because that's 5% more profit.
kristopolous 4y ago
The no hassle convenient returns keep me coming back. It takes the risk out of online shopping. There's 5,000 reasons not to use them and 500 other vendors that have similar policies but I know how expensive a return actually is so I would rather do that strategy with a company I don't care about. They run retail at a loss and frankly I'm more than happy to be one of their stubbornly unprofitable customers.
- eastbound 4y ago
  And the guaranteed invoicing. I own a company and a lot online sellers are unprofessional about invoices, delivery times, credit card confidentiality, shipping company (“Don’t worry that glass is strong, there was no need to move it away from those angular machines that we shipped in the same truck”), basic security, let alone they ship a broken extinguisher to you.
jrumbut 4y ago
For a while they had a better selection, better return policy, and "free two day shipping" which combined blew any other online or offline retail operation I was aware of out of the water in terms of the complete customer experience (excluding certain niches like pharmacy or luxury that they weren't really participating in). Since then, the others have caught up and they have stagnated. I'm starting to look elsewhere more often but habits do change slowly. I hate to say it but I don't think too hard when I need the little odds and ends Amazon is still pretty good at delivering.
djaychela 4y ago
They are the only game in town as far as self-print selling is concerned, if you want to make money. Despite getting 1/3 the money per copy compared to selling via Lulu.com (although this has changed now, lulu pays a lot less than they used to), I made a lot more money selling via Amazon than via lulu. I held out for years until the situation was untenable financially, and now only sell via Amazon for this reason.
elcapitan 4y ago
I live in Germany, and this particular type of book (English IT books) is much more easily available via Amazon than regular book stores, because the standard wholesalers which the book stores use often don't have them in storage. Having said that, I haven't seen a counterfeit book yet, maybe the problem is not as widespread here as in the Us?
tzs 4y ago
> I don't understand why people willingly use Amazon for most buying or selling at this point. Looking at some recent Amazon purchases of mine, I bought at Amazon because there was no obvious reasonable way to buy elsewhere. 1. I've long had one of these [1], which I bought decades ago in some local store (probably a bookstore) and it works great and was cheap. I really just wanted another one of those but they seem to be unavailable now except from medical supply companies (WTF!?) for around $35. Barnes & Noble, Office Deport, and Staples all have book stands, but none with the simplicity and versatility of the Easi-Reader. Amazon at least has some with the same general design [2] so that's where I went. 2. I wanted a pyramid-style mechanical metronome. I don't really need it--I've got an electronic metronome, my piano has a built in metronome, and there are numerous free metronome apps for mobile and desktop, but a mechanical one would look great sitting on my piano, and I like the swinging arm so I can see the beat. The only reasonably local music store doesn't have that style. They only have this kind of mechanical metronome [3], which I find ugly. The major online music stores either don't have mechanical metronomes, or only have expensive ones. Amazon did [4]. It even matches the color of my piano. 3. A PT100 temperature sensor. I could have gotten one from Adafruit or Sparkfun or Digikey or similar, but they all charge a lot for fast shipping and even slow shipping is pretty high. I generally only use them when I've got enough things I need for longer term projects that I can place a big order. When I want just one thing in a couple of days, like that PT100, I usually go to Amazon [5]. 4. The most ridiculous recent Amazon purchase was dial calipers. Surely that is something I can get locally at Home Depot or Lowe's, right? Nope. My HD only stocks 3, one digital, one vernier, and one that is just a sliding ruler with caliper jaws so it can take inside and outside measurements. HD does have a dial caliper online for ordering at least. Lowes's only lists 3 on their website, two digital and one vernier which is the only on in stock at my nearest store. The one that can be ordered at HD is plastic, and there isn't a lot of reviews on their site. So I went with Amazon [6]. 5. I wanted a guitar stand that was not bulky and would work well with a classical guitar. I went with an Amazon Basics model [7]. The local music store wants $37 for an A-frame stand. They have a tripod stand for $18, but those are too bulky for where I wanted to use it. 6. A classical guitar strap [8]. My local music store does carry that exact same strap and it is even in stock, but that store is about a gallon of gas away round trip and this is such a low volume item that there is little risk of Amazon's being counterfeit so I went with Amazon. (BTW, that strap is great! I've never been comfortable with the usual footstool approach nor ever been able to actually get good position that way and was considering trying something like Guitarlift [9] or ErgoPlay [10] but the sound hole strap approach is cheap enough I though I'd give it a try first as not much would be lost if it didn't work. For more options for and the history of supporting classic guitars see this video [10]). [1] https://www.walmart.com/ip/The-Easi-Reader-Bookstand/115755262 https://www.walmart.com/ip/The-Easi-Reader-Bookstand/1157552... [2] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QMRBZN2 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QMRBZN2 [3] https://wittner-gmbh.de/wittner_metronome_super_mini_e.html https://wittner-gmbh.de/wittner_metronome_super_mini_e.html [4] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IP8C04M https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IP8C04M [5] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DP3LYPX https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DP3LYPX [6] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B5XJW7I https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B5XJW7I [7] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018FCZKR2 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018FCZKR2 [8] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003B12ZFI https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003B12ZFI [9] https://www.stringsbymail.com/guitarlift-guitar-support-medium-plate-transparent-21823.html https://www.stringsbymail.com/guitarlift-guitar-support-medi... [10] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uawtsVi19A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uawtsVi19A

witheld 4y ago

I think most people don’t actually care if anything is real. Even if it’s a safety hazard, even if someone is getting screwed- it’s basically an internet flea market.

eropple 4y ago

Speaking only for myself: because...I don't see it in the stuff that I buy? I've bought tools from Amazon fairly recently. They're things that you could totally counterfeit if you were interested in doing so, but at the same time they're things that I can immediately identify as being either legitimate or indistinguishable from such. Like, I purchased a set of iGaging double squares on Amazon and tested them against my surface plate and my Starrett square. They pass. Maybe somebody's counterfeiting the thing and selling it at the same price to me, but it's also not a worse product, so I couldn't tell. I don't doubt that there's a lot of counterfeiting going on, because it's the internet, but it probably depends on what you buy as much as anything else. I'd be much more worried about substandard quality from buying things from the bajillion sellers with what sound like generated names (because they all look the same but did this one swap out component X for one that's a couple cents cheaper?) because there's no good way to control for it--but in those circumstances Amazon's return policy is also pretty great.

BeetleB 4y ago
I often avoid Amazon, but do purchase from them occasionally. If it's available for just a few dollars more, I buy it elsewhere. Just recently I found something $15 cheaper at Amazon and decided to go with them. I got something that very likely is used (some of the internal packages had been opened, outer container/box had creases, and had been clearly taped closed, etc). It was a time sensitive item so I couldn't return it and get a new one in time. Fitting that just when I told myself "Oh what the heck - I'm saving $15, let's just go with Amazon" I end up getting a used item sold as new.
- CommitSyn 4y ago
  Often Amazon is more expensive or the same price as other retailers.
  - eastbound 4y ago
    I believe Amazon increases the price with time, for a given customer. Now I can’t find anything cheap on Amazon, all the crap seems to be at +15€ compared to shops.
    - CommitSyn 4y ago
      It would be interesting to make a new account to test that. I assumed it's because they have so many millions of customers locked in with free ("free") prime shipping that they know they'll be fine price matching upwards as long as it's a similar price elsewhere online, because they are who most people I know think of when you "need something like tomorrow" and don't want to go shopping. I think a lot of sellers also include the shipping cost in the price of the item and ship it to Amazon so it can be PRIME-eligible.
CommitSyn 4y ago
I don't buy books much, but it's definitely an issue with electronic tools. Scales, calculators, heart rate and oxygen monitors, computer accessories, or really anything with cheap electronics that aren't _too_ complex and sells well is counterfeited. If you can find the components on tindie, then they can likely find them mass-produced and cheaper, and if it sells well and makes sense to have someone design a copy and manufacture it then they're going to. Whether it ends up on Amazon specifically is a different question. Typically it's a matter of when and how long, not if. Obviously this becomes an issue with tools because unless it's an exact copy being made in the same factory (which does happen with outsourced Chinese products and this is typically when you'll see /almost/ exactly the same product with 10 different listings and 10 different brand logos on them), it doesn't have the R&D and QA that the original product has. Even if they are made in the same factory, they don't necessarily have the same quality, latest software, or warranty of the original. Where the American company that outsourced that oxygen meter may have opted for the medical grade, consumer-safe plastic and tests each batch, the counterfeiters are happy to use the cheapest materials they can find, which are at best only lower-quality, and not actively unsafe. Counterfeiters make money through active deception, and money is the goal, so they will _never_ pay for the best materials and tech. If they can source the metal made with lead for 5% cheaper than the non-leaded equivalent, it's not even a question. They are going for the cheaper option, because that's 5% more profit.

kristopolous 4y ago

The no hassle convenient returns keep me coming back. It takes the risk out of online shopping. There's 5,000 reasons not to use them and 500 other vendors that have similar policies but I know how expensive a return actually is so I would rather do that strategy with a company I don't care about. They run retail at a loss and frankly I'm more than happy to be one of their stubbornly unprofitable customers.

eastbound 4y ago
And the guaranteed invoicing. I own a company and a lot online sellers are unprofessional about invoices, delivery times, credit card confidentiality, shipping company (“Don’t worry that glass is strong, there was no need to move it away from those angular machines that we shipped in the same truck”), basic security, let alone they ship a broken extinguisher to you.

jrumbut 4y ago

For a while they had a better selection, better return policy, and "free two day shipping" which combined blew any other online or offline retail operation I was aware of out of the water in terms of the complete customer experience (excluding certain niches like pharmacy or luxury that they weren't really participating in). Since then, the others have caught up and they have stagnated. I'm starting to look elsewhere more often but habits do change slowly. I hate to say it but I don't think too hard when I need the little odds and ends Amazon is still pretty good at delivering.

djaychela 4y ago

They are the only game in town as far as self-print selling is concerned, if you want to make money. Despite getting 1/3 the money per copy compared to selling via Lulu.com (although this has changed now, lulu pays a lot less than they used to), I made a lot more money selling via Amazon than via lulu. I held out for years until the situation was untenable financially, and now only sell via Amazon for this reason.

elcapitan 4y ago

I live in Germany, and this particular type of book (English IT books) is much more easily available via Amazon than regular book stores, because the standard wholesalers which the book stores use often don't have them in storage. Having said that, I haven't seen a counterfeit book yet, maybe the problem is not as widespread here as in the Us?

tzs 4y ago

> I don't understand why people willingly use Amazon for most buying or selling at this point. Looking at some recent Amazon purchases of mine, I bought at Amazon because there was no obvious reasonable way to buy elsewhere. 1. I've long had one of these [1], which I bought decades ago in some local store (probably a bookstore) and it works great and was cheap. I really just wanted another one of those but they seem to be unavailable now except from medical supply companies (WTF!?) for around $35. Barnes & Noble, Office Deport, and Staples all have book stands, but none with the simplicity and versatility of the Easi-Reader. Amazon at least has some with the same general design [2] so that's where I went. 2. I wanted a pyramid-style mechanical metronome. I don't really need it--I've got an electronic metronome, my piano has a built in metronome, and there are numerous free metronome apps for mobile and desktop, but a mechanical one would look great sitting on my piano, and I like the swinging arm so I can see the beat. The only reasonably local music store doesn't have that style. They only have this kind of mechanical metronome [3], which I find ugly. The major online music stores either don't have mechanical metronomes, or only have expensive ones. Amazon did [4]. It even matches the color of my piano. 3. A PT100 temperature sensor. I could have gotten one from Adafruit or Sparkfun or Digikey or similar, but they all charge a lot for fast shipping and even slow shipping is pretty high. I generally only use them when I've got enough things I need for longer term projects that I can place a big order. When I want just one thing in a couple of days, like that PT100, I usually go to Amazon [5]. 4. The most ridiculous recent Amazon purchase was dial calipers. Surely that is something I can get locally at Home Depot or Lowe's, right? Nope. My HD only stocks 3, one digital, one vernier, and one that is just a sliding ruler with caliper jaws so it can take inside and outside measurements. HD does have a dial caliper online for ordering at least. Lowes's only lists 3 on their website, two digital and one vernier which is the only on in stock at my nearest store. The one that can be ordered at HD is plastic, and there isn't a lot of reviews on their site. So I went with Amazon [6]. 5. I wanted a guitar stand that was not bulky and would work well with a classical guitar. I went with an Amazon Basics model [7]. The local music store wants $37 for an A-frame stand. They have a tripod stand for $18, but those are too bulky for where I wanted to use it. 6. A classical guitar strap [8]. My local music store does carry that exact same strap and it is even in stock, but that store is about a gallon of gas away round trip and this is such a low volume item that there is little risk of Amazon's being counterfeit so I went with Amazon. (BTW, that strap is great! I've never been comfortable with the usual footstool approach nor ever been able to actually get good position that way and was considering trying something like Guitarlift [9] or ErgoPlay [10] but the sound hole strap approach is cheap enough I though I'd give it a try first as not much would be lost if it didn't work. For more options for and the history of supporting classic guitars see this video [10]). [1] https://www.walmart.com/ip/The-Easi-Reader-Bookstand/115755262 https://www.walmart.com/ip/The-Easi-Reader-Bookstand/1157552... [2] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QMRBZN2 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QMRBZN2 [3] https://wittner-gmbh.de/wittner_metronome_super_mini_e.html https://wittner-gmbh.de/wittner_metronome_super_mini_e.html [4] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IP8C04M https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IP8C04M [5] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DP3LYPX https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DP3LYPX [6] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B5XJW7I https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B5XJW7I [7] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018FCZKR2 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018FCZKR2 [8] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003B12ZFI https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003B12ZFI [9] https://www.stringsbymail.com/guitarlift-guitar-support-medium-plate-transparent-21823.html https://www.stringsbymail.com/guitarlift-guitar-support-medi... [10] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uawtsVi19A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uawtsVi19A