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It runs deeper than just everything being an ad. It's also completely flooded with rebadged junk from dropshippers. A few weeks ago, I was looking for a new w
by moolcool 4y ago
It runs deeper than just everything being an ad. It's also completely flooded with rebadged junk from dropshippers.
A few weeks ago, I was looking for a new whetstone, and this is what I got when I searched Amazon
https://i.imgur.com/1Utp2dF.png https://i.imgur.com/1Utp2dF.png
The results keep going like that. You see constant repetition of the exact same units with slightly different branding, often with the same stock photography, repeated for page after page.
It used to be that you could count on Amazon to give you pretty solid results when you wanted something. It was great, it really took the fuss out of shopping when you didn't have to do 10 google searches when you needed to buy a USB cable or something. Now Amazon is nothing more than AliExpress with faster shipping. Shame.
- stavros 4y agoI was about to say when I saw the end of your comment, that looks very much like the AliExpress experience. You get cheap stuff, but you gamble on them being a fake.
- moonchrome 4y agoAliExpress isn't even cheap for what you're actually getting, but it is cheaper than Amazon if you're dumpster diving. The reason I say it isn't cheap is because when I ignore the fake labels and look at actual goods delivered equivalents can be bought locally for similar price (sometimes cheaper, sometimes more expensive) without insane wait time and with warrenty.
- Cloudef 4y agoFor spare / repair parts aliexpress unfortunately is still the heaven. Sure you have to be really careful who you order from, but sadly the modern world hates selling spare parts and loves e-waste (especially for smartphones, it used to be different before ...).
- Scoundreller 4y agoOr eBay. I’m offloading a bunch of random bike parts, and yeah, somebody out there needs a Shimano XYZ-123 that was last built in 1994 (and doesn’t care to figure out the modern replacement).
- akvadrako 4y agoDepends what you are buying. You can often find things which are perfectly fine quality but too niche for westerners to sell near cost, like electrical and plastic components, basic tools, cables, etc.
- moolcool 4y agoThis case isn't even fake-- it's stuff that's either unbranded, or with a new brand made up from whole cloth.
- dimitrios1 4y agoThat King whetstone is good, I have it and use it.
- dna_polymerase 4y agoI trust this comment more than 100% of Amazon reviews. Go figure.
- Kubuxu 4y agoYeah, King for entry level is great, Suehiro Cerax is a mid level upgrade to it. IMO 6000 is too fine for majority of Western kitchen knifes and most non-expensive Japanese knifes. I would go with 1000 and 3000-4000.
- YZF 4y agoI was just going to say the same thing. IIRC it's Japanese.
- moolcool 4y agoI ended up getting the KDS 1000/6000. I don't know enough about sharpening to have an informed opinion, but I can say that it works fantastic for me.
- Edd314159 4y agoThis comment is why I still use Amazon, even though it has indeed become a catalogue where 90% of the listed products are junk. Because that other 10% are legit brands, and when you want the legit brand, it's still very convenient and often* cheaper than other retailers. You just have to wade through the crap to find the real stuff. (*I said _often_, meaning I concede that it is sometimes actually not cheaper: please resist the urge to provide counter-examples, I know of their pricing trickery!)
- lotsofpulp 4y agoBut Amazon commingles inventory, so how do you know you are receiving the branded item you want and not a counterfeit item that another seller sent to Amazon?
- Cloudef 4y agoThere's lots of these scams where they sell some non-branded goods with lots of reviews (with videos) from paid SNS influencers. Sometimes they may sell something completely else but change the listing completely (becomes obvious from the reviews again). When you see a lot of similar listing for the same product or from same store, it's giant red flag to not buy it. Sometimes these goods may be good, but often or not they are low quality, have obvious defects or break down after few weeks / months of use.
- TrueGeek 4y agoAnd they don’t care about the paid reviews either. I contacted them saying a seller mailed me offering $50 cash via PayPal for a 5 star review. The chat agent replied with the “contact seller” link since I was unhappy. They had no interest in the photo of the bribe sent to me. I don’t even know why the seller has my contact info since the item was shipped by Amazon.
- JKCalhoun 4y agoDid you know you can get an 11 Terabyte hard drive for $90 on Amazon? Wow: https://www.amazon.com/External-Portable-11000GB-Compatible-Laptops/dp/B0BJRQRFMC/ https://www.amazon.com/External-Portable-11000GB-Compatible-... (Um, yeah. And look at the reviews.)
- Cloudef 4y agoSome more examples, I recently needed new hair dryer as my old one started throwing spars This "SALONIA" hair dryer is being pushed by paid influencers in japan, however based on the few critical reviews and their pictures, it does not look like the quality is good https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/SALONIA-Speedy-Negative-Lightweight-Foldable/dp/B08GLRXL8T https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/SALONIA-Speedy-Negative-Lightw... Then there is this shady one with multiple amazon listings, similarly bait and switch, reviews are odd https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/dp/B0BJPWNZQQ https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/dp/B0BJPWNZQQ https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/dp/B0BJDVZLYC https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/dp/B0BJDVZLYC https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/dp/B0BBB77M9C https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/dp/B0BBB77M9C https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/dp/B0BJQ8MBMB https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/dp/B0BJQ8MBMB The products may actually be somewhat decent, but based on the tactics involved and the shady reviews, I wouldn't put my money on something that can shock you or burn your house down, so I eventually just went with reputable panasonic one.
- simonsarris 4y agoHighly recommend Shapton stones and buying them from Lee Valley https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/tools/shapton-sharpening-stones#ha-no-kuromaku-ceramic-stones https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/tools/shapton-sharpening-sto...
- techas 4y ago
- moolcool 4y agoI had a look at those, but I ended up going with the KDS 1000/6000. I'm still new to using it, but it works great!
- morsch 4y agoFor the record, so does the "KUNQUN" (ie. gibberish) brand whetstone I bought on Amazon a few years ago.
- kolbe 4y agoI have the shapton 12,000, and I'm actually pretty disappointed, but thise lee valley prices are better than what i paid at woodcraft.
- treis 4y agoInterestingly enough that's cheaper on Amazon than AliExpress: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256802919678760.html https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256802919678760.html ^ You have to click on the 1000/6000 grit to see the price of $26.53. Pretty much everything people buy is cheap Chinese crap anyhow.
- kennend3 4y ago> Now Amazon is nothing more than AliExpress with faster shipping. Shame. This. Once i realized what was taking place on amazon I simply moved to AliExpress. I mean if i am going to get something from there anyhow i might as well save the middleman fees and take the hit on shipping. I canceled my prime membership a while ago as well. I don't see how amazon can continue to simply be a front end for AliExpress for long. Wont most simply avoid the added fees and go to Ali directly?
- jrs235 4y agoBut even their shipping (with Prime too!) is getting slower and slower. Prime's selling point used to be free 2 day shipping. Shipping is still "free" but many items take 4 days (or more now).
- zip1234 4y agoDo you live in a city?
- kennend3 4y agoThere are times i still use amazon and i actually bought a few items on Tuesday. Amazon's delivery date is friday? Want to guess where amazon's distribution warehouse is? A few blocks away from me. The point you are attempting to make is unclear. If the distribution hub is within walking distance from me, why does it take days to ship?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- PaulHoule 4y agoI am sure your congressman gets same day or next day shipping in DC, though.
- mbreese 4y agoYou’re assuming that the product you ordered is at that warehouse. It probably isn’t. They can’t store all products at all locations. Even if that distribution center ends up being the shipment origination site, the product still probably had to move within the Amazon network. Some of those things will move within the Amazon network, some with external (trackable) carriers (UPS/FedEx). And some things has restrictions on the method of transport. If there is a lithium battery anywhere in the device, it travels by ground. Also — if you’re in the US, today is a holiday and nothing will move. So today and yesterday had/has limited movement between distribution centers. And as we get closer to Christmas, the entire network will start to approach saturation. There are many reasons why things don’t always ship as fast as you’d like them to.
- lightedman 4y agoI had roughly the same experience looking for diamond pads for my block on amazon. I ended up giving up and went and built my own two-wheel wet diamond grinding machine. Bonus: I can cut rocks as well as sharpen my knives down to 1/8 micron.
- dspillett 4y agoYou used to be able to filter for just things sold by Amazon, but that vanished some time ago. Not that a “fulfilled by amazon” filter would do much these days because of how much of other sellers stock there is commingled in their warehouses. Same for the “prime” filter that is present if you subscribe to that, it filters out a lot of junk but far from all of it.
- losteric 4y agoFilter by seller is still available
- dspillett 4y agoI see options to filter by brand including a separate “out brands” option, but that isn't the same unless I'm looking for a specific brand rather than “just not cheap & grotty drop-shipped crap thankyouverymuch”. The usefulness of the brand filter seems to vary greatly by product. For instance when searching for SATA SSDs it only offers “Seagate, Crucial, Western Digital, Samsung”.
- morsch 4y agoI "just" had to select a few random other filters like "New" and the product category and suddenly the seller filter magically appeared. The search function was always capricious like that, from the get-go. Presumably there's method to that madness.
- rescbr 4y agoIt's usually hidden, so much that I've captured the query string parameter that represents its filter for my country's Amazon. Fortunately there are few marketplace sellers, so it doesn't annoy me so much compared to Amazon US.
- GekkePrutser 4y agoHere in Spain it definitely isn't.
- PaulHoule 4y agoNot sure about the faster shipping. Maybe if you live in a town with a Cheesecake Factory (tracer for retail competition) you get two day shipping with Prime but if you live a little further out, two day shipping probably went out during the pandemic. This is not about the feasibility of AMZN offering it to you because it is frequently unavailable in the same zip code as their warehouse. Every other retailer seems to get me things in two days or less but I get packages from Japan faster than from the AMZN warehouse that is a 3 hour drive away. They must be spending the money they saving on shipping on Alexa or something.
- wirthjason 4y agoNiche items are pretty much a miss on Amazon. I buy a lot of things on Amazon but as a hobbyist cook and knife collector something like whetstones are much better purchased at a specialty retailer. I trust a shop like japaneseknifeimports.com a lot more than Amazon. These shops cater to the community and the mutual success of the community and the businesses are important.
- moolcool 4y agoThat's true, but the problem I mention persists with a lot of normal searches too. Like search for a 3.5mm cable, a USB C dock, or a power bank. You'll get a whole lot of cheap garbage from oddball brands.
- Scoundreller 4y agoAnd random components… you’ll have better luck on eBay. Need a P key for you random laptop keyboard, 1000 5mm LEDs or usb-a cable, male on both ends, straight and right-angle? Gonna have better luck on eBay. And then the actually unique stuff. I’m buying odd lots of used postage stamps. I’m sure as a seller doing one-offs, even if it’s a common item, eBay is the way to go. Amazon has improved a lot, but eBay still king on that.
- daveguy 4y agoThe ones that bother me the most are the re-purposed catalog entries. They will have 2,000 reviews, solid 4.7 score, but when you look at the reviews, half of the reviews are for a different item. If there are any out of place reviews I avoid it. Practically, it means sorting by highest reviews gives junk first. I don't know if it's a matter of not monitoring, not caring, or not being able to keep up. The fact that there isn't an easy and obvious way to report a listing and review / listing shift is apparently permitted means they aren't trying to keep up.
- ryandrake 4y agoThe other thing I noticed is that these thousands of identical products have seemingly randomly generated all-caps brand names like BHHSRE, VHYXZY, XIOU, DAUGHE, JXMOX, LANMU, IBERLS, GMJYC… (yes, these are all actual brands I’ve seen on Amazon). It’s like someone is randomly generating millions of brand/product combinations to deliberately flood Amazon.
- EForEndeavour 4y agoIt may already exist, but I want to create a simple regex-based browser plugin that suppresses Amazon search results if the product name or seller contains 4-7 consecutive capitalized letters. Call it LESSAMZNSPAM or something.
- xvello 4y agoIt exists already, as a uBlockOrigin rules generator: https://letsblock.it/filters/amazon-products https://letsblock.it/filters/amazon-products You just need to write the regexp.
- jason-phillips 4y ago> I was looking for a new whetstone The King whetstone on the bottom right is legit if you want to freehand. However, I recommend something like an Edge Pro if you have quality chefs knives, etc.
- moolcool 4y agoI actually had a Lansky kit, but I found it really fiddly and awkward to use. I practiced for a while on a crappy old knife, but after getting the hang of it, I'm much happier using a proper whetstone.
- gauddasa 4y agoI was looking for earphones and same products were repeated on 900 pages, with 20 to 25 entries listed per page. The odds of finding a useful product in this ocean of repetition is then about 0.1%. I must have clicked for 30 minutes to see the extent of invasion. It was so exhausting and dispiriting that since then (8 months ago), I have not visited Amazon anymore.
- namdnay 4y agoWhen did you do the query for that screenshot? If it was today the delivery dates seem a bit short for dropshipping
- moolcool 4y agoDropshipping is probably the wrong word, since I think the actual fulfillment is happening in North America
- paulcole 4y agoI don’t see why you wouldn’t just spend the $21.99 and get the Amazon’s Choice one and be done with it? It’s like you’re looking to be annoyed in a situation that you could be done with in 5 minutes.
- moolcool 4y agoThat’s actually one of the worst parts of this. Amazon’s choice is one of the bad ones.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- vannevar 4y agoAmazon's business model has shifted from selling goods to consumers to selling consumers to anonymous Chinese manufacturers.