6 ms·

There used to be a pretty active market in selling clearance stuff on Amazon and eBay.

bradleyjg 4y ago
Amazon knows that the deodorant it’s selling is not discontinued or clearance. It knows Old Spice isn’t giving some mom and pop a better wholesale deal than the world’s largest retailer either. There’s no legit reason for there to be “other sellers” for that product, or really most any product it itself sells.
- kube-system 4y ago
  Amazon barely knows who is listing products on their site, whether the products are even legal, and sometimes they can’t even tell what a “product” is. https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/15/tech/cpsc-sues-amazon/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/15/tech/cpsc-sues-amazon/index.h... https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/07/amazon-mails-postcards-to-sellers-to-prove-their-addresses-are-real.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/07/amazon-mails-postcards-to-se... https://slate.com/technology/2021/12/amazon-listings-wrong-reviews-why.html https://slate.com/technology/2021/12/amazon-listings-wrong-r...
  - nirimda 4y ago
    But that's because they deliberately chose not to know it. A responsible business would have processes in place to identify all of that information.
    - ilyt 4y ago
      "responsible" doesn't earn them as much The only pressure on them to do it would be money. And not in "someone decides to not use them to buy some stuff" but getting sued for hundreds of millions
- from 4y ago
  This is just false. There are "grey markets" for basically any major product. Quality King Distributors is one company that dominates this space and has been sued many times (they win nearly every time on the basis of the first sale doctrine and are responsible for [this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_King_Distributors_Inc.,_v._L%27anza_Research_International_Inc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_King_Distributors_Inc.....) case) for undercutting manufacturers. Example: Dollar General sells some prepaid phones at prices substantially lower than on eBay/Amazon but in limited amounts per customer. Companies will hire a bunch of runners to go buy the max amount of these phones to resell (or unlock and export to other countries). Or: "Diversion"/products that are intended to be exported to another country actually being reimported, liquidations/bankruptcy auctions etc. Lots of manufacturers and distributors who play by the rules don't like this because grey market distributors will undercut MSRP on places like Amazon so they will report the listings as fakes to get them removed.
lupire 4y ago
So to block counterfiets and fencing, we need a verifiable chain of custody.
- nine_k 4y ago
  Buying a deodorant? Please show your biometric government ID.
  - midasuni 4y ago
    In the U.K. you have to pay a premium not to use your corporate ID card. Tesco for example will charge a 20% markup on lunch for privacy.
    - branon 4y ago
      Interesting, got more info? Which corporations provide the ID card? Are retailers legally obligated to ask for it? Do retailers get fined by the gov't for every non-ID'd transaction? This _could_ be taken to mean that Tesco employees get a 20% discount if they flash their Tesco ID card, which sounds completely normal to my American self.
      - midasuni 4y ago
        If you don’t get a Tesco (Major U.K. corporation) ID card scanned at the till you get charged a lot more for your food. This is normal customers, not employees.
- thrwyoilarticle 4y ago
  GIGO
- Spooky23 4y ago
  You could do that, or you could compel Amazon to not look the other way when they accept goods that “fall off the truck”.
- bombcar 4y ago

Amazon knows that the deodorant it’s selling is not discontinued or clearance. It knows Old Spice isn’t giving some mom and pop a better wholesale deal than the world’s largest retailer either. There’s no legit reason for there to be “other sellers” for that product, or really most any product it itself sells.

kube-system 4y ago
Amazon barely knows who is listing products on their site, whether the products are even legal, and sometimes they can’t even tell what a “product” is. https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/15/tech/cpsc-sues-amazon/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/15/tech/cpsc-sues-amazon/index.h... https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/07/amazon-mails-postcards-to-sellers-to-prove-their-addresses-are-real.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/07/amazon-mails-postcards-to-se... https://slate.com/technology/2021/12/amazon-listings-wrong-reviews-why.html https://slate.com/technology/2021/12/amazon-listings-wrong-r...
- nirimda 4y ago
  But that's because they deliberately chose not to know it. A responsible business would have processes in place to identify all of that information.
  - ilyt 4y ago
    "responsible" doesn't earn them as much The only pressure on them to do it would be money. And not in "someone decides to not use them to buy some stuff" but getting sued for hundreds of millions
from 4y ago
This is just false. There are "grey markets" for basically any major product. Quality King Distributors is one company that dominates this space and has been sued many times (they win nearly every time on the basis of the first sale doctrine and are responsible for [this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_King_Distributors_Inc.,_v._L%27anza_Research_International_Inc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_King_Distributors_Inc.....) case) for undercutting manufacturers. Example: Dollar General sells some prepaid phones at prices substantially lower than on eBay/Amazon but in limited amounts per customer. Companies will hire a bunch of runners to go buy the max amount of these phones to resell (or unlock and export to other countries). Or: "Diversion"/products that are intended to be exported to another country actually being reimported, liquidations/bankruptcy auctions etc. Lots of manufacturers and distributors who play by the rules don't like this because grey market distributors will undercut MSRP on places like Amazon so they will report the listings as fakes to get them removed.

lupire 4y ago

So to block counterfiets and fencing, we need a verifiable chain of custody.

nine_k 4y ago
Buying a deodorant? Please show your biometric government ID.
- midasuni 4y ago
  In the U.K. you have to pay a premium not to use your corporate ID card. Tesco for example will charge a 20% markup on lunch for privacy.
  - branon 4y ago
    Interesting, got more info? Which corporations provide the ID card? Are retailers legally obligated to ask for it? Do retailers get fined by the gov't for every non-ID'd transaction? This _could_ be taken to mean that Tesco employees get a 20% discount if they flash their Tesco ID card, which sounds completely normal to my American self.
    - midasuni 4y ago
      If you don’t get a Tesco (Major U.K. corporation) ID card scanned at the till you get charged a lot more for your food. This is normal customers, not employees.
thrwyoilarticle 4y ago
GIGO
Spooky23 4y ago
You could do that, or you could compel Amazon to not look the other way when they accept goods that “fall off the truck”.
bombcar 4y ago