I think that's sort of overstating the problem a little bit, although I agree that Amazon shot its brand in the foot with the way it has implemented the "Market

I think that's sort of overstating the problem a little bit, although I agree that Amazon shot its brand in the foot with the way it has implemented the "Marketplace". The whole "Marketplace" concept might have seemed cool back when everybody was trying to be an eBay competitor, but I'd be happy if they just ditched it, or moved it over to some subsite-ghetto where I don't ever have to see it. When I go to Amazon.com, I want to purchase products from Amazon, not from some random guy in a basement somewhere, using them for payment processing. That said, they make it pretty easy to tell who you're buying from, at least when you get to the point of checking out. Sometimes if you're moving quickly, you might not realize it until then, and I have definitely abandoned would-be sales when I've realized an item is coming from a Marketplace seller rather than Amazon itself.