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Comment by telchar | Hacker News Reader

I suspect a big part of this problem is private brands. When 100 people can order the same cheap flashlight from a no-name factory in China and list it on Amazon as their own product there is a lot of incentive to fake reviews to get an advantage over the other sellers. And the huge number of product listings just makes it that much harder to separate the wheat from the chaff.

I would like to see Amazon raise the barrier to entry to prevent fly-by-night sellers from listing the same crappy products. I give up sometimes when looking for something after seeing dozens or hundreds of pages of the same thing listed under different brands from different sellers.

Is there really so much benefit to having everyone and their uncle selling on Amazon? I can go to Ebay for that. As Amazon becomes no more trustworthy than Ebay I lost my incentive to shop there.

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On the other hand, what you describe is exactly what I love about Amazon.

Say I have an idea for a robot, and I need a few dozen battery clips, some NiMH batteries, a dozen servo motors, a bunch of disc magnets, a box of M3 screws/nuts, some PLA filament, a microcontroller board, and a small display panel to show status/errors/etc.

I can buy all of that and have it delivered in a day or two, for less than $5 more per item than I would pay if I ordered it from a Taobao listing and waited on international shipping. And I tend to have less problems with the Amazon listings, presumably because the sellers know I can return them quickly and painlessly if there are quality issues.

There is a huge benefit to being "the everything store".

Yep and unless you spend hours researching the sellers, 100% of those NiMH batteries and servo motors will be absolute crap. The batteries will have fake UL logos, fake Samsung or whomever logos, etc. etc.

At this point, I would rather order my socks from Target and my electronics from Mouser. At least i know they have long standing relationships with distributors and I wont be getting fake products.

True enough, batteries are a really bad example - although companies like Panasonic have started signing on to the 'fulfilled by Amazon' program with good prices - but it is genuinely useful for a wide variety of small parts and electronics that aren't carried in any local stores and which often require high shipping fees from specialty retailers.

For the specific parts I mentioned, I'd probably go to Pololu, but you get the idea.

Thanks for mentioning Mouser... not familiar with it, but it feels like Newegg (my prior goto) is chasing Amazon down the quality black hole.

You may also want to checkout Digikey. It’s more focused on discreet components, but they have a huge catalog of electronics that’s worth searching through, and pretty reasonable shipping.

Yeah, I've used Digikey for a few odds and ends too. I wish Amazon would just deal with their seller issues. Per-seller labels to at least track which seller's goods are counterfeit and/or problematic would be a good start. A big fat warning when refunds/returns aren't handled by Amazon would be another.

But that's not what the parent comment is talking about. Sure it's great to have every product listed on Amazon, however, only select sellers (based on certain metrics) should be able to sell those products.

Okay, but who's going to pay for that sort of thing? Ultimately it'd mean higher prices, and since sellers already face a burden of (iirc) ~$3/unit plus shipping to FCs for Amazon to handle shipping/returns, people will just buy from eBay at that point.

Also, it would lead to more stories like the other one that was popular today, along the lines of "Amazon Shut Down my Store for No Good Reason".

Higher prices are fine if it stops buyers spending money on worthless filler products that either work poorly or don't work at all.

Your comment demonstrates why price-driven as opposed to value-driven economics are essentially irrational.

"I want to pay as little as possible" turns out to have all kinds of unpleasant outcomes, not least of which is the complete collapse in quality in certain sectors on Amazon.

I agree, but if you're being realistic, retail is a cut-throat market where most people make their decisions based on price.

It's a question of what can be done. Again, you're already paying $12.99 for a $9.99 item, and $6.99-$7.99 for a $3-4 one.

They are mortgaging the credibility of the primary brand they built with years of direct retail of verified goods to prop up a marketplace for third parties who disrespect it and take their money and run.

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