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Comment by eschneider | Hacker News Reader

I'm absolutely not saying Amazon is playing fair here, but ultimately, if you're just a middleman, someone's going to try and cut you out of the transaction. The only safety is having some sort of unique value proposition. Either you make it yourself and control the supply, or you do what you have to to make customers want to buy from YOU.

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A number of companies produce products only sold outside of the host country. The only way those citizens in the host country can access the goods is through an importing company with exclusive distribution rights. This often happens in the food and drink industries. An USA importer may be importing products manufactured in the US but only sold outside of the USA. This happens in the alcohol industry frequently.

I don't follow. They are still middle men who can get cut out if either the manufacturer or the retailer decide it's lucrative enough.

Couldn’t one argue Amazon is the middleman too?

Not in every case but these sellers do provide value. They find obscure items for an underserved market and sell something people want.

Amazon literally has a team looking at data that basically leverages the work done by these sellers to turn a profit.

At minimum it’s like getting sherlocked.

>ultimately, if you're just a middleman, someone's going to try and cut you out of the transaction

Unless it's healthcare, in which case, "Yeah! Bring on the middlemen!"

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