Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#71

Post by CamperBob2 » Sat, Jul 09, 2016, 8:14 PM UTC

seanp2k2 wrote: post #43

bpicolo wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes a store will hold proxy tournaments for certain formats, but not for the standard format, and they can't be officially sanctioned events. There was a big deal about it recently with relation to counterfeiting. http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/proxies-po...

I don't play any card games, but what's honestly the big deal? Is the game about card-collecting skills, or deck-building and play strategy? It's hard to argue the latter and ban people for not having an original version of a card. I guess I don't really "get it", or I had way too much fun playing ridiculous mods (where it was fair because everyone had equally ridiculous stuff) for games (Mr. Pants Excessive Overkill…

This. In addition to card games that intentionally reward skilled counterfeiters, there should be MMO games designed to reward the best hackers and botmakers. Also, there should be an "unlimited" category in real-life events like the Olympics and Tour de France, where the team with the best drug lab wins.

I think we'll start to see more and more games like this emerge over the next few years/decades, as the possibilities of traditional sports and games (and the humans who play them) are exhausted.

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#72

Post by manyxcxi » Sat, Jul 09, 2016, 8:39 PM UTC

CamperBob2 wrote: post #70

manyxcxi wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly this. The article mentions that they basically take all the same products and put them together. So seller B's fake item may be sold as seller A's real item and seller A gets blamed for their fake stuff. It's gotten so bad with certain groups of items I don't even try. Sunglasses, handbags, all the usual stuff you'd expect. My anecdote: I like gold colored Ray-Ban aviators with a brown or dark polarized lens.…

My anecdote: I like gold colored Ray-Ban aviators with a brown or dark polarized lens. The two stores near me didn't have them in stock, I couldn't find my old pair and I was leaving for a week long motorcycle ride in two days. I ordered them up and immediately knew they were fake. They were too light, the nose pads weren't right, all the usual tells. I returned them 3 different times until I just cancelled. The othe…

They're not, I was worried about it being me on the third try and compared them to ones in the store. They were quite different for supposedly the same model.

Additionally I wasn't ordering ones that were too cheap to be real, this was full retail price- if they were significantly cheaper I would've expected fakes.

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#73

Post by sliverstorm » Sat, Jul 09, 2016, 8:47 PM UTC

kelukelugames wrote: post #2

Chinese counterfeit Magic cards are a disruptor. Wizards of the Coast, Magic's parent company, maintains a reversed list of historic cards. Listed cards can never be reprinted to protect their prices on the secondary market for collectors. Many players complain this is a bad for the game. As the counterfeits are getting better, more players buy them, pressuring Wizard to act. Maybe Wizards will abolish the reserved l…

Wizards needs old sets to become rare & obsolete, for many reasons. It helps them sell more cards, and it also gives them far more creative leverage with new cards. They don't have to play test & ensure balanced play across the entire catalog (some stupid good cross-decade combos have showed up on accident over the years) and they have more ability to avoid rampant power creep, which according to some has been a big part of why the game has lasted.

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#74

Post by wangarific » Sat, Jul 09, 2016, 8:51 PM UTC

techthroway443 wrote: post #69

discardorama wrote: post #52

The biggest problem with Amazon reviews is that they'll let you post a review of something you never bought! Sure, they do add the "verified purchase" tag for things you bought; but for calculating the aggregate stats, etc. Amazon will cleverly ignore the fact that you could just be talking out your ass (or selling reviews). I find this very dirty on their part, and it's something that can be fixed with 1 line of cod…

This seems like the most sensible solution and would easily weed out 99% of these fake paid for reviews. Is there a way to filter ratings by verified purchasers? Why don't they do this by default?

They can do this but then companies will ask fake reviewers to buy the product through Amazon and then reimburse. The seller is only out the commission + price of product - it would create a small hurdle but wouldn't solve the problem.

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#75

Post by grenoire » Sat, Jul 09, 2016, 9:02 PM UTC

CamperBob2 wrote: post #70

manyxcxi wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly this. The article mentions that they basically take all the same products and put them together. So seller B's fake item may be sold as seller A's real item and seller A gets blamed for their fake stuff. It's gotten so bad with certain groups of items I don't even try. Sunglasses, handbags, all the usual stuff you'd expect. My anecdote: I like gold colored Ray-Ban aviators with a brown or dark polarized lens.…

My anecdote: I like gold colored Ray-Ban aviators with a brown or dark polarized lens. The two stores near me didn't have them in stock, I couldn't find my old pair and I was leaving for a week long motorcycle ride in two days. I ordered them up and immediately knew they were fake. They were too light, the nose pads weren't right, all the usual tells. I returned them 3 different times until I just cancelled. The othe…

The Wayfarers and Aviators are all produced exclusively in Italy. It is not hard to tell fake Luxotticas.

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#76

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jul 09, 2016, 9:05 PM UTC

ikeboy wrote: post #62

syshum wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly you do not understand how Amazon Warehouses work Just because you buy someing from Seller A, even if Seller A is Amazon LLC, you may not be getting stock from Seller A If I am A retailer selling SuperWidget 55, and I ship Amazon 100 Genuine SuperWidget's to store in their warehouse for amazon to ship to my customers (aka Amazon Fulfillment Service) . Then another competitor ship 100 Fake SuperWidgets to amazo…

You can choose whether to turn on comingling when using FBA.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#77

Post by TheSpiceIsLife » Sat, Jul 09, 2016, 9:05 PM UTC

ikeboy wrote: post #62

syshum wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly you do not understand how Amazon Warehouses work Just because you buy someing from Seller A, even if Seller A is Amazon LLC, you may not be getting stock from Seller A If I am A retailer selling SuperWidget 55, and I ship Amazon 100 Genuine SuperWidget's to store in their warehouse for amazon to ship to my customers (aka Amazon Fulfillment Service) . Then another competitor ship 100 Fake SuperWidgets to amazo…

You can choose whether to turn on comingling when using FBA.

That only matters if you can choose to exclude comingling when buying.

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#78

Post by dmritard96 » Sat, Jul 09, 2016, 9:15 PM UTC

detaro wrote: post #68

dmritard96 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure I understand the downvoting here but fine. perhaps clarifying my question would help. Today: Brand 1 makes product and sells on Amazon. Files IP to try and prevent others from copying their idea. Brand 2 (Chinese company) makes similar product and sells through amazon - results in headlines like - Amazon has a Chinese problem. Brand 3 (Amazon Basics) - makes similar products and has Chinese supplier add logo…

Are there Amazon Basics products where IP is an issue? I only know them from USB chargers, cables, rechargeable batteries, …, stuff where there is little innovation.

http://www.geek.com/news/amazonbasics-is-copying-all-the-bes...

They had a design patent (basically meaningless) and amazon just modded and started owning them.

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#79

Post by ikeboy » Sat, Jul 09, 2016, 9:18 PM UTC

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #77

ikeboy wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can choose whether to turn on comingling when using FBA.

That only matters if you can choose to exclude comingling when buying.

"So then the next question is why would a retailer use Amazon Fulfillment"

You implied that sellers are required to use it.

Edit: it's a different user that replied to me, my mistake.

Also, Amazon tracks which order came from whose inventory, so if it's reported as fake they can punish the right seller. Any system of that size is going to have some slip through, but Amazon does a lot to vet sellers for specific products, categories, and so on. Just recently certain iPads were restricted, and I couldn't get approved with retail receipts, they wanted invoices from authorized distributors, for example.

As a buyer you can't do much about comingling, but that shouldn't be relevant except for products with an abnormally high counterfeit rate. And you will get your money back with very little hassle when buying FBA (they refund you immediately and then require you to return it), and it helps hurt the bad seller. The fact is the vast majority of purchases on Amazon are legitimate. I agree Amazon needs to do something about their image, but it doesn't seem to be hurting their sales. And who else are you going to go to? eBay is even worse, and retailers are more expensive most if the time.

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#80

Post by ikeboy » Sat, Jul 09, 2016, 9:19 PM UTC

ProblemFactory wrote: post #54

WillPostForFood wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand the frustration, you can easily end up buying from a chinese seller if you aren't playing attention. But I have a hard time understanding how you were fooled three times. https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000EYP57K/ref=dp_ol... Buy from Amazon - the second choice. Pretty sure that is the default purchase option on the main page as well.

Amazon considers all stock of the same product to be identical and exchangeable. If you order from Seller A on "Fulfilled by Amazon", then Amazon will ship you from the nearest warehouse that has the same product, even if it's technically stock of Seller B. And Seller B might have handed a crate of counterfeits to Amazon. Angering both the customer and Seller A who has no way to actually enforce the quality of what t…

Sellers can turn off comingling when sending items in.