How to tell if your eclipse glasses are fake?
Amazon's War on Fake Eclipse Glasses Trips Up Newbie Merchant
21–30 of 65 posts
Re: Amazon's War on Fake Eclipse Glasses Trips Up Newbie Merchant
#22How to tell if your eclipse glasses are fake?
I have the same question. I ordered some from Amazon for my kids. I hope this article means that they were carefully verified by Amazon, but it has still made me uneasy about using them. Just knowing fakes are common is really concerning.
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Re: Amazon's War on Fake Eclipse Glasses Trips Up Newbie Merchant
#23Does anyone know of the pros and cons of using these glasses vs using a pinhole camera?
Experienced eclipse watcher here.
For the partial eclipse, I recommend a pinhole projector instead of eclipse glasses, especially for children but for adults too. It is 100% safe, because you never look directly at the sun.
For the total eclipse during totality, the only way to view it is with no eye protection at all. You won't see a thing with eclipse glasses or a pinhole projector. And binoculars are highly recommended for a magnificent view of the solar corona.
You do have to make sure to stop watching as soon as the "diamond ring" or "Baily's beads" appear. Totality is over then.
I posted more details here:
Re: Amazon's War on Fake Eclipse Glasses Trips Up Newbie Merchant
#24Does anyone know of the pros and cons of using these glasses vs using a pinhole camera?
Well, a pinhole camera can be verified safe by simple inspection, which is an advantage it has over all the putative eclipse glasses.... Although it's certainly less visceral.
Given the people saying that totality is safe to view without glasses, and that totality is the real show (alas, I'm not going to catch this one, though I'm hoping to catch the next one... I don't quite live in that one's path, but it's a close thing), I think I'd find myself inclined to go pinhole camera + naked eye at totality with care to look away before the sun returns.
Re: Amazon's War on Fake Eclipse Glasses Trips Up Newbie Merchant
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have the same question. I ordered some from Amazon for my kids. I hope this article means that they were carefully verified by Amazon, but it has still made me uneasy about using them. Just knowing fakes are common is really concerning.
Assuming you got paper glasses, on the inside of the arms of the glasses should be information about the ISO certifications and who manufactured it. Compare this against NASA's approved manufacturer list. If there's no info or they're not on the list, don't risk using them. It's weird but I've got a co-worker who bought some cheap Chinese ones and actually block more light from a phone's flash LED than my legit, appr…
Wouldn't a faker just steal the name of a manufacturer on the list?
Re: Amazon's War on Fake Eclipse Glasses Trips Up Newbie Merchant
#26When product liability lawsuits start flying, every point the product touches along its route to the consumer gets named. The ones with deep pockets especially. As big as amazon is, this could have been noticeable exposure, especially if they are partially self-insured and/or have other risk-sharing provisions in place. Think: class-action lawsuit on an order of magnitude approaching asbestos. I'm exaggerating a bit,…
I'm not a lawyer, but intuitively it seems like the more control they exercise over their products the weaker the claim that they're just a middleman becomes. Wouldn't a record of being directly involved in quality control significantly damage their case in the event that a lawsuit does occur?
Re: Amazon's War on Fake Eclipse Glasses Trips Up Newbie Merchant
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have the same question. I ordered some from Amazon for my kids. I hope this article means that they were carefully verified by Amazon, but it has still made me uneasy about using them. Just knowing fakes are common is really concerning.
Assuming you got paper glasses, on the inside of the arms of the glasses should be information about the ISO certifications and who manufactured it. Compare this against NASA's approved manufacturer list. If there's no info or they're not on the list, don't risk using them. It's weird but I've got a co-worker who bought some cheap Chinese ones and actually block more light from a phone's flash LED than my legit, appr…
[deleted]
Re: Amazon's War on Fake Eclipse Glasses Trips Up Newbie Merchant
#28When product liability lawsuits start flying, every point the product touches along its route to the consumer gets named. The ones with deep pockets especially. As big as amazon is, this could have been noticeable exposure, especially if they are partially self-insured and/or have other risk-sharing provisions in place. Think: class-action lawsuit on an order of magnitude approaching asbestos. I'm exaggerating a bit,…
It doesn't seem to me that a single email should be sufficient to remove their liability for selling these things. They have sold thousands of glasses with the description of being ISO certified and safe to use. They've been selling them for months. Then a week before the event they sent out an email telling you it wasn't safe to use them. What percent of their customers will never see that email and potentially ruin their vision?
Re: Amazon's War on Fake Eclipse Glasses Trips Up Newbie Merchant
#29How to tell if your eclipse glasses are fake?
Put them on and look at a bright light. You shouldn't be able to see anything. It's not foolproof, but cheap fake glasses are usually so bad that you can see household lights through them. You can also see if the brand you have is on this list, although someone could have faked a reputable brand name: https://eclipse.aas.org/resources/solar-filters
I believe that the method of looking at a bright light is not fully reliable: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15006250. I would love to be told I am wrong, since I have four pairs that pass this test without a problem, and I wish I could trust them.
Re: Amazon's War on Fake Eclipse Glasses Trips Up Newbie Merchant
#30I work with Amazon sellers (including on getting suspended sellers reinstated). I am not sure that his story is the actual story.
If the glasses were counterfeit, obviously his suspension was justified and he might have committed a felony. If they were authentic but just unsafe, he was foolish to have listed them when buying in such quantity and it's not surprising that Amazon would suspend him for trying to sell them.
However, Amazon is very inconsistent and capricious in how it enforces snake oil rules on supplements and similar kinds of products. In many cases legitimate sellers with authentic FDA-approved GMP-compliant stuff get into trouble while snake oil vendors manage to skirt the rules and get away with selling ineffective stuff.
Amazon does have all kinds of escalation features and different levels of seller support to deal with a suspension. The real issue he had was just buying a lot of highly speculative products that could pose a danger to customers with no sales history at all.
There are so many other cases in which Amazon acts unjustly or inconsistently enforces its (often arbitrarily applied) rules. This is not really one of them.
It is false that anyone can sell anything on Amazon. Most frequently counterfeited (like Jewelry) or otherwise problematic/hazardous categories are 'category gated' and require you to submit a bunch of documentation to sell in it. While there are a lot of problems with the way Amazon does these reviews, it does make it challenging for bottom tier scammer types to pass review and to maintain their right to sell in that category.