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Walmart Sells Fake 30TB Hard Drive That's Two Small SD Cards

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Re: Walmart Sells Fake 30TB Hard Drive That's Two Small SD Cards

#131

Post by everly »

patrickthebold wrote: post #122
samwillis wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I find particularly annoying is that these online “marketplaces” are not curated - they literally sell anything, probably drop shipped. It used to be that you would shop at a branded store, and there was a level of expectation that they had curated their collection so that it was of a quality that matched the stores brand. Some of their wares may be under their own branding, but they would sell other bands too t…

I'll throw out my startup idea: A heavily curated amazon, with ~1 option per product type, sold at a premium, prioritizing things that are constructed well/last a long time. Obviously you can't do everything at once, and people want choice in things like fashion. A kitchen store would be great. One toaster, one oven, one coffee grinder.

Sure, it’s called Costco, it’s great

Re: Walmart Sells Fake 30TB Hard Drive That's Two Small SD Cards

#132

Post by yetanotherloser »

elliekelly wrote: post #113
inasio wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a story in the news this week about an undercover Russian spy that had a jewelry shop/brand in Italy [0], one funny detail about the story is that the jewelry was actually sourced from Aliexpress [0] https://twitter.com/EliotHiggins/status/1563060250269589505

This thread is wild. It's shocking they'd issue consecutively numbered passports to spies. Using random numbers seems like it would have huge benefits for essentially no cost.

I won't tell them if you don't!

Re: Walmart Sells Fake 30TB Hard Drive That's Two Small SD Cards

#133

Post by atyppo »

elliekelly wrote: post #113
inasio wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a story in the news this week about an undercover Russian spy that had a jewelry shop/brand in Italy [0], one funny detail about the story is that the jewelry was actually sourced from Aliexpress [0] https://twitter.com/EliotHiggins/status/1563060250269589505

This thread is wild. It's shocking they'd issue consecutively numbered passports to spies. Using random numbers seems like it would have huge benefits for essentially no cost.

I'm not an intelligence expert so this is purely spectulation. However, this assumes lots of things. Perhaps the Russians are truly that sloppy. However, more likely in my eyes is that this is a strategy to make them appear dumb and sloppy. The US claims to not send spies into foreign countries without the cover of a diplomatic passport (whether or not this is actually true, I don't know. However, this is one of the reasons a lot of people formerly in the intelligence community believe that Paul Whelan was not a spy). Most other Western countries claim to follow this standard. Perhaps this is Russia's version of "obvious" spies?

Re: Walmart Sells Fake 30TB Hard Drive That's Two Small SD Cards

#134

Post by hattmall »

bombcar wrote: post #97
rascul wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was that from Walmart the retailer or someone else selling on Walmart's marketplace? I would be very surprised if Walmart itself resold you something from Amazon, but that does happen with third party retailers on their marketplace.

This happens in more than just Walmart - there are arbitrage experts that list product on eBay, Walmart, etc and just order it for you from Amazon. I’m not exactly sure how they make money as the prices are often nearly identical.

I use to do this successfully for many years. I could sell for a few cents less than Amazon. Due to buying gift cards at Kroger with a 5% Cashback card. In addition I would also get 1000 fuel points per $250 that I could sell for $20 easily. So each $1000 in sales would net minimum $130 margin. Accounting for selling fees of around 10%, I could clear around $30 per $1000 even at breakeven or below Amazon prices. I would also be able to sell many items for more than the Amazon cost.

It worked well for several years with millions in sales, all automated. It became untenable though as Cryptocurrency facilitated people buying Amazon gift cards with stolen credit cards and cashing them out at 30-50% of face value.

So the market became saturated with scammers selling considerably cheaper than Amazon. For a time maybe 6-4 years ago you could get pretty much anything from Amazon on eBay for around 20% less and shipped direct from Amazon via prime.

Amazon eventually shut it down though and if you meet some very strict gift card threshold they will just steal your balance. People still do it, but large scale automation isn't really worth it any longer.

Re: Walmart Sells Fake 30TB Hard Drive That's Two Small SD Cards

#136

Post by 8note »

patrickthebold wrote: post #122
samwillis wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I find particularly annoying is that these online “marketplaces” are not curated - they literally sell anything, probably drop shipped. It used to be that you would shop at a branded store, and there was a level of expectation that they had curated their collection so that it was of a quality that matched the stores brand. Some of their wares may be under their own branding, but they would sell other bands too t…

I'll throw out my startup idea: A heavily curated amazon, with ~1 option per product type, sold at a premium, prioritizing things that are constructed well/last a long time. Obviously you can't do everything at once, and people want choice in things like fashion. A kitchen store would be great. One toaster, one oven, one coffee grinder.

Your very tied to specific manufacturers in that case. Eg. If a shipment is late because somebody stuck a ship in a canal, you're out of stock on that type of item

Re: Walmart Sells Fake 30TB Hard Drive That's Two Small SD Cards

#137

Post by zarriak »

bombcar wrote: post #101
zarriak wrote: post #59

Walmart has also fed into this a lot by making it so they are your one stop shop by making it ship stuff that isn’t in stock at your local store. They also by default will give you substitutions if you are doing an online store pickup or delivery order which only has more room for abuse or manipulation of substituting your items for things they need to get rid of etc. I only use it for a family member but they have i…

The substitution thing has worked well for me - they now alert you in the app before and you can yes/no the substitution. You can also mark “ride or die” on items and if they can’t get it they don’t substitute. I don’t recall if they upcharge for more expensive substitution now - before it was free, which was a bit abuseable.

Yeah it worked for a while for me but the person I’m getting the stuff for has all the alerts on their device so I just turn most of the substitutions off. There were a few times where I had generous substitutions but I think they reigned those in.

Re: Walmart Sells Fake 30TB Hard Drive That's Two Small SD Cards

#138

Post by nobody9999 »

walrus01 wrote: post #125
stronglikedan wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good. They should be able to sell any flags they want.

sure, and people can draw their own conclusions about a "marketplace" allowing morally reprehensible products on it, and whether to purchase from them in the future.

>sure, and people can draw their own conclusions about a "marketplace" allowing morally reprehensible products on it, and whether to purchase from them in the future.

How can a piece of dyed cloth be "morally reprehensible"?

I don't think books should be banned, nor should flags.

If that's how folks want to express themselves, then so be it.

That doesn't mean I need to be chummy with people who hold views in accord with the misogynistic, hateful rhetoric of the Taliban.

That said, I'd expect that folks elsewhere (e.g., Iraq or Iran) might find the US flag to be "morally reprehensible."

As such, shouldn't you also deride folks who sell US flags too?

Just because you don't agree with the ideas and ideology represented by a flag, it doesn't mean that making and selling such a piece of cloth is "morally reprehensible."

Don't like it? Don't buy it. It's called "voting with your wallet." And if enough people do that, then folks will stop making/selling it.

Re: Walmart Sells Fake 30TB Hard Drive That's Two Small SD Cards

#139

Post by bombcar »

hattmall wrote: post #134
bombcar wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This happens in more than just Walmart - there are arbitrage experts that list product on eBay, Walmart, etc and just order it for you from Amazon. I’m not exactly sure how they make money as the prices are often nearly identical.

I use to do this successfully for many years. I could sell for a few cents less than Amazon. Due to buying gift cards at Kroger with a 5% Cashback card. In addition I would also get 1000 fuel points per $250 that I could sell for $20 easily. So each $1000 in sales would net minimum $130 margin. Accounting for selling fees of around 10%, I could clear around $30 per $1000 even at breakeven or below Amazon prices. I wo…

I’ve often thought it was something like that, milking various rewards options.

Re: Walmart Sells Fake 30TB Hard Drive That's Two Small SD Cards

#140

Post by 8ytecoder »

DwnVoteHoneyPot wrote: post #54
heartbreak wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is one notable exception. The third-party products sold on Apple’s online store are all vetted by Apple. Apple, of course, are masters at guarding their reputation.

Costco does a pretty good job. I can purchase something there without research and still get a reasonable product at a reasonable price.

Yeah, considering the scale, Costco is doing a wonderful job. Plus, their generous return and price adjustment policies, it’s a no brainer to just buy Costco.
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