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Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

cnbc.com

11–20 of 134 posts

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#11
I get the feeling that Chinese businesses (who are making the real products as well) are shouting to the American consumer "you are getting ripped off, here's how much these products cost without a huge profit margin."

There are plenty of low quality fakes, but as Jack Ma said, some are better than the licenced versions.

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#13

I get the feeling that Chinese businesses (who are making the real products as well) are shouting to the American consumer "you are getting ripped off, here's how much these products cost without a huge profit margin." There are plenty of low quality fakes, but as Jack Ma said, some are better than the licenced versions.

Some system of clamps and shock cords for holding down a fitted bed sheets can hardly be fake. Anyone's implementation is likely as good as anyone else's.

Though Whalley has a patent on it, the article claims, prior art for the basic idea can be seen on any truck that has a tarp tied down over a bunch of cargo.

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#14
post #6
post #4

This has become a frustrating part of shopping on Amazon, to the point that I typically filter to only show things sold by Amazon themselves. Too many of the marketplace items are fake crap with paid-for reviews. Since they're mixed in together by default, the effort in trying to discern good from bad makes for a pretty crummy experience overall.

This will not always save you. If a company uses the "Fulfilled by Amazon" service they ship their stuff to amazon and it is co mingled with all of the other SKU's purporting to be the same item, including Amazons own stock

He said sold by Amazon. There are two ways: Fulfilled by Amazon or Sold and Shipped by Amazon. I am pretty sure he is talking about the latter. With the latter, Amazon is actually selling the item not some 3rd party. With Fulfilled by Amazon, Amazon only ships it to you, but the 3rd party is selling. It is pretty clear on the website.

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#15

I get the feeling that Chinese businesses (who are making the real products as well) are shouting to the American consumer "you are getting ripped off, here's how much these products cost without a huge profit margin." There are plenty of low quality fakes, but as Jack Ma said, some are better than the licenced versions.

Some system of clamps and shock cords for holding down a fitted bed sheets can hardly be fake. Anyone's implementation is likely as good as anyone else's. Though Whalley has a patent on it, the article claims, prior art for the basic idea can be seen on any truck that has a tarp tied down over a bunch of cargo.

The knockoff razor blades, however, are not nearly as sharp as the real ones.

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#17
post #4

This has become a frustrating part of shopping on Amazon, to the point that I typically filter to only show things sold by Amazon themselves. Too many of the marketplace items are fake crap with paid-for reviews. Since they're mixed in together by default, the effort in trying to discern good from bad makes for a pretty crummy experience overall.

Agreed. Though the article seems to be conflating bad business practices (like fake and/or paid reviews) with bad products. Counterfeit Birkenstocks are likely (though not automatically) inferior to the real deal; but the "Chinese kitchen goods shipped from Kentucky" are often the same products you could buy at your local big-box store.

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The argument could be made that players are simply trying to play with cards they can't normally obtain. Obvious counterfeits have often been allowed in unofficial games "by proxy" - allowing players to construct more powerful decks than they could afford. It would then come down to how much the counterfeit is worth to the player. So long as these aren't being passed off as legitimate cards, I don't see an issue.

Do most places allow this proxy card without owning the actual card these days? Back when I played in 93-97 you could use proxy cards, but it was usually a land card marked with an indicator of the real card, and the person had to pull out their real card (usually in a plastic case) to show they actually had it (and show the stats). I had a friend with a color printer that tried to make counterfeit cards to use as pr…

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...

Re: Amazon's Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse

#19
This can be solved by requiring higher-risk merchants to put money in escrow for a while (maybe an initial amount plus some fraction of revenue). If they turn out to be selling counterfeits, amazon could use the money to set things right. Otherwise the merchant gets the money.
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