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Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

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Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#261

Post by kelnos »

AlexandrB wrote: post #51

The ending is rather unexpected: > despite all of this, i still mostly love Amazon as a customer. it played a big role in getting my e-commerce business off of the ground and i'm grateful for that. "It's a flea market full of cheap (and sometimes dangerous) junk, but I still love it!"

And that's why Amazon isn't working to fix this problem -- because they don't see it as a problem. Despite the complaining, people still sell stuff on Amazon, and people still buy stuff on Amazon, and presumably Amazon is happy with their revenue numbers. So why change anything?

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#262

Post by OJFord »

Cerium wrote: post #36
lph wrote: post #10

Pro tip: If you absolutely must buy the junk being sold by MOFFBUZW and other randomly generated drop-shipper brands, the exact same product is usually available on AliExpress for 10% the price.

All this cheap junk follows a fairly reliable markup scheme: Factory sells for 1x Taobao sells for 2x Aliexpress sells for 3-4x (2x Taobao) Ebay sells for 8-10x. (~2x Aliexpress) I think Aliexpress is usually about 20% of the Amazon price, but depending on the item I agree that it can be 10%.

I do tend to prefer eBay/Amazon though, unless I'm really sure about it (bought it before, say) since the experience when it goes wrong is so much better. Amazon will refund/replace no questions asked, eBay will be a bit more hassle (MOFFBUZW type sellers tend to want to appease you with a partial refund or random plastic toy for some reason) but nothing a negative rating or such doesn't sort out.

AliExpress.. by the time it arrives I've probably forgotten I've ordered it, and if they won't offer a refund if it's no good/wrong somehow then bank might say the transaction's too old to do anything about (not sure about a time limit on credit card protections, maybe that's a better option), just generally more hassle. Not to mention the janky UX of ordering in the first place. (Why can it never guess both currency and delivery country correctly? UK & GBP isn't an oddball combination...)

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#263

Post by AnssiH »

davidbanham wrote: post #168
elliekelly wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m actually not sure that’s a safe assumption. I could be wrong but I believe Amazon co-mingles products of the same SKU. So if Amazon is selling a book and other sellers have listed the same item as “new” and sent it to Amazon’s warehouse I don’t believe there is any distinction between the two at the warehouse. So the stock picker might grab Amazon’s (presumably authentic) item from the bin when they pack your ord…

My understanding is that the items have different uuids, but there are no markings on the physical item. They’re identified by bin location. There are lots of bins in the warehouse. They contain up to around five items each. There is a theoretical possibility that two of the same thing from different sellers could end up in the same bin. At that point the picker wouldn’t know which is which.

> There is a theoretical possibility that two of the same thing from different sellers could end up in the same bin. At that point the picker wouldn’t know which is which.

Amazon's seller-side stickerless inventory documentation specifically says that identical items from different sellers are never put into same physical bin so that the original source can be traced.

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#264

Post by derefr »

redler wrote: post #259
derefr wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I'm saying is that it would take an immense amount of effort, looking at literally tens of thousands of Amazon listings, to even realize that "this is what everyone else is doing." I noticed these patterns because I personally went through the top 100 items in every leaf-node category of the Amazon store a few months back (because I treat "finding obscure solutions to problems I didn't know I had" as a hobby.) N…

That sort of bulk change, all at once, might just be Amazon deciding to canonicalize the bracket menagerie.

Not so: the change happened across all these thousands of brands that had the exact style; but it didn't happen to the minority of posts that were from "real" independent Chinese marketplace-of-ideas sellers, who had copied the style with errors, or independently reinvented it. Those other listings still use the dictionary-headword brackets. So no Amazon-side canonicalization was performed.

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#265

Post by redler »

B1FF_PSUVM wrote: post #228
MerelyMortal wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what the family's religion has to do with anything, but I was curious about the spelling and put it in my search bar and it's spelled, 'Hasidic'.

> what the family's religion has to do with anything, Back in the 1980s, NYC shops noticeably run by Hasidic jewish folk were famous for having the best deals in cameras and hifi. It was not just local, there was a good amount of mail order business, and a large advertising footprint. I think it faded out in internet e-commerce boom, but for older shoppers the association may be relevant.

I remember 47th Street Photo was a big one.

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#266

Post by OJFord »

nlh wrote: post #253
Cerium wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All this cheap junk follows a fairly reliable markup scheme: Factory sells for 1x Taobao sells for 2x Aliexpress sells for 3-4x (2x Taobao) Ebay sells for 8-10x. (~2x Aliexpress) I think Aliexpress is usually about 20% of the Amazon price, but depending on the item I agree that it can be 10%.

I bought an espresso machine via Taobao last year and had to jump through SO many hoops to get it. But even with the hoops it ended up being an absolute steal - 1/10 the price of a US-based purchase. Any idea why Taobao goes through such great effort to prevent American buyers from using the platform? (Or was I doing it wrong…? I used one of the Taobao forwarding services)

Something 'generic' anyway, or is it something 'branded' as it were but sold unbadged/not through the intended channels?

Just curious because I've never had any luck finding something specific, just slightly different knock-offs. Which can be fine of course, it's just less obvious to me that should exist than under-the-table selling of extra output, or rogue employees/company or whatever. Higher effort and more enterprising.

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#267

Post by lotsofpulp »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #182
lph wrote: post #10

Pro tip: If you absolutely must buy the junk being sold by MOFFBUZW and other randomly generated drop-shipper brands, the exact same product is usually available on AliExpress for 10% the price.

You've answered a question I've been asking myself for the past couple of years: Why is Amazon trying to become AliExpress? AliExpress already does a good job of being AliExpress. The answer is that Amazon has quietly pivoted: Their new business model is 1. Buy stuff from AliExpress. 2. Mark it up 5x-10x. 3. Profit! Amazon probably hopes their customers don't notice they can get the same stuff from AliExpress much ch…

> Why is Amazon trying to become AliExpress?

Because all the profit is in being a platform. Otherwise, their retail operations would be looking at the sub 5% profit margins of every other retail business in the US.

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#268

Post by m348e912 »

B1FF_PSUVM wrote: post #228
MerelyMortal wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what the family's religion has to do with anything, but I was curious about the spelling and put it in my search bar and it's spelled, 'Hasidic'.

> what the family's religion has to do with anything, Back in the 1980s, NYC shops noticeably run by Hasidic jewish folk were famous for having the best deals in cameras and hifi. It was not just local, there was a good amount of mail order business, and a large advertising footprint. I think it faded out in internet e-commerce boom, but for older shoppers the association may be relevant.

Some of it still exists. B&H photo is a very large jewish owned electronics business out of New York. They have some of the best high end electronics selection available online and last time I checked they are closed on the sabbath.

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#269

Post by Al-Khwarizmi »

cycomanic wrote: post #166
ant6n wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem I’m having in Germany ist that only Amazon reliable delivers to my door, usually next day. Every other store ships with DHL, which after several days pretends that they ring you, when they don’t, and then u can go pick it up at the DHL store a day later. That’s their moat.

I always wonder what products are so important that they need to be delivered next day? The few times I realised I need something urgently it typically means today and even next day delivery is not enough, so I go to a store and possibly pay a slightly higher price. For everything else it doesn't really matter if it is one or 5 days. Is the next day delivery really necessary or does it just appeal to our impulse of n…

For me it's more about the certainty than the rush. I hardly ever need anything next day, but "next day" is a concrete day, while for example "in 3-5 days" isn't. As someone who is often not at home, I'd rather not have to be at home or arrange for someone to be there several consecutive days in case a package arrives.

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#270

Post by misterprime »

distrill wrote: post #30

Unless I missed it, he didn't really talk about why these names exist, other than to suggest it might be a troll? Related, I don't understand twitter as a place for long form content. It's difficult to read and it can't be easy to post.

I've been wondering why I do like Twitter for long form content. At first, I hated it. But then I got caught up in several long threads, and invariably at the end someone would link the threadreader collection of the whole thing. I kept thinking, I'm just going to start going to the bottom and looking for that link, but I never did.

Instead, I learned to love it. It's almost a way of being reminded again and again about who is speaking, and it gives you a little feedback of how interesting other Twitter users found that particular section.

I don't really like that I learned to love it. I think it might be unhealthy. But that's a different issue.

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