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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

#391

Post by lovich »

Nextgrid wrote: post #93
lovich wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are definitely bots to buy things. Finance alone does a fuck ton of automation to buy things at far faster reaction speeds than possible and then there’s the eBay/Amazon/whatever online retail bots that exist to scoop up in demand items to then flip

Bots that buy things only do so to address a temporary inefficiency in the market - they won't work perpetually and you can argue their actions do provide value.

If the bots continually outpace the majority of humanity’s purchasing ability does that mean they don’t exist or do they pass some capitalist Turing test? I asked on behalf of all the bots checking for semantic values on social media and then drop shipping unique /s shirts.

I’d link things like this[1] but I can’t be sure you’ll see the same thing I’m linking because they are constantly mutating.

We have to accept the fact that algorithms have reached the tech level of convincing a double digit percentage of humanity to do what the algorithm wants because that is what is current reality

[1] https://newyorkshirtcompany.com/products/queens-are-born-in-...

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#392

Post by rob74 »

callahad wrote: post #20

The New York Times did some decent reporting into the pseudo-brands which comes closer to answering the question in the title: having a registered trademark unlocks a lot of on-platform seller tools (predictive analytics, early review program, etc.), and the easiest path to a trademark is to have an utterly unique, nonsense name. Some Chinese municipalities were also offering cash incentives for citizens who obtained…

Ok, now the flood of pseudo-"brand" names that you encounter when searching for electronics on Amazon makes much more sense. I searched for a USB-C dock recently and got a wide selection of items from "brands" such as Lemorele, Sitecom, GIISSMO, Probuk, Baseus, Hulier, Inateck etc. etc. etc.

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#393

Post by philsnow »

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…

That's precisely Wish's business model, as far as I can tell.

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#394

Post by Ekaros »

notatoad wrote: post #258
mrguyorama wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With the caveat that on ebay, you can usually find someone in the US wearhousing it for some reason with free 3 day shipping for the same price.

>for some reason i think the scam here is that amazon or amazon sellers will pay people to warehouse product in the US, because when you're selling aliexpress goods at a 90% markup, you can afford the warehousing. and the people they're paying to run those warehouses list the product on ebay at 20% markup, on the assumption that if it sells they can make an aliexpress order and restock before the amazon seller notice…

Isn't this kinda exactly the retail model that have been around since cheap overseas manufacturing. The products themselves are cheap, margin goes to shipping, warehousing and inventory. Potentially even risks involved on not selling all of the inventory.

The margins look huge, but actually many steps like carrying that inventory or even the shipping from near warehouse is pretty expensive. Like more than the product itself.

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#395

Post by Fnoord »

discardable_dan wrote: post #333
spicymaki wrote: post #188

The scam is enormously profitable for Amazon and the Chinese black hats. You can tell it is really profitable because Amazon will compensate you for up to $1000 for damages caused by this junk. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58163915 I believe that Amazon probably could not turn the screws on these companies even if it wanted to. It would be a massive loss to their revenue and share holders would revolt. It would…

I've stopped buying huge swaths of things from Amazon for this reason. I'm basically down to buying four categories of things: 1. Items whose brand absolutely don't matter so long as they work as intended (e.g., books, home goods like hangers). 2. Home goods it wouldn't be worthwhile to knock off (e.g., KIND bars, toilet paper). 3. Smaller brands whose market share and item appeal are not worth cloning (e.g., a mecha…

Regarding 1) a few days ago a URL was posted on HN about counterfeit books on Amazon.

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#396

Post by zargon »

dimator wrote: post #368
NonNefarious wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went out of my way to buy direct from a small vendor, Sewell Direct, instead of buying their product through Amazon. When it turned out that I couldn't use the product in my application, I canceled my order before it was shipped. They ignored that and shipped it anyway. Then I had to pay return shipping. If I had bought through Amazon, I could have returned it free. Moral: When customers seek you out to help you ou…

Amazon's one click, customer service, shipping infrastructure, and return policy simply embarrass all their competition. Decades of investing in these things is paying off. No wonder it's physically painful to visit a new site: forms, typing, janky shipping, janky returns... These things seem so easy once you see them all working, but companies don't have the resources or the interest in catching up.

I disagree. Their return policy average at best. Returns are only free if the item is damaged, defective, or incorrect. At Costco or Best Buy, I can return an item because I didn't like it. Even when returning items for "incorrect description", for example, it's super obnoxious when you have to return things over half the time because everything is shit.

I can go to Walmart and get a higher-quality product. I can buy tons of things at Walmart that I can't from Amazon due to their self-sabotoged supply chain. Food, kitchen products, personal care products, batteries, electronics, clothing, tools, etc etc. (How pitiful a time we live in when I am writing praises about Walmart. Sigh.)

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#397

Post by Fnoord »

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.

Good point, its not just Amazon though. One time I ordered a case for my wife's new smartphone and it took more than a month till it arrived. Which sucks with the 2 weeks we got to send orders back in EU. I knew the case was more expensive than directly from China but I wanted to receive it quickly hence I ordered from a local shop. So we had to wait a month till she could use her new smartphone.

After nearly month (and I emailed the guy twice already without reply) I ordered a leather case from UK which cost twice the amount of money. I got it within 2 days. I put a claim with PayPal (he wasn't responding) for the case I didn't receive. It was accepted quickly.

A few days after that the guy emailed me claiming it was due to illness at his company, and that he'd send ut ASAP. A few days after I got it in the mail. Its still rotting somewhere in my house. I wonder if he saw or cared about my claim. Given it only cost him a couple of USD I figure he'd just write it off instead of asking for return.

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#398

Post by Fnoord »

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…

Its not Amazon solely which does this (with Amazon Basics) its mostly dropshippers.

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#399

Post by willis936 »

gerdesj wrote: post #292
alangibson wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've listed a few things on Amazon. This is very much true. If you don't have a registered trademark youre a second class citizen. You can't upload a video, for example.

Amazon isn't eBay. In theory, for us punters: we should be flogged goods by Amazon that conform to local standards. Beyond that all bets are off. eBay doesn't even bother with ... anything - it's all caveat emptor. So even in the wild west of Amazon at least there are a few standards. Sorry if you feel aggrieved but I'd rather buy stuff that had to follow a few standards that I nominally trust. By registering a trade…

It's easier to sniff out legitimate items on ebay than it is amazon. That is the only metric that matters and amazon is failing horribly, despite whatever security theatre they put on.

Re: Cheap junk flooding Amazon has brand names like MOFFBUZW

#400

Post by dr_spicy »

themacguffinman wrote: post #31
m463 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think amazon has jumped the shark[1] There is no practical way to buy a reputable/brand name on amazon. Some brand names are "available", but it seems not officially and people are buying them at a store and shipping them to customers. Other brand names are available, but the search results are paid (and manipulated) so they get crowded off the page by sponsored and "5 star (2)" results. and so amazon as a brand is…

You sometimes can't even get the right thing from official brand stores. I bought a thermal paste product from the official Amazon ThermalGrizzly store (I did check) but Amazon delivered me a fake. Amazon co-mingles inventory. The only reason I could quickly tell it was fake is because ThermalGrizzly provides an online serial number verification system, which isn't very common among most products. I'm not sure I'd tr…

Amazon has a similar service now, but brands need to onboard so it's not super wide spread yet https://brandservices.amazon.com/transparency
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