The war to sell you a mattress • Hacker News Board

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#51

Post by ajuc » Tue, Oct 17, 2017, 12:16 PM UTC

amelius wrote: post #28

orcdork wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, and the whole web app industry is a scam, actual bandwidth cost is like a penny. And servers are even cheaper in Russia. (Personally, I run my website on a shared php host for about $1) -- Snarkiness aside, it's surprising to see comments like this here.

Your comparison is unfair, given that new web apps are being created/updated (but also abandoned) constantly, and this requires work. Mattresses have been invented long ago, and can be mostly produced by robots. Mattresses should be a commodity, and be priced accordingly.

Each new mattress has to be actually produced. It requires work funnily enough.

A web page only needs to be coded once.

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#52

Post by R_haterade » Tue, Oct 17, 2017, 12:21 PM UTC

Overtonwindow wrote: post #20

Fascinating read. Who would've thought to roll a massage and ship it? I grew up and still sleep on spring mattresses. No rolling here.

No, they can do it with inner springs now too.

That tech is relatively new.

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#53

Post by ntzm » Tue, Oct 17, 2017, 12:23 PM UTC

dzink wrote: post #9

What does YC think of companies that make affiliate revenue? Is it a positive or a negative in the VC world?

I think it's a perfectly legitimate way of making money, so long as users aren't deliberately deceived into getting a worse deal to get a better deal for the company

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#54

Post by coldcode » Tue, Oct 17, 2017, 12:23 PM UTC

hendzen wrote: post #21

Animats wrote: post #17

The whole mattress industry is a scam. Actual manufacturing cost is $75-$300. Mattresses are even cheaper on Alibaba. Vacuum-packing memory foam shrinks mattresses for shipping, and now they can be imported easily. If you really want to annoy the US mattress industry, set up a review site and review sub-$100 mattresses off Alibaba. (Personally, I have an air bed which cost about $200.)

There is a brand on Amazon (Zinus) that sells reasonable quality foam mattresses with low markups. I bought their Queen [0] for $289, and have been happy with it. I'm assuming that Amazon will also eventually introduce an Amazon Basics version and suck up all the profit... [0] - https://www.amazon.com/Zinus-Memory-Green-Mattress-Queen/dp/...

Bought one of those recently, most comfortable mattress I've ever had, and the cost was amazing. No idea why one would pay $3000 for a Temper-Pedic. Even if this mattress only lasted a few years I could buy 10 of them and still come out ahead.

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#55

Post by r00fus » Tue, Oct 17, 2017, 12:39 PM UTC

Animats wrote: post #17

The whole mattress industry is a scam. Actual manufacturing cost is $75-$300. Mattresses are even cheaper on Alibaba. Vacuum-packing memory foam shrinks mattresses for shipping, and now they can be imported easily. If you really want to annoy the US mattress industry, set up a review site and review sub-$100 mattresses off Alibaba. (Personally, I have an air bed which cost about $200.)

Personally I question visco-elastic foam. Sure, it's cheap and may be ok for a lot of people, but I personally sleep better on an standard spring bed.

Foam mattresses don't breathe, they stink (some mattress I've seen are 1+ yr old and continue to stink) and aren't firm enough for me.

Do any online retailers sell standard beds? Or am I a dinosaur?

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#56

Post by b3lvedere » Tue, Oct 17, 2017, 12:40 PM UTC

zbentley wrote: post #50

b3lvedere wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't affiliation a sort of a pyramid scheme? Oh sorry .. multi level marketing .. ?

No. Affiliate sales is just a basic "every sale you send my way, you make some money" arrangement, different only from traditional commissioned sales in that the affiliates usually don't work "directly" for the company selling the product. Multi level marketing (MLM) schemes are situations in which people make money, or are promised money, based on their ability to recruit additional affiliate salespeople . The typic…

Great reply. Thank you very much!

>based on their ability to recruit additional affiliate salespeople

If Casper took owership of every outstanding matress review website there is and ever will be (or made some of their own in the pocess and have it high ranked, whichever is the cheapest form of tactics), affiliation would never be an issue. Wouldn't be ethic, but eh...

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#57

Post by zeep » Tue, Oct 17, 2017, 12:40 PM UTC

TrickyRick wrote: post #25

paul7986 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever had something manufactured and or purchased a product in bulk on Alibaba? I'm just starting this now and would love to hear personal experiences and tips.

I think OP means Aliexpress where you can order single items.

There is more options on alibaba.com... and many can be ordered in quantity of 1.

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#58

Post by b3lvedere » Tue, Oct 17, 2017, 12:42 PM UTC

hutzlibu wrote: post #32

b3lvedere wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why isn't everybody doing this then?

Because it is hard .. and in the way they are doing it, unethical.

Wouldn't you become unethical at the right amount of money?

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#59

Post by amelius » Tue, Oct 17, 2017, 12:43 PM UTC

ajuc wrote: post #51

amelius wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comparison is unfair, given that new web apps are being created/updated (but also abandoned) constantly, and this requires work. Mattresses have been invented long ago, and can be mostly produced by robots. Mattresses should be a commodity, and be priced accordingly.

Each new mattress has to be actually produced. It requires work funnily enough. A web page only needs to be coded once.

> Each new mattress has to be actually produced. It requires work funnily enough.

But that is work in the sense of energy, if robots are being used for production.

EDIT: Changed phrasing, to not distract from the actual argument.

Re: The war to sell you a mattress

#60

Post by danpalmer » Tue, Oct 17, 2017, 12:46 PM UTC

hutzlibu wrote: post #36

Now this made me thinking of other online review sites. Are they all like that? I couldn't give an honest review, if I get more money from B than A. So if they state otherwise, I call it fraud And I know that's what people call marketing in general and there might be some truth in it - but that's why you go to these review site to get a neutral view. So normally the customer should pay the reviewer, he is doing work…

This is the reason why I’m traditional journalism there is a very strict divide between the content and business sides of the company. The journalists don’t know about the deals, and the business side don’t get to provide input on the content side. Unfortunately in these smaller, newer forms of content business, those concerns are just ignored.