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Comment by flubert | Hacker News Reader

>Amazon is not really an appropriate distribution platform for 6-week custom-made-to-order products. Maybe there's another well-known retail site that caters to that type of vendor but it certainly isn't Amazon (or Walmart).

But there is Amazon Handmade (which is supposed to be the Amazon Etsy):

https://services.amazon.com/handmade/handmade.html

...and Amazon Custom:

https://services.amazon.com/custom.html

..and Amazon Fine Art:

https://www.amazon.com/b/?node=6685269011

...so it looks like Amazon has their hands in other areas besides distribution of mass manufactured parts.

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>...so it looks like Amazon has their hands in other areas besides distribution of mass manufactured parts.

For your 3 examples, I clicked on "Explore the store" and of the dozen or so random items I clicked on, it was 1 to 3 days delivery. I also found a wooden cutting board that you could personalize with a customer name (laser etching) and that was 3 to 6 business days.

I didn't see any item that said 6 weeks for delivery like Etsy has.

The Princeton Audio article didn't specify but I'm guessing[1] he's using one of these 2 Amazon partner programs:

1) https://vendorexpress.amazon.com

2) https://www.amazon.com/gp/launchpad

This gets you a special Amazon products page with the cachet of "Ships from and sold by Amazon.com" which is more valuable than "Fulfilled by Amazon." Those programs are not appropriate for 2 month lead times.

[1] PA's dedicated Amazon product page which you can no longer reach from Amazon search but Google still had a link: https://www.amazon.com/Princeton-Audio-Site-Tonewood-Bluetoo...

Exactly. If they had chosen instead to use FBA, ALL of the frustrations Princeton documented would disappear. Of course they would be replaced with a different set of frustrations associated with FBA, but they would be able to set their own price, their own priorities, etc.

I have a friend who works for a company that is a supplier for Amazon and Home Depot. He says they are both equally demanding and inflexible. I think that's just the game when being a supplier for big box inc. And obviously Princeton is not a big box product.

>I didn't see any item that said 6 weeks of delivery like Etsy has.

I'm no Amazon Homemade expert, but there are plenty of items that say they take time to make: