Hacker News Reader

> 1) Books are stolen

> 2) Books are counterfeit

> 3) Books were purchased through "unauthorized" channels, e.g. free review copies

> None of these is a problem with the Amazon buy box.

Perhaps in your experience, but that's not the case. Counterfeiting, at the very least, is an actual current problem on Amazon for all sorts of items, including books.

Used, stolen or grey-market books are also not beyond the pale for unscrupulous sellers.

View on HN

Yes, Amazon definitely has a counterfeit problem. But that's not a problem with the buy box.

If it were, then Amazon could say to publishers, "We fixed the counterfeit book problem, now customers have to click on another link to buy fakes from third party sellers." But putting counterfeits 2 clicks away instead of one click away isn't actually a solution.

There's a lot to criticize Amazon for. I just thought the linked Vox article was incredibly terrible reporting.

That it isn't a problem with the buy box per se does not mean that them changing how the buy box works isn't hurting publishers.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com