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Comment by Xcelerate | Hacker News Reader

It would be nice if there was a website like Amazon, but that had some sort of editorially vetted product line. I just want a cheese grater that works well and isn't counterfeit. I'm willing to pay a few dollars more for the work that goes into verifying the products. It really seems like there would be a market opportunity here...

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Wirecutter seems to be the closest to what you're looking for. Here's their "best grater", for example: https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-grater/

For larger purchases, a $30/year Consumer Reports subscription is absolutely worth it.

Wirecutter is great, can recommend. They don't always have reviews for particular things I want, but when they do, I end up going with one of their picks and I never had a single problem with these purchases. For instance, the first thing I bought off their recommendation was a Bluetooth earpiece, some 3+ years ago, and unlike my previous attempts at buying one, this one not once had a problem with any of my devices, and works perfectly to this very day.

I heard good things about Consumer Reports, and I wish there was something like this for the EU market. I found Wirecutter useful because the things they tend to review are available both in the US and EU (read: electronics), but if I wanted to buy regular life items off recommendations, I'm not sure what to follow locally.

In the UK the Consumer Association product the Which? magazine and website. which.com

Search for review sites for the product you're looking for. There are a shocking number of such sites all chasing Amazon's affiliate cash for sending traffic there.

Right but they tend to phone it in! 9/10 if you pick a review site off google, they never looked at the product.

I can’t say how many times I’ve been looking at product comparison sites where it’s clear the content is written by a farm writer comparing box specs, who has never used or even held in their hand the type of product they are reviewing let alone the actual items.

So what we need is a review site for review sites, I guess...(?)

Look for real photos of the product. Any legitimate review will have at least one.

Good idea, yes, it is possible with some digging, just frustrating to dig through a layer of meta-trash.

Target, Costco, and Best Buy fill that void for me.

isn't that a website like williamssonoma.com?

Yeah, I normally use Sur la Table for cookware. But I meant more of a "general purpose" site like Amazon, rather than niche sites for each category of product.

Wirecutter seems to be good

Curation lists help. There are people who specialize in finding the good stuff. If you trust them, then it is vetted.

Any brick and mortal retailer’s online stores are basically like this. Jet is too (also owned by WalMart IIRC).

B&H generally has generally pretty good quality items.

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