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Comment by floren | Hacker News Reader

> Why should I buy Brand Item when I can get a version from Alibaba for 10-20%? If it truly is comparable, then why pay the markup when the internet lets me cut out the middleman? But then when the version from Alibaba is total crap, there's no recourse. It's not like a local shop with reputation at risk.

The unfortunate reality these days is that the majority of items on, say, Amazon, are the same crap from Alibaba imported by a guy who read a How To Make Money On Amazon book, or just marked up directly by the same people selling on Alibaba. Heck, even the "brand items" may turn out to be a cheap clone that someone had shipped to Amazon fulfillment, bypassing their incredibly stringent "I pinky-swear this really is the authentic item" vetting process.

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Right! So why should I pay for crap, or the other way around, why should I overpay for good quality, if I can get a solid substitute for less?

For example, I'm shopping for landscape lighting right now. You can spend a lot on landscape lighting. A nice bronze spotlight from a "good" brand like Kichler can run you $100+ ea.[1], and I need 8–10 of them.

Conversely, I can get an 6-pack of albeit-plastic spotlights off Amazon from a Chinese company for 40 bucks, with 4.5 stars and 252 reviews.[2]

I am getting ripped off with Kichler? I am getting crap from Zuckeo? Who knows!?

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Kichler-16012BBR30-10-Degree-3000K-Br...

[2] https://www.amazon.com/ZUCKEO-Landscape-Spotlight-Decorative...

And this goes the other way, too. In the same vein as lighting, I was trying to find a simple, modern, LED vanity fixture.

You can get builder-grade and often-ugly crap from Home Depot (see also: Brands not being an indicator of quality), or spend hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars on designer pieces.

I ended up finding one I really liked off a no-name website, with the product shipped from Hong Kong for like $80. Solid metal, reasonable-looking electronics, arrived in 2 weeks, good communication... very happy!

> The unfortunate reality these days is that the majority of items on, say, Amazon

I find “on, say, Amazon” entertaining. Amazon may well be the worst largeish US online vendor. It’s gotten to the point where I trust eBay more.

If you want winter gear, buy from one of several excellent online stores dedicated to it.

>It’s gotten to the point where I trust eBay more.

Absolutely! I recently bought a simple item, a roll of wiring loom tape. It was on Amazon and had a few reviews that stated that the received tape was old and didn't stick very well anymore.

Same item on eBay for cheaper has the seller specifically mentioning that they only sell fresh tape from the running production, not old stock. Even better, the seller specialized in these (and other) tapes.

It seems that eBay has just cultivated a much higher quality base of vendors. Many of them seem specialized.

If I want winter gear, I'll physically go to REI or Sportsman's Warehouse and buy a coat that actually fits.

I was actually thinking about my recent experience trying to buy a $5 Monoprice USB-PS/2 converter when I typed my original comment.

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