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Comment by flavor8 | Hacker News Reader

Here's an example for anybody who doubts this; go search for:

a) an Oximeter

b) a medical thermometer

c) a blood pressure cuff

These are all fairly relevant devices. Spend 10 minutes really researching the categories, and actually read the reviews (in particular the 5* and the 1* reviews). Can you find a combination fo devices that you're actually confident buying? It shouldn't be this hard.

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The reason for this is the reputable products are all sold out. The usual response would be to increase prices to keep them in stock, but currently amazon bans sellers who do that because of price gouging laws, and so sellers list their stock on other platforms instead.

No, I've bought oximeters on Amazon in years past and there was no General Electric, Sony, Samsung... It was all knockoff no-name low quality.

I don't think General Electric, Sony or Samsung make standalone consumer pulse oximeters.

The point is, there was no recognized & respected brand that sells a high quality product. Just a bunch of fly-by-night operations.

Oh the other hand, you can also find a "knock off" device that costs 1/4 of the original price and works just as well. It's manufactured in the same factory as the original, but cuts corners and doesn't have fancy packaging, or anything fancy really.

The argument is that in a free market a consumer should have a choice. You want a great branded product, go with a known brand. You want to save money, try the little guy, with all the caveats that come with it.

The problem with Amazon is counterfeits. Counterfeits go against the idea of a free market. You almost certainly can’t know that the “Apple 5W wall plug charger” is legitimate until you receive it. It says “Apple” on it, but it’s not genuine. Why is that the consumer’s fault?

See, there's a level of hypocrisy here in that the average consumer wants the assurance of getting what they want without any of the burden of specification, or compliance verification.

There's a level of savvy everyone should have but doesn't; and I'm just not sure the best way to facilitate it.

The point is that Amazon's listings are overwhelmed by cheap / no-brand items. As a consumer it's basically impossible to know what items in a category are of reasonable quality or not. My guess is that the eventual competitor who disrupts Amazon will figure out a way to curate listings to make it possible for customers to buy something in a category with confidence that it'll work to stated spec.

To be fair pretty much all thermometers sold everywhere are fake, it's not just Amazon. You really need to look at Consumer Reports or Wirecutter if you want a real one, and who knows if you can even get one right now anyway.

Googling this just comes up with a bunch of one off Chinese scams. I'm really curious, any links to further reading on this? I've never heard of it.

I mean just go through the thermometers you see on Amazon or in your local drug store, and look up the data from the independent tests on their accuracy.

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