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Comment by jjav | Hacker News Reader

Last summer I bought a new Nikon DSLR from Amazon. Not the type of item where I thought they'd substitute scam items!

But when the box arrived, it was an opened box with an old used and abused Nikon DSLR, parts even missing! Wow.

At least the return was painless so I guess there's that.

I try hard to avoid Amazon now. I prioritize a locally owned store if possible, second option is a reputable specialty web store that specializes in the kind of item I want. Third option is the local big box chain stores, at least I can see what I'm getting.

Mostly I use Amazon only for books these days since I figure it'll be difficult to substitute a scam item for those. I hope.

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> I use Amazon only for books these days since I figure it'll be difficult to substitute a scam item for those

Unfortunately you're wrong, it's a huge problem for books as well. No Starch Press already left Amazon because it was the only way to prevent fakes being sent out to customers buying the genuine book. Fakes including ones where the back cover wasn't printed or everything was printed black & white, low-quality paper etc. As Amazon just mixes fake & genuine products because they say the same thing on the package it's impossible for both sellers and buyers to know what they'll get. You get what the person handling the package will draw next from the pile.

Sorry, books too. Last time I bought a book from amazon I ordered Milan Kundera’s Identity. On Amazon it looked like a Harper Perennial paperback, the same style, publisher and cover art as all his other books I have. What I received in the mail looked like a print-on-demand cheapo from Kinkos. The text was blurry and looked like it was from a dot matrix, the cover looked nothing the same. I couldn’t believe it. Of course I sent it back, and then I called a real book store and asked them to order it for me. To think, I used to dismissively say ‘no thanks’ when a shop didn’t have something I want in stock but offered to order it.

> I prioritize a locally owned store if possible, second option is a reputable specialty web store that specializes in the kind of item I want.

Serious question, how do you find reputable specialty web stores nowadays? (for items which are not your professional specialty, i.e. when you don't have direct knowledge of the market or trusted contacts that can recommend those for you). Trying to google for items of medium quality, you only get shady reseller shops that are as bad as Amazon third-party market, or worse.

B&H - general electronics, tax-free

Headphones.com - headphones, tax-free

Drop.com - general hobbyist goods

DigiKey/Mouser - miscellaneous parts

Your local bougie salon - high-quality body products (bodywash, hairspray, etc)

Bed Bath and Beyond - bedding and bath products

Design within Reach - furniture

Ubiquiti - wireless APs, PoE switches, and the nicest Ethernet cables I've ever used

ProtectLi - firewalls

Crowdsupply - miscellaneous gadgets for supernerds

Best way to find a good quality product is to go to the hobbyist subreddit/community for said product and see what vendor people use. Also, r/BuyItForLife.

> Ubiquiti - wireless APs, PoE switches, and the nicest Ethernet cables I've ever used

Haven't they been having issues recently?

What sort of issues? Security ones? That basically came down to a malicious engineer compromising their own infrastructure and then whistleblowing.

> What sort of issues? Security ones? That basically came down to a malicious engineer compromising their own infrastructure and then whistleblowing.

I don't know exactly. I believe they were trying to force cloud-signon for even locally managed devices, and since then I think I've picked up "used to be great" complaints that their quality and support is slipping (like they off-shored their engineering teams or something).

They're kinda pushing for that (like every other tech business, sadly - and I get it, everyone wants to have that sweet subscription model cash flows), but you still have an option to run a local controller without any cloud nonsense, just have to click some small link beneath some form.

That's for their routers and firewalls, which were shit even before the cloud stuff.

Their switches and APs are pretty good and don't require cloud nonsense.

> B&H - general electronics, tax-free

B&H has been collecting sales tax for about two years now. Still a great place to get electronics from though.

If you get their Payboo card you don't have to pay tax. Took me like 2 minutes to sign up. They just closed the program but are re-opening it in January.

Opening a line of revolving credit, with a 29.99% interest rate, and a promise of cash back rewards that match the tax you pay (rewards which you technically are supposed to pay income tax on) isn't exactly the same as no sales tax. As as for "re-opening" the program, we'll see what they actually have for a new program when it is announced.

The interest rate is irrelevant, if you rely on it you have a lot bigger problems than ordering from Amazon.

Opening the line of credit will lower your overall credit utilization, actually helping your credit score in the long run.

Let's be serious, literally no one cares about paying tax on the rewards.

The new program is exactly the same as the old one. The backend card provider is changed.

The interest rate doesn’t matter if you use the card as cash/debit by paying it off every month. And credit card rewards are not taxable because they are considered rebates by the IRS.

"within Reach", LOL.

(Sorry, love their furniture, not so much their prices.)

Yeah the prices are absolutely insane lmao. I've had good luck with CB2 and West Elm for more affordable but still decent furniture. But I'd get a flagship lounge chair from DWR

I agree the name is pretty terrible for a mass-market company because everybody associates it with price, but I believe the origin was due to the fact that they offered direct sales of products that were previously only available "to the trade" (aka professional designers/decorators).

Honestly, reddit. I moved to Berlin last year and wanted to buy some coffee making equipment. This was still the height of the pandemic, before vaccines were readily available here. So I hit up the local subreddits. And now I have a small list of sites where I can buy both good equipment as well as some great coffee. Of course now I can also go in person if I want to.

using google is rather futile as you'd have to escape your own search bubble (incl. your recent searches). Other than that: trusted contacts, indeed.

Biblio.com is what Amazon originally was — a database of books for sale by marketplace sellers — but specializes in human support of booksellers in exchange for a sales commission on proceeds from buyers, rather than in "become the Walmart of flea markets" like Amazon retail.

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