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Comment by reeddavid | Hacker News Reader

I think this comment references something many people don't realize: Even items that say "Ships from Amazon, Sold by Amazon" could be counterfeit, because the inventory from third party sellers is co-mingled with Amazon's own inventory.

If you see "Ships from Amazon, Sold by RandomCompany" you might worry about counterfeits. But the "Sold by Amazon" item might also have been sourced from (or counterfeited by) "RandomCompany".

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> co-mingled

Note it's actually commingled - it's not a typo despite looking like one.

I began noticing this about seven or eight years ago when the oil filters I bought changed from official ones to obvious counterfeits (certain pieces were missing entirely + media was much thinner than the real ones). Had to switch to a local auto parts supplier to guarantee the correct part.

How did you notice that the media was thinner? On passenger vehicles at least, the filter media is in a stainless steel cup that precludes examination.

Not always - some passenger vehicle filters have exposed media. An example GM filter: https://parts.gmc.com/product/acdelco-gm-original-equipment-...

My current car has a traditional steel-can filter. I cut those open after oil changes to inspect for debris.

It was a suzuki with a paper filter cartridge you load into a metal cylinder that is part of the engine. So you can see and feel the media.

Toyota Tundra filters (at least) are the ‘innie’ pieces, and the cup is a removable/reusable part on the vehicle. A counterfeit would be pretty obvious unless it was at the microscopic level.

BMW at least has the media completely exposed. There is no canister like you might find on Honda oil filters. Basically on BMWs the oil filter housing is permanent. I don't think it's a BMW specific thing. Might be a German car thing?

Similar with VAG.

I’ve seen this stated many times on HN, but never knowingly experienced it with Amazon in the UK. Is it possible this varies by market?

Amazon UK With replacement phone or laptop batteries, most definitely. I've seen other stuff sold that looked sketchy enough to not be worth the risk.

Most definitely what? There are counterfeits, or there are not counterfeits?

Definitely fakes.

For what it's worth, been buying from Amazon for the past 15 years or so, and not once received a counterfeit product. Granted, I still don't like they they mix up their inventory, but I think it's a smaller problem than people make it to be. Most people are buying household supplies off of Amazon; that's not really a category that gets affected by counterfeits.

I can say I've received counterfeit camera and laptop batteries, counterfeit chargers and USB chargers (like Anker), and SD/microSD cards from Amazon.

All of that stuff I buy now from BH or Adorama.

B&H is a hidden gem. I came across them because I needed a camera, but they sell lots of other stuff and their sales team consists of actual humans who have physically used the products they sell, and a supply chain they actually control. In the past, I’ve talked to a real human there who:

* verified the un-advertised compatibility between an accessory and the device I was buying it for (hours of googling had not been able to confirm this for me)

* explained their personal experience with both the Sony and Canon cameras I was considering

* nearly price-matched another vendor’s sale on a large purchase of Dell monitors

They have their own warehouses with real physical stock ordered directly from suppliers, (no drop shipping and no third party sellers.) One order I received even came with a hand written note signed by the salesman who’d help me select it. A nice touch, but impossible for an operation at Amazon scale.

These days B&H is my preferred vendor for PCs+components, AV gear, SMB network equipment.

It does happen with Amazon UK, or at least has within the last year because I've twice had it, first time with a microsd card, second time with an ssd.

They obviously replaced it no problem but it highlighted they were either still mixing stock or were using a dodgy supplier themselves.

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