Hacker News Reader

Comment by BeetleB | Hacker News Reader

I should check my purchase history, but I probably use Amazon more for buying stuff that they would classify as a "Knockoff", but isn't (i.e. there is no established brand they are knocking off). Because for legitimate brands, I try to simply buy elsewhere.

This is an example: https://www.amazon.com/MiiKARE-Universal-Rotating-Adjustable...

You'll find lots of different manufacturers selling this on Amazon, but there is no well known brand that makes these.

View on HN

I use Ali Express for those things because I don’t need them next day and I need my money more than Jeff Bezos does.

I probably should, but they're so cheap on Amazon anyway.

I don't have Amazon Prime.

For what I typically buy Amazon is about 2x-8x more. Though sometimes for more expensive items it might be a wash.

One other factor is that the minimum order for free shipping is often $10 versus $30 or $39 or $49 depending on Amazon’s algorithmic state and below $10, $1.99 is often Ali Express shipping cost.

But again, that’s for what I buy.

The example I gave was $10. I suppose it's possible I'll get it cheaper on AliExpress, but how much cheaper?

As for shipping - if it's not urgent, I just put it in my Wishlist until I accumulate items beyond the free shipping threshold.

The only way to know how much cheaper is to look on Ali Express. That’s how I wound up there.

I don’t spend mental energy dealing with Amazon’s dark patterns and terrible search that is flooded with sponsored links for something I did not search for…Ali Express search is not great, but it is not adversarial.

But because it works for me doesn’t mean it works for you.

For example, I need a 74hc245 for a repair I am working on. I just bought 10 chips and three 3m USB C/C cables and 50 velcro wire wraps for $10.61 including shipping.

The best price Amazon showed me for the chips was $9.99. I got $14.99 for two cables. And $6.99 for 60 wire wraps.

Some those weird brands make some good things. Like this thing is great

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FS1H4SQQ

and I am really happy with the first one I bought and bought a second one for a co-worker who liked mine. At my food co-op I found something from the highly reputable Aura Cacia brand that was almost twice the price and I think very similar in quality.

As far as I know, the only brands making the phone charger cords I use are considered 'off-brand'. I am not sure the goal is to remove ever purchasing things that are not 'known brands', but paging through thirty pages of the same exact really stretchy underwear sold under different names for every single page-worth of others is both inefficient and stressful for those of us that dislike shopping in the first place. So, I personally will check this out. Underwear arbitrary, just remember it Christmas shopping.

> Some those weird brands make some good things.

Indeed - they're legitimately solving a real problem. It's just an interesting dynamic that a whole new product category is produced overnight, with no clear leading brand. Usually someone makes a useful product. It gets known. Then others enter in the market to compete. Here you just get 5 companies entering the market altogether.

As for the essential oil diffuser: That category was established long before these brands became a thing. But oh boy the overpriced ones in stores are really not worth it!

> This is an example: https://www.amazon.com/MiiKARE-Universal-Rotating-Adjustable...

i wonder if it would be faster to 3d print that gadget than amazon prime it

I wouldn't trust a typical 3D printed one. My one has so many degrees of freedom/rotation - lots of moving parts.

3D printing is more a practice than it is a way to quickly create one off objects. I think certainly if your machine is dialed in and not malfunctioning in some way then it will be cheaper and faster to print than to buy this.

I have a Bambu P1S and using it has been some kind of normie-friendly experience. I recall in the long past before I got this machine, my friend's early model Prusa would semi-bootstrap itself by printing some of its parts but the thing I ended up getting was a fully formed unit that just does the whole thing with a minimum of fuss.

We use the 3d printer explicitly for the one-off object scenario.

That's great to hear! I suppose I always wondered about how Bambu printers fare over time. I have had all sorts of issues with my Creality and FlashForge machines. They have sorta scared me away from the enterprise a bit.

The plastic parts almost definitely, but this seems like it has a couple springs and hinges that make it more of a pain.

Such a shame that easily broken and disposable pieces of plastic are shipped around the globe in huge numbers, all in the name of selfish first world comfort.

How future generations will look back at our convenience online ordering practices and be absolutely horrified at how we thought it was no issue to get some bit of plastic made in Asia and shipped over to US or Europe, then next or same day delivered just for for a few dollars/pounds.

Sorry OP, not aiming at you. You just triggered a sad rant.

The ships are already making the trip carrying cars, furniture, medical equipment, and all kinds of critical things. The drop shipped trinkets basically hitch a ride for free.

Yep, thats the attitude thats keeps pushing the machine forward.

For example its the same as flying on planes. Number one worst offenders for C02 is frequent flyers, yet whenever you question anybody on it the argument is always "the planes are flying anyway why does it matter if Im on it or not".

> critical things

You miss the whole aspect of production and waste pipelines, which was kind of the point.

You had good luck navigating a house of mirrors. It's still a house of mirrors though.

Those employees were going to sweep the floor anyway, why not throw my trash on the floor?

Thinking about some of the business practices of our ancestors, shipping bits of plastic seems like a great improvement.

Our great-great-grandchildren will probably be getting their gadgets via some kind of Star Trek replicator rather than a container ships and no doubt some moral hazard will be involved in that practice.

Generally though, things are getting better, no?

We do the same for groceries though. Only a few generations ago, oranges or bananas were a luxury if you didn't live in an area where those fruit grow. Now we get avocadoes and berries way out of season, shipped from across the world.

Yep, and it is terrible for the planet. Avocados use disproportionate amount of water to grow, and the boom of their popularity n the west has caused massive water issues in already resource stretched parts of the world.

https://sustainablefoodtrust.org/news-views/avocados-sustain...

All for what, so someone in a western cafe can have some smashed avocado on their sourdough toast? I'm pretty sure people could do without out of season berries, and avocados at all. We used to east locally and seasonally for millennia, forcing over production of anything to ship it round the world is a recipe for disaster.

That’s not the problem. The problem is buying stuff from AJSH or HUYA or BJFGL or MNQW or NBXA or any other random 4 letter “company” on Amazon for $40 when the item is crappy $2 item off aliexpress being drop shipped on Amazon.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com