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by daveloyall 1367 days ago
Here is one data point.

I purchased a M.2 device from Amazon this morning. It has a warranty serviced by the seller, so I checked to see if the seller is likely to continue to exist during the timeframe of the warranty.

I discovered the seller indeed has been selling memory products since 2017. While checking out their website (in the Wayback machine, too) I noticed that they have a shopping cart mechanism and indeed the same product is available there.

I noted that Amazon lists the product as being shipped by the seller. I note that the seller actively answers questions on their product pages on Amazon. Sounds as if nothing would change for me if I buy from the seller's website vs. Amazon.

I decided to cut out the middleman. I speculate that Amazon would otherwise take a percentage and I'd prefer to support the small business.

Turns out the product is a few bucks more expensive on the seller's website.

I can only speculate as to why that would be the case.

I finish the transaction (on Amazon) and refresh HN. Here is this story. So, I for one believe the accusations leveled against Amazon.

1 comments

> I decided to cut out the middleman. I speculate that Amazon would otherwise take a percentage and I'd prefer to support the small business.

Do you really want to give out your financial information on some shady overseas websites though?

Yes. Credit cards have fraud protection.

Plenty of stores also support Google Pay, or Apple Pay. PayPal or Amazon Pay. Or are clearly basic Shopify stores. What is the alternative, only using "big name" payments? That's how you get monopolies rent-seeking.

yes. it takes 2 seconds to create a new virtual bank card. also most things on a non-centralized marketplace are cheap compared to the premium of Amazon's total hegemony
> it takes 2 seconds to create a new virtual bank card.

how do you do this? My bank used to have this back in the day but they yanked it.

Revolut offers this. They are available in the EU.

It seems Wise (ex TransferWise) offers this in the USA.