[eternityforest]

It happens, but it's not common. Amazon lets you get stuff a generation ahead of what's in stores, which often uses better tech and fixes issues in the last generation.

When "Cheap crap" first became common 20 years ago stuff got a bit worse, but it seems to be improving.

[jollyllama]

I don't think the comment about generation ahead is relevant or true.

As a final thought, I'd say at least in a store, if you have the ability to determine if something is junk by looking and touching it, you can practice that.

[eternityforest]

I'm not sure how I would tell just by looking without reviews and specs, any more than I could tell from a picture, the differences are really subtle.

The plastic cover on a bad switch looks an awful lot like the one on a good switch.

Glass filled nylon seems to be somwhat reliable thought, not quite as much utter trash has a chassis made of that, at least for tools.

And sheet metal, I usually assume anyone who uses that is cutting corners or wants to appeal to old fashioned types who hate plastic no matter what.