Originally Posted by phltraveler

There is no effective way for Amazon et al to do this other than inserting themselves into the transaction flow, which would greatly increase the cost of what was sold (to the point where third parties would be totally ineffective).

Any verification scheme that relies on the third party shipping the good directly is inherently based on trust. Even if you verify that the good is legitimate now, there's no way to tell if your seller shifts to counterfeit goods later, other than customs/a buyer noticing it and then reporting it after the fact. eBay and Amazon do take action on reports today when they receive them.

Any scheme that involves inserting themselves into the transaction flow inherently raises the price. It requires the seller to ship the good to Amazon (versus directly to the buyer), Amazon to unpack it and stock it, Amazon to store it, Amazon to pick & pack it, and Amazon to ultimately ship it. These add not insubstantial costs to orders (Fulfilled by Amazon costs at least $1.55 for a DVD and $2.41 for books that are 1lb or less; this is all separate from storage fees which are 64 cents per cubic foot and go up to $2.35 per cubic foot during the holidays, etc.)...

In addition, Amazon receiving the good does *nothing* to verify that a good is legitimate. Some knockoffs look bad, others look just like the originals. Some manufacturers just blanket list anything that isn't issued through an authorized channel/chain as non-authorized, which includes counterfeits but also includes grey market merchandise (where it was legitimately made by the manufacturer but then sold out of channel; for example, a suitcase that sells cheaper in China than in the US sold to the US market, or some manufacturers will just un-authorize anyone who can acquire their merchandise from a distributor but then doesn't sell it at the Manufacturer's selected retail price).

This is all on top of the fact that you then have to practice separate inventory management (manual effort to label/costs more) if you don't want Amazon to co-mingle your goods. Ever buy coin cell batteries (like for car remotes) on Amazon? Don't. Amazon buys real batteries, 10 other guys ship fake ones that look real to Amazon's warehouse, and then they're dead in two weeks after you put them in the remote.

I would give *slightly* more credence to what you say for Amazon because Amazon sells their own stuff diredctly and then quickly switches to third party sellers in the fine print, to the point where you can buy from a third party seller and easily miss it. I think third party sales need bigger print/clearer disclosure, especially about the end location of the seller (not generally disclosed unless you visit the full listing of sellers for a product in which case it says the state/country it is shipping from).

eBay, Aliexpress, etc. disclose that pretty clearly, and they are third party listing auction sites. The whole point is to say that it provides a trusted secure platform for different buyers and sellers to sell to one another, it beats a million sketchy sites with no reliable feedback mechanisms, secure servers or payments, etc... To ask them to police their sellers would be to shutdown. eBay and Aliexpress are platform only, they are not shipping or selling anything themselves, just providing a platform for the deal to be conducted on. They have no warehouses. There is no consistent way from one good to another for them to verify that their sellers are selling legitimate merchandise.