I've been pretty pleased with my MacBook air, for big ticket items like iPod/iPhone/Macbook do you think there's significant risk of counterfeit?

You're more likely to get a brick or clay than you are an actual counterfeit.

Funny you got donwoted the exact last time amazon inventory practices were under scrutiny here at hn there was plenty stories of people getting empty boxes and ipad cardboard cutouts

edit: dug out that discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13924546

but there are plenty similar.

Just tried to sell 2 ipod nano's on Amazon today, I had to get approval to sell Apple branded items with an invoice or an authorisation from Apple that I'm a reseller.