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Re:You might literally be buying trash on Amazon by ethbro on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @01:27PM (#21816804)
The irony is... you know what Amazon's still amazing for?

Books.

They should spin off the retail company and keep books + AWS.

Re:You might literally be buying trash on Amazon by SignalsFromBob on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @04:57PM (#21819377)
They aren't that great for books anymore, either. They've starting shipping books in a padded envelope that don't do much to protect the book. I've ordered a number of books that have arrived all beat up. Not a big deal for a cheap novel that I'm going to read and then give away, or a school textbook that I don't care about beyond the class.

However, the last book I ordered from them was Python in a Nutshell about a year ago. It's an expensive book, so I was less willing to tolerate damage to a $50 book that I want to keep and use a lot. I had to return it twice to get one that wasn't beat all to hell. And even then I feel like I settled for something not in as good condition as I expected.

Amazon used to put books between two pieces of cardboard, shrinkwrap it, then put it in a box with padding. Books always arrived in good condition. Books in the padded envelope always arrive with crushed corners, and sometimes damage to the cover.

Re:You might literally be buying trash on Amazon by MatthewWilkes on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @01:34PM (#21816910)
The same problem exists for books. Look at No Starch Press as an example: https://twitter.com/billpollock/status/1183094406573748225?s...
Re:You might literally be buying trash on Amazon by Jamwinner on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @09:24PM (#21821192)
If they could manage to ship them. I returned 5 in a row wanting an undamaged coffe table book, i was forced to give up. I have books from the 1700s in better shape than what regularly arrives from amazon.
Re:You might literally be buying trash on Amazon by shiftpgdn on Tuesday December 17, 2019 @09:11PM (#21821121)
Last book I got from Amazon was either a counterfeit or done on some sort of ultra low quality press. The paper was like cheap printer paper and the binding was falling apart. The printing was crooked too.