I find this amazon obsession with people on the internet (I assume Americans) to be baffling and disturbing, it's always amazon this, prime that every time the concept of purchasing something online comes up.

Mouser has the Zero for 15$, 16$ if you want presoldered GPIO headers. 4$ for a Pico. RS Online has them for 4.25$. There are probably hundreds of vendors that offer them for the same price if you plop the term into your favorite search engine. Amazon is the last place I'd look, but then again I absolutely do not understand this mindset that online shopping == amazon that some people seem to have.

e: formatting

Amazon usually reflects the final cost of an item.

If amazon is overpriced, the item might not be available from other channels/requires lots of work to get.

Another (related) point is that amazon is less risky than other options. You can usually get something cheaper from ebay/alibaba/banggood/etc

Somebody always has some nitpicky example, but in my experience amazon has reliable shipping and a predictable low-friction way of getting a replacement or your money back if something goes wrong.

You make it sound like it's either Amazon or chinese crap made to last 2 minutes.

Good news, you can have both!

Not either or, because most of the stuff amazon sells is from china.

They are just like TCP/IP for a purchase from china, with buffering in the US, chunking, retransmit and guaranteed delivery.

You can probably be more efficient with UDP from china, but you could lose packets.

Amazon is now selling the "chinese crap made to last 2 minutes":

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=grip+strengthener&rh=n%3A14333021...

I will no longer use Amazon for anything where I actually care about quality or getting a legitimate product.

A few weeks ago I ordered the same USB charger a second time and got a different (but similar) item altogether.

Fair enough, but I do not understand why people seem to put so much trust in Amazon. Ali et. al. is of course a crapshoot every time, based on the threads that pop up here every few weeks Amazon seems to be an endless supply of poor quality goods, counterfeits and whatnot as well.

Was looking for a specific computer part not that long ago and only place I found indicating stock was seller on Amazon.

Never shopped there before but finally bit the bullet and made an account.

Deposited $300 gift card. Amazon blocked my account completely (can not even contact support) and not long after got an email telling me it's due to sanctions suspicion and they require full KYC (including proof of residency and employment!) before I can ever see my $300 back again. I really don't have the energy to fight them for it...

Still asked a friend with existing Amazon account to order it for me. The seller cancelled the order saying "out of stock".

Our thesis is that seller is a money laundering front without actual product. Somehow Amazon's not closing their accounts, though....

It’s just convenience and trust. No need to input addressess or make another account plus good return policies.

> Mouser has the Zero for 15$

With $8 shipping that will take ??? days. Meanwhile they have one for $19 on Amazon with two day shipping and no need to register on some other site for a one-off purchase.

For somebody doing electronics even slightly seriously, mouser or digikey or similar aren't going to be a one-off.

Free shipping after some amount (varies with where you are in the world apparently) and I get my parcels from Mouser in 2-3 days shipped over the Atlantic. RS is even faster.