See also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45896707 (HDD shortage)

>At rsync.net we have trusted suppliers with verified supply chains and a long history of providing reliable service.

>However, from time to time, it is expedient to purchase parts from Amazon - something we do with care and suspicion.

That seems like a very reasonable and non-crazy approach to using Amazon.

I'd have thought the fraud problems from "commingling" were well-enough known by now to avoid wanting to blame any specific Amazon Marketplace vendor, but perhaps not.

even backblaze bought drives in supermarket when there was HDD shortage

I buy drives on Amazon all the time. I check them all. Never had any problems.

The mistake they made was buying not from Amazon, but from "Maestro Technology" listing on Amazon. If you understand that Amazon is a marketplace and you take 10 seconds to read who you're buying from, it's not a problem.

Amazon returns are also extremely easy. I once gambled on a sketchy seller and received a bad product (not computer related). A couple clicks and it was on its way back for a refund.

The problems with inventory commingling are virtually a thing of the past. I went through the process of selling a product on Amazon and understanding their evolved inventory labeling and commingling procedures so I'm not worried. Many of the tech community are anchored to news articles from years ago, though.

If you have a highly trusted vendor who can deliver at great prices and have products in stock that show up at your door when you need them, then use that. For the rest of us, using Amazon to buy common parts isn't really the problem that it's made out to be in HN comments. I think a lot of people here only understand Amazon through the occasional article that makes it to the top of HN and they don't understand what it's really like because they've been too scared to use it for years.

We don't.

"At rsync.net we have trusted suppliers with verified supply chains and a long history of providing reliable service."

...

"However, from time to time, it is expedient to purchase parts from Amazon - something we do with care and suspicion."

... and that care and suspicion takes the form of physical and logical inspections and extended part burn-in.

As you can see, this QC process caught these mis-labeled parts.

Thousands of hours doesn't pass the smell test. There's no way a specific SSD goes through months of testing prior to sale. A couple of hours seems reasonable though. And I'd rather it not be easy to reset the counters, so they don't reset the counters after testing during manufacturing/burn-in.

Alcohol/solvent resistant markers.

I did not know, per that article, that Amazon had for some time now offered motivated third-party sellers a means to avoid commingling by applying a “fulfillment network SKU” barcode to their goods. And that they estimate merchants spend $600mm a year on that type of “restickering.” Expensive, but possible.

[0] https://www.geekwire.com/2025/after-years-of-backlash-amazon...