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I refuse to purchase anything from Amazon. Bezos is not getting any of my money.
I feel like I should stop buying on eBay.
Actually, I kind of want to see a price fixing lawsuit against eBay now. They are explicitly telling sellers what price to list their items at, raising the prices of goods sold on eBay to the detriment of buyers so that they can get more money out of the commission fees.
The funny thing is my income has risen dramatically in the last few years, but I'm still approximately at the same level of purchasing power that I was six years ago.
If you had told me in 2012 I would be making low-mid six figures and still feel poor, I would have laughed at you.
I just bought some things on ebay to avoid Amazon. They dropshipped Amazon to me, individual packages and all, for nearly 100% markup. I don't know how to avoid that and find "real" sellers dropshipping non-branded warehoused Chinese goods like the good old days.
If you get drop shipped, report a problem say it’s damaged or whatever, and don’t let them send you the Amazon return - use the eBay generated label. Then they have to pay for it and returns absolutely destroy drop shippers. Then leave feedback saying they just drop ship from Amazon
Thanks for the actual tips. It feels like this will just kill my hobby/craft desires if I have to do all this vetting for basic shit to avoid Amazon but not pay extra for poor selection from the local store. I'll see, I guess. I suppose I could just braid my own weeds instead of crafting big things. That's still free and local, right?
aliexpress, get it from the source.
You went to one giant corporation to avoid another giant corporation. Buy directly from sellers, ideally locally. Find their own actual websites. Ask word of mouth for recommendations.
This only works if you don't live in the middle of fucking nowhere. Buying directly from a local seller for me means Walmart or Dollar General. After a 25-minute one-way drive, I can choose from a few more big chain stores. If I'm lucky, there's a private business that sells what I need 9a-4p, Mon-Fri for 1.5x the price anywhere else IF it's in stock.
Recently, I needed a network switch. Walmart didn't have any in stock, but I could order ome online and have it in 5-7 business days and pay $15 for shipping. Best Buy said they could order one and have it for me in 7-10 business days, then I could make the 50-minute round trip to pick it up. There are no other stores within a two-hour drive that might even have one in stock. Amazon had it for $10 less than WM and BB and had free shipping in 2-3 days without Prime.
I needed a switch. I can't build one. I can't do my job without it. I can't afford to wait for one to appear on Craigslist. I don't want to support any of those companies; they're all union busters and Trump donors. What's a person to do in that situation?
Even if you live somewhere dense, there's so many niche things, no brick and mortar place stocks it. For my own router, I had to find one recommended by forum users a decade ago for a specific disconnect issue within the Xbox One's internal 360 emulator. BB and WM didn't have the known-good options. In my recent case here, it was hobby stuff that my local craft store doesn't have at all, despite carrying similar items. And I mean my classic example is I used to dabble in LEDs before everyone was just buying mains bulbs and 12v strips. The price of a single blue 5mm LED in the hobby electronic store was the same as 100 on ebay.
newegg or something other than Amazon / Walmart. at least that's what I try to do. find a company whose leadership is furthest away from being oligarchic shitheads (even if that's what they aspire to be)
Newegg is just as bad as Amazon, or were the last time I bothered to try them to avoid Amazon. They burned all the good will they had with me over a decade ago.
That typically doesn't work well for hobby and craft supplies. Limited selection at the physical stores, if there's any at all, and there's no individuals selling raw supplies.
Making low 5 figure £ and don't really know what to spend it on. A lot of things people are listing I don't buy not because I couldn't afford it, but it doesn't seem worth it.
I could probably afford most things listed in the comments here, but my main reaction to most of them is why would I want to? Doesn't seem worth it to me.
Never learnt to drive because I couldn't afford it. Now I probably could afford it. At a push even around £500/month exploitative loan used by multiple people I know, would only cause minor financial issues. But I don't want it. My bike is doing fine.
Wtf do you spend money on when you are doing fine and happy as you are with £100s extra a month than you know what to do with, despite earning only a bit over minimum wage?
Only thing I can really think of is save it and eventually pay off the mortgage early then work part time.
Fucking same. I basically doubled my salary a couple of years ago and it seems like I'm not getting anywhere....
Yep. Same boat, its insane.
I honestly do not know how anybody that is making less than $50,000 a year is even surviving right now.
With seven roommates I assume?
I went on eBay for the first time in years the other cat looking for a few cookbooks. Holy fuck. No thanks. I'm not paying retail plus shipping on the cheapest USED book. Get the fuck out.
Where are you shopping these days? My area has a Walmart and a dollar general. Love the mega corps...
Did you try ThriftBooks by chance?
That's where I got one of the ones I was looking for!
Glad to hear it!
I scored the $50 premium hardback of 'World of Ice and Fire' for $11 off TB earlier this year. It also has a really cool inscription on the inside cover from the previous owner. I love used books.
Yeah I have a couple I'm still watching over there because they're still out of my price range (I'm broke lol) but we'll see 🤞
I'm in the same boat with Amazon. Doubly irritating that sometimes I'll buy an item from eBay and it's just drop shipped Amazon shit. Also I can't count the amount of times I've ordered something that is advertised as "fast 2-4 day shipping" and the seller immediately creates a label only for the status to sit at "label created" for 6 days.
If you've never used SlickDeals, I highly recommend it.
Is SlickDeals only North America? Or do they deliver worldwide?
Hi there!
SlickDeals isn't actually a retailer, but a community for bargain hunters. Basically someone sees a good deal and posts about it, and the community sees these posts and upvotes the best deals, but the best thing about it is you can create an email alert to yourself and add keywords, so you get an email when someone posts a deal matching that keyword. If you have a regular shopping list you use or staple products you know you'll need interminably, like toilet paper (or for me, crew neck t shirts) it's a really great way to get around price gouging or find a good bulk purchase to stock up.
I'm guessing there's a non US equivalent if it doesn't work in your country, since price gouging's happening everywhere, but I can't say for sure what it might be.