[zojirushibottle]

do not buy brand products off amazon! unless it's the official brand store. at this point, there's so little to gain doing so. the only thing that comes to mind is not having to sign up for another online account and entering details. nowadays, most brands match up the fast 2-days shipping and they have better discounts and deals, and you know the stuff you are getting is from them.

[ilikepi]

> ...unless it's the official brand store.

Anecdote time. Last year I bought an Anker power brick via Amazon, using the link on Anker's own website. When it arrived, instead of Anker's normal well-designed retail packaging, the brick was simply wrapped in bubble wrap, with a printed label stating that it was "new" and thrown into its shipping box. I inquired with Anker support about this, but they could only say that all their products they send to Amazon for distribution are in retail packaging. I did confirm that the item was purchased through the AnkerDirect seller, so I can only guess that it was either a returned item or that the retail packaging had been damaged, and someone at the Amazon warehouse repackaged it and put it back in the "new" bin. I ended up returning it for a refund. My trust of Amazon as a retail platform has been steadily eroding over the past few years, and this was just another reason to shop elsewhere.

[0xffff2]

Amazon commingles inventory, so if there were any other sellers of the item, you get an item from a random seller, not necessarily an item that was provided by the seller you purchased from.