The more you focus and the more you curate, the more you can trust you're getting what you think you're getting and the more confidence you can have in the overall supply chain.
The tradeoff is selection and probably price--although for some large specialist retailers like B&H Photo you largely do get both price and a pretty good selection of products.
Amazon should at least better separate the products it largely has control over the provenance of and everything else. But a third party marketplace is always to be hit or miss in terms of what you get.
"Throw of the dice" is an exaggeration. Personally, I haven't (knowingly) had an issue with counterfeit. And I have found things on Amazon or eBay that were super-obscure and I'd have had difficulty tracking down elsewhere. And it's not like various obscure websites can't be dodgy themselves.
The tradeoff is selection and probably price--although for some large specialist retailers like B&H Photo you largely do get both price and a pretty good selection of products.
Amazon should at least better separate the products it largely has control over the provenance of and everything else. But a third party marketplace is always to be hit or miss in terms of what you get.