Amazon to hold holiday shopping event in October

I always check where the seller is from. So many places these days. China, Turkey, UK. I have had items from China that have worked out and a couple that did not and I returned them for a refund. I bought a three-drawer Hisense fridge. Also a five-year warranty. 120 watts. 382 Kilowatt Hours Per Year equals ¥9,000.

So then I bought a Hisense inverter washing machine. Also with a five-year warranty. Could not be happier. They took away the old machines and we did not pay sales tax.

I bought some items from Turkey. Worked out for me.

A few items I bought from Japan, out of many also had to be returned.

I always make comments on the items I like and the items I dislike. I don't always trust the comments.

One has to be cautious when buying stuff on Amazon, there's a lot of "Made in China" stuff there, which isn't exactly quality stuff, and one does wonder whether the products that on being sold at a seemingly steep discount, are genuine or not.

Amazon has a Sellers marketplace, where Sellers can chat amongst themselves in forums, however it doesn't have one for buyers - and, you can have your account suspended, if you leave an unfavorable comment for a product that you bought.

Often, these sales turn out to be where amazon dumps last year's Amazon-Branded stuff. A few other sellers also raise prices, so they can lower them on these special events. Often a good time to get a TV, tablet, or new-to-you phone.

Was shopping for a new phone today and it seems that a 2020 model fits my expectations and price. Newer versions of the same phone have worse specifications - lower resolution, less internal storage, and worse cameras. Seems they are trying to push people to spend more for higher end phones, sorta like how the sub-compact Honda Civic has been expanded and resized to be a mid-size sedan over the last 40 yrs. Phone makers seem to make 15 models yearly when 5 would fit the market very well. All the specialized branding based on the carrier to ensure the exact phone model can't found elsewhere, though one with the same specs is very common on 4 other cell carriers. It's a big joke in the telecom industry, but as long as it is legal, they'll keep doing it like other home appliance/TV brands do the same thing.