NewEgg just wants to sell you stuff. Amazon wants to control you.

NewEgg.com ^ | 08-20-2020 | CharlesOconnell

[CharlesOConnell]

(Not an ad. I just got 50 masks for $14.) I'm a free shipping junkie, I might be able to get a better deal for with-shipping, but I'm not a sharpie.

Amazon is a monopoly. (What's wrong with that? "Economy of scale", but it just benefits the Behemoth, eventually prices rise.) Most people don't think of looking anywhere else. I only accidentally used NewEgg because they had something I wanted, a specific phone battery, that Amazon didn't have. The only little downside was, you have to search around for tracking, otherwise, it was free shipping, my stuff arrived reasonably quick, and I don't feel like they're trying to rip me off.

Amazon Ripoffs: They started me on Amazon Prime without telling me, they took a fee out of my bank account for 4 months. An author I know wrote a reasonably good selling book, never got a penny. (My brother-in-law's 1/2 brother, a book on the history of concrete.)

Jeff Bezos probably thinks that, because he started an innovation at the right place & time and is possibly the world's richest man, that means he should be able to control millions of people.

That's the way it is with monopolies. What makes them monopolies? You'd think the tag doesn't apply if they have competitors--so they must not be a monopoly--but a cartel can still be "federated", that is, not centrally controlled, multiple ostensibly "competitive" cartel members can collude together to raise prices in the long run and victimize consumers.

Sorry to use a visual analogy, but the hidden fact is that what is really at work with monopolies is a kind of tendency, like a number of globules of mercury on a flat surface eventually combining into a single pool, a tendency for large masses of money to throw off multiple owners and form larger & larger masses. This means that Croesus is the god of this world, until he wakes up one day to discover that he has turned into Midas, and you can't eat the stuff.

In the "freedom vs. equality" head-room, when you're a victim, you're equal with all the other victims. What is wrong with monopolies is that they make us trade convenience and a false sense of security for freedom, self-reliance and autonomy.

(I got into Thomas Paine's 1776 "Common Sense" from listening to champion teacher John Taylor Gatto, on many, many fine YouTube talks, speak about how when monopolies were forcing our conversion into an industrial-financial economy about 1880, they attacked Yankee small farmers, inventors and entrepreneurs who were competing too much with the Big Money Boys. So at the dawn of public schooling, Andrew Carnegie "generously" offered pensions to teachers, but only if they would use the deliberately dumbed-down curriculum of universal compulsory public schooling. Big Money was too smart, however, as when John D. Rockefeller Jr. funded John Dewey's experimental Lincoln School, 4 of Rockefeller's 5 sons who attended there, contracted dyslexia from the "whole-word" vs phonics reading. And of course, everyone knows what a disaster Common Core math is, vs. Singapore Math.)

The effect of monopolies on all of us is encapsulated by the writer of the Fr. Brown Mysteries, G.K. Chesterton, with the, typically enigmatic, Chestertonism, "Peoples selling themselves into slavery and marching back out again....", from The Everlasting Man (a book which uses N-word-isms).

I just ordered a book on Monopolies from ***AMAZON***, because I got the best price from a slave-retailer. I'm a victim of my own cheapness.

[PIF]

history of concrete: sounds like a real block buster; and what’s “sold reasonability well” mean - 100, 1000?

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Pop history is a small but growing category of books and as a reseller of books I can tell you that they are hard to keep in stock and hard to find.

People are interested in stuff and accessible history books on the history of stuff are good sellers. Even at premium prices.

[Chickensoup]

Alibris.com. best booksellers consortium

[Flaming Conservative]

Only thing I can find online is Newegg, a computer sales company. Is that what you’re talking about?

[daniel1212]

Most people don't think of looking anywhere else. I only accidentally used NewEgg because they had something I wanted, a specific phone battery, that Amazon didn't have. The only little downside was, you have to search around for tracking, otherwise, it was free shipping, my stuff arrived reasonably quick, and I don't feel like they're trying to rip me off. Amazon Ripoffs: They started me on Amazon Prime without telling me, they took a fee out of my bank account for 4 months. An author I know wrote a reasonably good selling book, never got a penny. (My brother-in-law's 1/2 brother, a book on the history of concrete.)

Amazon is by far the #1 online seller because it offers the most variety, overall very good service and free shipping to $25 minimum orders. In contrast, Walmart often has cheaper prices on basic items, esp. clothes, tools and many foods, and has far less variety and in stock items, and requires a minimum of $35 for free ship. NewEgg is very good for computer items, but cost more for other items and has lass variety than Amazon.