Personally, I don’t get anything for more than $50 from Amazon, and, usually, not even that.
Amazon used to have the best prices, but that is no longer the case. Just a couple of weeks ago, I needed to get bulk cat food (for a bulky cat). I tried Amazon, but they wanted double what I would pay at chewy. So I got it from chewy, and will never look at Amazon for that kind of thing again.
I also tend to go directly to manufacturer Web sites, and order from there. The price is seldom much higher than Amazon, and I won’t have to worry that I’m getting a fake, or gray market junk.
Seems more mixed for me. Yes, Amazon is not guaranteed to be the cheapest so it pays to compare prices fro non-trivial items but often enough Amazon will still be the cheapest for me.
Also, grey market products aren't junk - they are by definition the official product just without the price gouging the manufacturer does in locales where they can get away with it.
F’rinstance, get a Chinese webcam, and find the latest download.
Also, there’s some controversy over the privacy in Chinese products (but it’s easy enough to make the same argument about almost any brand).
I have found that Chinese versions of products make up the largest percentage of gray market stuff. I suspect that some percentage of that, is outright fakes.
Amazon used to have the best prices, but that is no longer the case. Just a couple of weeks ago, I needed to get bulk cat food (for a bulky cat). I tried Amazon, but they wanted double what I would pay at chewy. So I got it from chewy, and will never look at Amazon for that kind of thing again.
I also tend to go directly to manufacturer Web sites, and order from there. The price is seldom much higher than Amazon, and I won’t have to worry that I’m getting a fake, or gray market junk.