From what I get from this article, unless no other seller has ever sold a particular item on amazon, you don''t have any idea what you're getting. Since they co-mingle articles with the same UPC, like the article says, counterfeit/used (when supposedly sold as new) may be mixed together. While that may be a good inventory practice, it isn't good for the consumer who is expecting what they bought to be as advertised.

Thanks for bringing this practice to light. Maybe Amazon needs to keep inventories separate.

BTW, I always read reviews. I discount many of the 5 star ratings and like to look at the mid-range reviews. They 'seem' to be more truthful, mentioning issues the reviewer had with the product and how the company may have dealt with that issue. Many of the one star reviews are not very descriptive. "Piece of junk", "fell apart after one use", "damaged in shipping" (how is that the actual products fault?).

Good article. It brought to light a process that I never even considered.