I probably should, but they're so cheap on Amazon anyway.

I don't have Amazon Prime.

> Some those weird brands make some good things.

Indeed - they're legitimately solving a real problem. It's just an interesting dynamic that a whole new product category is produced overnight, with no clear leading brand. Usually someone makes a useful product. It gets known. Then others enter in the market to compete. Here you just get 5 companies entering the market altogether.

As for the essential oil diffuser: That category was established long before these brands became a thing. But oh boy the overpriced ones in stores are really not worth it!

As far as I know, the only brands making the phone charger cords I use are considered 'off-brand'. I am not sure the goal is to remove ever purchasing things that are not 'known brands', but paging through thirty pages of the same exact really stretchy underwear sold under different names for every single page-worth of others is both inefficient and stressful for those of us that dislike shopping in the first place. So, I personally will check this out. Underwear arbitrary, just remember it Christmas shopping.

The plastic parts almost definitely, but this seems like it has a couple springs and hinges that make it more of a pain.

I wouldn't trust a typical 3D printed one. My one has so many degrees of freedom/rotation - lots of moving parts.

3D printing is more a practice than it is a way to quickly create one off objects. I think certainly if your machine is dialed in and not malfunctioning in some way then it will be cheaper and faster to print than to buy this.

The ships are already making the trip carrying cars, furniture, medical equipment, and all kinds of critical things. The drop shipped trinkets basically hitch a ride for free.

Thinking about some of the business practices of our ancestors, shipping bits of plastic seems like a great improvement.

Our great-great-grandchildren will probably be getting their gadgets via some kind of Star Trek replicator rather than a container ships and no doubt some moral hazard will be involved in that practice.

Generally though, things are getting better, no?

We do the same for groceries though. Only a few generations ago, oranges or bananas were a luxury if you didn't live in an area where those fruit grow. Now we get avocadoes and berries way out of season, shipped from across the world.