This story is part of a collection of pieces on how we spend money today. It’s a wonderbox of capitalism. Twenty minutes ago I typed in "yak" for no good reason and Amazon’s algorithms suggested "yak cheese himalayan dog chews." So I hit Enter and up popped a page filled with 60 different dog chews that I have since learned are an all-natural, satisfying, long-lasting treat for pups. Amazon had six more pages, or 420 more Himalayan dog chews, to sift through, from hundreds of companies I’ve never heard of, sold by hundreds of different sellers. I don’t need a bag of dog bones made of yak cheese right now, but if I did, I would feel overwhelmed. Which brands are high quality? Which listings are legitimate? What’s a good price to pay? WIRED stories about money and consumption. These days, almost anyone can sell items on Amazon in five easy steps. The site hosts millions of sellers, making it more like eBay than Walmart.

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But Amazon does not vet everything on its virtual shelves thoroughly, if at all, and that means you have to be careful about what you’re buying. The site has known problems with fake reviews and counterfeit items, and a growing number of Chinese sellers have flooded the site with strange new off-brand products in the past few years. Amazon has a fairly good return policy on its own items, but third-party sellers don’t have to abide by those standards, and many don’t. WIRED can help! Below are a few tips to help you better pay attention to what you’re purchasing at The Everything Store, in an effort to choose items that are more likely to arrive as advertised and less likely to cause big headaches when you try to return them. Amazon keeps a far better eye on its own inventory than it does on its third-party sellers. Items it sells directly are more likely to arrive as advertised and qualify for free two-day Prime shipping.

Because Amazon manages everything, returns are often painless, as well. I’ve gotten refunds for defective items without even having to return them at all. Either it’s under the red price (and green "In Stock") or it's under the yellow Add to Cart and orange Buy Now buttons on the right rail. If you're on the Amazon app, it's also under those buttons. It will likely improve the quality of the items you see, cutting out a lot of less-relevant, lower-quality search results. And again, the items are better vetted, so you’ll probably get what you expect and have an easier time returning it, if need be. I'll use the new Motorola Moto G7 as an example of a product you might search for. It's one of my favorite new affordable phones. Step 2: At the top of the left rail, click on a Department that fits. Cell Phones & Accessories should be broad enough to include the Moto G7 phone, so that’s what I chose.

It will bring up a dense but readable alphabetical page of sellers. If Amazon is one of those sellers, it will show up in the list. When people see that a product they like is on sale, a little wave of excitement washes over them. Instead of thinking about how much we’re spending, we start to think about how much we’re saving, or winning. Coupons and discounts exist because they create a sense of urgency that causes many people to buy things they normally wouldn’t. Some sellers abuse that pricing power. There are a lot of products on Amazon that are endlessly on "sale" and that makes it hard to know if you’re getting an actual bargain. The page for these Monster Yak Dog Chews says that they’re on sale for $17 and normally cost $25. But that’s not true, and there’s an easy way to check. Just copy the URL and Art paste it into CamelCamelCamel.