I have Amazon gift cards otherwise I would just order it from here. How do I know I'm getting the most current and real Uno Rev 3 Board and not an older one from before the original founders took back control of the company? Does Arduino have an actual amazon store or a phone number to which I could Inquire?
Thanks for your interest in supporting Arduino by buying an official board!
The tricky thing about buying on Amazon is that they allow multiple sellers to sell from the same product page. The product page may be for the official board and the reviews might say that it's legit, but you can't know that a random seller isn't going to send you a counterfeit.
Arduino provides a list of authorized distributors. If you purchase from one of these distributors, you can be confident of receiving an authentic product. Luckily, several of these distributors are selling Unos on Amazon.
Here is the list of sellers:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B007R9TUJE
The sellers on that list who are authorized distributors are:
- 3DMakerWorld
- Karlsson Robotics.
- kjdElectronics
- Jameco Electronics
ZombieDave:
not an older one from before the original founders took back control of the company?
You will notice the product photo on that Amazon listing show "arduino.org" on the silkscreen. However, you'll notice even the official Arduino Store product photo is the same:
Arduino Uno Rev3 SMD — Arduino Official Store
It may be that this is just an outdated photo and what you'll actually receive is a board with the correct URL. My recommendation is that you contact the seller you're planning to purchase from and ask them this question. You can do that through Amazon.
ZombieDave:
Does Arduino have an actual amazon store
I don't believe so. I think they only sell directly via the Arduino Store on this website and let their authorized distributors handle other marketplaces.
ZombieDave:
or a phone number to which I could Inquire?
I don't know of a support phone number for Arduino. The closest thing would be the Arduino Store support contact form:
Thank you for replying. So the list of authorized Amazon sellers also sell the official kit? As that is what I actually would like to purchase.
There are both clones and official boards on Amazon.
Your best bet is simply to ask the seller a question.
If its not as described you have them for a refund by the short and curlies.
And in some cases a free clone.
You can compare the list of sellers of the kit against the list of official distributors:
I notice that Amazon themselves sells the kits (Amazon is a marketplace with many sellers but Amazon is one of those sellers). I would expect that Amazon is buying the kits directly from Arduino, but then why isn't Amazon on the list of authorized distributors? Very confusing.
If you are unsure about the source you buy your kit from, you also might be interested in this information on spotting a counterfeit Arduino:
https://www.arduino.cc/en/Products/Counterfeit
Hi Per
Not uncommon for Amazon to sell things without having an official badge so to speak.
"Your Amazon order fulfilled by ABC store" who may be on the official list.
That's different. You're thinking of Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). In that case, the seller ships a bunch of product to an Amazon fulfillment center where it's stored and shipped. Products sold by sellers using FBA will not be shown as being sold by Amazon on the product listing. It will say something like ""Sold by Urpi and Fulfilled by Amazon."
However, if you buy a product on Amazon that shows Amazon is the seller, that means that Amazon bought that product (or manufactured it themselves in some cases). Amazon actually requires some super generous terms like "net 90" or something ridiculous where they don't actually end up paying the manufacturer until after they've sold the product. My buddy was contacted by Amazon about them buying his products but there were a bunch of hoops to jump through. They require the manufacturer to hold insurance for a specific number of millions of dollars of liability. I don't think he ended up doing it, even though he uses FBA and other sellers (including myself) buy his products wholesale and then resell them on Amazon.