
Ask HN: Are resold barcodes a scam? - NicoJuicy
When you want to register your product on amazon ( Europe), products require a EAN 13 code.<p>Officially, EAN13 is genereated by GS1 and registered there.<p>There are also many online companies active on &quot;reselling&quot; barcode. But this could just be autogenerated.<p>Any thoughts on how this barcode thing works? Are resellers a scam?<p>In theory: Resellers buy a huge ammount of barcodes and resell these.<p>In practise: Many sites offer barcodes. I think most of them are self generated.<p>How do you buy eg. Belgian barcodes ( starting with 54), that are registered offically without GS1 ( or cheaper than GS1).
======
mattkrea
I am genuinely surprised to hear this. I largely thought barcodes were
nonsense because in the US there isn't really any sort of standard that I've
seen (I work for a POS company in the US that has to support a _lot_ of
barcodes)

~~~
DrScump
If there weren't standards, how could readers parse them?

There are lots of different symbologies (ways to encode data), each with its
own benefits and limitations. The one most familiar to U.S. consumers is the
UPC code.

Most pro sports and event tickets also use barcodes. Ticketmaster and
Tickets.com use different symbologies from each other.

~~~
mattkrea
I'm aware of the (many) standards. UPC codes are not unique and that is more
what I was getting at.. it's all basically just made up with seemingly no
governing body.

