I buy directly from labels and musicians when I can, but invariably get some LPs from Amazon. Like Mijo says, the ease of returns is hard to turn down. I’ve gotten many warped records and bad pressings from all sources, especially in the last few years—it’s a plague. But I’ve never received a damaged sleeve from Amazon.
Finally, Amazon Learns to Package Records.
I must have sent at least 20 damaged records/covers back to Amazon because of silly packaging. It was so bad I stopped buying records from them. Last week I had to order three records from Amazon because they were the only store to have them. They came beautifully packed in the same cardboard record boxes that Elusive Disc uses and double boxed with padding!