Buyer Beware, They are back again, eBay sellers selling Amazon

ballisticbrian

Buyer Beware, They are back again, eBay sellers selling Amazon Goods sent to you from Amazon Sellers.

Title says it all really, but I've seen a few sellers like this in the past.

The business model doesn't even make them work on price, but with 16,000 listings they have enough buyers clicking on their items and buying them without doing any proper research.

Buyers, some don't notice, others are really p'ed off when they discover an invoice inside from an Amazon seller for half what they paid.

http://feedback.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=lotoonsuk2&iid=-1&de=off&items=25&which=negative&interval=30&_trkparms=negative_30

Flyonthewall

Although I think it's wrong that sellers do that and it seems rather risky for a number of reasons (e.g. stock, bad amazon sellers and bad feedback), it just shows how lazy some buyers are if they don't even take 2 seconds to check Amazon when it's such a massive popular platform for buying and selling.

If the buyer didn't research and was happy to just go on ebay and pay whatever price that seller asked then they can't really be annoyed that it was for sale elsewhere. Besides with all sales, the seller will be paying less for the goods, it's just the buyers never normally know how much less.

Warnings like this might help some buyers who weren't aware, but I imagine if many don't think to do even a little research before buying they're probably not going to find any warnings either.

harveybobbles

More fool the buyers with the "its on ebay, so it must be cheap" attitude.

sequence

Nothing wrong with this. Thousands, maybe millions of businesses drop ship. This is no different. It's the stupid buyers who don't check prices and then complain afterwards that need taking care of.

ballisticbrian

Thousands, maybe millions of businesses drop ship. This is no different

There's quite a bit of difference between drop shipping and this example.

First of all, You can do some forms of drop shipping without breaking the terms of eBay which this guy is doing.

Secondly, this guy is not adding any value whatsoever. The items are already available on eBay. He's not offering the items at a cheaper price or adding any efficiency to the process.

Also, while most customers could understand the concept of a "middle man", if he was honest about his modus operandi, most customers would feel ripped off.

marking_bad

There does seem to be something wholely dishonest about this, drop shipping should really involve only manufacturers and wholesale, not retailers.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

sequence wrote: »

Nothing wrong with this. Thousands, maybe millions of businesses drop ship. This is no different. It's the stupid buyers who don't check prices and then complain afterwards that need taking care of.

Not everyone wants to give their money to Amazon and it's harder for those that want to support small businesses with these sellers around. Also no good for eBay as it just sends buyers elsewhere (which with all their own ads and sponsored links eBay don't seem to care about).

I doubt the majority of these kind of sellers pay their tax either.

ballisticbrian

Actually, I can't see Amazon being too chuffed about this either. If I was the customer and get a receipt with Amazon's logo on it and the price half what I paid to eBay, in my opinion it would put Amazon in just as bad a light from a company image point of view.

RFW

I find this very odd, both the act and people's opinion of it.

I would assume many dropshipper on Ebay earn far more per item than the Amazon resellers. As a business model it is a pretty poor one. The only difference with any other business though is that buyers can see how much the seller is earning. If the item came from Amazon without the price on, it would be less of an issue.

If I put the cost price on invoices for products I send out I'd be out of business within a month.

I think I'm most surprised that there can be such a difference in price between the two and some don't check. Amazon tends to have higher price fluctuations than Ebay, so it's always worth the extra few seconds to check who has the better deal.

soolin

if you send an Amazon item as a gift it costs no more than usual and they do not include an invoice.

campdave

But the amazon packaging will give it away surely?