Filter out overseas sellers

[jamemora3]

Is there anyway that I can filter out overseas sellers so that I can ensure that I am only buying items that are being shipped within the United States or at least North America? I am getting tired of waiting sometimes 6 to 8 weeks to receive an item, that’s if I even receive it at all. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. 

[mudshark61369]

@jamemora3,

There is a filter in the left hand column of search results pages to block sellers not located in the U.S.. However, because ebay helped many foreign (mostly chinese) seller to register in the U.S. their items still show up in searches.  Many of those ship from warehouses located in the U.S. but some items may not be in stock in the U.S..

You should know how to check a seller's feedback profile page by now. If you go to your own page and click on the feedback numbers of the last 5 sellers you bought from, you will find they are all registered in China, and some of them have terrible feedback percentages for high volume sellers. Most use 98.6% as the cut off point.

Because some foreign seller's are registered in the U.S. you have to check listings and feedback pages carefully to weed them out. Below is a list of things I look for.

On Listing pages:

• Items priced well below brand name items price.
• An item location address that does not give a city and state Ex: USA / United States, New Jersey / USA ...
• The use of U.S. flag symbols and several mentions of being a U.S. seller.
• Item descriptions that have wording in them that doesn't seem like it was written by a person whose first language is English.
• A  High volume seller with a feedback percentage below 98.9%
• Item titles giving a brand name, and photos showing a brand name label, but in the Item Specifics it says Brand: Unknown.
• Items that don't have a recognizable Brand Name.
• The use of metric and standard measurements.
• Photos with Asian models in them.

On a Feedback profile page:

• The seller's country of registry, sometimes.
• All or most feedback is for Private listings.
• Neutral and Negative feedback saying items came from China. That took a long time to arrive. Missing items from multiple quantity orders.  Cancelled purchases.  Poor communications. (click on the numbers of neutral and negative feedback received, to read only those comments).
• Responses to non positive feedback written by someone whose first language does not appear to be English.

It may take a little time to use the above lists, but in the long run can save time and possibly money.

[gosimus]

@jamemora3 

< I am getting tired of waiting sometimes 6 to 8 weeks to receive an item >    

You can specify distance from you &/or origin of product when you use Advanced Search.  But there's a way around that.  The easiest way to weed out items coming from China is right there in the listing, i.e., the Estimated Delivery date.  When it says to expect delivery in, to use your words, "6 to 8 weeks" you know it isn't coming from anywhere close by.  If the ED says a shorter duration, then, when that time has elapsed, you open the Item Not Received dispute and get a refund ... enough of those and the seller either goes broke, or he racks up enough Defects that eBay shows him the gate.