Are we now a flea market with dishonest sellers?

Question

I have been with eBay since its inception. It used to be a great place to buy things. Now it is filled with sellers who are vague and confusing in their description. The exact description should be loud and right up front without have to search endlessly to find the hidden truth.The other thing I see everyday now that wasn't present before, is sellers post an item, and it says the item is in say....New York or some American city. I place the order, and after a very long wait, I receive the item...

mudshark61369 · Answer

@spooky100 , "I have been with eBay since its inception. It used to be a great place to buy things. Now it is filled with sellers who are vague and confusing in their description. The exact description should be loud and right up front without have to search endlessly to find the hidden truth". When you joined 4 years after ebay got started, most items listed were used not new, and auction style listings were the rule not the exception like now. The age of people posting items was also much older than the average age of new members. Back then digital photography was in its infancy so it was not unusual for only 1-2 photos to be used and sometimes there were no images. Because of those things sellers did a much more complete job of describing items. Also back then ebay was practically the only game in town. Now however, withe more new items, that are still in production, you are lucky to get more than a 2 sentence description, since most sellers rely on pre-filled Mfr. info and item specifics. The newer sellers often use only a couple of stock photos. Most all of the high volume sellers list items that way, and the younger sellers who are used to seeing items listed that way on other sites, copy that style of listing. Often younger sellers list preowned items without really knowing what they are selling. eBay never posted this, but there has been an unwritten rule for sellers that has been around since I first started posting on these boards in 2003 with my old selling ID. "Describe all items, like there are no photos, and photograph them like there is no description". Unfortunately, ebay does not explain that well to today's sellers because lots of photos and long descriptions, take up server space. "Again, the seller misleads me into thinking the item is in America. So I am thinking the delivery time will not be long, like almost every American seller I have ever bought from" eBay started letting in the sellers from China in 2010, and even started helping them register in the U.S. and to find warehousing here. What management didn't seem to understand was that the Chinese govt. subsidized the international portion of shipping, and once items arrived in the U.S. the chinese sellers benefited from a U.N. based treaty that rated China's economy as being equal to Botswana's, and still does, allowing the domestic portion of shipping to be cheaper than even bulk rate shipping. Part of the reason why their prices have remained so low. a few years later the Chinese govt. did start acquiring warehousing near to major ports or international airports in the U.S. its sellers could use to drop ship from. That is how they got many U.S. locations. Though still to this day many of them do not list the item location properly giving a city and state. They will use N.J., NYC. or Ca. ... United states as a location. Because of that, it can be harder to weed out the foreign sellers from the true domestic ones. About the only ways to figure out if a seller is actually a U.S. based one or drop ships from outside the U.S. is to read listings carefully and look for things that give them away. Below is a list I use to weed them out. On Listing pages: Items priced well below brand name items price. Items listed by many other sellers using the same photos and prices often. 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. Extended handling times or long estimated delivery time frames. 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 Top Rated seller with a feedback percentage below 98.6% 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. Very high volume sellers who joined after 2010. All or most feedback is for Private listings. Those that do not list all items as private, have FB for items in many unrelated categories. Feedback numbers that don't add up. Shooting star feedback numbers but a low number in the last year or 12 months. (usually a seller with a few IDs to use, when one's feedback percentage drops too low) Neutral and Negative feedback saying items came from China. That took a long time to arrive. Missing items from multiple quantity orders. Poor Quality, 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. Many starting with the word "Dear". It may take a little time to use the above lists, but in the long run can save time and possibly money. It becomes second nature after awhile.

glorybells · Answer

One way to avoid this is to click on the sellerâ€™s feedback number to go to their feedback page and see what country they are registered in. If it says China, even if the ad claims â€œAmerican sellerâ€, it may or may not be coming from the location they claim.

AND the seller can be reported for misrepresenting the items location. eBay does take those kind of reports, but they donâ€™t know unless itâ€™s reported.