Item location in USA?

[angel_cat]

When searching for an item to buy on eBay, I often specify in the search, that the filter for the item's location to be in the USA only.

The search engine results show sellers whose items are in the USA. When looking at some of the individual listings from the search results, often many are located in US specific cities that are in California, Texas, Florida to name a few states as an example.

Those sellers and their items appear to be in the USA, but when looking at where the items are being shipped from, eBay shows the items being shipped from China! Why?

And this really concerns me, as are these name brand products being sold here on eBay authentic?

So I add an extra filter to my search, for "Authenticity Guarantee" and guess what ...

No results returned. The seller did not provide that attribute.

What's important to me here is, that when I specify that the item's location is in the USA, that it will be shipped from that location.

Perhaps it's shipped to the USA location, and then forwarded from there to the buyer.

When it come to buying something like MS Windows (New with registration key), I prefer it be authentic, and my purchase from the seller in the USA is not sourcing the item from China!

[stainlessenginecovers]

1st- "authenticity guarantee" is only for a few things (high end sneakers, watches, handbags, trading cards) so more than likely what you were looking for does NOT offer this service (yes, it's a service- item gets sent to an 'authenticator' and then shipped from there to the buyer).

2nd-those that show the items in are in the US, but then ship from China and you can see that- just click to another seller (not sure how they are able to still list that way- although many have warehouses here in the US)

[janet9988]

"When it come to buying something like MS Windows (New with registration key), I prefer it be authentic, and my purchase from the seller in the USA is not sourcing the item from China!"

Buy locally from a reputable company that you can deal with in person for those types of items.

[mudshark61369 · Accepted solution]

@angel_cat,

"When searching for an item to buy on eBay, I often specify in the search, that the filter for the item's location to be in the USA only".

That filter will only block sellers who have registered from other countries. If a China based seller registers their company in the U.S. you will see their items using that filter.  You should also add NY, NJ, and NYC to your list of suspected China owned warehouse locations. 

"When it come to buying something like MS Windows (New with registration key), I prefer it be authentic, and my purchase from the seller in the USA is not sourcing the item from China"!

You really need to read about ebay's electronically delivered good policy. (link below)

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/prohibited-restricted-items/electronically-delivered-items-policy...

If you find a listing for something like an MS Windows software. If it does not say that you will receive a hard copy of the Software key, through the mail you may not get one or the key you get may be registered with a large corporation and will not be able to be used. Often a low price for the software is an indication of an invalid sale.  The ebay protections for digitally/electronically delivered goods may not protect you. Digitally delivered goods are not protected by the Money Back Guarantee (MBG).

Because it can be difficult to figure out if a seller is really based in the U.S. or not you need carefully vet sellers especially the high volume ones.  

There are ways to figure out if a seller is actually China based or drop ships from there. Below are lists of things I Iook for to avoid them.

On Listing pages:

• Items priced well below brand named items price.
• Items that have the buy one, Buy two... discounted prices.
• 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 registered between 2011 and now, 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.
• Items for sale by many other sellers using the same photos and page layout. On a listing page's sponsored items lists, if you see the same item listed by other sellers using the same photos that have U.S. flag symbols or mentions of being a U.S. seller, yours is likely a china based one as well.
• 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). Add about half the number of neutrals to the negatives to get a true idea of their feedback percentage.
  
• Responses to non positive feedback written by someone whose first language does not appear to be English, often starting with "Dear" and left repetitively.
  
• A very high number of feedback, but only a few hundred in the last 12 months.

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

These days getting to a seller's classic feedback profile page takes a little time. It used to be a one button process, but now takes 3-4 clicks to do that. To get to it, scroll down a listing page to where you see the seller's username in a large font. below it will be a few comments and under them a See all feedback button, Click> on it. On the page that opens look to the right of the sort buttons for Switch back to classic view >  On the new page is a box with the numbers of the 3 types of feedback a seller can receive. You can click on the numbers of Neutral and Negative feedback to read only those comments. 

A faster way is to click on a seller's store or other items button. If you see the seller has items listed in many unrelated categories, chances are good they are a china based one.