Many sellers have become deceitful here now.

[stickycreationz]

I noticed when buying something a seller creates a sell with a shipping partner who creates a label.  But the item is shipped from china to the shipping partner who forwards it on to buyer.  1. We wait longer for the item.  2. we could have bought from china ourself and got it cheaper.  eBay requires fast shipping from sellers and all they have to do is print a label and not ship for a month.  This has gotten out of hand from sellers from china getting on the US list only.  So I went and paid for Amazon Prime last night for the free shipping I'm done with ebay as they don't care to monitor this.  Besides they let sellers just create a label to show it was shipped even though it really is not shipped for another month.  Tell a friend!

[adkhighker]

"we could have bought from china ourself and got it cheaper."

That's for sure. Not only could you get it cheaper, but you would probably at least eventually get it. Way too many of the sellers who list their items as being located in the US when their feedback page shows they are in China usually do not have the items in stock in the US like they tell everyone.

What you're describing is especially common during the pandemic because so many people are desperately trying to find masks, etc, and this has attracted a lot of scammers to eBay who are selling items they don't have and never will have.

[mudshark61369]

@stickycreationz,

While it is true item and seller locations are misrepresented on ebay sometimes there are ways to tell if items or a seller are truly in the U.S. (list below)

As for Covid items many from China are defective items, and though other sites have them listed some are from chinese sellers.

Here are some more indications on listing pages;

1. Item location not giving a city or state Ex. Ca. /USA, Many places USA, USA/USA.
2. Extended delivery or handling time frames. Especially, from supposed U.S. based sellers.
3. Very low prices w/ Free shipping
4. American flag symbols and many statements of being a U.S. Seller
5. The same photos and listing templates used by many other sellers

On feedback profile pages;

1. Country of registration ... sometimes.
2. Very high volume seller registered between 2010 and now.
3. Feedback percentages below 98.8%
4. Neutral and negative feedback sometimes in the hundreds  (you can click on those numbers to read only those comments)  look for slow shipping, non delivery,  partial orders received, and items shipped from China comments, as well as poor quality ones.
5. Replies to non positive feedback that indicate English is not the persons first language
6. Repetitive replies to non-positive feedback
7. Use of Asian models in photos
8.  Measurements that are both metric and inches.

[yettobedetermined]

I have experienced this too. Apparently eBay is not holding these unscrupulous sellers accountable for offering these items with a "deliver by" date that is not delivered by stated date.