Presales with extended wait time -- safe?

[arcman564]

Hi, I'm hoping for any experienced input on presale items not due to go on sale for many months.  There are some movie related collectibles coming to market which won't be released for at least four months, maybe more, and I see many China-based vendors offering them here, for presale.   They are listed as the authentic items currently advertised as not yet for sale, so the listings do look to be fully legitimate.  

These are items likely to sell out, once available when released for general sale, so I am trying to learn if making a presale purchase guarantees that the buyer will receive one?  I've tried contacting vendors, and either gotten no reply, or an offer to buy it for even less than the listed price (but no reply to my specific questions about eventual availability).  The listed buying terms are fairly vague and don't seem to confirm that a presale purchase means getting anything.

Since they are likely to sell out, once offered to the public, the idea of a presale purchase sounds intriguing, but any buy, now, would seem be pushing past the window of consumer protection by the time the item is supposed to ship (although I think a PayPal Credit purchase is protected for up to six months, if I'm correct?), so I don't know if I'm leaving myself no protection on a pre-sold item with three to five months of wait time, for the item to even be released for sale.

Does anyone have any experience with this kind of a situation?  These are Sellers with great reputation numbers, so on the surface it seems safe, and I think also some of the Sellers may not have English speaking staff to reply to my inquiries, which is why I'm not  hearing back, and so I don't want to just assume the purchase will fall through, but, at the same time, since these items are not cheap, I don't want to needlessly create risk with a possibly foolish buy.

Any advice from anyone?  Will hope to hear something.  Thank you all!  

[nobody*s_perfect]

eBay policy prohibits those presales.  Sellers must ship within 30 days after the transaction.   

[a*river*runs*through*it]

I wouldn't touch these with a 10' pole! 

But I refuse to buy anything from Chinese sellers.

Chances are very good they are counterfeits.

Buy at your own peril IMO.

[myboardid]

First thoughts -

1)  If you buy you will not be able to get a refund if they do not ship.

2)  They will not ship.

3)  If they send anything at all it will be a fake. 

4)  Only the manufacturer/property rights owner will have the authentic originals available and they will only sell them to their established dealers. 

[pburn · Accepted solution]

eBay's presale policy is here, in case you'd like to read it:

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-policies/presale-listings-policy?id=4252

As previous posters said, presale purchases must be shipped within 30 days of purchase, so those Chinese vendors' listings you're looking at are in violation of eBay policy.

I, personally, would never trust a vendor who started out with violating eBay policy by the very nature of their listing. The transaction can only go downhill from there. The third paragraph of your post lists several additional reasons not to purchase anything from these sellers.

My advice is, yes, it would be a foolish buy, and, because of the extended delivery date, you'd have no recourse through eBay after 30 days, and no recourse through PayPal after 180 days. You could check with your specific credit card issuer for the time frame for a charge back if you don't receive your purchase, but my credit card coverage is within 60 days of the date of the statement on which the transaction appears, so that's even more restrictive than PayPal.

[arcman564]

Thanks all for the wisdom and advice.  Given that this product is made in China, and distributed from China, it's hard to assume who is authorized to sell it, considering it is not restricted to "authorized dealers" of a manufacturer.  I've bought successfully from China on many occasions through eBay, but I appreciate knowing that these sales are not even authorized, which, as mentioned, is not a great start to a deal. 

Thankfully, I have found vendors off of eBay, who are also pre-selling, with the same late arrival date (this won't come out until the end of this year), but they are much more definitive in their guarantee of receipt.  Most places are already sold out of even the pre-orders, so, yes, doubtful so many places here on eBay would even be able to sell me one.

I've actually found a distributor for the manufacturer, and it's even less cost than any of the ones on here, so will order it from there, as their website is legit, they are USA based, and certainly seem a very safe source.  They only ask a down payment, which reserves one for me, so that seems much more legit.  

Thanks all, again, for the steer in the right direction.  Much appreciated!