Amazon Drop Shippers

[slpentico]

is anyone else repulsed by the people selling here on eBay that relist amazon items at a markup and have amazon ship the item to buyers? I recently ordered an item on eBay that arrived from Amazon. curious I checked amazon and realized I paid $26 more than amazon was asking. In my opinion these sellers are lazy and do nothing to uphold or improve eBay's reputation. I'm a seller and I work hard to source items that I can sell at a fair price and make a fair profit. 

[varebelrose]

Many of us learned a long time ago that any brand new, consumer type items ordered here are almost always going to arrive in an Amazon or WM box. Savvy shoppers know to shop around and cut out the middleman.

[dbfolks166mt]

      It really doesn't bother me all that much and more power to them if they are able to pull it off and make a profit. I always shop around for commodity type items and buy little on eBay since I can generally find it cheaper elsewhere often at a B&M store where there are no shipping charges added onto the price of the item. Drop shipping is a dangerous business model and the seller running this business model is far from lazy. It takes constant vigilance to keep something from going sideways. 

     The seller is probably a Prime member and using an Amazon charge card so they are likely getting cash back on the CC purchases, which at the moment is not taxable income, they are probably getting free shipping and potentially other prime member discounts/benefits. I am quite sure the seller is not passing the free shipping onto the eBay buyer.  However, for every drop shipped order they would have to change the Amazon shipping address to send the item to the eBay buyer and then transpose the Amazon shipping information over to the eBay tracking. I would suspect dealing with INR's, NAD's and chargebacks is no easy task since the seller was never in actual possession of the item. 

     If the seller can actually manage to realize a decent profit after doing all of that and still pay the taxes on the income then good on them for being creative but it is more work than I want to tackle as a seller. 

[collectfest]

I am only annoyed with myself when I pay to much. I am a capitalist. I do not want anyone to prohibit me from certain markets if possible. I do not want other to tell me what to charge or fix pricing. 

[johnwhiplash]

I bought an item from Amazon and the seller  bought it from Home Depot and had it drop shipped to me. I could have checked around and got it from HD myself and saved some money but I didn't. Nobody's fault but mine.

[divwido]

I always mention what a great shipping job Amazon did in their feedback.  I think it should be banned.

[maxine*j]

The seller may have been using FBA -- Fulfillment by Amazon -- and that is fine and okay with both Amazon and eBay.  It means he owns the inventory, which Amazon warehouses and ships for him.

If, however, the item you bought came marked as a "gift" that is not okay with either eBay, because it means the seller does not own the inventory or have a contract with the manufacturer to distribute it, and it is not okay with Amazon, because it means the seller is abusing his Amazon account.

=

[m60driver]

I am more often repulsed at myself for being too lazy when I find that an item I purchased could be found elsewhere for less money.  As for those who find a way to sell Amazon items on Ebay and make a small profit without carrying inventory, well I admire their gumption.

[bashort]

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@slpentico wrote:

is anyone else repulsed by the people selling here on eBay that relist amazon items at a markup and have amazon ship the item to buyers? I recently ordered an item on eBay that arrived from Amazon. curious I checked amazon and realized I paid $26 more than amazon was asking. In my opinion these sellers are lazy and do nothing to uphold or improve eBay's reputation. I'm a seller and I work hard to source items that I can sell at a fair price and make a fair profit. 

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 Amazon to ebay drop shippers are usually easy to spot, they will have thousands of listings with all stock photos that match the Amazon listings word for word and their  feedback will include complaints about out of stock and being shipped from Amazon.

[eburtonlab]

how do you tell in advance if someone is drop shipping?

It may not be possible to always spot users who utilize Amazon for order fulfillment, but it is possible to identify some common characteristics of illicit retail drop shippers in general, and thus avoid the worst of them.

Often they can be spotted by a combination of low feedback number, free shipping of heavy items, use of stock photos, high handling time (not necessarily if they are using Amazon, though), poor feedback received with complaints of delays and wrong items or out of stock cancellations, very odd item selection and/or quantities like items were chosen at random from a catalog, canned item descriptions, differences between registration location and item location (or vague item location -- like "US, United States"), or inability to answer even basic questions about the items being sold.

The sellers that manage to avoid those red flags are harder to spot, but also less likely to be a problem to actually deal with.

It also helps to be familiar with Amazon's prices (and stock photos), so you can avoid a situation where you are inadvertently allowing someone to make a profit by engaging in retail arbitrage.

[soh.maryl]

Just a little curious:  What would the buyer use as an honest reason for seeking to return it? 

[d-k_treasures]

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@candd205 wrote:

Funny you should mention strawberries. The Strawberry Festival in Plant City, FL runs all this week through Sunday. It's a berry good time.

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I always went to the Poteet Strawberry Festival in Texas when I was there. They had a mechanical bull(way before they started showing up in bars) - only when you get thrown off, you landed on thin straw on hard ground. I loved it! I'm sure they have pads now.

[slpentico]

No, it was free shipping. The Amazon listing for the item was prime eligible meaning fast and free shipping so the seller was only paying $99 plus tax and charging me $126. As expected I was criticized for not shopping around on prices. Truth is I did, the item I ordered was advertised both on Amazon and on eBay as having a specific firmware installed on it. I needed the device to have that firmware to fit my needs. I originally purchased from Amazon and went through two devices trying to get one with the older firmware. What Amazon was sending was a newer firmware and not downgradable… so I turned to eBay and was ok paying a little more to get what I needed… not paying a little more for someone to have Amazon send me yet another device with the wrong firmware… it’s just frustrating.

[slpentico]

Guess I should have mentioned that I did shop around. I purchased the item from Amazon because it advertised having a specific firmware installed that I needed however Amazon was shipping the item with a different firmware… I turned to eBay to get what I needed and was ok with paying more for what I needed. I found this seller advertising an item with the firmware I needed and purchased it only to have that seller put me in the same situation of receiving an item from Amazon not as described… I am computer savvy and I know firmware generally can be changed but what I needed was an older firmware and the device cannot be downgraded. 

[albertabrightalberta]

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@slpentico wrote:

Truth is I did, the item I ordered was advertised both on Amazon and on eBay as having a specific firmware installed on it. I needed the device to have that firmware to fit my needs. 

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Since you bought it from ebay and didn't come with the same firmware as advertised, you have a legitimate NAD case. Open a dispute and seller will have to pay for return shipping for you to return it for a refund.

[azaz_8302]

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@maxine*j wrote:

The seller may have been using FBA -- Fulfillment by Amazon -- and that is fine and okay with both Amazon and eBay.  It means he owns the inventory, which Amazon warehouses and ships for him.

If, however, the item you bought came marked as a "gift" that is not okay with either eBay, because it means the seller does not own the inventory or have a contract with the manufacturer to distribute it, and it is not okay with Amazon, because it means the seller is abusing his Amazon account. 

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When asked directly, in deference/indifference to policy

eBay is actually OK with drop shipping. After all, profit is profit.