eBay

inhawaii · ‎08-19-2017

A while ago i posted about a guy who listed one of my eBay items for sale on Amazon. It's a kite accessory. I sell it for $27. He marked it up to $40-something and put a 1-3 week shipping time. That way if he got an order for one, he could buy it from me, and still have plenty of time to ship it to his buyer.

I did some research on this Amazon seller. It turns out he has hundreds of items for sale on Amazon where it looks like he picked a eBay item, marked it way up, stole the picture, stole the text - sometimes word for word, and listed it on Amazon

The other day I sold one of these kite assessories and the buyer asked that I not include a invoice with the order. I immediately thought that this has to be the guy. Sure enough, after doing some research on this ebay buyer, he's registered in India. He lists ebay stuff on Amazon. If he gets a order for one, he buys it on ebay and sends it to his Amazon customer. In this case he has me drop shipping it directly to his customer (i think). I shipped it to whatever address was pre-filled out when I print out a ebay shipping label. Isn't that the "verified" address?

I didn't include a invoice with the order as I was asked, but what if i did. That would get the guy in hot water. Am I obligated in any way to follow the buyers special instructions?

Smoke From A Distant Fire - Sanford Townsend Band

sg51 · ‎08-19-2017

Am I obligated in any way to follow the buyers special instructions?

Of course not, but why not help him out?

geotouloupos · ‎08-19-2017

As long as you are the only one selling this item on ebay you can raise your price and see how it goes.

Just raise a little bit.. no need to sell to 40. As for the other guy he takes his risks because doing ebay -> amazon thing it always involves a high risk and you will see your self that at some point this seller may have problems in the future.

slati_2013 · ‎08-19-2017

The Amazon seller's buyers are either customers too lazy to research what they buy or only prefer to shop on Amazon. Some people refuse to shop eBay or use PayPal. I suggest you also sell on Amazon. Many sellers on eBay sell the identical things on Amazon for the same prices. Given you have a cheaper price, you will appear ahead of the Amazon seller on Amazon.

I would not include an invoice and screw him. You should be happy he is buying from you and selling. I will have no problem with anyone buying from me and selling at a higher price. It is not as easy as it seems. If you screw him, you will lose money from the sales to him, and no, you will not get his customers to buy from you. Bottom line is you will lose money.

siberians_forever · ‎08-19-2017

@inhawaii wrote:
Love that idea!!!!!!

Your gripe is that someone is reselling your items yes???

Up the price and Nuff said.

Sib

tarpedge · ‎08-19-2017

The Indian flip sells hundreds of items. Raising the price on just this item, packing a brochure to tell the one buyer they paid too much, or competing on Amazon will not change anything.

div_style · ‎08-20-2017

I would happily welcome 100 Amazon sellers to resell my stuff!

List more, sell more. Goodwill that other, uh, stuff.

Feeling sleepy? There's an app for that.

retrolink · ‎08-20-2017

my 2 cents

selling online for many years i have overt 100 repeat customers who have bought from me multiple times. some 25 to 100 different times, some 3 to 5 times. When they send me a note not to include a invoice i send them the following response

----------------------------------------------------

'thank you for you continued business,whenever i get your orders i will give you first class service everytime. ' No invoice,no problem'

----------------------------------------------------

someone once told me....A sale is a sale

*madison · ‎08-20-2017

@inhawaii wrote:
I don't want to "gouge" my ebay customers and raise the price. $27 is a fair price. I sell maybe 1 a week at that price. I guess once in a while someone will buy one on Amazon for $40 or $50 when they could buy it on ebay for $27? And i really have no problem with the guy buying it from me, marking it up, and re-selling it for more money. That's the American way. God bless America. I am a little upset that he stole my pictures and text word for word.

I know what you mean, the seller is bone idle.

Not a lot you can do about the text, but you could watermark your photo's and that might help.

sharingtheland · ‎08-20-2017

competing on Amazon will not change anything.

Of course it will. OP prices his widget less and his will be seen first (the Buy Box). She/he will get those Amazon buyers that won't/don't shop here.

Disclaimer: I have no idea what is now involved in becoming a seller on Amazon. I'm grandfathered in my categories that are now much more stringent for approval but selling a kite thingy with manufacturer's invoices should be a fairly simple process.

Sherry

=^.^= =^.^=
( ) ( )
" " =^.^= " "

fuzzface50 · ‎08-20-2017

"Â No one leaves money on the table"

Why not? That is how you get multiple sales over time from items that a normal person buys once in so many years. You are using them as a salesmen for you and their new higher price is their commision that you are not paying. they are working for you, advertising your items, getting you on more sites, etc without no added expense on the original sellers part and making the original sellers more sales even though it is to a single repeat customer.

Manufactures work the same way. they make products and sell them at a cheaper rate and "leave money on the table" so their vendors(stores) can resell multiples of them which in return increases their pocket books.

Sometimes it pays to follow what manufactures do.

anyways for the op, i wouldn't worry about it or have any problems with them stealing my pictures or text. Already mentioned above they are working like a salesman for you and getting you more sales without anymore workor expenses out of you.

a_c_green · ‎08-20-2017

Um, people? It's a packing slip, not an invoice.

An invoice is a request for payment, and payment has already occurred. The paper you're talking about including (or not including) in the package is a packing slip, which simply lists the seller, the Ship-To address, the payment charges and the contents. As seen in the eBay version that you can print off your Shipping form, it also states "This is not an invoice" at the upper right corner, just below the words "Packing Slip."

The layout of the packing slip is conducive to special requests like what we're talking about here. For someone who doesn't want their gift recipient to see how much he paid for the item(s), slice off the bottom half (with the prices on it) and leave in the top half (with the addresses). For someone who doesn't want their recipient to know who actually shipped it, you could slice off the top half and leave in the bottom... but of course your outside shipping label will have all that information on it anyway.

tarpedge · ‎08-20-2017

One more time.

The Indian flip sells say 500 items listed on eBay through Amazon.

If OP competes with that one or several items on Amazon, the Indian still has 499 other items, or will replace that one item with 50 more items listed on eBay.

a_c_green · ‎08-20-2017

The Indian flip sells say 500 items listed on eBay through Amazon.

I think the only solution here is to raise your own prices, to take full advantage of what buyers feel the item is really worth. What the Amazon guy does with the purchase is irrelevant, as long as he completes his end of the transaction with you, which he apparently does.

Consider also that if you're doing the shipping direct to the buyer, your eBay/PayPal-generated shipping label on the outside of the box is going to show pretty clearly what's really going on, regardless of whether there's a packing slip on the inside (and especially if you're using that custom-printed eBay packaging as well ). I wonder how much repeat business that Amazon guy is really getting, if his recipients are looking at their packages and thinking, "Hey, I could probably get a better deal on eBay next time!"

sharingtheland · ‎08-20-2017

@tarpedge wrote:
One more time.

The Indian flip sells say 500 items listed on eBay through Amazon.

If OP competes with that one or several items on Amazon, the Indian still has 499 other items, or will replace that one item with 50 more items listed on eBay.

I don't think the OP particularly cares about the other 499 items.

Sherry

=^.^= =^.^=
( ) ( )
" " =^.^= " "

reallynicestamps · ‎08-20-2017

The flipper buys at $27 plus shipping. He sells at $40 (Plus shipping?)

What are his AZ fees?

How often is he buying?

Can you raise your price without losing your one-off customers? Because you do seem to be leaving money on the table.

A nice thank you note packed with every kite you sell with a list of your other products is just good marketing. Don't forget your email address!

Since there is an AZ market, is there any reason you are not lsiting on AZ? I found it a bad place for my product lines, but there is no reason not to have your products on many sites. Is there a specialist kite fancier site?