@axesboldaslovejimidavis wrote:That sounds kind of cowardly. Why hide behind different IDs?
It's not hiding - it's a privilege eBay allows of all members. You can have/create as many IDs as you wish, so long as each has it's own email address. Banking info can be the same. Name & Address had better be the same (eBay doesn't like people creating accounts by pretending to be someone else). And as long as you follow the rules (from the Member Agreement) for having/using multiple IDs, eBay really doesn't mind. I have four accounts - all in my name, all using the same bank account & PayPal account before that (PayPal allows it as well).
Had you been around when eBay first started, you'd remember how easy it was for members to track your purchases and use your research of inventory to purchase as a way of finding the inventory they wanted to purchase as well. You do the work, they snipe the win. Or they contact the seller of listings you were bidding on and 'shared' some made up story about what a PITA you were to deal with, sometimes to the point of having your bids removed and your ID blocked by that seller. People were not as "basically good" as eBay told us we all are.
So it's not 'hiding' any more than having multiple bank accounts is hiding income from the IRS -- if you do it properly, it's no big deal. If you try to use it improperly, well, let's just say that's between you and whatever governing entity you just ticked off.
-Bob.
@maxine*j wrote:
@axesboldaslovejimidavis wrote:The ads have been the same for 15 years
It's been only in the past few years that VeRO members, and others who may or may not be part of VeRO but who are vigilant about their intellectual property rights, have been really busy on eBay. That is perhaps because of the massive influx of counterfeits from Asia, in all categories of goods.
It's not just on eBay anymore. I was researching an item this afternoon that we were planning to sell (this was my employer's account - I'm the Online Sales Manager). I got a weird blocking message from eBay when I tried to post -- they were not allowing the item to be posted as it may be infringing on IP rights and they valued our account and our selling history and please don't try to post this again.
That got me curious, so Google and I set about to find out what was happening. And it was great!!
The manufacturer of the product we were trying to post had successfully sued Amazon over counterfeits it was selling on it's site. They had researched almost 500 listings and purchased nearly 80 clearly counterfeit items (they didn't say if they had purchased from every listing they had researched). They even marked one in white permanent marker, on a black product, "Counterfeit" and returned it... only to have it show up in Amazon Warehouse, whatever that is (I don't directly work the Amazon account). The posted picture the seller used clearly showed the work Counterfeit on the piece!! And yet it was listed as a genuine item.
So they took Amazon to court. Amazon balked, hemmed, hawed, and basically stalled. The judge then ordered them to open all their warehousing to this manufacturer for the purpose of inspecting any/all inventory identified as being made by the manufacturer. Amazon had 5 days to comply or face summary judgement. They complied. The counterfeits were made known, and still Amazon stalled. So the judge sent them to mediation, on the grounds that no jury could possibly be seated that would not see Amazon's actions as anything but complicit with the selling of counterfeits.
A lot of inventory was removed by that one manufacturer. Other manufacturer's now know how to do it. Expect Amazon to begin dumping a LOT more inventory that they suspect is going to be trouble (they have the returns data to figure that one out). And expect other venues to be watching and blocking posting of those product lines without strict documentation that the seller has permission to sell the product line online. For the manufacturer above, NO SELLER has permission to sell their products online, at least not as new products. The company has a clear policy of only selling thru vetted B&M chains and retailers, never online.
So, yeah, it could easily be a manufacturer using eBay's VeRO program to get your inventory pulled, or it could be eBay itself taking pre-emptive action to limit their exposure... kind of a "kill them all and let the manufacturer sort them out" thing.
Gating inventory and vetting sellers with manufacturers is going to only get worse.
-Bob.
