How is this even possible???

[jonathankirkland]

Okay, long story short. There is a group of collectible items I regularly search for, and I've been seeing this seller a lot lately listing these items for 4-5x their value.

At first I just ignored it and was annoyed it was wasting space me having to look at it, but finally today I thought I would check them out, see what other things they're selling, etc.

First thing I noticed was 97% feedback. Second thing I noticed was they seem to sell everything under the sun and have nearly 3,000,000 listings. What?!?! I've never seen anyone with that many listings before. So anyway, when I went over to look at their negatives, I was stunned by what I saw! They are apparently regularly cancelling orders. How are they getting away with this??

They are doing a lot of other things wrong too (stealing copyrighted images from websites to name one).

I am just shocked by how many different things this seller is doing wrong and is not only still around but is making sales at these ridiciulously stupid high prices.

But seriously, how are they getting away with cancelling sooooooo many orders? Even if they lie and say buyers request or problem with address, I would think they would be repeatedly reported by now!

[missjen831]

With 3 million listings they are obviously a very high volume seller and they can get away with a lot more than the average seller can. They are allowed more defects because of their sales volume. 

[chrysylys]

Percentages.

[jonathankirkland]

Had to edit the picture further to take out item numbers and product names so the image wouldn't be removed for "naming & shaming".

[dhbookds]

the cancel penalty is a %.....so if they sell enough, despite what looks like bad #'s, it could still be well under the cut off.........

We are all cognizant that we can run into a few bad buyers, and if he's selling that much his number must be alot higher.........

[jonathankirkland]

I suppose you are all correct.

I guess he is lucky that he has just as many neutrals as negatives or his feedback score would be atrocious...

But canceling for out of stock is by far the biggest complaint.

[chrysylys]

All signs of a dropshipper.

Somebody should link that other OP to this thread.

[southern*sweet*tea]

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@jonathankirkland wrote:

I suppose you are all correct.

I guess he is lucky that he has just as many neutrals as negatives or his feedback score would be atrocious...

But canceling for out of stock is by far the biggest complaint.

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They are probably dodging defects by canceling using either buyer address or buyer requested, and the buyers aren't contacting Ebay and reporting the seller.

[ittybitnot]

How are they getting away with this??

Though I cannot see the seller's listing, what you might be seeing is a case of arbitrage.  Signs are stock pics snagged from the web or other sellers and a lot of the feedback for non-performance as mentioned.  Basically, the seller has no stock and purchases merchandise from someone else as needed when an item sells.  One could suppose theyget stuck a lot when the item they sold is no longer availble somewhere else.  This is a different form of "drop shipping" per se taken to a whole new level. 

There is a recent and interesting ECB article about this practice out now that can give your more information.  I don't remember the exact details, but ebay was taken to court in some European country for "throttling" the visibilty of same.   First time ebay admitted any sort of throttling since that guest "blue" on the weekly chat told us all about it along with secret selling limts. 

It turns into a real circle mess when seller A  buys from seller B to  satisfy an order.  Seller B may carry no stck either and thus purchases from seller C who buys from seller A.     Lots of fees for ebay, but they all take the hit of OOS. 

[jonathankirkland]

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@chrysylys wrote:

All signs of a dropshipper.

Somebody should link that other OP to this thread.

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Yeah probably, but their prices are so stupidly expensive it would seem they could easily find replacements at almost any cost and still make profit...

[chrysylys]

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@jonathankirkland wrote:

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@chrysylys wrote:

All signs of a dropshipper.

Somebody should link that other OP to this thread.

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Yeah probably, but their prices are so stupidly expensive it would seem they could easily find replacements at almost any cost and still make profit...

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Probably handled by a Bot instead of a real person.  There was a thread a while back about a program that ripped listings from other sites and posted them here en masse.  Foreign sellers were using it, ones that probably don't even speak English.  The program did all the work including placing the orders on other sites.  It was nearly all automated as I recall.

[readabouthorses]

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@chrysylys wrote:

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@jonathankirkland wrote:

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@chrysylys wrote:

All signs of a dropshipper.

Somebody should link that other OP to this thread.

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Yeah probably, but their prices are so stupidly expensive it would seem they could easily find replacements at almost any cost and still make profit...

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Probably handled by a Bot instead of a real person.  There was a thread a while back about a program that ripped listings from other sites and posted them here en masse.  Foreign sellers were using it, ones that probably don't even speak English.  The program did all the work including placing the orders on other sites.  It was nearly all automated as I recall.

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Yep a bot that doesn't have the sense to know which category things belong in. A jar of mayo pretending to be a magazine, a $7,000 stove pretending to be a car part, a baby's crib pretending to be a countertop blender and it goes on and on and on. I thought listing in the wrong category was a reportable thing but I guess not. Can I do it and not get in trouble? And if you ask them a question about the item they have listed they are stuck for an answer because they have never seen it, touched it, used it or sold it before. They also have lots of negs and neuts and a lot of them were charging restocking fees. They are pretty easy to spot because they are all being listed by the same bot.

[chrysylys]

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@readabouthorses wrote:

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Can I do it and not get in trouble?

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You remember my fairly recent thread about phone numbers in listings, right?

[b86fiero]

ecommercebytes has an interesting article about this.

[jonathankirkland]

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@chrysylys wrote:

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@jonathankirkland wrote:

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@chrysylys wrote:

All signs of a dropshipper.

Somebody should link that other OP to this thread.

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Yeah probably, but their prices are so stupidly expensive it would seem they could easily find replacements at almost any cost and still make profit...

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Probably handled by a Bot instead of a real person.  There was a thread a while back about a program that ripped listings from other sites and posted them here en masse.  Foreign sellers were using it, ones that probably don't even speak English.  The program did all the work including placing the orders on other sites.  It was nearly all automated as I recall.

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Wow I've never heard of that or even thought of it before. That's pretty innovative and smart honestly, if the kinks could be worked out and make it more streamlined.