Is it against ebay rules to sell very expensive items for cheap and then charge outrageous shipping?

[kengib_75]

Basically I am looking at a few Geforce RTX 3090 graphics cards that are being sold from anywhere from $9-$40 dollars but then the seller turns around and charges the buyer $1000-$1800 shipping. Are they avoiding ebay fees, are they scamming. What's up with these type of listings. I've reported them but ebay seems to do nothing about it. The listings are coming from Hong Kong.

[soh.maryl]

Aren't the import fees and tariffs charged to the buyer, not the seller unless the buyer is also in a country where those fees are charged?

Or is this seller saying to you that he will pay tariffs/import fees that the buyer ordinarily would pay?

So how would this setup benefit the seller?  

[abb6-31]

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@whattheactualfox wrote:

Here are the messages I got back from the seller. I censored part of the name just in case because mods usually remove images if they have identifying info.

So it looks like the seller does this to avoid import fees/tariffs.

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So they commit fraud...yeah totally a seller I'd buy from

[dbfolks166mt]

     Every listing example you showed had the seller in Hong Kong.. So they are probably gaming the system in more ways than one. The low item cost avoids tariff costs, or at least minimizes them and I am willing to bet they ship to a drop location in states with no state sales tax and the forwarder simply packs it up and ships it to the buyers location and skirts the sales tax. 

     Pretty high risk item to buy out of China to begin with but this has red flags all over it. 

[maxine*j]

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Ooops.  Hit reply to wrong thread.  Deleted.  Sorry.

[eleanor*rigby]

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Cross-posted.

[Anonymous]

I think you need to do some research on the market and understand what you're buying, and that's a graphics card that's not worth $5.

Since China cracked down on the crypto mining industry, people in China have been trying to sell their cards for below MSRP.   These are cards that have been ran in poorly ventilated buildings at 100% load for 24 hours a day.   If you want to put **bleep** like that in your PC, go right ahead, be my guest, and tell me how it works out for you. 

[dbfolks166mt]

Interesting since all the link examples he showed listed the item as "new". If you can believe that on something coming out of China. The way the Chinese counterfeit things it would not surprise me if these are slapped together in China and labeled Genforce. Everything may be 100% counterfeit including the box and packing. Factory may even have been built with government financing. 

[pikabo-icu]

This thread is a stellar example to point to, the next time somebody asks "why" eBay collects FVF on shipping..

[asset_liquidators]

That doesn't really have anything to do with it. You can sort by lowest first but that includes the shipping so it won't put them first unless they have the lowest "total" price.

[nhunixguy]

Folks, steer clear of this seller. I ordered 3 of these 3090 GPU's. What I received was a very small package that fit in my standard sized mailbox with a cheap piece of **bleep** USB flash drive in retail packaging. This seller is either a fraud or they made a terribly obvious mistake. Either way, I just reached out to them to start the dispute process. As of right now, $3,897 and all I have to show for it is a $10 USB thumb drive. Needless to say, I am boiling right now. 😐 

[soh.maryl]

Since the seller is required by eBay to refund the seller every bit of the money he paid when he returns the item, how would listing an item with a $1 item price plus $99 shipping require any less refund than an item with $99 price and $1 shipping?

[soh.maryl]

Shouldn't you be opening an item not as described case instead of reaching out to the seller? 

[wesk_36]

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@kengib_75 wrote:

Basically I am looking at a few Geforce RTX 3090 graphics cards that are being sold from anywhere from $9-$40 dollars but then the seller turns around and charges the buyer $1000-$1800 shipping. Are they avoiding ebay fees, are they scamming. What's up with these type of listings. I've reported them but ebay seems to do nothing about it. The listings are coming from Hong Kong.

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I would avoid any seller doing this as it is dishonest which means the seller is dishonest. Nothing good can come from dealing with scammers.

[varebelrose]

"Is it against ebay rules to sell very expensive items for cheap and then charge outrageous shipping?"

No, it is not against the rules. eBay even provides financial incentive for buyers and sellers to do so, by charging full Final Value Fees on Sales tax for items sold. Many states charge sales tax on shipping, but quite a few do not.

A high dollar sale to a state that does not charge sales tax on shipping, using this method, would save the buyer significant sales tax and the seller significant fees.

[soh.maryl]

This has to be happening with new sellers or misinformed sellers.

There is no advantage whatsoever to doing this since FVF is charged on the total sale, regardless of how it's broken down.