@southern*sweet*tea wrote:
If you're talking about the big mega booksellers, they buy books by the train car and tractor trailer load for pennies each - far less than 49 cents, probably less than five cents. They get deeply discounted shipping rates because of the volume they ship (thousands a day) and the work they do sorting and palletizing the shipments before the shipper even sees the packages. They make their money in volume because most people (myself included) who buy books from them buy more than one at a time.
If that's not what you're referring to then I don't know. I do know it's not "illegal" to buy from a retailer and have them ship after someone purchase the item, but it is against Ebay's rules to do so.
That's right sorta.
We'd a giant bookseller here for years and they used to buy their shipping envelopes by the tractor trailer load wholesale. Back then I could buy any that wouldn't fit books from them at .05 cents per... Get like 250 DVD sized bubble mailers for $12.50 a case.... SCHWEEEET! LOL.
Now as to selling then buying or drop ship... Drop ship agents authorize resellers.
If wanting resell from any other business entities they either have terms of resale or dont. For example, the shopping clubs deal with many diner/restaurateur's who are authorized by said club to do so and they present their resale certificate when buying. Anything other that is not illegal BUT IS against say a retailers policies. Walmart, Target, BestBuy, on and on have reseller policies. It's up to the reseller to inquire about those not for the retailer in my example to have out for anyones display. Most retailers are not in the business of making someone else money NOR are the CONSIGNORS to said retailers in the business of unauthorized resellers making money on their merch. Yeah, it happens, happens often in fact.
These retailers use contract legal firms to manage such things and those places are BRUTAL, I do mean BRUTAL. They are not brutal in sense of say Walmart being able to collect some forms of damages. Aka: Joe/sephine Q Public on Black Friday or some sale buys up 25 video games and resells them here. Walmart would only be able make case that their customers were unable to get said merch but Walmart nor the original consignor are not out money. They are out "reputation" with consumers and SINCE they HAVE terms of resale that said buyer never inquired about, or even if did were denied they have THAT CASE. They will collect not a red cent in as far as the merch goes. What they WILL collect however are the legal fee's associated with pursuing the case and those are BRUTAL, I mean just BRUTAL. 99% the time never goes before a judge as the legal beagles will explain that the judge is going to want see purchase records of ALL things sold because the legal beagles are going to REQUEST that to display to said judge the resellers patterns in order to:
A. Recover their legal fee's, aka: Its not just a one time ooops but instead the resellers common practices.
B. To seek court order disallowing any form of resale, basically an injunction.
Thus reseller is left in corner with no way out so they pay or more often make payment arrangement w/ said legal beagles as a lawful document, stamped by a judge's clerks offices and sealed.
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Now all that said and done it happens all the time in such volume that it's indefensible. This is why in part sites such as eBay and Amazon etc. have deals with some brands, its not just about counterfeit it's about authorization to resell. Disney for example or perhaps Coach etc. Again someone might howl out "First Sale Doctrine" but this law does not apply to resellers or even private citizens when intent is to profit, it doesnt even apply to yard sales. That is to say I go buy 50 Disney DVD's at some yard sale that with intent to resell them, the intent is profit, First Sale Doctrine is not applicable nor am I authorized by Disney who owns the product to resell it. The consumer who bought them bought a license to watch them as many times as they like. In fact, the consumer is not even authorized to have 20 neighbors come over to show them the video on their backyard projector charging each one a beer to get in LOL. It's all in that little terms sheet inside or there will be a web address that has the terms of usage just as they've the "We are not liable" yack in case Jr. uses The Little Mermaid DVD as a Frisbee injuring lil' Kev or Bosco decides to try smoke it in a crack pipe LOL.
One might call all of it crazyness but there are many many reasons why places want arrangements in as far as their merch or brands. Now I can cite example, back in the day we worked with Walmart, place called Jacobs Trading who deals with Walmart product recovery. We got authorized, just as we were authorized with The Learning Company, Electronic Arts, authorized liquidators and authorized wholesalers as well as those such as Ingram Micro for front line product.
Now most resellers dont like going that route as they look and say, "Where's the profit?" when they see the AUTHORIZED resellers selling those penny books for a few bucks each profit making $ on volume. So instead they'd rather stand in line at BestBuy on Black Friday having made a plan to pillage all they can manage pillage given "Limits" of the retailer so they can make good money. They could care less in any way shape or form about Best Buy's reputation with consumers nor the fact that Johnny Junior won't be getting his Playstation 5 because they want make a buck or that Johnny Juniors parents now need pay $300 more to buy it from them.
The actual threat to eBay is not scammers, the actual threat is that Governments and public entities as well as retailers and manufacturers are getting increasingly upset by what goes on. For years the eBay's, Amazon's, smEtsyies etc all come up with mechanisms try control what folks do but it's like trying to plug a barrel of water whereby people keep shooting at it.
I dont blame eBay at all for what goes on, I feel for them as they created a mechanism by which people could chart a self-reliant course. Unfortunately in doing so they also created a mechanism by which people could care less about eBay itself as long as eBay brings home the bacon.
