@thedoubletake wrote:
Hi! Thank you for your answer. The company I am using is a company that has been in business for over 12 years. They have heavily advertised on various social media outlets, have been reviewed heavily by other resellers on platforms such as Youtube, and have excellent reviews with the BBB. They offer small boxes, pallets, and even truckloads of merchandise so I would assume since they are a larger supplier that manifest would be extra work, especially since they sell at high volumes.
Its very simple, simply check with the manufacturer's or even simply ask the supplier for credentials as to being an authorized surplus, liquidator etc from said manufactures. BBB reviews mean zero, its a paper tiger.
Regardless of any of the above be they authorized or not doesn't mean you are. That's just the lay of the land and that's why I said, its really best to get into the companies themselves... Get into their liquidation stream, they all have authorized reclamation/liquidators, every one of them and the one you're doing business with might be one of them.
eBay reserves the right to terminate any account for any reason they see fit. In the case of especially high value brands the company is under pressure by the manufacturers to stop any unauthorized resellers regardless of sourcing.
From the sound of it the company you're dealing with or want to is a retail liquidator meaning they take in product unsold in retail, unsold in warehouses and likely high volume retail returns. Walmarts leg of this is called Jacobs Trading. These places sell "as is" and usually are not authorized by any manufacturer entities, that's on the buyer or resellers. The operations that will sell anything, they dont much care about their sourcing will sell to anyone. The operations that tend work with larger retail such as Macy's, Penny's, Marshalls etc want your information, state issued reseller certificate, filing numbers, LLC, DBA on and on data and often where items are going to be resold. This is due to delisting processes, just because say these shirts have been delisted and Macy's has taken them off retail floors does not mean that Penny's has as Penny's Net Terms of product acquisition differ.
For example say Macys does 30 NET 10 yet Pennys is doing 60 NET 15 as terms of consignment. Products delisted Macy's has taken off retail/Internet that go back to the distributor so as they can get their credit for unsold product. Penny's however still has it on their retail floors and online as they've still 20 days under their terms. So you obtaining product and selling it a retail store or perhaps online at reduced pricing puts Penny's at disadvantage yet Penny's has contractual arrangement under said Terms.
Back in the day we went through this regularly with delisted PC items which we get direct from authorized liquidation venues, publisher direct warehousing etc. I'll cite an example, company called UBISoft. UBISoft depending on actual software titles placed considerable limitation on us even though we were an authorized reseller buying inventory in authorized channels.
We could ship NO UBISoft titles outside US Borders, not a one be it current or delisted. We could ONLY sell current items within the region the company defined (Upstate NY in their case). We could sell NO current titles online at all, anyplace even our own webstores. Recently delisted product (no longer current, 30 days delisted) we could acquire but could not resell ANYPLACE for 90 days thus ensuring other entities able to compete and fulfill their Net Terms. That said, of course, we see other sellers online selling the stuff when we could not and UBISoft's legal contractor eventually catch up with them and they're days at Amazon or elsewhere come to an abrupt and permanent end.
We'd similar problems with Mattel inc. who bought an entity called The Learning Company (TLC) under sketchy pretenses. We place an order with TLC/Mindscape and all of a sudden twice what we order arrive. Call em', tell us you're authorized, good reseller, keep it. OK! Sweet! They were emptying warehouses to make the counts of unsold inventories looking much nicer for Mattel to acquire them.
One day knock on the door, it's a process server along with two cops and a search warrant. What a mess! Process server was subcontract to local firm from Mattels law arm. All acquisition records of product be in TLC or not they took and all product purchased via TLC we had to gather up, confiscated, about $14,000 worth as I recall, they literally had to bring in a box truck.
See Mattel acquired the company and Mattels shareholders took a wallop and I do mean WALLOP when the truth came out about TLC's doings. Without going into a play by play as it took near 9 months get things resolved we were exonerated. However, the judge presiding over things decided to require we provide ALL proof's of authorizations for every single publisher/distributorship acquisition we'd made over YEARS. CRAZY! So here we are having to explain to UBISoft, Electronic Arts, Ingram Micro, Navarre Inc., Take 2 Interactive on and on the entire MESS over and over, like I think it was 48 different sourcing points the entire MESS yet CANNOT discuss any details of the actual case, ours or Mattels. Know how much fun that was? Terrible just terrible and doesn't exactly bode trust ya know? It was long ago but as I recall there were perhaps eight or ten in our supply chain that simply cut us off. It was only after it all was said and done that we were able to reestablish with them as at that point the entire mess was public. Man it sucked and wasn't like oh, deal with the court / entities in a week's time and done. Oh no... Be there this court date, that court date, supply more or this, then that court date it was just CRAZY. All said and done, Mattel authorized us as a reseller albeit we were an authorized TLC reseller but that went out window when Mattel acquired TLC, not like we were informed? We never got that $14,000 some odd back inventory either nor were we compensated, it was a "Stand in line" behind the likes of Staples, CompUSA and others.
I've said this in posts before when it comes to how all this stuff REALLY works vs what the consumer and perhaps would be seller thinks or see's, its ever so much more complex. They just see eBay or Amazon as being mean to them, not explaining things, acting arbitrarily, "They're against me!" when in fact they've no clue how the world of commerce hard goods actually works! It's like, "Oh Walmart has so much money look at all thing they buy to resell! Oh my gosh!" Reality is perhaps 2% of what sits on a Walmart floor did Walmart actually buy, lock stock and barrel. The other 98% is consign under Net Terms.
But as I said, regardless of ANY legitimacy eBay or Amazon for that matter can and do terminate for any reason at any time even if product truly is legit. If they should receive claim from any manufacturer, say Nike to produce proof's of legitimacy towards products they manufacture its on you to provide them. If Nike's subcontract (likely) lawfirm(s) file against you its up to you to prove legitimacy of what you're selling.
In the end if you care about you then it's best make sure all you're "T's" are crossed and you're "i's" dotted as nobody else can do that for you.
