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So, what started on another thread on this forum has resulted in me doing some research that ended in several cease and desist requests, nearly all of which were immediately honored.
This is perfectly legal, and ethically OK, but shady none the less.
Apparently there is an entire group of people who operate dozens of stores on eBay. They take items that are listed on Amazon, copy the images and descriptions, and paste the items on to eBay. They use their credibility as eBay sellers, in some cases power sellers... and create good looking listings.
When you buy from eBay, you pay in cash and the seller gets the cash instantaneously. They then turn around with your shipping information and place an order on Amazon, and have the merchandise shipped directly to you. They live off the margin in-between what they can find a sucker for on eBay, and what the item is listed for on Amazon. Many of them have hard core disclaimers, stating "we will not take a return on this item if you find it for sale cheaper somewhere else" --- because of course 100% of the time, the item IS for sale somewhere else --- namely Amazon where they are getting it from.
So they own nothing, market it at above market retails, and then "drop ship" it from Amazon as unauthorized dealers to the end customer. The end customer in this scenario ALWAYS gets screwed. And, I imagine a fair number of end customers that do this get pissed when the item arrives in an Amazon box, so they go to Amazon and look up the item only to find it 25% cheaper than what they paid for it on eBay. Some of them probably file with Paypal... only to find out that price is not a reason to return an item.
These gray market retailers might have 10,000 listings on eBay. They own nothing. They're just waiting for someone to come along, fall for the high priced item, and buy it without doing further research.
I killed several listings with a cease and desist request, simply because they were using our intellectual property (yet another reason to put trademark and copy right information on all of your marketing materials, including your online product listings).
The extra "noise" that this adds to the marketplace makes it harder for a consumer to find the "right" deal. And, eBay tends to focus their google keyword advertising on the highest priced listings for those keywords on eBay. So, the click through from eBay's keyword ad goes to the higher priced gray market listing.
It's legal. However, it's not cool for consumers. We do not want our brand associated with it,and fortunately it is something that can be controlled.
This is perfectly legal, and ethically OK, but shady none the less.
Apparently there is an entire group of people who operate dozens of stores on eBay. They take items that are listed on Amazon, copy the images and descriptions, and paste the items on to eBay. They use their credibility as eBay sellers, in some cases power sellers... and create good looking listings.
When you buy from eBay, you pay in cash and the seller gets the cash instantaneously. They then turn around with your shipping information and place an order on Amazon, and have the merchandise shipped directly to you. They live off the margin in-between what they can find a sucker for on eBay, and what the item is listed for on Amazon. Many of them have hard core disclaimers, stating "we will not take a return on this item if you find it for sale cheaper somewhere else" --- because of course 100% of the time, the item IS for sale somewhere else --- namely Amazon where they are getting it from.
So they own nothing, market it at above market retails, and then "drop ship" it from Amazon as unauthorized dealers to the end customer. The end customer in this scenario ALWAYS gets screwed. And, I imagine a fair number of end customers that do this get pissed when the item arrives in an Amazon box, so they go to Amazon and look up the item only to find it 25% cheaper than what they paid for it on eBay. Some of them probably file with Paypal... only to find out that price is not a reason to return an item.
These gray market retailers might have 10,000 listings on eBay. They own nothing. They're just waiting for someone to come along, fall for the high priced item, and buy it without doing further research.
I killed several listings with a cease and desist request, simply because they were using our intellectual property (yet another reason to put trademark and copy right information on all of your marketing materials, including your online product listings).
The extra "noise" that this adds to the marketplace makes it harder for a consumer to find the "right" deal. And, eBay tends to focus their google keyword advertising on the highest priced listings for those keywords on eBay. So, the click through from eBay's keyword ad goes to the higher priced gray market listing.
It's legal. However, it's not cool for consumers. We do not want our brand associated with it,and fortunately it is something that can be controlled.
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