Does this sound legit?

[patken123]

I am looking at LED flashlights by Makita(292738297904),  the ones sold here(in Canada) are $60 and up, slightly lower in the US but I see one  for much lower price($25.92 CDN) , unfortunately there are a couple of issues that I consider alarming:

A= the item location, listed in St. Antonio, USA but then the shipping is free , I consider that unusual since the price of the item is slightly higher than what it would cost to ship it it  via USPS.

B= what's more confusing is this:"FREE Expedited International Courier Delivery to Russia " which I find confusing, not sure if this item is being shipped from Russia or USA.

The seller is not new and has 100% positive FB.

I am not planning on buying the item anyway but I did inquire ,  I have not received a reply from the seller to clarify the shipping issue .

I'm  wondering why the shipping is from Russia if the item location is in the US? and why the seller priced it in such a way that sounds  too good to be true?

Please let me know what you think.

[ypdc_dennis]

Almost sounds like they are dropshipping from Russia.

but

It could be a hijacked account. A quick look at some of the other listings show this seller using GSP for everything else I looked at. 

Scammers insert a few quick selling items, skim off the funds before the seller notices, and leaves seller holding the bag.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

Should sellers be able(allowed) to disguise their precise shipping location? I think this may be something that some sellers have recently started to do and this affecting the actual eBay buying experience for a number of shoppers.  It's also causing those items to show up as "closest" in searches when in reality this is not accurate. Recently have seen sellers that state they ship from Canada(No city posted) but when you review their negative feedback turns out those supposed "Canadian" or "USA" listings were actually shipped from China(Hong Kong) and took quite a bit longer to arrive than listed if they arrived at all and were of very poor quality. Either a precise shipping location should display or if they are a drop shipper, where your shipment is actually being shipped from. Comments?

-CM

[momcqueen]

Sellers are not allowed to misrepresent item location. It’s one of the Biggest Sins On eBay for the reasons you outlined.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

It may be a considered a Big Sin on eBay but appears to be happening. There was a  seller I considered purchasing from earlier today. Their store shows items available from Canada, USA and China. If you click on the Canadian(415) items it displays Canada without a city and delivery in 4 to 18(Could be NWT/Yukon) business days. If you click on the available items located in the USA(2), they show the actual shipping location as Shenzhen, China and delivery as 13 to 44 business days. Have advised eBay of the seller and they agreed, seller appears to be sketchy and will investigate.

-CM

[patken123]

You may have a valid point here , I'm thinking I may have alerted the seller about what's going on by asking about the item location but at the very least he/she should have responded with some kind of answer.

[femmefan1946]

The seller is not new and has 100% positive FB.

Is there a gap in the time since the last FB (buying or selling).

Has a buyer suddenly started selling?

1. Again a gap in FB
2. The listings are for something they were not buying before
3. The listings are high value/high fraud items

I consider that unusual since the price of the item is slightly higher than what it would cost to ship it it  via USPS.

The seller might be arithmetic challenged or you might be looking at Free Domestic Shipping instead of Shipping to Canada .(Well, not you. But a newbie might easily make that mistake.)

I'd be doubtful in any case.

Given that the price is over $20 USD and flashlights are a little bulky, you will probably be paying sales tax and possibly duty, as well as the shipper's service fee, whether  your seller  in the US used GSP or USPS.

The Canadian listings may end up being the least expensive-- and least stressful.

[patken123]

Thank you for chiming in Femmefan,
There's no gap in the time since the last FB but that is something I did not consider, good to know .
As for the free shipping, there's no doubt it is offered to Canadians. while  logged in,  I clicked on "see details" it clearly shows my postal code but then I see this:
"Free shipping,Canada,Expedited International Courier Delivery to Russia"
Item is supposedly located in St. Antonio USA.

The seller only has two items for sale at the moment ,
one is with GSP, and the flashlight is with free shipping, if this is not a case of hijacked account like ypdc_dennis mentioned, then I am thinking this seller is a newbie dropshipper even though he has been a seller since 2011.
The whole deal sounds too good to be true, (the free shipping, the low price), it all raises a red flag so I'm not going for it , just exercising common sense.
Thank you all for your comments,I sincerely appreciate your opinions.

[femmefan1946]

"Free shipping,Canada,Expedited International Courier Delivery to Russia"

Actually that sounds more like a fat fingered error in setting up-- since it says TO Russian and not FROM Russia.

So yeah, new to dropshipping.

[joseph_scallywag]

Is it possible that the seller is flipping stuff from Amazon or some other distributor?This happened once to me with an item purchased on Ebay but sent from Amazon.

[femmefan1946]

Quite possible, that's another version of dropshipping.

And a really stupid one.

At least with 'classic' dropshipping, the buyer gets what he wants without any real indication of how to buy there himself.

With the 'arbitrage' model, where the seller has the item sent to to buyer directly from a cheaper source, in branded packaging, the chances of an annoyed buyer  a) leaving negative feedback and b) shopping with the source in future skyrockets.