How is this even possible? New seller, zero feedback with over one million items listed?

[momcqueen]

How is this even possible? (I have obscured anything which can identify the seller.) 

How does a seller who is new with only 2.5 months of being a registered member and NO feedback whatsoever achieve a selling limit of more than 1.3 million items? Are selling limits not universally applied? Does eBay Australia play by some rules of which I am unaware? 

[ypdc_dennis]

---

@i.am.vivian wrote:

Found it!  I just had to think a bit.  😉    Syrup, not river.  Some items are said to be in the US and some in the UK.  A drop shipper for sure, targeting Canadian buyers.

---

You have some impressive search problem solving skills...

-..-

One of the book titles that you found caught my eye and I decided to how this probable dropshipper compares to the rest of the world.

Date like a girl marry like a woman...

At $21.85 w/free shipping they have the lowest price+shipping on ebay.ca

(1) The A-river in the UK has print-on-demand copies for 6 pounds (plus 7 pounds to ship to Canada). So around $22 shipped to Canada)

(2) The A-river in the USA has some used in the 4 US dollar range (but shipping to an address in Canada would push the cost to $23)

(3) The A-river in Canada has 1 seller asking a modest $400.00 !

(4) But a check on abebooks finds a UK seller willing to ship to Canada for just over $17, so I think I've found the supplier.

-..-

[momcqueen]

But.....  Is it worth paying $17 to make $21? I'd have to think not. 

[ypdc_dennis]

As to why they are basing from eBay.com.au -- an Anchor Store down under gets unlimited free BIN listings.

Source: http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/sell/fees.html#insertion

They do have seller limits when starting on eBay.com.au -- but they don't look too difficult to increase.

-..-

Some of the other eBay's also have similar free listing perks for Anchor stores.

http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/sell/international-insertion-fees.html

-..-

[ypdc_dennis]

---

@mjwl2006 wrote:

But.....  Is it worth paying $17 to make $21? I'd have to think not. 

---

Setting aside whether they deal with the seller directly to get a better price.

Assume they are only make $2 on this sale. With the vast quantity they now

have listed, a thousand book sales per week nets them $2000 or $8000 per month.

So quite worthwhile if they can get the volume.

As to why just Canada?

Smaller market with higher prices, reliable mail service, fewer sale regulations to deal with (unlike the UK).

But, who knows? Maybe they have setup sister companies to sell to other countries -- one company, one country. focused management.

-.--

[rose-dee]

---

@mjwl2006 wrote:

You are likely right.

I was just surprised to see it. Zero feedback and 1.8 million items for sale.

I somehow assumed we all big and small worked our way through the selling limits the same way but I guess that was dumb of me.

---

'Mr. Elmwood' is right.  On eBay, there are users subject to rules, and users who make the rules.  This isn't an egalitarian system, nor even a public corporation where everyone must abide by the same laws.  The hoi polloi are kept in check, the big players get to negotiate with eBay.  

My best guess, given the huge inventory of miscellany this seller is listing, the various ship-from locations, and the Canadian target market, is that this is a large-scale commercial re-seller with several outlets and dozens (or hundreds) of employees in various locations, who is taking full advantage of eBay facilities and/or has negotiated an exemption from selling limits in exchange for the enormous number of listings promised.  

For example, I can imagine a Chinese entity with an office in Australia buying up surplus manufacturers' goods, unsold inventory, or wholesale close-outs by the container-load worldwide at less than cost, and shipping from its own warehouse(s) wherever that might be.  With listings of nearly 2 million items, I seriously doubt this is a drop-shipper, simply because there isn't enough money to be made that way, especially not where free shipping is involved.  I think this is the kind of company that supplies drop-shippers.  

The other factor is the time and expense involved in preparing the sheer number of listings, most of which seem to be items of $20 value or less.  Who can afford to pay enough people to input all those cheap listings and the associated item specifics quickly at next to no cost?  It would require hundreds of minimally-paid piece-workers with at least some knowledge of English banging away on keyboards for days or weeks.  Hong Kong comes to mind as one obvious possibility.  

I actually wouldn't be surprised if some or all of the items are shipped from warehouses in China, using that country's subsidized postal rates to enable free shipping for low value items.  I've actually bought a few items from eBay sellers where the location on the listing was shown as California, but the parcel was shipped directly from China.  Who knows what really goes on behind the curtain?

Rest assured, whatever is going on with this seller, it is way, way beyond our "pay scale".  

[booquemeister]

Get big or get out...My dad make return customers by keeping his prices low, so low people would joke he gave it away - but - he was satisfied, they were satisfied, and in the end he made a big difference. Priorities.

[reallynicestamps]

(3) The A-river in Canada has 1 seller asking a modest $400.00 !

I use Addall a lot to identify books and it is not at all unusual for an AZ book listed on that site to have a readily available paperback listed in the hundreds of dollars, with comparable copies priced at a few coins.

There is a nastly glitch on AZ somewhere.

[ypdc_dennis]

---

@reallynicestamps wrote:

(3) The A-river in Canada has 1 seller asking a modest $400.00 !

I use Addall a lot to identify books and it is not at all unusual for an AZ book listed on that site to have a readily available paperback listed in the hundreds of dollars, with comparable copies priced at a few coins.

There is a nastly glitch on AZ somewhere.

---

It's more the case that the repricing software is minding the shop.

American sellers on .ca are really bad for doing this sort of thing.

-..-

[momcqueen]

They have 2.3 million items for sale now. 

And still at zero feedback. 

[momcqueen]

Just to conclude the thread, I took this question to ebay Canada staff at the Board Hour http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Weekly-Chat-Session/September-21st-2016-Weekly-Session/td-p/351583/page/... and here was the reply:

raphael@ebay.com 

(0)View Listings

raphael@ebay.com

eBay Employee

Posts: 2,002

Registered: ‎07-26-2010

Re: September 21st 2016 Weekly Session

Options

in reply to mjwl2006

‎09-22-2016 03:57 PM

---

@mjwl2006 wrote:

One final thing, if you don't mind.

How is it possible for a brand new seller with zero feedback to be allowed to list 2.3 million items for sale on ebay Canada?

Are we not all held to the same standards of selling limits and, if not, what is the reason for this?

http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/How-is-this-even-possible-New-seller-zero-feedback-with-o...

---

It's possible that this is a secondary account belonging to a larger business seller with an established reputation on eBay. For example if one of our larger sellers decided to start selling into a new vertical, say an electronics seller who finds a great opportunity selling fashion, would want to create a brand new account so to not confuse their existing buyers with their new items. We would allow them to operate with very deep seller limits because they have already proven to be able to handle the volume.

Report Inappropriate Content

Message 41 of 44 (87 Views)

Add Tag...

[momcqueen]

---

@mjwl2006 wrote:

One final thing, if you don't mind.

How is it possible for a brand new seller with zero feedback to be allowed to list 2.3 million items for sale on ebay Canada?

Are we not all held to the same standards of selling limits and, if not, what is the reason for this?

http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/How-is-this-even-possible-New-seller-zero-feedback-with-o...

---

It's possible that this is a secondary account belonging to a larger business seller with an established reputation on eBay. For example if one of our larger sellers decided to start selling into a new vertical, say an electronics seller who finds a great opportunity selling fashion, would want to create a brand new account so to not confuse their existing buyers with their new items. We would allow them to operate with very deep seller limits because they have already proven to be able to handle the volume.

[momcqueen]

(The seller is still at zero feedback and now has 2,879,311 active listings with 285 sold items in the past two weeks.)