can a seller list items for sale that they do not have in their own inventory

[russhenley]

can a seller list items for sale that they do not have in their own inventory, ie-they order it from another non-ebay seller and ship to you after they receive the item?

[toby_le_pue]

Yup, It is called drop shipping. Lots of sellers do it.

[dmil8030]

Hello 'russhenley',

It sounds like  drop shipping, -- is that the sort of thing you mean?  Drop shipping is allowed on

ebay and is surprisingly common,  just not very advisable.  Buyers are prickly about shipping

times and too often the drop shipped item takes longer than is expected.

Or worse, the item that the buyer receives is not what was featured in the listing, and the seller

had no idea because he never saw the actual item for himself.

Sometimes it turns out the items are out of stock, and that annoyes buyers too, but again the

seller did not know it was unavailable because he has relinquished some of his control over

inventory by using a drop shipper.

Do you want to see ebay's official position on it?

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/product_sourcing.html

Is that what you had in mind?

[femmefan1946]

C'mon toby-- only the gullible and greedy ones.