It’s for kokeshi from Japan, which are not unique as in “completely inventive” but oftentimes they’re individual enough to tell each one apart. Some of the creative ones assigned to individual artists might have certain flaws or age spots, or slightly different painting of facial features or dress. Even the same kokeshi by the same artists might appear and age differently, dependent on who owned it and when it was created. There is no guarantee of artist authenticity, I get that, but eBay listings being flooded with photographs grabbed from other marketplaces and re-listed has rendered the search mostly useless (there are still a few good sellers, but difficult to find them amidst this). The photos they are using are virtually identical to the original listing. You can also tell they’re grabbing the photos from many different sellers because all of the backgrounds are inconsistent (while the backgrounds are usually consistent within each mercari seller). I don’t think the mercari sellers have any idea, the postings go up very quickly and are always lagging behind in being removed. But I couldn’t say that for certain. I get that I could investigate this further, but it feels like a lot of responsibility is being handed over to the buyer rather than the seller or marketplace assuming any sort of accountability for the sale.
When it happened to me, I messaged the seller after payment and told them that I was confused, because another eBay seller had the same kokeshi for sale and I wanted to ensure that I had already purchased it. They told me they mistakenly posted the wrong photo and grabbed a bunch of other listings, saying I could purchase these instead. I believed them, so I politely declined and was refunded “at my request”. Then I purchased the same listing from what I thought was the “correct” photos, listing and seller. Again I was mistaken, only this time the seller (possibly the same person) told me the item had sold and that they couldn’t update their inventory system. They wanted to cancel it at my request since I didn’t want to buy any of their “similar” listings (more listings that they’ve grabbed from mercari users). I told them I was confused about what was happening and would ask eBay, and only then did they refund at buyer request.
There are way too many accounts doing this to name them all. The accounts that did this to me include both interhc5 (claimed to have post the wrong photo in their ad and cancelled at my request) and wutianzh-43 (claimed it was sold and tried to cancel at my request because I didn’t want to buy “borrowed” listings of other kokeshi, so my fault). If you look through their accounts, you will see an endless number of backgrounds and photographic inconsistencies, because they’re grabbing the photos from any seller they find on mercari. These sellers include everythig_jp777, myj-04, sunlucestore and many more. I don’t think there is any explicit agreement, commission or profit margin being shared with the original sellers of these listings (but again, I have no idea). There are so many sellers doing this, I thought it might be allowable or then purposely ignored, because it’s pretty obvious, even in browsing, that something isn’t right. That’s why I originally sent a message, to ensure the other eBay listing would be taken down and that I had successfully purchased this singular item.
For every seller who is listing their own product (or contracted, good to know), there are five others duplicating mercari listings at whatever profit margin they feel is appropriate. Sunlucestore currently has an identical and active ad to a kokeshi that I’ve already purchased from Mercari and know it’s out of stock now. They’ve taken the identical photos from the original seller and listed them here, but I bought that listing at $60 CAD and they’re still selling it on eBay for $200 CAD (not including shipping). With many sellers doing this, it also lends to duplicate listings of identical items, and it isn’t like a car part or something that is typically manufactured to be identical. They’re all listing ads to one single item. It makes every listing feel like a scam, because how do multiple sellers claim assurance to this one single item when they’re essentially competing with each other and all possible buyers of the original seller. I don’t know if the rest of eBay is flooded with duplicate listings in this way, or if there’s a language barrier and maybe people just don’t realize these listings are from Mercari. The only advantage I can see is that it makes some of the listings more accessible (so long as the user doesn’t know they’re being ripped off, they wouldn’t have used Mercari otherwise, and the seller actually ends up with the merchandise they’re betting on). But I don’t think that argument is worth the lack of confidence or gamble on a listing being “borrowed” in advance of its sale.
Again, at least for me, it makes eBay seem almost unusable. Both inventory and assurance are completely made up. Hopefully you won’t take that to some extreme, and suggest that everything is technically a conception or made up in one way or another. No offence, because I do somewhat appreciate your level of cantor, but I’m not trying to have an intellectual debate (my posts are already exhaustive enough). I am trying to convey an issue between buyer and sellers on eBay - generally speaking, it’s not a normal level of assumed risk. The listings are more like an after-thought and a higher profit margin than the original seller will ever receive. It does happen on other marketplaces, including Etsy, but resellers usually buy the product before selling it at a higher profit margin, which is far more legitimate than what is happening here. I’m not quite sure reporting single accounts will be as helpful when there’s an influx of sellers doing this, but again might only be for cultural, niche, and/or vintage items. I do feel, when it becomes common enough, that eBay should revisit its policies rather than its users being responsible for every single one of these seller propping up. And I did send a message, but those users haven’t been restricted at all. Hopefully other users don’t keep running into the same issues, but it’s an issue that I haven’t encountered to this extreme with other marketplace, including high reseller prices on Etsy (again, not declaring that as an absolute truth, but generally speaking and in my experience so far).
