Japanese Guitar Sellers

[drew-bc]

If you search many of the guitar listings you will find that some of them are flooded with Japanese sellers listing ridiculously inflated prices and, in many cases, there is more than one seller offering the same guitar.  Try searching this and see what comes up:

Ibanez srf705 bass guitar

What's up with this?  Why does ebay allow the listings to be infested like this?

[reallynicestamps]

n many cases, there is more than one seller offering the same guitar. 

It's likely that this is not many sellers, but one.

Probably hacked accounts.

Look at feedback- you don't have to be able to read it, just look for a gap of several months since the last FB was left.

Also sellers who sold in an entirely different category.

It may also be that the crooks who were listing on the Australia site have moved on to the Japan site.

The advantage is that they avoid the suspicion many buyers have of their own country.

But still have the protection of being overseas -- which explains slow delivery and high shipping costs.

The inflated prices are harder to decide about.

If the listing is honest, the price may reflect the Japanese market which is very different from Canada.

Some things are expensive and hard to find there.

Some things are cheap* or in good supply.

 It's interesting that the only Japanese seller with a 100% FB rating seems to sell mostly golf equipment.

*Japan is not a low income or low cost country, so 'cheap' is a matter of opinion.

[momcqueen]

eBay relies on people to be honest. The expectation is that a listing is truthful and valid and the person (seller) listing it is honest.

Of course, we know that not all people are completely honest and therein lies the problem.

You’ll see a Report link partway down your page at right. Use it wherever you suspect something is not correct but be aware not only of listing policies but that there’s a magic (secret) number of x reports from y users to circumvent other (jealous) sellers shutting down a successful competitor listing that way.

Of course, if you feel strongly and have time to do so, call and speak to a Customer Service rep about your suspicions. Best of luck. Report back when you have developments, please.

[ypdc_dennis]

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@drew-bc wrote:

If you search many of the guitar listings you will find that some of them are flooded with Japanese sellers listing ridiculously inflated prices and, in many cases, there is more than one seller offering the same guitar.  Try searching this and see what comes up:

Ibanez srf705 bass guitar

What's up with this?  Why does ebay allow the listings to be infested like this?

---

I currently see 11 listings on ebay.ca with 10 from Japan and 1 from Italy.

Prices from about $1249CA to $2052CA

Some sellers appear to be dropshipping (buy from another seller, then ship), which is why their price is higher.

It is okay for sellers to have more than one listing for used -- but not for new, identical items. Both sellers with 2 guitar listings appear to be gaming the ebay system.

-..-

[marnotom!]

eBay doesn't have nearly the presence or market share in Japan as it does in most other countries.

I concur with those who suggest that this "seller" or these "sellers" hail from elsewhere and are using Japan's generally good international reputation as a front.

[drew-bc]

And ebay isn't doing a damned thing about it - except collecting their fees.  Gotta go now.  I think I hear Reverb calling 🙂

[reallynicestamps]

@drew-bc

From Post #3

You’ll see a Report link partway down your page at right. Use it wherever you suspect something is not correct but be aware not only of listing policies but that there’s a magic (secret) number of x reports from y users to circumvent other (jealous) sellers shutting down a successful competitor listing that way.

Of course, if you feel strongly and have time to do so, call and speak to a Customer Service rep about your suspicions. Best of luck. Report back when you have developments, please.

You can sit and complain or you can act.

Your choice.

[drew-bc]

I have now phoned ebay and reported this.  The customer service rep said he would move my complaint up the chain to ebay's surveillance dept to look into it.  I guess we now wait and see if ebay has been able to clean the junk sellers out of the listings.

Meantime, because of this I will buy nothing from any Japanese listing, not even a guitar pick.

[patricel2553]

Looks likes they haven't resolved anything. I have tried to report and item from a Japanese seller and Ebay did not even recognized the item number ?? So, impossible to process with my request.

[reallynicestamps]

One Report from a single member may be recorded but no action taken because the member may be a competitor, may be a vigilante with a cause, or may just be wrong.

If several different members are Reporting the same listing, then attention may be paid.

Still worth Reporting problems anyway because you can't know how many others are doing the same.