eBay

snidley7 · ‎07-02-2024

About 2 years ago, I started to notice hundreds of these "Frog LED" listings showing up in the industrial categories. But now it is out of control... Now there are 10 of thousands of them.

They are 1 cent, free shipping listings, with horrible pictures. The chinese sellers are using them to create fake transactions, and boost there feedback %.

It appears to be an automated operation, with many different accounts.

Have you noticed this in other categories? Is it now common practice? One cent listings, with free shipping, bad pictures so nobody actually buys it...

When searching for a product, it would be nice to not have to add "-frog" every time.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/364973432961

reallynicestamps · ‎07-02-2024

devon@ebay might be able to help with how to Report these.

flipistics · ‎07-02-2024

I've never seen that before (at least not to that extent). I'm not sure it's for actual feedback though. It appears there's issues with a lot of their higher value items. I suspect they're using the 1 cent sales to stay out of eBay jail. They should probably be reported though. 25+ pages of recent feedback from the same buyer is ... impressive.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎07-02-2024

@snidley7 wrote:
About 2 years ago, I started to notice hundreds of these "Frog LED" listings showing up in the industrial categories. But now it is out of control... Now there are 10 of thousands of them.
They are 1 cent, free shipping listings, with horrible pictures. The chinese sellers are using them to create fake transactions, and boost there feedback %.
It appears to be an automated operation, with many different accounts.

Have you noticed this in other categories? Is it now common practice? One cent listings, with free shipping, bad pictures so nobody actually buys it...

When searching for a product, it would be nice to not have to add "-frog" every time.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/364973432961

@snidley7

The example you attached was an auction. Possibly a seller with a ton hoping they will get bids to make it worth their while. Frustrating though when majority of searches keep bringing up offshore stuff. Stuff you can't tell is offshore until you open the listing fully. But in checking they keep selling for the penny. I sold some a few years ago. Got over 10 each for them. Give or take.

-Lotz

snidley7 · ‎07-03-2024

I think you are correct. I also suspect there is a lot of drop shipping involved, and this is just a way to keep the feedback % above par.

In some ways eBay seems very strict with rules, and in other ways not.

I guess you just have to find your own way to keep surviving.

flipistics · ‎07-04-2024

I had another thought about this. I wonder if they're using these sales to purchase discounted shipping labels (probably expedited lite), either for sales on another platform or worse, potentially selling the labels themselves. That makes more sense to me than the other possibilities. Either way, whatever they're doing, it definitely appears shady.

a52split · ‎07-26-2024

I had that thought a couple of months ago. I get sales on other platforms and have to pay $15 for tracked packet, so I was wondering if I could change an ebay listing to make it so I could get the $7 label. I think in the end, I discovered you can't change the delivery address.

Earlier today I looked at the above frog listing for $0.01, and curiously, I put in a bid for a penny. Moments ago, I was informed that I won! My scam detector is going off, but I can't figure out what it might be. Anyone got any ideas?