eBay Bans Amazon Drop Shipping but Fails to Notify Sellers

by: NoMoreEbay

For a company who turns a blind eye to millions of Chinese counterfeits, theft and fraud and everything else that funds their criminal organization. It's hard to believe they woudn't turn a blind eye to this too. Bank on it.

by: TomH

I sometimes fulfill from MY OWN Amazon items. I will continue. And, if it comes to getting booted from eBay, I really do not care, they have become so minor in my operations that they can be easily dropped.

by: sasikat9

Thats one reason why we no longer shop Greedbay. If I'm going to get something in an Amazon box I'm going to be shopping on Amazon with my prime account. At least on Amazon I can find what I want without having to go through a hundred pages of the same just from the chinese first.

by: DingDong

I purchased some prism crystals. A box from Amazon came with "wavy glass" and I complained. Sent pictures and told them I don't like Amazon and I do very little business with eBay until I can find some place else to find things. They won't post my review of this item with pictures showing the poor quality and that it's from Amazon.

Sorry, I can't stand Amazon. I prefer, when I can, to actually go to a physical location.
A friend of mine has been reducing her spending on Amazon because she is noticing the quality is getting bad.

by: Beth

My husband and I and the adult who lives upstairs all buy on Amazon.  Frequently I recall items from Amazon because of stale dates or low sales.  ALL those boxes get reused and if ebay doesn't like it, they can lower their fees so I can afford to buy new boxes like I used to.

An Amazon box does not always come from Amazon any more than the other boxes I reuse come from those manufacturers.  

At this point in time, I will not jump thru hoops for eBay because I had $136 in sales in January, 2019. Instead of my former $4000  so along with their new stupid mediated payments policy, this will be the death of me.

by: pace306

Quite frankly - its none of eBays business is it? (where people get things from)

I dont do it - dont need to do it - but alot of times - closeouts come DIRECTLY from Amazon (they dump goods all the time)(plus the sheernumber of auctions for A, B, C quality goods would kill any human being)

eBay should be happy that they get any of the "action" - besides - eBay knows nothing about this business so - who cares what they think ?

by: pace306

Part 2

Ina - you answered your own question HERE:

"eBay acts only as a venue for sales between buyers and sellers, and as we never take possession of the items offered"

I dont know the laws in the land down under, but here in the USA - Between Lanham and the FDS - eBay cant say ANYTHING - they have no standing to make such a law.

What if they tried this and said "you cant get goods from Ingram, or D&H, or Nikon etc"? Its restraint of free trade - and even eBays shyster crooked lawyers cant undo that ....

by: dander

If you use amazon to ship ebay items now you have two rabid dogs on you. I can care less but don't say they can't stop you because obviously its in the agreements you signed with both.

by: iheartjacksparrow

Beth writes: "An Amazon box does not always come from Amazon...."

Yes, but if you order an item from a seller on eBay, and it comes in an Amazon box with Prime tape all over the box, a return address from a seller you've never heard of, and from a location not where the eBay seller is located, I think it's safe to say that the eBay seller in question is using a seller on Amazon as a drop-shipper. (This happened to me.)

I hope this new policy will stop all the people in foreign countries from using Amazon as a drop-shipper.

by: comments

If ebay banned this practice it is the single greatest buyer friendly policy since the introduction of feedback.

I stopped buying retail products completely about 2 years ago because EVERYTHING was coming from Sams, Walmart, or Amazon......but usually it was just "out of stock" and I would spend all my time waiting for refunds or shipping notifications. Once the dropshipping stops I would eventually like to start buying on ebay again.

by: Rexford

"And, if it comes to getting booted from eBay, I really do not care, they have become so minor in my operations that they can be easily dropped."

I can easily see how you have reached that point.  I've reached that point as well.  

by: RKTOYS

eBay should keep their fat noses out of this.  Personally, I think it's too risky to drop do the second method (sell first, then buy) because Amazon prices can skyrocket without notice.  But then I'm in a market where distribution is all sorts of screwed up.  Maybe it works with salad dressing, tube socks, or whatever else people are selling on eBay.

by: Number 6

Kinda funny seeing as eBay spends all its time mimicking Amazon and wishing it was Amazon, whilst all the time losing its real customers and sellers who (mainly used to) come to eBay in search of collectables, used items and other things no other website (even now) really effectively caters for online.

Coming up next, New eBay, their clone of Coca Cola's miserable New Coke failure a few decades ago...

Whatever doesn't work they're sure to try, whatever works or did work they've abandoned long ago or utterly messed up.

We sell on 3 main websites for our merchandise, since the first year of eBay (before 3rd party sellers could use Amazon) and it was once upon a time 90% eBay sales vs 10% Amazon, now it's 70% Amazon, 20% eBay and top-ups from other venues of about 10%.

We haven't changed a thing, sell the same items, and yet eBay's lost all those sales in recent years by its own stupidity.  Like many sellers, we wish we didn't have to use Amazon and eBay, but we have no real options as driving traffic to your own website now Google [and to a lesser degree] Facebook owns the entire search/advertising online revenue system, so gears its search accordingly, but eBay is fast becoming insignificant when once it was the market leader in used/collectables.

by: golfwidow1

DITTO NUMBER 6  WONDERFULLY PUT!  EBAY DOES HAVE TO WAKE UP AND STOP TRYING TO BE AMAZON THAT SUCKS SOMETIMES WHEN SELLER PUTS YOU ON BACK ORDER.  

by: Marie

I'm not seeing the difference here.  This has always been Ebay's policy regarding drop shipping.  Maybe the only difference is they are now saying they are going to enforce it.  Most likely because they have gotten lots of complaints from buyers as this is becoming more and more common.

It has always been Ebay's rule that if you wanted to drop ship you had to have an agreement with the wholesaler you will be using as your drop shipper.  It appears to me that they are trying to stop those that sell stuff on Ebay without such an agreement and the seller just goes out and finds where they can purchase the item AFTER a buyer purchases it on Ebay.  A risky way to do business at best.

But some sellers on Ebay do have stock at an Amazon facility and therefore when they ship from Amazon it is their own stock being used.  

The use of Prime is a separate subject.  And while it is against the Amazon rules, as a buyer, it is pretty difficult to report someone for the misuse of Prime.  

by: HarrySachs

I could Care less where it came from. If there's any indication they used their prime account to ship it, I report it to amazon.  

by: thehosst

I always say that some VERY crooked eBay "executives" MUST be getting a few crumbs from Amazopoly, perhaps even a job contract, because there is NO way eBay could survive after they worked so hard to make eBay a stupid marketplace full of technical issues and products from India and China dropshippers. So it is ok for eBay to subsidize China planes and flood the marketplace with Alibaba crap, and to allow the same people to oversee and "enforce" eBay policy, but is not ok to find out of stock items in another store? 2 + 2, if a buyer does not find the product on eBay, they simply go to the only other store left in the world, BUT AT LARGE Amazopoly! How about everyone getting a 8 bucks an hour, 20 hour slavery job working for Amazopoly!  

by: thehosst

Well put Number 6, I wish that could be in the NYT or some High Traffic Facebook page, eBay is just a time-waster, a space-filling-sad-marketplace that exist only because of the stupid stock market, just like amazopoly  

by: thehosst

Hi Ina, and everyone here. Actually, do you know what percentage of dropshiper sales happen in the USA and EU? About 45% on average. Do you know where are those dropshippers from? From the same places where the eBay and Amazon "policy enforcing" are from as well, India and China. In my personal experience, I have found that a lot of the policies that give us very hard times, are made-up policies that attack mainly USA/EU based sellers. I can almost bet my thumb, the same crooked individuals are "enforcing" that policy because they are being affected by the recent changes in China tariffs, postage and Amazon pricing changes. They were happy making a penny per sale, now the new amazon pricing dumping a lot of items less than 10 bucks is affecting them, and they are A LOT of people, so they have to come up with yet another BS policy excuse. I very much encourage people to demand that all the people who enforce and oversee eBay and Amazon policy for USA and EU sellers, MUST BE living in the USA or EU, and you will see how quickly all those made up issues with stop. I can go on an on, but I think is just fair. We don't branch the FBI or Police force to other countries right? Are there any capable people who need jobs in the USA or EU? I guess so.  People, pay attention and see how many of those made-up BS issues you get, and find the source of the issue (place where the people creating problems for you are physically located).  Good luck!

by: shut1968

And what about sellers that store all their merchandise in an Amazon warehouse and sell on both sites?

Not uncommon and happens all the time.. it's a service offered by Amazon that they were pushing a few years ago and it does not violate any policies.

(not us, I would never waste money having Amazon store any of our inventory)