Why Are eBay Orders Coming from Amazon and Walmart?

by: SoniaD

Heck yes, if you can find it cheaper from a reliable source go there!  Ebay offers no advantage.

by: Pamwham53

This is a business model for some people selling online. They don’t need to carry stock - once you order the item listed - they buy it from Amazon or Walmart - whichever is cheaper and send it to you. They make money - and don’t have to buy inventory.
Always check prices against other avenues before you buy from eBay.  

by: my2cents

Often times sellers on Ebay also sell on other sites.  One of those sites may be Amazon and they may have their inventory held at an Amazon warehouse.  So when they sell something on Ebay, they have it shipped from their stock at the Amazon warehouse.

The seller pays Amazon for the service and the shipping, so they aren't getting away with anything.  It costs them real money.

This is often confused with retail arbitrage, but it isn't.  The seller owns the inventory.

Certainly there are likely sellers out there that once you buy from them they buy from another seller to have it shipped to you [retail arbitrage], but that is not a sustainable business plan and is sure to cause them all kinds of problems.  It would be a small number of ill informed people that do this.

by: Actual Seller

Mostly accounts with owners in China drop shipping and eBay is OK with it because it takes from your sales.

eBay is anti you, pro them.

by: my2cents

Drop shipping isn't necessarily a bad thing if the seller does it the right way and has a real relationship with their wholesaler that is drop shipping for them.  Sellers need to keep their inventory correctly too.  Some wholesalers offer reports to help sellers do that.

It can be done successfully.  But some just don't want to spend the time to develop procedures to insure this.  It is hard work if you carry quite a few items.

by: Thriftinginvestor

If you are worried about the ship from source you can usually tell it is a drop shipped item by the pictures, number of items in inventory for sale, and the way the description is worded, they all look like a web page listing on a big site. Artificial intelligence is going to make all the marketplaces go bonkers here in the next year or 2 as more code is used and the API on platforms being integrated. It will be too easy for people to just buy software and drop ship.

by: Chicago48

I recycle my packaging from AMZ and WM.  It COULD BE they are just repackaged in AMZ and WM mailers.

by: AddyUp

Don't just search for your item on eBay, google it. If the lowest price is on eBay then buy it on eBay. If the lowest price is elsewhere then buy it elsewhere.

An eBay search used to be my first port of call. That's no longer the case.

by: pace306

eBay hates drop shipping but it’s a fact of life.

All of the above answers are correct but I’d have to ask - if the price was ok - who cares where it comes from????

It doesn’t apply to me (the above statement) but it’s an honest question

Lastly, on commodity items, eBay is NEVER going to be less, unless there’s a seller who has a close out.

Both Amazon and Walmart use commodity items to bring in traffic and as loss leaders. As well, due to eBay’s high take rate and shipping costs- they will never be cheaper than the other two.

Doing your homework is always the best idea!

by: ScottLBrown

This is all part of Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment program.  For small/medium sellers it is very often cheaper to pay the Amazon FBA fees (and slightly higher shipping fees than an Amazon FBA shipment) than it would be to maintain their own warehouse or 3PL as well as keeping up with the marketplace compliance issues.

Unless you ship 70M packages a year, you can almost guarantee your shipping rates won't come close to FBA/MCF.  The same goes for Walmart WFS.

However, it is still against TOS to ship Walmart order from Amazon FBA/MCF.

by: lisapar

This is called Retail Arbitrage, and it works both ways. You can buy on Amazon but it comes from other retailers.  RA sellers have very sophisticated AI programs that scour websites for low prices, list them (without even owning the product), sell it then drop ship from retailers.  This RA sellers are making hundreds of thousands of dollars without having a warehouse or inventory.  
It's a sad world, but if you aren't willing to shop for the best price on all sites (Google has tools to do this), then you can wind up paying more.  It's not just an Ebay problem - it's across the board on all platforms.

by: ySirTinLee

I noticed the same thing and have been a devout Ebay buyer for several years.  It made me feel duped and left a bad taste when I received packages from  Amazon.    I always considered Amazon as an enemy.   Then I learned that Walmart gives you actual free shipping and really lost it.  I check prices now.  Simple to do a name or image search with Google.
 

by: Reseller Inc

This is potentially Triangulation Fraud. It could simply be marketplace drop shipping but on common items, I tend to believe it is indeed Triangulation Fraud.
A red flag for fraud is if the item being purchased is wildly under priced with free shipping. The "seller", i.e. Fruadster doesn't care about the cost of the item or shipping as they are buying the listed item on a stolen credit card number from a different merchant and delivering to the original customer. Small profits are acceptable since it is all profit for them.  

by: ySirTinLee

@ Reseller Inc
Call it what you want, it's still actual free shipping, not bloated item prices that cover the shipping fee which many-and I mean many-sellers are doing.  Oh!  By the way, many products are listed plain as day as ''sold and shipped by Walmart''..  Just like Amazon, I pay a monthly fee and get ship free with no minimum requirement.

by: Weirdbooks

@pace306

eBay is usually cheaper in at least 1 area.  Media.  

Amazon charges a fixed fee called ''Variable Closing Fee'' of $1.80 on books and other media.

eBay charges a $0.30 ''closing fee''.  

They both charge 15% of the item price and shipping charge.

SO right away, I either make $1.50 more for the same-price item on eBay, or I have $1.50 worth of room in pricing to compete with other sellers.

by: iheartjacksparrow

The problem with retail arbitrage is when your source (say an Amazon listing) runs out of stock before you can place an order for your eBay customer. I would think you'd have to spend all day looking at the source listings for the items you have listed on eBay so you aren't "out of stock" when an eBay order is placed.

by: spooky

drop shipping is supposedly against eBay rules, but it is apparently quite prevalent. I recently shopped for a large bag of Meow Mix dry cat food, 30 pounds size which is usually the best deal. Price on Amazon and Walmart was well over $1 per pound. I found exact same size on eBay at well under $1 a pound so I bought it.. Bag came with Walmart markings and was delivered quick (1 time it took a week but normally 2 days). I have no idea how drop shippers are getting it cheaper than I could at same source, and particularly cheap enough that they are making any profit after fees???

by: ronk53

Selling on Ebay and shipping from Amazon violates both companies terms of service. I would contact Amazon and Ebay customer service and let them know. Amazon is very strict with this policy.

by: Rexford

I sometimes recycle packaging to.   If you are getting the item that you order why do you care where it came from/  If you buy on eBay it could literally come from anywhere--even a garbage bin.  Wasn't there a story about dumpster divers selling found items on eBay?

by: pace306

"Selling on Ebay and shipping from Amazon violates both companies terms of service"

THAT ... is restraint of free trade - an ACTUAL crime vs one made up.

If eBays TOS said you could only use their tape or boxes and use their shipping - would you complain?

As long as the customer is serviced and is happy - thats ALL they should be caring about.

Rex - theres tons of them on Youtube ... right next to the ones that buy used junk from Garage Sales to sell on eBay and make $5...... and people wonder why eBay has become the worlds largest flea market ...