eBay question

thenos

So I bought a set that was priced lower than normal sale retail from Ebay when they had their coupon. I figured maybe the person had picked a bunch up at Walmart clearance and was trying to flip them. 

I got a shipping notice from FedEx that it is coming from jet.com, where the set set is about $15 more than I paid. 

Is something hinky going on?

Fizyx

The seller potentially stole someone's credit card details, posted the auction, then bought it from Jet when you made the purchase, delivering it to your address.  They then pocket the money from the auction.  Not guaranteed to be the case, but it's certainly suspicious.

Baby_Yoda

I doubt it. Major retailers like to sell things on eBay all the time - in Australia, Target, Myer and Big W all tend to have similar or better prices for sets on eBay than their own websites. I'm not sure why, perhaps they have deals with eBay or they want more exposure. I've never heard of jet.com, though. Does the eBay seller mention an affiliation with the site, such as in their username?

Astrobricks

Jet.com is owned by Walmart.

milamber

Probably just drop shipping. I see it all the time in the UK on Ebay, mainly using Amazon, so it must happen in the States too.

Lots of sellers put a small to medium mark up on items available from Amazon hoping buyers are too lazy or stupid to compare prices elsewhere. They don't actually have the item in stock. When the item is bought from them they simply place an order with Amazon to deliver the item to the buyers address. They make a profit and don't even have to pay for postage in many cases. The main risk is the fact that prices alter all the time so the price they advertise at isn't always the price available when they come to place the order. Hence the high negative feedback rate due to cancelled orders.

I guess that's what's happened here. The only difference being you seem to have got a decent price due to the Ebay coupon.

CCC

Who did you buy it from? Was it a business or normal person?

Also the coupon will change things if this was an ebay coupon - although you pay less, the business still gets the original listing price, with ebayfooting the bill for the coupon used.

thenos

It was a person, not a business. Which is what struck me. I knew the set had been clearanced at WM, but then restocked at normal sale price, so I said ok... But I feel like I was just being willfully ignorant now. Coupon only took a few dollars off. 

CCC

Most likely drop shipping as above then. Sometimes drop shippers forget to adjust their prices and if they cannot afford any more bad strikes, then they over-pay rather than leave an order unfulfilled.

Baby_Yoda

Fizyx said:

The seller potentially stole someone's credit card details, posted the auction, then bought it from Jet when you made the purchase, delivering it to your address.  They then pocket the money from the auction.  Not guaranteed to be the case, but it's certainly suspicious.

Whoops, didn't mean to respond to this one - it didn't show up when I wrote my post. Doesn't matter though, the context just happens to be the same anyway.

Fizyx

Baby_Yoda said:

Fizyx said:

The seller potentially stole someone's credit card details, posted the auction, then bought it from Jet when you made the purchase, delivering it to your address.  They then pocket the money from the auction.  Not guaranteed to be the case, but it's certainly suspicious.

Whoops, didn't mean to respond to this one - it didn't show up when I wrote my post. Doesn't matter though, the context just happens to be the same anyway.

I think we were writing at the same time :P  I've seen both situations though, and I've been stung before... only takes one time for you to start seeing shadows around every corner >.<

pharmjod

I typically assume stolen credit card when a set is sold for significantly under MSRP then shipped from somewhere that is selling at MSRP. If the feedback is low that is also a good indicator. You can call jet.com if you really want to and inquire about it.

bricknation

pharmjod said:

I typically assume stolen credit card when a set is sold for significantly under MSRP then shipped from somewhere that is selling at MSRP. If the feedback is low that is also a good indicator. You can call jet.com if you really want to and inquire about it.

you can also contact the seller and say that you want to return the set just to see his/her reaction.