Competitors buying and then returning?

[glacier922]

Do you guys experience this? Obviously i have no proof, but since ebay forces free return shipping, i'm starting to suspect it. When I have a new account, I don't have so many "damaged" goods, but as the numbers go up, I noticed that i start getting more "damaged" goods. The thing is, the more it sells, the higher the rankings. Do you suspect that there's competitors buying your stuff and trolling? Wondering if you should just 0 out some items and then just re-listing the item, so the numbers of sold would just start back at 0, rather than say, 200 sold or whatevers.

[oompaloompa]

could be competition, or alternatively it could be more buyer mumbers and therefore more odds of scams, in a period where they are still thinking they can scam a newish seller easily due to lower rep with ebay.

[muzzie]

Can be either competitor or just some scamming buyer. In either case, no way to fight it, kind of a collateral damage caused by your success.

[Sunspot144]

Originally Posted by oompaloompa

could be competition, or alternatively it could be more buyer mumbers and therefore more odds of scams, in a period where they are still thinking they can scam a newish seller easily due to lower rep with ebay.

Seconding this. Remember dealing with way more bullies when an account had very few feedback.

[glacier922]

Sorry, I meant that when your account becomes really good in terms of feedback and TRS, that's when the return starts piling up. My TRS accounts rarely last past 2 months once it gets TRS status with all the returns and item claimed to be defective. Lot of haters out there.

[Hercules]

Ebay does whatever's cheapest. Automated seller dumping/rotation. Sellers are a dime a dozen to them. Instead of answering phone complaints (more expensive Ebay workers) just use a feedback algorithm to do the rinse and replace work...'who cares about people it's the bottom line that counts'.

[wilburnet]

This is exactly whats happening, your the competition - they want your revenue so gang up and purchase to increase your SNAD defect rate.

Another thing, those Good Til Cancelled listings where you see 460 + sold will be a thing of the past once the new Product Catalogue has completed. I read this on Ecommerce Cafe. Ebay dont want stale listings no more with 450+ sold.

[glacier922]

^^^^

So what do you think I should do? After a certain amount, cancel the listing and then relist so the competitors don't see 100+ or 200+ sold?

[vettefever17]

Originally Posted by glacier922

Do you guys experience this? Obviously i have no proof, but since ebay forces free return shipping, i'm starting to suspect it. When I have a new account, I don't have so many "damaged" goods, but as the numbers go up, I noticed that i start getting more "damaged" goods. The thing is, the more it sells, the higher the rankings. Do you suspect that there's competitors buying your stuff and trolling? Wondering if you should just 0 out some items and then just re-listing the item, so the numbers of sold would just start back at 0, rather than say, 200 sold or whatevers.

I don't know specifically if there is a stat on increased damaged goods in your scenario, but I can say without a doubt that there is competitor arbitrage. A specific example of this is to enter the market and beat them by 1 cent and list a lower quantity <10. I've had my complete inventory magically get bought up by one individual with very low or no feedback within two days of list. If you get that spidey sense about the purchase, do a little digging. Willing to bet their buying history either has the same product that they are try to flip or zero history and the creation date is within that month. Always remember kind of how your product sells. I tend to not like more than 2 units of a product that has 50-100 percent profit margin go out unless I dig a little. It basically erases all your work from previous sales if it happens enough in the circumstance of return or stealing.

[wilburnet]

Good point. Also if they are Amazon to Ebay dropshipping then if they hit a purchase limit they find another seller selling same item to fulfill.