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Ebay Dropshipping Policy Change
 

As we all know, Ebay has recently changed their terms of service to state that dropshipping, in the form of retail arbitrage, will no longer be allowed on their platform. Nonetheless, it seems some people are still doing retail arbitrage on Ebay.com What is everyone's opinion on the future of dropshipping, in the form of retail arbitrage, on the ebay platform?

Re: Ebay Dropshipping Policy Change
 

amazon is also not allowing it for ages now, but people still doing it.

You can continue ds on ebay, but you have to do your best to stay off their radar. Pay attention to have excellent customer support, not have not received cases, and many cancellations, handle returns through messages and not cases etc.. Do you best to have the least bad metrics.

Re: Ebay Dropshipping Policy Change
 

As long as your operation is thought out enough to not appear as a dropshipping operation I think you'll be fine moving forward.

They're never going to eliminate dropshippers entirely because they bring in lots of money for eBay. They're just getting tired of amateurish dropshippers leaving eBay to clean up their messes IMHO.

Re: Ebay Dropshipping Policy Change
 

Thank you for the responses and I hope more people chime in for continued dialogue. I have been in RA for quite a while and what worries me is that I have a complied a list of some of the biggest dropshippers on Ebay and have noticed about 50% of them have been closed down. These were accounts that were receiving feedback in the volume of 3-10k per month. So, obviously huge accounts here.

What is uncertain to me is whether these accounts closed on their own accord or were forced to be closed by Ebay. It would be indeed nice to think Ebay will allow this to continue for sellers who run the operation seamlessly, however I could have to think we are all just trying to be optimistic. The general consensus is that it likely will be allowed, however seeing something like this added to the terms and conditions is obviously not something any of us wanted to see.

Re: Ebay Dropshipping Policy Change
 

darn, been doing dropshipping ever since i venture into ebay, sad.

Re: Ebay Dropshipping Policy Change
 

Retail arbitrage has been banned on amazon for ever and people still make a lot of money doing it . If you are doing it on eBay from now you just need to keep the account standards high by avoiding cancellations and so on .

Re: Ebay Dropshipping Policy Change
 

Only accounts that were using automated softwares was banned from eBay and retail arbitrage, if You use your hands for listings, cleaning pictures and description from meta data you are okay to go. eBay will not suspect you anyway, expect you will provide poor costumer support.

regarding ship from location and item location mismatch - I think trackerbot do provide such service as tracking number conversion. Now even amazon logistic tracking numbers will be trackable ( hooray - many scammers will lost their case).

Re: Ebay Dropshipping Policy Change
 

What about custom software to interact with API? Specifically, software that is not from a third party company (i.e- written oneself)? Surely, most ebay largest and most legit dropshoppers (i.e - wayfair, overstock, etc..) are all using the API. I personally think one of the ways Ebay.com will track will be location of image urls? I haven't heard this one considered much but seems to make a lot of sense to me.

Re: Ebay Dropshipping Policy Change
 

They do track the image - yes, but there are softwares to clean meta data from pictures. the same from amazon can be used on eBay. Why? Because there was a short period of time when eBay required to make catalog for most of the products and even was thinking about the "ebay lister" when seller can put amazon ASIN and all info will be filled from amazon. It should be allowed because many sellers can have the same item. But meta data SHOULD and MUST be cleaned from the pictures so eBay can not track that the image came from amazon. ( same as description, copy from amazon to notepad, from notepad to eBay)

Re: Ebay Dropshipping Policy Change
 

Okay, but what about your own custom built software that interacts with the Ebay.com API. Would this cause alarm?

Re: Ebay Dropshipping Policy Change
 

in my opinion YES. They do see what do software do. and the only solution for these days is to use SKUGRID. ( they do made good job and nice comeback) they have API that import/export csv files with price changes and eBay understands it as inventory update. However, I do not recommend use ANY API except trackerbot.

no API listing items also available by many softwares and chrome extensions. the only solution for tracking and repricing the prices.

Re: Ebay Dropshipping Policy Change
 

Hi,
Is it still legit to ship from another country where the item is?
I live in Turkey and my ebay account is UK.

Re: Ebay Dropshipping Policy Change
 

wow, amazon logistics is now trackable on eBay? :O
i've lost quite a lot of cases before because the buyers are claiming to have not received the items.

Re: Ebay Dropshipping Policy Change
 

as long as you will sell from the same item location since the start of the account - it is good to go. Start mixing location or change location from UK to china, or any other - may cause in promoted listings shutdown, account flag or even suspension.

Re: Ebay Dropshipping Policy Change
 

I notice that lot of big time sellers find right products and then make deal with chinese manufactures and actually purchase in bulk and then sell it cheaper then competitors and highlight their title as "US SHIPPING" etc.. so its faster arrival time. But this requires lot of research and capital investment. It's like they are taking a fun adventure risk :dance: Would be nice if I can do this but seems season changes and if item doesn't sell your like stuck with it.

Re: Ebay Dropshipping Policy Change
 

Is eBay really looking at the origin of the shipping location as it relates to retail arbitrage? If you'r adding tracking quickly and it arrives on time, does eBay look in to your shipping origins? Doesn't seem likely to me

Re: Ebay Dropshipping Policy Change
 

When you guys say retail arbitrage, you are not talking about walking into walmart and buying products to sell on eBay, correct? You are talking about shipping from Walmart to the customer?

Re: Ebay Dropshipping Policy Change
 

basically, they are talking
about buying on amazon or walmart websites and adding the ebay buyers name as the ship to address.

Re: Ebay Dropshipping Policy Change
 

buying from stores and resell on Ebay is fine,as you have the goods.
There are Ebay sellers who have AMZN prime account with free shipping,they will right click a stock photo of an item from AMZN and list it on EBAY,when you buy it,he will ask AMZN to ship to you as a gift to his friend.
When it comes to return policy,Ebay /Paypal will expect your buyer to return the item to the return shipping address you added to your seller account,so if you want them to return to AMZN,you have to add AMZN return address to your seller account,but the problem is AMZN shipped from different warehouses,there is no way to know ahead of time which warehouse AMZN will ship from.
if buyer shipped it back to you and not AMZN,then you will have to refund him and then return the item yourself to AMZN.
Some AMZN prime members who sell electronic goods on Ebay have seen their AMZN prime membership account cancelled due to too many returns of TV set,laptops,etc

Re: Ebay Dropshipping Policy Change
 

Nearly everything I buy on ebay now is dropshipped from Amazon prime.

Re: Ebay Dropshipping Policy Change
 

same happens to me,my last purchase was under $9 and it came from AMZN,I looked up the item and it was under $8 on AMZN as a side order,forget the term for it,meaning if you buy $25 or more on AMZN,this one comes cheap at $7.xx.
so what the Ebay seller must have done is to buy enough from AMZN to get this item at $7.xx and resell on Ebay for a Little more.
But after Ebay and Paypal fee,I doubt she makes much?

Re: Ebay Dropshipping Policy Change
 

Most Ebay buyers resent this practice,I always wonder when Ebay will take action as it is free advertising for AMZN and WMT or Wayfair.