| jeffweico | 05-29-2016 01:38 AM |
Re: Unpaid Item Dispute / Suspension
Sellers of counterfeits always use clever wording and other tricks to try to avoid the eBay bots. I know this for a fact. I know this because I was one of them. I stopped because I was trying to create a long term business for myself and my family. I didn't want to continue down the road of lost accounts, customs seizures, threats of legal action and such. It can be fast money, but there is no way to build it to last for the long term.
Having said that, there ARE people out there who make a business of it. Everything should be considered as a number. Every factor should be taken into consideration. You realize upfront that you will lose accounts. You will have buyers trying to scam you because they know they can get away with it. You have to kiss ass when a customer confronts you on it, while denying everything, but offering a refund to keep the buyer happy. A professional can give an educated guess as to how many sales he will have next week, and next month. He knows that 10% of his merchandise will be seized by customs and has a plan to deal with it. He know he will lose "x" number of accounts each month and calculates that in as a cost of doing business. I would recommend setting up a fund for yourself as well, to put money on the side for the day you find yourself in need of legal representation. Because good attorneys do not come cheap. And you WILL need it at some point if you decide to make this your business and do it for any length of time.
You have to have a thick skin to be successful. Because people will call you all kinds of names and scream at you. They will threaten you with calling the police, the FBI, ICE, and the brand owners. They will post that you are an immoral slimeball, a scumbag, a thief and it only gets worse from there. You also have to have the ability to tun off the worrying. I could only do that to a point. Many years ago, I sold a DVD to a customer who happened to be a cop. He threatened that he was going to pass this on to a law enforcement officer who could come after me, that specialized in taking down counterfeiters. I checked Google and found out that he indeed WAS a cop. And in Washington DC no less. I threw up a few times that night.
Getting out of that was the best decision I ever made. And when I got in, I didn't even know enough to know I was dealing in counterfeits. I just thought that since everything came from China, I was just getting a good deal that was previously only available to big companies. By the time I wised up and figured out what I was really selling, I was addicted to the money it brought in. But you can only ignore the negatives for so long.
A little while after that cop incident I described, I got an order from a Disney employee. They called me and were very nice, they said they were not going to turn me in, but that they wanted me to know that what I was selling was phake. I realized that at some point I was going to send something to SOMEBODY that really COULD do something about it. So I took the money I had saved and started to buy legitimate merchandise. Book collections. Generic items from China, novelties, products for the gay community. Anything that had a decent profit margin and reasonable competition. I worked a lot harder, but I was happier and had less worries. It just isn't worth it. And I was VERY small time. I wouldn't have been a very attractive target to a prosecutor. The only way to make big money with that is to BE bigtime. And small time was enough of a nightmare for me.
So yes, you will have to look for the tricks that others use and develop some of your own. You will have to play the game. | 
