Budgeting

Career & Money > Budgeting > eBay Sellers Make Clearance Season Less of a Bargain

eBay Sellers Make Clearance Season Less of a Bargain

| Thumb Up on
				StumbleUponStumble it! | Delicious Delicious | add to kirtsyKirtsy | Digg!Digg

Article By: Sarah Eve

eBay Sellers Make Clearance Season Less of a Bargain
VN:F [1.0.9_379]
Rate this article: 5.0/5 (1 vote cast)

"It’s not that selling on eBay hurts stores. It’s that unscrupulous practices of eBay sellers hurt stores."

Unscrupulous eBay seller practices are costing consumers. In-store promotions are scaling back to prevent sellers from ripping off the stores. Whether you sell on eBay, buy on eBay, or even if you don’t use eBay at all, this affects every customer that makes purchases in any way, shape, or form.

Have you ever found a great deal in a store and thought to yourself, “I could sell this on eBay and make some money off of it”? It is completely legal to purchase an item at a sale or clearance price and then resell it on eBay. The store makes money at the price point they chose and therefore they don’t lose anything. Then you could potentially make money selling it for more than you bought it for. But what happens if you can’t get a buyer, if your auction doesn’t get any bids?

A good seller will relist the item, change some of the keywords to improve search results, take better pictures of the item, and maybe even lower the starting price. Then if they still can’t sell it they do the honorable thing and accept their financial loss from investing in this item. What does an unscrupulous seller do? They return the item to the store.

The Reseller Return War

“So what? People make returns all the time. It’s no big deal.” It’s not that simple. A store return policy exists to encourage customers to feel comfortable buying products and be assured that they can return the item if it is defective or sometimes simply because the customer changes their mind. Their business plans expect some profit losses caused by returns. What is happening is that resellers are taking advantage of the return policies of stores. They will find a good deal, buy multiples of the item, and if they can’t sell all of the items they return them.

Why Does this Hurt Businesses?

Overstock: After customers buy items, the store then does inventory. Based on the sales volume they decide how much to restock. Say a customer buys 10 items and the store decides to restock 10 items. Then that customer comes back 2 weeks later returning 8 of those items. The store now has an overstock of the item and will be unlikely to recoup their costs.

Charge Backs: Every time a customer uses a credit or debit card to make a purchase the store is charged a fee (usually 3% of the transaction) by the credit card company. When a customer makes a return, the customer gets the full amount of the transaction price back but the store then loses out on that 3%, plus they are often charged a “charge back” fee in order to refund the amount to the customer.

How Does This Hurt You?

When stores have an increase of losses they make up for it by increasing prices. This means finding a good deal is harder to come by. Furthermore, return policies get stricter and promotions limit the quantity available per customer.

eBay Sellers
It’s not that selling on eBay hurts stores. It’s that unscrupulous practices of eBay sellers hurt stores. In fact, there are a number of other ways that immoral sellers are hurting stores as explained on PaidOpps.com.

What Do You Think?

Do you think that unscrupulous eBay sellers are hurting your in-store shopping experience? Are they making clearance season less of a bargain? What do you think we can do as customers to help prevent these practices?

________
(Original photo by Gene Wilburn, used under Creative Commons license.)

  • Leave a Comment
  • Print

Subscribe to comments on this post via RSS feed

Leave A Comment

Join TotallyHer or login below to comment!

Login

More from Sarah Eve

View Profile

Sarah Eve -

The “Living Together” Divorce Rate

Sure, you’ve heard that living together before getting married increases the likelihood of a divorce, but what about the couples that decide to just live together? Are they as likely to break up?

Take a Tour on a Segway!

Segway tours are popping up in almost every city. These tours are fun, eco-friendly, and relatively affordable. If you want to try something new take a Segway tour. It’s even more fun than it looks!

Cutting Edge: Fire & Ice | Francia Raisa and Brendan Fehr Interview

Francia Raisa and Brendan Fehr, the stars of ABC Family’s original movie “The Cutting Edge: Fire and Ice,” talk with our editor & writer Sarah Eve. You’ll recognize Francia Raisa from “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” and Brendan Fehr from “Roswell.”

View More

TotallyHer.com -Check What's NEW and What's HOT

Driving Cars in Other Countries

If you are planning on traveling to another country, you may have thought that renting a car and would be the best way to handle sightseeing. However, depending on where you’re going, you may find that renting a car was not the smartest choice.

Avatar | Movie Review

James Cameron’s Avatar promised to be one thing: epic. But does it deliver?

Privileged | TV Review

Privileged is a delightful alternative to heavy hitting shows such as Gossip Girl, 90210, and The Secret Life of the American Teenager. The storyline follows Megan Smith, a recent Yale graduate with aspirations to be a writer, as she takes the job of live in tutor for Rose and Sage Baker.

View More

Related Aticles

TotallyHer’s Top 10 iPhone Apps for Busy Moms

Whether you’re a career woman or a work-at-home mom, you don’t have time to waste. To help you make the most of your time and money, we’ve put together our list of the top 10 iPhone apps for busy moms. Let us know which apps you use the most!

I Chose Home

It came when my daughter was three months old: an email containing a proposal from a counseling center in the city my husband and I would be re-locating to in coming months. This would be in addition to the counseling I would do in my own office location.

Should You Make a Revocable Trust Part of Your Estate Planning?

There are kids and there are assets; the goal is to get the two of them together with the least amount of interference from Probate Court. If protecting your assets while still maintaining control is a goal, then talk to a financial adviser about the possibility of setting up a revocable trust.



  • TotallyHer New Article Feed
  • Make New Friends
  • Voice Your Opinion
  • Win Prizes
  • Join Totally Her





What Do You Think of Daylight Savings Time?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...