OT: Avoiding Amazon - fail

[Adrian Caspersz]

Sometimes an identical item purchase can be bought cheaper from eBay than Amazon, especially if not signed up with their (yuk) prime, when eBay free postage has the advantage, even if the item cost is then slightly higher.

So, I ordered a gadget from a company based in the middle east sending out free 3 day delivery here from their Manchester "warehouse".

The item landed on my doorstep, totally decked out in Amazon packing as "fulfilled" by them.

What have we got here?

Can anyone open an Amazon prime account, advertise their stock to eBay, arrange drop ship delivery - and profit from a small pricing differential which is obviously not offsetting much of the post?

[Fredxx]

Interesting idea. I would have thought eBay/PayPal fees would have gobbled up any profit.

[michael adams]

Basically it seems Amazon are offering their FBA service (at a cost) to everyone regardless of whether or not they're selling through Amazon Marketplace.

At a guess this has been running in the US for a while and is now being rolled out in the UK as well.

From Bezos's point of view its probably a way of letting eBay know he's around even if he hasn't quite managed to entice all of their sellers away from them. Yet.

< cue maniacal laugh >

michael adams

...

[Brian Gaff]

I'm sure that offers exist and some people can use the system to make more money. I have to say, I never use Ebay, since it seems to be a collection of dubious people and the platform does not care. On Amazon they have been very good when traders who sell through them have made a mess of things. Incidentally, I'm assuming that after 25th may, no pre ticked Amazon Prime boxes will be allowed?

Brian

[Roger Mills]

I've had that, too. Seems a lot of sellers use both Ebay and Amazon, and send stuff out in Amazon packaging even if ordered via Ebay.

[pamela]

Much as I like goods Fulfilled By Amazon when I buy on Amazon, this is starting to get too confusing.

[dennis]

Amazon just offer a warehouse service, you pay by volume/weight and they ship it when you ask them. You could run telesales and get amazon to store and dispatch the stuff. They are not the only ones to offer this type of service but they do do deals with smaller retailers AFAIK.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I've made something like 2000 transactions on Ebay, both buying and selling, with very few problems. Certainly no more than I'd expect from anywhere. And with the odd problem, Ebay has sorted it out.

It may well depend on what you are buying or selling, though. Problems with car sales seem pretty common, but I've not done that.

Majority of my transactions are electronic parts and car spares.