What the hell has happened to Amazon

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,523]

1 hour ago, Dbeasy said:

Just want to revive this thread to re-emphasize how much Amazon sucks ass and is destroying America.

The site is nothing but Chinese knock-offs, to the point that you can’t even find reliable quality brands unless you know specifically the brand and model you want. Even then, the potential for receiving a fake branded product is high because they don’t manage their supply chain tightly enough.

I see every European and American product copied so closely that the violation of trademarks, copyrights and patents is blatant.

I want to start buying directly from
manufacturers. As soon as UPS and Fedex realize that they can become the warehouses and delivery vehicles for all legitimate manufacturers, they can take on Amazon more effectively and manufacturers can strengthen their brands and their profit margins.

It’s time for all of us to take down Amazon.

Yeah I refuse to buy from amazon 3rd party sellers. I give amazon the benefit of the doubt that when they’re the seller, it’s real.

I understand that legitimate sellers do actually care about avoiding counterfeits because Amazon can ban sellers with little notice. But there must be other sellers that don’t care about maintaining a real store. It’s just producing/reselling items for lowest price and if they’re caught, wind up a new store.

If you buy a name brand item on amazon and you believe the quality indicates a counterfeit, complain to amazon.

[52-80 19,246]

41 minutes ago, hornbri said:

We still shop on it frequently and to my knowledge have not gotten any fake products. Quality has remained high. 
 

what product did you recently buy that was fake?

FreshRight

[Cajun 11,740]

Amazon has become kind of a joke.

I used to buy from them quite a bit, but now only shop it as a last resort.

From items not being delivered, to being left in idiotic places, to cheap knock offs, the list goes on and on and on...

[wild_turkey 3,182]

The site is nothing but Chinese knock-offs, to the point that you can’t even find reliable quality brands unless you know specifically the brand and model you want. Even then, the potential for receiving a fake branded product is high because they don’t manage their supply chain tightly enough.

I completely agree. Lots of fake products with obviously fake reviews.

If you want something specific and you search for that product and find that it’s sold by Amazon, then it’s pretty safe and straightforward.

If you want to browse for a type of object and compare different products, there’s a good chance the search will be polluted with either counterfeit replicas of an actual brand name item, or you’ll get multiple products that look eerily similar from different brands you’ve never heard of which all happen to have fancy European sounding names and have 3,000 reviews with 4.7 stars. Amazon should be able to control reviews better by limiting reviews to people who actually have unique accounts and bought that product through Amazon.

Just looking back at our order history, we’ve shifted more back to buying books (ironic), simple food items like Clif bars or protein supplements, light bulbs, phone chargers, batteries, etc. We rarely purchase anything big from Amazon and I’m wondering if the Prime subscription is even worth it because we could get most of this stuff elsewhere at a similar cost, or we could just pay the shipping charge on the occasional Amazon order if we bought something under their $25 free shipping limit.

[zork 629]

Their kindle products for kids with the parental controls and access to tons of books and apps in the kindle-verse, and into the public library-verse, public school library-verse, is dang solid.  The parental controls let you set hours and also age ranges of their offerings.  The prices are going up on them compared to when they were almost giving them away years ago.  Still seem to be worth it.  

[Dbeasy 15,092]

We still shop on it frequently and to my knowledge have not gotten any fake products. Quality has remained high. 
 
what product did you recently buy that was fake?

They snuck into my house and replaced all of the authentic items with exact replicas.

[Hmmm 155]

Alibaba is using AI (and maybe blacklisting sellers) to fight counterfeit products.  They claim to be better at it than Amazon.  And they're in China.  I read an article a while back that indicated they can track counterfeits back to the manufacturing facility.  Wonder if Amazon will follow their lead.

[dingleberryswitzer 2,724]

Only problem I've been having with Amazon is when I buy something used from they're "Warehouse".

I'll get something used that is missing a part.  Someone obviously bought something, took out the little piece they needed and returned for a refund.  Sure I returned it and got my money back but it's annoying.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,523]

True that sometimes their inventory are knock-offs are opposed to flat out counterfeits.  

[Gene Parmesan 4,014]

What are you guys ordering that you are constantly getting fakes?  I am a heavy user and I suppose I am getting fakes as well and just not noticing?  What are the most faked products on Amazon, and how do people know?  Is it just it broke so it's probably fake or they ordering a pair of Nike shoes and getting Nik shoes or something?  How do you differentiate between a cheap knock off and a cheap authentic?  

[StruggleBus 3,922]

Don't buy golf clubs on Amazon. 

I still use it for pretty much anything else though. 

[Deej 76,922]

32 minutes ago, Hmmm said:

Alibaba is using AI (and maybe blacklisting sellers) to fight counterfeit products.  They claim to be better at it than Amazon.  And they're in China.  I read an article a while back that indicated they can track counterfeits back to the manufacturing facility.  Wonder if Amazon will follow their lead.

 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,523]

3 minutes ago, Gene Parmesan said:

What are you guys ordering that you are constantly getting fakes?  I am a heavy user and I suppose I am getting fakes as well and just not noticing?  What are the most faked products on Amazon, and how do people know?  Is it just it broke so it's probably fake or they ordering a pair of Nike shoes and getting Nik shoes or something?  How do you differentiate between a cheap knock off and a cheap authentic?  

From my understanding apparel counterfeits on Amazon are relatively rare because it's not easy to get Amazon approval to sell them. I think it takes a long track record before they will allow 3rd party vendors to sell those SKUs, and it's easy to lose that privilege.

Amazon is becoming how I used to compare Wal Mart and Target. Target had better quality but you paid a bit extra and didn't have to fight people that shopped at Wal Mart. Amazon now has a large amount of crap. Amazon used to purchase most (all?) of their inventory, now it seems like it's a small percentage. Amazon is just poor quality Chinese products these days.

I've become more minimalist over the past few years so I buy less but higher quality items. I used to get a couple Amazon packages per week. I'm now down to one every few weeks. Now I buy more items either directly from the maker or at a B&M store.

[BigHorn'13 3,387]

Not even sure what it means to be a prime member anymore. Luckily most things are down to a week shipping time but there was a while where it was 2-4 weeks. Rural Texas and quarantining doesn't provide a lot of alternatives, though. 

[Hmmm 155]

2 hours ago, Gene Parmesan said:

What are you guys ordering that you are constantly getting fakes?  I am a heavy user and I suppose I am getting fakes as well and just not noticing?  What are the most faked products on Amazon, and how do people know?  Is it just it broke so it's probably fake or they ordering a pair of Nike shoes and getting Nik shoes or something?  How do you differentiate between a cheap knock off and a cheap authentic?  

 I bought what I thought to be a digital print of a famous painting.  Turns out it was an actual painting and absolutely terrible replica.  So, kind of a reverse knock off.  Other than that, I haven't noticed any fakes either.

[shakahorn 1,645]

Third party sellers are running a scam where they generate a shipping label as soon as you order, even though they don't have the items in stock, and probably don't have any idea when it will be in stock.  That way they can bill you, claiming the order shipped.  Then it has to be delayed well beyond the originally estimated ship date before you can get a refund.  All the while holding onto your $$$ and earning 20%.

[Nicole44 22,078]

1 minute ago, shakahorn said:

Third party sellers are running a scam where they generate a shipping label as soon as you order, even though they don't have the items in stock, and probably don't have any idea when it will be in stock.  That way they can bill you, claiming the order shipped.  Then it has to be delayed well beyond the originally estimated ship date before you can get a refund.  All the while holding onto your $$$ and earning 20%.

• "When they touch down, we'll blow the roof, they'll spend a month sifting through the rubble and by the time they figure out what went wrong—we'll be sitting on a beach... earning twenty percent."

[woohorn 1,131]

what product did you recently buy that was fake?

I heard Gilette razor blades are often fake for some reason. I guess bigger margin?

[pantone159 719]

27 minutes ago, woohorn said:

 

 

I heard Gilette razor blades are often fake for some reason. I guess bigger margin?

If the package is spelled 'Gilette' that is your first clue...

 

[TornACL 7,722]

4 hours ago, dingleberryswitzer said:

Only problem I've been having with Amazon is when I buy something used from they're "Warehouse".

I'll get something used that is missing a part.  Someone obviously bought something, took out the little piece they needed and returned for a refund.  Sure I returned it and got my money back but it's annoying.

You should have also taken a little piece off of it, before returning, and keep the game going. 

Eventually someone will order that office furniture set and just receive a couple of washers and a piece of particle board. 

[Dbeasy 15,092]

4 hours ago, Gene Parmesan said:

What are you guys ordering that you are constantly getting fakes?  I am a heavy user and I suppose I am getting fakes as well and just not noticing?  What are the most faked products on Amazon, and how do people know?  Is it just it broke so it's probably fake or they ordering a pair of Nike shoes and getting Nik shoes or something?  How do you differentiate between a cheap knock off and a cheap authentic?  

A few comments here.  Take Nike shoes.  See below's announcement last year:

Nike confirms that it is no longer selling its products on Amazon. Nike confirmed on Tuesday that it will no longer sell its products on Amazon's site. The news was first reported by Bloomberg. The partnership between the two retailers was first announced just over two years ago.Nov 13, 2019

So, that means Amazon has to "find" Nike shoes. Where do you think they "find" them? I'm sure there are middle men and distributors that get their hands on authentic Nike shoes and make them available on Amazon. However, are middlemen that are breaking Nike's sales agreements by making Nike shoes available on Amazon the type of people who are likely to care whether the shoes are really authentic, or instead made from a factory a few hundred yards down the street from the Nike factor in Shenzhen, a factory with no quality control that is using asbestos infuzed rubber because it's .44 cheaper, allowing Amazon to sell those Nike shoes for $7.99 less than what you'd pay on the Nike web site?

Your shoes say Nike. You think they are Nike. They might be Nike. You will never know definitively that you bought a fake. If and when they fail you will wonder whether: a) they just wore out, b) Nike made a bad batch, or c) Nike had a bad design.  Or, you get cancer in five years and wonder how. JK. Kind of.

 

Edited May 26, 2020 by Dbeasy

[Updawg 2,286]

I think they don’t give a shit as long as people are ordering crap through them and signing up for prime.

I think they are starting the migration to amazon basics. If you want something quick. Add a amazon basics item and you will get the whole order in a day or two.

I’ve cut down dramatically and just noticed my wife fucked up our family plan not too long ago. I don’t even give a shit if I’m not on prime anymore. After looking, At least we aren’t paying for two or three prime memberships which would have pissed me off. Yeah, fuck the cheap shit on amazon, it’s probably worse than Walmart now

[Sandman 3,412]

I think the dog food I buy is the real deal. The dogs haven't complained, so I think I'm good.

[Deej 76,922]

2 minutes ago, Sandman said:

I think the dog food I buy is the real deal. The dogs haven't complained, so I think I'm good.

It's coming from China. Your dogs are eating dog 

[Sandman 3,412]

1 minute ago, Deej said:

It's coming from China. Your dogs are eating dog 

They eat their own shit half the time, so I think that ship has already sailed.

[Vic Mackey 47,151]

11 hours ago, Dbeasy said:

Just want to revive this thread to re-emphasize how much Amazon sucks ass and is destroying America.

The site is nothing but Chinese knock-offs, to the point that you can’t even find reliable quality brands unless you know specifically the brand and model you want. Even then, the potential for receiving a fake branded product is high because they don’t manage their supply chain tightly enough.

I see every European and American product copied so closely that the violation of trademarks, copyrights and patents is blatant.

I want to start buying directly from
manufacturers. As soon as UPS and Fedex realize that they can become the warehouses and delivery vehicles for all legitimate manufacturers, they can take on Amazon more effectively and manufacturers can strengthen their brands and their profit margins.

It’s time for all of us to take down Amazon.

Amazon used to be free of all that. Ebay was the one who had all the knock offs bullshit. But ever since Amazon opened the flood gates and allowed anyone to sell on there, it is now the wild west. I am in the market for a laptop battery and phone battery. 95% of the shit on there is knockoff bullshit. It's ridiculous. I don't even know what to trust on there any longer. It used to be fun to go shopping and finding items on there. That is now not the case.

And this misconception that they have the lowest prices is bullshit, too. They don't.  Their prices pretty much match what you find in any brick/mortar store. People like the convenience of not having to go into the store and getting the item that day or the next day. Their prices are not lower than anyone's else's, though. they also fool so many with that price marked out for every item and having their price listed and how much percentage off. People get this notion they are saving a lot of money. That price marked out is nowhere near what the normal price is. It's inflated like crazy. For a good majority of their items.Where it is most outlandish is in their food/grocery department.

I despise Amazon more and more as time goes on.

[wild_turkey 3,182]

21 minutes ago, Vic Mackey said:

I despise Amazon more and more as time goes on.

They are the Walmart of the 21st century.

[dingleberryswitzer 2,724]

21 minutes ago, wild_turkey said:

They are the Walmart of the 21st century.

Probably true, but at least I don't have to be in the presence of people when browsing on Amazon.

[Dbeasy 15,092]

Seconded Vic’s comments. There are little to no savings on prices. Sure, you can buy Amazon basics but you are getting a lower quality product for sure. Actual branded, non fake products cost as much or more on Amazon. Their only advantage right now is the convenience of quick delivery, which definitely nice. Like I said, as soon as Fedex and UPS combine warehousing services with delivery, manufacturers have a better option.

[Doc Reeves 6,434]

I find myself going to the products company website and then hitting them up directly or one of their dealers. Lots of stuff has free or reduced shipping if you spend a certain amount. There are some great US shop websites out there. 

If not, I’ve had good luck with Newegg with a lot of stuff. The Walmart app/target app is great for the innocuous bullshit that you might need for guest room, trips or summer camp, most have *pickup so you tell them youre coming and you barely have deal with any one. 

Amazon Now is pretty tits. The Whole Foods tie in has been a pretty great experience for us so far. 
 

[atomheartbevo 89,799]

12 hours ago, hornbri said:

We still shop on it frequently and to my knowledge have not gotten any fake products. Quality has remained high. 
what product did you recently buy that was fake?

I ordered some My.Size 64 condoms, and I don't know what the hell was going on, but they were clearly not the right size - way too small, and the colors looked slightly off.  After seeing that company that was ripping off LEGO, I'm wondering if it's the same thing here.  Or maybe it was a problem in manufacturing and Amazon is not to blame.

[The University 851]

pantry, prime, fresh, whole foods, gottdammit just gtfo already. 

[atomheartbevo 89,799]

7 hours ago, Hmmm said:

Alibaba is using AI (and maybe blacklisting sellers) to fight counterfeit products.  They claim to be better at it than Amazon.  And they're in China.  I read an article a while back that indicated they can track counterfeits back to the manufacturing facility.  Wonder if Amazon will follow their lead.

I've bought not-so-lego LEGO sets through there at a steep discount.  

And they've got a marketplace that's a bit of a problem.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2018/01/26/if-beijing-listened-to-jack-ma-hed-be-going-to-jail/#781324d649e3

Quote

In 2016, Alibaba boasted that it took down 380 million products and closed 180,000 stores on Taobao.com for selling counterfeits and in 2017 the number of store closings rose to 240,0001. 

Ali Baba and the 40 thieves, always forget about that.

[atomheartbevo 89,799]

4 hours ago, BigHorn'13 said:

Not even sure what it means to be a prime member anymore. Luckily most things are down to a week shipping time but there was a while where it was 2-4 weeks. Rural Texas and quarantining doesn't provide a lot of alternatives, though. 

Pre-Pandemic, it meant getting stuff a few hours after you ordered it.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,523]

Ever watch any of the amazon arbitrage videos on YouTube? Basically people attempting to buy cheap bulk items at stores, for huge discounts that can sell for more on amazon. You actually can see the people in stores. They’re basically using an app to scan any and everything. The app tells them if it’s worth buying and reselling.

[Hmmm 155]

12 minutes ago, The University said:

pantry, prime, fresh, whole foods, gottdammit just gtfo already. 

they are in so many more markets than that.  they are a conglomerate monopoly.  there's a nice graph showing their markets and competitors that really shows their reach (will update post if i find it).  most underrated market imo -- cloud technology.

updated - 

 

Edited May 27, 2020 by Hmmm

[atomheartbevo 89,799]

1 hour ago, Vic Mackey said:

Amazon used to be free of all that. Ebay was the one who had all the knock offs bullshit. But ever since Amazon opened the flood gates and allowed anyone to sell on there, it is now the wild west. I am in the market for a laptop battery and phone battery. 95% of the shit on there is knockoff bullshit. It's ridiculous. I don't even know what to trust on there any longer. It used to be fun to go shopping and finding items on there. That is now not the case.

I was buying a laptop for a relative last week, and I gave up on Amazon - could not get questions answered about warranties, etc.  Meanwhile, over on eBay, there are refurbished dealers providing serial numbers (so you can check the mfr warranty site), answering questions within an hour or two, and not to mention that Lenovo and some of the other companies have their own stores on eBay.

Still not going to sell much, if anything on eBay anymore (used to sell a lot on there before it became a pain in the ass to sell, maybe they've changed it since then).  But buying is better, simply because the companies are truly competing on there.

1 hour ago, Vic Mackey said:

And this misconception that they have the lowest prices is bullshit, too. They don't.  Their prices pretty much match what you find in any brick/mortar store.

Yep.  Over the last two months, we've bought a lot more stuff locally, either because Amazon was going to take weeks getting it to us, or didn't even have it.    We just got lazy ordering from Amazon, but there was no reason to - local places will happily talk to you on the phone/online and get you setup.

[atomheartbevo 89,799]

11 hours ago, wild_turkey said:

Amazon should be able to control reviews better by limiting reviews to people who actually have unique accounts and bought that product through Amazon.

Wife and a friend would get free products to review, and while they'd have to mention in their review that they received it for free, I started noticing a lot of such reviews, and if you are simply sorting by stars, you'll never see that, and you know plenty of people will rate something higher if it's free.

[Hmmm 155]

4 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

I've bought not-so-lego LEGO sets through there at a steep discount.  

And they've got a marketplace that's a bit of a problem.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2018/01/26/if-beijing-listened-to-jack-ma-hed-be-going-to-jail/#781324d649e3

Ali Baba and the 40 thieves, always forget about that.

i hate using this analogy, but Alibaba is Amazon on steroids.  They supply businesses and consumers and cut out many of the middle man.  I hate/love that i'm invested with them.

[B00M 6,463]

4 hours ago, BigHorn'13 said:

Not even sure what it means to be a prime member anymore. Luckily most things are down to a week shipping time but there was a while where it was 2-4 weeks. Rural Texas and quarantining doesn't provide a lot of alternatives, though. 

It was like this for a lot of shit we ordered even in Austin. We had multiple things disappear in transit. Never had issues like that pre-covid. It seems like they got their shot together now though.

[atomheartbevo 89,799]

2 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Ever watch any of the amazon arbitrage videos on YouTube? Basically people attempting to buy cheap bulk items at stores, for huge discounts that can sell for more on amazon. You actually can see the people in stores. They’re basically using an app to scan any and everything. The app tells them if it’s worth buying and reselling.

I've seen them do this with books at garage sales, flea markets, estate sales, even the books that people donate to the library to be sold - scanning every book they can to see if any are worth something.   I can see how they can turn a profit.  Hell, in the late 90s/early 2000s I bought and sold a shit-ton of old video games that I was scooping up at garage sales and thrift stores.

The drop-shippers as well.  There's a pretty serious problem with people buying up the stock of certain things and then selling it as a third-party for a very expensive price.   Got my kid a re-release of an old Tamiya RC kit from the 80s, and  could pay $200 on Amazon, and another $70 for shipping, and they would (probably) be drop-shipping it from China, given that they listed up to a month shipping date.

Or I find one of the Hong Kong or Japanese RC shops that's got a good reputation for selling internationally, buy the same car for $90, pay $50 shipping and have it fairly quickly.

[markstanco 12,612]

Amazon has become kind of a joke.

Their stock price over the last year completely disagrees. As does Jeff Bezos' net worth.

[Hmmm 155]

8 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Ever watch any of the amazon arbitrage videos on YouTube? Basically people attempting to buy cheap bulk items at stores, for huge discounts that can sell for more on amazon. You actually can see the people in stores. They’re basically using an app to scan any and everything. The app tells them if it’s worth buying and reselling.

i remember going into BestBuy a long time ago, back when you could surf the internet on their computers.  i remember talking to a sales associate and showing them how i could easily find better pricing by searching Amazon using their computers they were trying to sell.  pretty sure they took away internet privileges shortly after that.

[atomheartbevo 89,799]

28 minutes ago, Hmmm said:

i remember going into BestBuy a long time ago, back when you could surf the internet on their computers.  i remember talking to a sales associate and showing them how i could easily find better pricing by searching Amazon using their computers they were trying to sell.  pretty sure they took away internet privileges shortly after that.

I had one of those days where I needed something, and wasn't going to go up to Fry's (back when Fry's was doing a lot better).  Found the price online at Best Buy, went in, showed them the price (higher than the store price), and they at first said they weren't seeing that price, and showed me, and it looked like the system was....odd.   And their in-store internet had the same in-store price.  Not long after that, I believe they discontinued the price, but I wondered how many people bothered to look at BestBuy.com before heading in.

[Vic Mackey 47,151]

45 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Wife and a friend would get free products to review, and while they'd have to mention in their review that they received it for free, I started noticing a lot of such reviews, and if you are simply sorting by stars, you'll never see that, and you know plenty of people will rate something higher if it's free.

Someone messaged me on Reddit and asked me if I wanted to make money giving 5 star reviews on Amazon for products they would send me. I would buy the product. Receive it. Review it a few days later. Make the 5 star rating and review. I'd be refunded the whole amount I spent on the product and given $5 profit per review. I didn't go through with this as I did not feel like keeping up with all that but this is a big thing if you search it. Some people do this so much, it is almost a full time job for them. They have to  keep up with it in a spreadsheet.

This tells you that you can not trust the star ratings or even the reviews itself on Amazon. They can be manipulated. People do this to manipulate how high up on the page their product shows up for when someone does a search for it.

Edited May 27, 2020 by Vic Mackey

[davidg 4,038]

Third party sellers are running a scam where they generate a shipping label as soon as you order, even though they don't have the items in stock, and probably don't have any idea when it will be in stock.  That way they can bill you, claiming the order shipped.  Then it has to be delayed well beyond the originally estimated ship date before you can get a refund.  All the while holding onto your $$$ and earning 20%.

I have a couple of orders on amazon that are third party and delayed but I haves been billed yet for them. YMMV.

[Stunns38 3,558]

Someone messaged me on Reddit and asked me if I wanted to make money giving 5 star reviews on Amazon for products they would send me. I would buy the product. Receive it. Review it a few days later. Make the 5 star rating and review. I'd be refunded the whole amount I spent on the product and given $5 profit per review. I didn't go through with this as I did not feel like keeping up with all that but this is a big thing if you search it. Some people do this so much, it is almost a full time job for them. They have to  keep up with it in a spreadsheet.
This tells you that you can not trust the star ratings or even the reviews itself on Amazon. They can be manipulated. People do this to manipulate how high up on the page their product shows up for when someone does a search for it.

Yep, that’s why I usually take time to pick an item and tend to choose one that’s further down on the search results with decent ratings. I try to avoid tons of one-sentence rated items and “Amazon’s Choice” since it’s basically a sponsored product.

[Cajun 11,740]

59 minutes ago, markstanco said:

 

 

Their stock price over the last year completely disagrees. As does Jeff Bezos' net worth.

 

Yeah, stock price always reflects quality.

Always

[woohorn 1,131]

Isn't Amazon supposed to be buying JCP soon to stimulate their apparel game?

[conVINCEd 21,469]

1 hour ago, atomheartbevo said:

I was buying a laptop for a relative last week, and I gave up on Amazon - could not get questions answered about warranties, etc.  Meanwhile, over on eBay, there are refurbished dealers providing serial numbers (so you can check the mfr warranty site), answering questions within an hour or two, and not to mention that Lenovo and some of the other companies have their own stores on eBay.

Still not going to sell much, if anything on eBay anymore (used to sell a lot on there before it became a pain in the ass to sell, maybe they've changed it since then).  But buying is better, simply because the companies are truly competing on there.

Yep.  Over the last two months, we've bought a lot more stuff locally, either because Amazon was going to take weeks getting it to us, or didn't even have it.    We just got lazy ordering from Amazon, but there was no reason to - local places will happily talk to you on the phone/online and get you setup.

I quit eBay when they fucked me out of $4k on an item I shipped with signature confirmation.  Buyer said I shipped an empty box and got their money back.  The purchaser listed the same item for sale a few weeks later.  I know it was the same item because there was something like a serial number involved.  I forwarded that info to eBay and PayPal and was still told to pound sand.  I contemplated pursuing it legally, but did the math.  I was subsequently blocked from bidding on the purchaser’s auctions.  So I did the best I could under the circumstances.  I had a friend who couldn’t give a shit about eBay set up an account and win the auction.  The plan was to pull the same scam on him.  I guess the seller noticed he was shipping to the same city, got suspicious, and made up some bullshit excuse about the item being inadvertently damaged to cancel the sale.