Amazon Flips?

[disneysteve]

Part of their decision is due to complaints that Amazon and Ebay allow people to sell counterfeit merchandise, which hurts the brand name of the item being sold and the platform doing the selling.

I'm fine with not allowing sales of counterfeit items. That's the law and they should enforce it. But you don't enforce it by banning all sellers from selling legitimate items. That's ridiculous.

[David James]

I'm fine with not allowing sales of counterfeit items. That's the law and they should enforce it. But you don't enforce it by banning all sellers from selling legitimate items. That's ridiculous.

Oh, I agree with you, but both platforms allow third-party selling and I guess it was cheaper and easier to ban some of the stuff that is supposedly highly targeted. The alternative would include hiring experts to detect and mitigate counterfeiting and facing lawsuits. I think the SBA program might make it harder for them. I'm sure some brands just kicked up a fuss because they felt re-selling made their item appear less exclusive and harmed their brand's value. But, if Disney can work with LuLaRoe, it seems odd that they're worried about what's happening on Amazon.

[disneysteve]

Oh, I agree with you, but both platforms allow third-party selling and I guess it was cheaper and easier to ban some of the stuff that is supposedly highly targeted. The alternative would include hiring experts to detect and mitigate counterfeiting and facing lawsuits. I think the SBA program might make it harder for them. I'm sure some brands just kicked up a fuss because they felt re-selling made their item appear less exclusive and harmed their brand's value. But, if Disney can work with LuLaRoe, it seems odd that they're worried about what's happening on Amazon.

Some of the problem is that the companies create their own secondary market problem by not limiting purchase quantities. Let's say Disney comes out with a limited edition item with a edition of 100. They know that item will be in high demand on the secondary market. If they don't know it by now, they're incredibly stupid. So why not limit customers to buying 2 of the item? Nope. Instead, they allow someone like me to walk in and buy 20 and then turn around and sell them on ebay. It only takes a handful of buyers for the edition to sell out and from then on, it's all secondary market sales.

[Gailete]

I'm fine with not allowing sales of counterfeit items. That's the law and they should enforce it. But you don't enforce it by banning all sellers from selling legitimate items. That's ridiculous.

And therein lies the problem. Amazon carries a big whip of sorts that kicks all the small US sellers off their site for an infraction of selling a Disney item for example without being a bonafide Disney reseller, yet Chinese sellers flood Amazon by the dozens with "Just Launched" sellers coming on board and within 5 minutes have 20K+ of inventory listed including that Disney item. They take the orders, somehow they get the money, and then their site closes after never shipping a thing!!!! and opens back up immediately under a new name and IP, selling the same stuff, wash rinse repeat. Yet who gets suspended for life? The small one time seller, that has an item, never taken out of it's box because they were collecting them, but now they need groceries more than collections and so without understanding the process on Amazon or ebay, put it up for sale and find themselves booted off the site.

I have run into sellers that are located in China, They sell under multiple names, use the same photos and they sell costumes of all the Disney characters costumes Like Mickey or Minnie as well as other now famous cartoon characters. You tell them they aren't allowed, and they pretend ignorance. You turn them in and nothing is done, Yet one day I was selling a pattern very much like a Coco Chanel suit jacket and in the title called it a Chanel-style jacket as that is what it was and had to revamp the title as I couldn't use the word Chanel. In the meantime other sellers sell Simplicity sewing Patterns using Jackie, Jacki O, etc. in their titles and they never get taken down and I defy anyone to find me a Jackie Kennedy garment that was made off a Simplicity pattern. So the rules, such as they are, aren't applied fairly. Fine if you don't want me using the word Chanel, I won't, but why allow the Jackie patterns to go through?

On line selling is big business. But the rules are never applied fairly. It seems like all the big business want their share of the pie. Someone somewhere bought their goods and now someone else has found them or were given to them or they themselves bought them from the company, and the company wants them to cease and desist reselling the item AND to give them the profit of the goods that they sold. Sorry but if I sold a 40 year old whatits you aren't going to get a penny from me.

Yes, many on-line sellers are down on the Chinese sellers as they flood the market with pirated and counterfeit products if they ship at all. They seem to have no moral or business ethics whatsoever. They have no problems selling pirated goods, they get subsidized by their government AND the US government by getting mailing breaks which allow those that actually ship goods from China to NYC for less than something can go from Manhattan NY to Brooklyn NY! How is that fair to US sellers?

You really have to be on your toes to sell successfully on line.

[disneysteve]

Yet one day I was selling a pattern very much like a Coco Chanel suit jacket and in the title called it a Chanel-style jacket as that is what it was and had to revamp the title as I couldn't use the word Chanel.

I'm actually okay with that because far too many sellers use those name brands to attract potential buyers to their items that are NOT those brands. I think that is deceptive, although anyone doing it should be treated the same, not just the little guy.

They have no problems selling pirated goods, they get subsidized by their government AND the US government by getting mailing breaks which allow those that actually ship goods from China to NYC for less than something can go from Manhattan NY to Brooklyn NY! How is that fair to US sellers?

I'll admit I'm guilty of taking advantage of that numerous times. When my wife used to knit, I would buy her higher end knitting needles from China. They were the exact same ones she could buy here in the US but it was considerably cheaper to buy them online from China even with shipping than it was to walk into a local store and get them. I also buy pen ink refills for the pens I use from China on ebay. Way cheaper than buying them in the US.

I've gotten items on Amazon that were barely more than the cost of a stamp, like phone accessories, for example. How they can sell me a pack of 3 screen protectors with shipping for under $2.00 always amazes me.

[Gailete]

Years ago I was at Niagara Falls where they had a lot of linens for sale at unbelievable prices. I bought some. But it wasn't until a couple of years later that I saw a 'handmade' quilt for $29.99 at a store the I realized the scope of what China was doing. As a quilter myself, I knew that just the fabric for the quilt would have cost more than $29.99. So the cost of the fabric, the profit for the factories that produce them, the cost of shipping those quilts here and the mark-up from the store selling, I realized that the only way that these quilts could have been made was with slave labor. The people making them at that point in time, probably were being paid the equivilent of 5 cents at most for the work they put into things. I see other 'handmade' items as well such as a hand crocheted lace motifs at store like Joanne Fabrics for 99 cents. Again taking in the cost of the thread to make, the factory profit, the time it took them to make, the shipping to the US, and again the markup at the store. If the makers of these items were making a penny I would be surprised. Either it was machine made and closely resembling handmade I could perhaps see the cost, but if actually handmade, I have done enough crocheting in my life too know that they would have taken at least an hour to make. So I don't support 'slave' labor.

Machine made items I can see being produced for a very low cost, but hand made items from China I refuse to buy. You could argue that the people making these items NEED those few pennies, but I would rather support US workers who also need dollars to keep food on the table. It isn't that I don't support workers attempting to earn a living from sewing, a tenth of all profit from my pattern store goes to help women in various places to learn to sew to help earn money to support their families instead of going the route of the world's oldest profession for women. The women in the groups I support are earning fair wages for what they produce.