Ebay sellers out of stock and 1 month delay

Has anyone else experienced a sudden trend in e-bay sellers sending messages to say that their "supplier" is out of stock or there will be a 1 month delay due to rectification of damage on parted out items which you have bought?

I had one a couple of months ago. Recently I have had several of these from a different seller so I have stopped using him. But now another seller is telling me that "the item... in stock has some damage and is under after-sale service by our supplier".

I had assumed that each seller bought a figure and stripped it for the parts they sell to us. It seems that there is some other business (businesses?) that do the stripping and then they sell the parts to the people who then put them up on ebay.

Or do they get parts direct from the manufacturer? That would explain the sudden hold-up in supply.

I haven’t had this issue yet, John (nice to see you back, by the way). This situation sounds fishy to me. Have you filed a grievance with eBay or PayPal? And please let us know which seller it is so we can avoid them — bad eBay sellers should be called out.

Stryker2011 wrote:I haven’t had this issue yet, John (nice to see you back, by the way). This situation sounds fishy to me. Have you filed a grievance with eBay or PayPal? And please let us know which seller it is so we can avoid them — bad eBay sellers should be called out.

Hi Stryker, thanks for the response. I am not sure these are all bad sellers. I have dealt with some of them before and they were fine. Even the one I stopped using offered an immediate refund, (and I got the money back the next day) but I just can't work out why this is happening now? Depending upon how they get their stock, it might be COVID related?

I have bought enough on e-bay to generally have the option of going back to sellers I already trust. I did run into this issue relatively recently, when a couple of items from different sellers turned out to be out of stock or damaged and I was asked to advise on whether I wanted a refund or to substitute another item. I don't know if there is something systemically wrong or nefarious going on, but I assumed they had been a little sloppy keeping track of what they had in stock or sold (maybe a disconnect between selling on and off eBay).

I also had this happen recently. The seller asked if I wanted to wait or to receive a refund. They issued the requested refund promptly. However, it is a frustrating trend among China-based sellers, and eBay seems to be doing little to address the issue. They have all manner of requirements for "small scale" sellers, but seem to have few rules for their now-favored trading partners.

I haven't had this happen to me as of yet *knock on my desk here* but I've been noticing a lot of strange patterns coming out of the China-based dealers that give more credence to the thought of 'other business (businesses?) that do the stripping and then they sell the parts to the people who then put them up on ebay'. Namely that when doing a search for items I get the same exact picture that is being used by five to six sellers. I'm not talking promotional pictures from the manufacturing company, I'm talking the item placed against a ruler to showcase it's size and you find the same pic for half a dozen sellers. Granted, people don't want to do the leg work to take a picture of their own and upload it and instead relaying on someone else to do it for them and then save/upload to their BIN/Auction. But how many times have you seen that same red/gold cigarette lighter on BINs

I'll second the notion that there is a business that breaks down these box sets and provides pictures for sellers to upload thus freeing them up having to do so. It's like those old 'we'll sell it on eBay for you' corner market stores fifteen years ago. I don't think there is anything nefarious going on, as long as the sellers are reaching out to their clientele about potential problems and see what they want to do. A red flag for me is when they stop communicating or start making excuses. There is a US-based dealer that I had to call out on this, especially when I have to reach out asking 'hey has this order been shipped yet its been a week and still nothing'. This time last year, yeah the pandemic and all, but that excuse has been null and void by now.

As for Ebay doing anything about it, well don't get me started with them. eBay isn't going to step in when they don't see a problem especially when it doesn't effect their bottom line. In fact all they've been doing is try and increase their bottom line. Just look at their new sellers system they forced everyone into.

And don't get me started on the blown tentative release dates for so many items....

Thanks for the replies, guys.

Like thegreatshaggy I wonder if there is some kind of big business involved here? Maybe these "individual" sellers are in fact part of a larger company and they have multiple listings for the same item? That would explain why they are out of stock.

I forgot to mention that the e-mails from all these people are very similar with the two reasons given for non-availability : a) out of stock and b) damage stated in exactly the same words.

Maybe that is down to using a standard translation? If so, it is much better than the gobbledygook I get when I put something into Google.

However, I think you are all correct when you say this is not a scam of some kind.

Thanks for the help, it is much appreciated.

14 times so far since 1/1/21 I have gotten this message:

Thanks for your understanding and support. We are deeply sorry to inform you that the item XX in stock has some damage and is under after-sale service by our supplier. It may takes 1 month . So in order to provide you the best shopping experience, we can make refund to you now. And if you prefer some other items from us we can change the item for you. If you can accept it, pls inform us. Thank you. Any further questions, pls freely contact us. Kind regards, Yours, sincerely.

14 TIMES ! Word for Word. From 10 "different" sellers. It's gone beyond irritating for me. Especially when they take a week to tell me.

I asked 1 seller for photos of the damage. I told one seller to ship it to me broken anyway. Their response was to cancel the orders and refund with the stated reason that "The buyer requested to cancel this order". Because that way they get their listing fees back and there is no penalty for them.

I'm convinced that it's inventory error and they don't have the items. How do you break a KIMI head sculpt? And how do you know it's broken? Did you remove it from the box to check it's condition before shipping it? Uh huh, sure you did.

Before I descend into full rant, I will simply end by saying that looking at Paypal records of tranfers, I have a growing list of 6 sellers that all have the same paypal account called Strade Fareast Ltd. Make of that what you will.

Today I found that a seller had cancelled an item (helmet) that I had previously ordered from another seller who also had cancelled. Two days ago this seller told me an item I had ordered (axe) was damaged (see Annalise's message for EXACT text of e-mail!) but in fact they have cancelled this helmet instead.

I think that these sellers must have links to the manufacturers of figures (either official or unofficial) and, for some reason, at the moment they are unable to get supplies of these individual parts.

I wonder if the factories are producing these parts as a sideline after the contract with the company which owns the rights had ended?

I can't comment on all the details of this, as I haven't bought a ton of stuff on ebay recently, but I definitely feel strongly that MANY of the various sellers of parted-out 1/6 items on ebay are in fact the same, single seller. Not only because of the re-used photos, but also because I've noticed at times that there will be multiple listings of the same item that says 'last one', and I'll purchase it, and then suddenly all the *other* listings that said 'last one' are also gone.

JohnByng wrote:Has anyone else experienced a sudden trend in e-bay sellers sending messages to say that their "supplier" is out of stock or there will be a 1 month delay due to rectification of damage on parted out items which you have bought?

I had one a couple of months ago. Recently I have had several of these from a different seller so I have stopped using him. But now another seller is telling me that "the item... in stock has some damage and is under after-sale service by our supplier".

I had assumed that each seller bought a figure and stripped it for the parts they sell to us. It seems that there is some other business (businesses?) that do the stripping and then they sell the parts to the people who then put them up on ebay.

Or do they get parts direct from the manufacturer? That would explain the sudden hold-up in supply.

This happened to me with my Kimi Toys HS I ordered off eBay not even a month ago. I tend to only deal with eBay seller who actually have stock in a US based location as I hate waiting for the long lead times from Asia. They gave me a story that the one remaining stock of the specific HS I ordered was broken, and that it would take as long as 2 months for new stock from their supplier. Next they asked if I wanted to swap the specific style I had ordered for another one in stock, so I opted for the KT004 instead of the KT005 that I wanted.

At the time, it seemed like an honest issue with the one last remaining stock they had. It’s not like it was a part out from a set, but actually individually packaged product. Now reading that my case wasn’t an isolated incident, as I had imagined, is definitely weird!

If needed, I can provide the sellers name in my instance. We may want to create a list of seller known to do this practice.

I also find it weird that even though they changed the actual item I received; there was no update to the original purchase listing noting this, nor a cancellation of the original order and replacement of what I did receive. So, as far as eBay is concerned, I received the KT005 which I indeed did not.

The seller in my case was “sc_store9999” for what it’s worth.

I ordered about six items from different sellers over the weekend. Today I got three e-mails cancelling orders due to "damage" or because they are "out of stock". I was trying to get hold of CooModel armour and weapons and some TB League stuff. I even had an entire (not inexpensive)figure cancelled!

Maybe they are just trying to save from spending my money?

Whoa how strange.... wonder what is going on....

Run far far away of sc_store9999. They've f-ed me many times.

Theflyingman wrote:Run far far away of sc_store9999. They've f-ed me many times.

NEver do pre order with this store, it is indeed a bad one. Once you can't get your money back from paypal you will probably never receive the item.

Valiarde wrote:

Theflyingman wrote:Run far far away of sc_store9999. They've f-ed me many times.

NEver do pre order with this store, it is indeed a bad one. Once you can't get your money back from paypal you will probably never receive the item.

Agree. Though oddly when I first started in 1/6, this store was ok (or so it seemed). But then they got much worse and now I try to avoid no matter what. I had to cancel a PO from them once and it took almost two months to try to get my money back. Ugh.

I keep a spreadsheet of all my ebay transactions, so I am not exaggerating when I say it's happened 14 times in Q1 2021. This is a huge increase in frequency from the handful of times it occurred in 2020. There is no doubt in my mind that it's not true "damage" but inventory snafu. I just don't know why they're suddenly so bad at inventory management.

Annalise wrote:I keep a spreadsheet of all my ebay transactions, so I am not exaggerating when I say it's happened 14 times in Q1 2021. This is a huge increase in frequency from the handful of times it occurred in 2020. There is no doubt in my mind that it's not true "damage" but inventory snafu. I just don't know why they're suddenly so bad at inventory management.

Interesting... I wonder if it’s partly caused by the influx of folks (like myself) who are new to this hobby. I’ve seen a lot of new folks not only on this forum but also in the Facebook groups that I’ve recently joined. It still shouldn’t be happening as frequently as it does, but may be a possibility.

It could also be due to factories being behind, trying to play catch up, due to covid. It seems many are working piece meal, and going back and making more batches later.

Sorry to come back to this but I need some advice. A few days ago I ordered the COOMODEL Ares and Hercules from a seller who has always been reliable and I just got this email:


Thanks for your understanding and support. We are deeply sorry to inform you that the item 143846589467 in stock has some damage and is under after-sale service by our supplier. It may takes 1 month . So in order to provide you the best shopping experience, we can make refund to you now. And if you prefer some other items from us we can change the item for you. If you can accept it, pls inform us. Thank you. Any further questions, pls freely contact us. Kind regards, Yours, sincerely.


The message came with a picture of another item that I ordered some time ago. It seems that they are trying to avoid ebay knowing what they are doing with this particular item.

These figures have been around for quite a while and I am damn sure that they are not damaged or they would have offered me a price reduction rather than the BS about "after-sale service".

I will take the refund of course, but how do I proceed? Should I complain to ebay? Should I post negative feedback?

Thanks.

I would definitely complain to eBay — this needs to be stopped ASAP. Anyone, and everyone, needs to point this stuff out to them for every single transaction where the same message is essentially being sent by “multiple” sellers. The more this happens, the more likely eBay will attempt to do something. Who knows if it will be a positive outcome, but it doesn’t hurt to do the due diligence required. In the past, bad sellers were shut down, so I don’t see why this wouldn’t happen today — unless China owns eBay now.

Yeah, I'm shocked that this keeps happening over and over again. I have yet to encounter this (surprisingly!), but I don't see why people need to keep putting up with this. It's ridiculous to have items for sale if they aren't actually available!!

Due to Covid related international delivery problems I've given up looking at eBay listings from sellers outside the UK.

It's not always easy to make sure you're dealing with a local seller though, as I've seen in the past some of them try to spoof their actual location. It's the same on Amazon when I'm trying to avoid customs charges - you can't always tell where the item is located.

Add in these other problems with apparent stock availability, I've confined myself to known retailers such as KG Hobby, OneSixthKit and Giantoy. It limits options, but does have the benefit of putting a stop on impulse buying. lol

I suspect it's due to reduced factory production, and sellers wanting to keep cash coming in by making it seem that they have stock, or are gambling that it'll arrive soon. sc_store9999 were bad for that even before the pandemic. Trouble with them is they have numerous eBay accounts so they're not easy to avoid.

That's exactly how I analysed the situation , as well, Asta. I can understand why this might be happening, but it doesn't mean the sellers should be getting away with it. Imo, it should still be reported, regardless of whether one avoids these sellers in future or not.