# Where do ebay sellers get their goods?



## tocqueville (Nov 15, 2009)

I've been following some of the higher volume ebay sellers and asking myself, where on earth does this stuff come from? The Kiton ties, Brioni suits, Oxxford blazers, RLPL loafers, etc. etc. Might any of it be stolen?


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## StephenRG (Apr 7, 2005)

Some of it might be stolen but I can think of two legit avenues. First, someone might well cultivate a senior SA or manager at a local outlet store - Syms, NR, etc. - and be alerted when there is new stuff of the right brands coming in, or when there are flash sales. Suppose he gets the nod that his local Syms has a one-day 50% sale was on - he could end up buying a lot of fairly decent stuff at 10% or 20% of a genuine retail price. The other is when the SAs themselves can buy goods on sale with a staff discount and resell it - I've heard that the scarcity of RLPL shoes at outlets began when the SAs at RL stores were buying them for resell, knowing that Edward Green-made RL sold reliably well.


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## MikeDT (Aug 22, 2009)

tocqueville said:


> I've been following some of the higher volume ebay sellers and asking myself, where on earth does this stuff come from? The Kiton ties, Brioni suits, Oxxford blazers, RLPL loafers, etc. etc. *Might any of it be stolen?*


...or knock-off? Probably coming from a large country in Asia.

Something I frequently see on the 'bay is large quantities of _'New with tags.'_ famous designer lux stuff, like RL, LV, Prada, Gucci, Hermes, Burberry, Armani.

TBH I don't think Ebay is too bothered by the large volumes of counterfeit or stolen goods that gets sold on its website. They still get their commission from the vendors.


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## statboy (Sep 1, 2010)

I don't think we're supposed to be talking about this....


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

Never has the old adage, "Let the buyer beware" been so true, as when used in referrence to the Internet in general and ebay, specifically! It rather causes one to wonder, 'Should something seem too good to be true, is it(!)? In almost every case it is! :teacha:


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## CAG (Jun 27, 2010)

If it's a manufacturer that advertises in GQ or Vogue, it's likely to be fake from a volume seller. Not a lot of market in knocking off Alden or Drakes.


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## dks202 (Jun 20, 2008)

*ebay experience*

Several years ago an ebay seller listed lots of NIB Talbott ties for a $15 buy it now price. Also a few Seven Folds at about $30 . I grabbed as many as I could afford. A few weeks later I received an email from a guy who said he was from Robert Talbott and he was investigating this seller because of the cheap ties. Back then you could send emails from eBay. I told him if he was for real he could call me at my office and I gave him the number.

He called and told me a shipment to Nordstrom was missing and some of the ties appeared to be on eBay. I told him what I knew and after several conversations over a month or so, he finally told me he discovered the seller's husband was the truck driver who picked up a shipment from Talbott to Nordstrom and the stolen ties were from that shipment. He wasn't going to prosecute but I'm sure they got another driver.

After I gulped, I asked about the ties I had purchased, over $200 worth. "Should I return them to you?" I asked. He replied "No, you got a bunch of ties at a real good price."


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## Titus_A (Jun 23, 2010)

Another alternative is salvage. Say a truck carrying RLPL goods jack-knifes in the middle of a cornfield and turns over: the company probably liquidates the truck's contents to a salvage company and writes the balance off as a casualty loss. The salvager, in turn, tosses what's ruined and sells the balance on ebay.

I don't know if that actually happens, but it could.


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## TheGreatTwizz (Oct 27, 2010)

dks202 said:


> Several years ago an ebay seller listed lots of NIB Talbott ties for a $15 buy it now price. Also a few Seven Folds at about $30 . I grabbed as many as I could afford. A few weeks later I received an email from a guy who said he was from Robert Talbott and he was investigating this seller because of the cheap ties. Back then you could send emails from eBay. I told him if he was for real he could call me at my office and I gave him the number.
> 
> He called and told me a shipment to Nordstrom was missing and some of the ties appeared to be on eBay. I told him what I knew and after several conversations over a month or so, he finally told me he discovered the seller's husband was the truck driver who picked up a shipment from Talbott to Nordstrom and the stolen ties were from that shipment. He wasn't going to prosecute but I'm sure they got another driver.
> 
> After I gulped, I asked about the ties I had purchased, over $200 worth. "Should I return them to you?" I asked. He replied "No, you got a bunch of ties at a real good price."


Care to unload some of those ties? You can't possibly be wearing them all


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## TheGreatTwizz (Oct 27, 2010)

Titus_A said:


> Another alternative is salvage. Say a truck carrying RLPL goods jack-knifes in the middle of a cornfield and turns over: the company probably liquidates the truck's contents to a salvage company and writes the balance off as a casualty loss. The salvager, in turn, tosses what's ruined and sells the balance on ebay.
> 
> I don't know if that actually happens, but it could.


This would make me want to swerve in front of the truck delivery Oxxford goods......


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## WouldaShoulda (Aug 5, 2009)

It fell off the truck.

Yeah, that's it!!


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## NotoriousMarquis (Mar 8, 2011)

I have to assume either a) stolen b) thrift stores c) places like Century 21 which they buy for a good solid amount of money but then mark up to something closer to but still lower than retail


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## cdavant (Aug 28, 2005)

There are knock-offs and rip-offs. Peru factory has an order for 10,000 polos which they produce under the watchful eye of the buyer. Everybody goes home. Soon as the coast is clear the workers return and do another 5,000 shirts using the same fabric, thread, etc. These are not inferior, just unauthorized and make it here through various back chanels. Another factory is probably making the same pattern using cheaper materials and less skilled labor--but it's hard to tell the difference in a picture. That's why eBay feedback is important to check. Other sellers haunt the outlets and buy all the designer labels they can find, list them, and return the ones that don't sell. No loss to them.


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## TheGreatTwizz (Oct 27, 2010)

cdavant said:


> Other sellers haunt the outlets and buy all the designer labels they can find, list them, and return the ones that don't sell. No loss to them.


I know a woman that does this regularly, and spiffs the store manager as they call her when new stuff arrives or they get the ok for deep discounts. Surprised that corporate never catches on, but then again, they're selling more stuff, so why would they care?


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## Taken Aback (Aug 3, 2009)

Titus_A said:


> Another alternative is salvage. Say a truck carrying RLPL goods jack-knifes in the middle of a cornfield and turns over: the company probably liquidates the truck's contents to a salvage company and writes the balance off as a casualty loss. The salvager, in turn, tosses what's ruined and sells the balance on ebay.
> 
> I don't know if that actually happens, but it could.


Of course it does, but you shouldn't assume that eBay is the place it all goes. A great deal of salvage clothing goes to second-tier off-price retailers (non-chain stores akin to Marshalls) that often go unnoticed down some side street. You should also know that "what's ruined" often makes it to their sales floor too. The buyer needs to beware in these shops since damages are often sold with an intent to deceive versus the indifference at the thrift shop.


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## wj_johnson (Jul 24, 2011)

Buyer BeWare! Some are real, fake and / or stolen. You have to check the rep of the seller. Do your homework.


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## Matt S (Jun 15, 2006)

When it comes to quality clothes, fakes are really obvious. Good fabrics and good construction aren't worth counterfeiting.


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## StevenRocks (May 24, 2005)

I used to help run an eBay store, and the main place we got merchandise from was clearance sales at retailers. Back before inventory control syetms became more sophisticated, you could luck up on some really good deals.


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## prospero1b (Mar 10, 2008)

None of the suggestions here explains how a number of obviously legitimate sellers have a seemingly unending supply of fine English shoes - not all of them seconds.


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## temple_gym (Oct 10, 2010)

When it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!:rolleyes2:


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## MikeDT (Aug 22, 2009)

Matt S said:


> When it comes to quality clothes, fakes are really obvious. Good fabrics and good construction aren't worth counterfeiting.


Problem with Ebay a lot of the time, you don't realise you've bought a counterfeit until it arrives. Then you've got to ship it back to China or wherever at your expense, then hope for a refund.


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## jimmyfingers (Sep 14, 2010)

At RL outlet, sellers go every day. they often drive around to different out. The larger RL outlets carry tons of PSR. They usually have a coupon and get it 80 percent of MSRP.


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## keysort (Aug 16, 2011)

I'm a full time student that's turned thrifting into a part-time job. I scan every thrift store around every week, and I usually have at least a few pairs of Allen Edmonds, Aldens and vintage J&Ms and Florsheim Imperials for sale. I even scored some Crockett & Jones oxfords...although I am sure many sells out there have less than honest means of getting their products.


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## 32rollandrock (May 1, 2008)

Perhaps, but we're talking new stuff here. I suppose once in a great while you can find never-worn Aldens or AE at a thrift store, but it's never happened to me. Maybe I don't go to thrift stores often enough.



keysort said:


> I'm a full time student that's turned thrifting into a part-time job. I scan every thrift store around every week, and I usually have at least a few pairs of Allen Edmonds, Aldens and vintage J&Ms and Florsheim Imperials for sale. I even scored some Crockett & Jones oxfords...although I am sure many sells out there have less than honest means of getting their products.


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## 32rollandrock (May 1, 2008)

Elves.



prospero1b said:


> None of the suggestions here explains how a number of obviously legitimate sellers have a seemingly unending supply of fine English shoes - not all of them seconds.


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## Taken Aback (Aug 3, 2009)

32rollandrock said:


> Perhaps, but we're talking new stuff here. I suppose once in a great while you can find never-worn Aldens or AE at a thrift store, but it's never happened to me. Maybe I don't go to thrift stores often enough.


I believe that pair of AE Graysons in 18B is still sitting on the same shelf I noticed them on months ago.


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## Avers (Feb 28, 2006)

There are all kinds of sellers.

I often make impulse purchases, especially if it's on great sale. Later I realize that some of my items I don't really need or they are really not my style or whatever. At that point it's too late to return the goods to the store, so I put them on eBay.

Of course I am not talking about huge quantities, just one or two items here and there.


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## MikeDT (Aug 22, 2009)

You're just a private seller, selling surplus and unwanted items, so that's OK. Not trying to sell 10,000 pairs of Nike Dunks or 5,000 Gucci handbags or something.


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## Apatheticviews (Mar 21, 2010)

When I was selling with dealers like The North Face, and a few others what would happen during "season" shifts was that they would close out anything that hadn't been shipped from the manufacturer to the distributor. Basically you could buy the items at distributor level pricing, rather than going through your normal wholesaler.

Using simple math, it would be something like this:

40% cost to distributor (before discounts), sold to retailer at 45-50% cost.

Using a $100 item, we'd pay $40 (and normally get another 4-6% back later on, not to mention advertising, buy backs, and stock rebalancing), and sell it to a wholeseller/retailer for $45-50 for a 10-20% profit margin. Anything we sold retail (which was A LOT), we were making 150% profit margin.

The thing was though, that we pre-ordered *everything* a full season in advance. When things went out of season (fall to spring, spring to fall), we had to blow it out to make room for more stock. TNF doesn't keep back stock. As it's made, it goes out the door.

The ebay sellers are probably just taking advantage of other manufactures that don't have the "pre-order" system in place. I wouldn't assume foul play. Just an unevolved business practice.


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## blue suede shoes (Mar 22, 2010)

Avers said:


> There are all kinds of sellers.
> 
> I often make impulse purchases, especially if it's on great sale. Later I realize that some of my items I don't really need or they are really not my style or whatever. At that point it's too late to return the goods to the store, so I put them on eBay.
> 
> Of course I am not talking about huge quantities, just one or two items here and there.


I do the same.

Another source is out of style clothes that retailers are getting rid of. A while back there was a news story that raised somewhat of a ruckus in NYC when it was found out that fashion retailers were ripping new clothes (last year's styles and discontinued designs) to shreds and putting them out for the trash. Advocates for the poor were outraged that these perfectly good clothes were not donated to the poor and homeless instead of being destroyed. The obvious answer was that retailers did not want clothes with their names and logos on homeless people. Retailers agreed to stop the practice, but somehow I'm not convinced they are now donating these clothes to the poor and homeless.


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## MikeDT (Aug 22, 2009)

blue suede shoes said:


> I do the same.
> 
> Another source is out of style clothes that retailers are getting rid of. A while back there was a news story that raised somewhat of a ruckus in NYC when it was found out that fashion retailers were ripping new clothes (last year's styles and discontinued designs) to shreds and putting them out for the trash. Advocates for the poor were outraged that these perfectly good clothes were not donated to the poor and homeless instead of being destroyed. The obvious answer was that retailers did not want clothes with their names and logos on homeless people. *Retailers agreed to stop the practice, but somehow I'm not convinced they are now donating these clothes to the poor and homeless.*


I think some of the more ethical companies do this. I was in London a few years ago working on a job for Pepe Jeans. What they did with the surplus past-season and unsellable stock, they defaced, slashed or cut-out the branding, then gave it all to the Salvation Army and other charitable organisations.

There was a BBC documentary a few years ago about Marks & Spencer's policy of destroying perfectly good but unsellable clothing. But since then I've sometimes seen apparently new or little used M&S garments in UK charity shops, but the tags and labels are always removed or slashed.

I'm sure some of it is containered-up and makes its way back to China. I've seen _slashed label_ M&S, C&A, Debenhams, Macy's etc. garments on sale here in Xilinhot and on Taobao.

British Telecom(BT) does a similar thing with all its surplus and unusable corporate wear. They remove or slash any branding and then send it to Africa.


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## Orsini (Apr 24, 2007)

I always assumed it was stolen, counterfeit, or both.


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

We have an ebay vendor who resides in a town near our home who sells a pretty fair number of items on consignment for others who don't want to go through the hassel of becoming a vendor themselves, but have a few items they would like to sell. The ebay vendor has a small store front and his only advertising for suppliers seems periodic ads in the local paper and a sign in his window.


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## Avers (Feb 28, 2006)

Sure I remember reading those stories about companies destroying their excess inventory clothes.

I can understand them, in the end you want to control the market, and dumping/donating large loads of old inventory will certainly cannibalize your future sales.


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## MikeDT (Aug 22, 2009)

Avers said:


> Sure I remember reading those stories about companies destroying their excess inventory clothes.
> 
> I can understand them, in the end you want to control the market, and dumping/donating large loads of old inventory will certainly cannibalize your future sales.


I think this is why the more ethical companies who do donate old inventory to the needy, remove and/or slash their branding, tags and labels, so as not to jeopardise any future sales or hurt their image. Anyway the poor, homeless and starving who are wearing donated clothing, are not really in a position to buy the new clothes.

I remember the BBC documentory about M&S destroying good clothes caused one hell of a stink at the time, it certainly hurt their image for a while.

Here's another recent BBC story about Primark destroying good clothes.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11284968
Primark are always saying they're supposed to be ethical and responsible on their website, about use of sweatshops and child labour though. M&S are also mentioned, seems they're the _good guys_ this time. However I did mention earlier, apparently some of M&S's old inventory comes back to China, for sale here, with the labels removed, cut or obfuscated with indelible marker pen.


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## Taken Aback (Aug 3, 2009)

eagle2250 said:


> We have an ebay vendor who resides in a town near our home who sells a pretty fair number of items on consignment for others who don't want to go through the hassel of becoming a vendor themselves, but have a few items they would like to sell. The ebay vendor has a small store front and his only advertising for suppliers seems periodic ads in the local paper and a sign in his window.


Didn't seem that successful except for attracting virgins...


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

^^
LOL. Well played, sir, but that just does not look like Chesterton, IN.?


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## RedBluff (Dec 22, 2009)

Titus_A said:


> Another alternative is salvage. Say a truck carrying RLPL goods jack-knifes in the middle of a cornfield and turns over: the company probably liquidates the truck's contents to a salvage company and writes the balance off as a casualty loss. The salvager, in turn, tosses what's ruined and sells the balance on ebay.
> 
> I don't know if that actually happens, but it could.


It's a racket my friend.
Growing up my father moonlighted as a longshoreman.
It was very common for them to "drop" things back then.
The bulk of the shipment got fenced but the workers always got a "taste" of the merchandise.
I'm sure it still happens now.

I've also heard it's quite common for organized crime to target truck and trailers with high end merchandise.


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## MikeDT (Aug 22, 2009)

"Yeh...fell off back of a lorry...didn' they"


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## CuffDaddy (Feb 26, 2009)

Before the rise of eBay and diffusion brands, one could walk into any of the (very few) outlets of Neimans, Saks, Nordstrom, etc., and routinely find extraordinary deals on top-notch stuff. I got a Zegna sportcoat for $169 while I was in law school, for example, and an Oxxford suit for $250 (plus $50 cash I paid the other customer who was carrying it to let go!). Nowadays, that stuff gets hoovered up and sold on eBay for many times the price that it used to fetch at the outlets. The market is more efficient, I guess, but that's no help to those of us who benefited from the inefficiencies of the old arrangement.


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