Why would an eBay seller do this?

[yg17]

I bought a copy of the Alphabet of Manliness off eBay last week, since it was cheaper than Amazon or anywhere else. Today the package arrived, in an Amazon box. At first, I thought he reused a box, but the return address was Amazon. Weird. I opened it up and looked at the packing slip. Basically, it looks like the seller purchased the book from Amazon and used my info for the shipping address. He also did 2 day air shipping. I went to Amazon's website and got the price of the book and 2 day UPS. The total, almost $20 bucks. I paid the guy $13 for the book and shipping. So now I'm very curious....what reason would an eBay seller have to do this? This wasn't an official Amazon auction or anything. It's a private seller (ironically, a guy who sells Apple products and apparentley had a few books too)

 

[floriflee]

Maybe he ran out of stock and had to find a copy for you quickly?
Maybe he thought he had the book and then found out that he was thinking of the wrong one??

Who knows....

 

[Queso]

Maybe he had a $20 coupon that was about to expire?

 

[homerjward]

probably he had a $20 gift card or something and wanted cash.
btw, very, very good book. i laughed from cover to cover.

 

[lexus]

Did you contact him?

 

[nbs2]

He also did 2 day air shipping. I went to Amazon's website and got the price of the book and 2 day UPS. The total, almost $20 bucks. I paid the guy $13 for the book and shipping. So now I'm very curious....what reason would an eBay seller have to do this? This wasn't an official Amazon auction or anything. It's a private seller (ironically, a guy who sells Apple products and apparentley had a few books too)

Keep in mind that he may be an Amazon Prime member, so the 2 day shipping wouldn't have cost him anything....

 

[Lyle]

Keep in mind that he may be an Amazon Prime member, so the 2 day shipping wouldn't have cost him anything....

Interesting. And I just checked -- the book's going for $9.57 at Amazon.com right now. So the seller might have a profit on the sale after all (setting aside the Amazon Prime fees).

 

[Flowbee]

Interesting. And I just checked -- the book's going for $9.57 at Amazon.com right now. So the seller might have a profit on the sale after all (setting aside the Amazon Prime fees).

Yup, looks like he made about $3.50. It's an interesting way to use an Amazon Prime membership... sell books from Amazon on eBay marked up a dollar or two and offer free 2-day shipping. Pretty sure it's against the Amazon Prime TOS though.

Edit - Just as I suspected...

This program is not available for Corporate Accounts or for customers who purchase products for business or institutional use or for the purpose of resale.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/13819201/

 

[lexus]

Yup, looks like he made about $3.50. It's an interesting way to use an Amazon Prime membership... sell books from Amazon on eBay marked up a dollar or two and offer free 2-day shipping. Pretty sure it's against the Amazon Prime TOS though.

Edit - Just as I suspected...


http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/13819201/

Well he might have damaged or lost his copy and got that out in a hurry.