Question about a recent eBay LEGO purchase

[Redav]

How weird is this? On Friday I was looking forward to picking up another BrickLink order but it turned out to be one of those red LEGO bags and it came from LEGO AU and the customer was the same customer name used by the person who sent me the stolen set from earlier. Completely odd.

[shoggoth666]

I won an auction for a black pearl this week and the set arrived drop shipped from shop@home...came with the hulk fig. Seller registered in Australia. Reckon I'll contact shop@home with the details.

Update: Shop@home confirmed it was a 3rd party unauthorized charge. If this happens to you make sure you contact shop@home because your shop@home account will be flagged for fraudulent activity.

[AK_Brickster]

Are they letting you keep the set? I assume yes. Also, those Hulk figs are selling for a premium on eBay and BL if you want to unload it for $15 bucks.

[shoggoth666]

Are they letting you keep the set? I assume yes. Also, those Hulk figs are selling for a premium on eBay and BL if you want to unload it for $15 bucks.

Yes, they are letting me keep the set. Paid 82 bucks for it and that included postage. Good value IMO.

[Redav]

So, would you think this is another dodgy seller?

[nanuck95]

When you see stuff like that, you should report it immediately (I reported them just now). Not sure if ebay will do anything or not, but hopefully they start cracking down on these sorts of things. I would be curious to know how much money LEGO loses every year due to frauds like this, but anything that has the potential to drive up prices for us or making shopping online more difficult is a bad thing. Plus, it's dishonest and wrong.

[Redav]

Cool. I had wondered that. Thanks. I'm watching them so it'll be interesting to see what happens. The one that shanked me (and was shanked in return by me and eBay) was shut down after I reported them. There's another seller I came across who was selling new sets of LEGO but there was some other random things there.

[Ryclen]

Alright, so here's one. I tried bidding on a very discounted Helm's Deep on eBay, but was outbid at the last second for $95. A day later, I get an email, and the guy's willing to give me a second chance because there were extras. So I get it, MISB, for $95 including free shipping. A week later, it arrives via FedEx, Nicely sealed up and comes with the zombie car polybag and a receipt thing from Lego Shop@Home. Apparently, the guy who bought it was in Texas, but was shipped directly to me, and I don't live in Texas. I contacted the seller, who has been around for like 4 years, asking him about it, and apparently his supplier works for a dropshipping company, and he sells these things for discounted rates to get a commission.

Is that right?

[Redav]

Is that right?

Yes but not legitimately. I'd be reporting them to eBay and LEGO. He's either completely unaware that he's a sucker and works for thieves or he's simply one of them. Fat chance he lives in Texas either. What other items are they offering? Lots of other items available via Shop@Home?

[Ryclen]

Actually, he's not selling anything right now. The receipt did say it came from a Lego Returns Facility.
I did find this on eBay:
Online auctions
Many sellers on online auction sites, such as eBay, also drop ship. Often, a seller will list an item as new and ship the item directly from the retailer or wholesaler to the highest bidder. The seller profits from the difference between the winning bid and the wholesale price, minus any selling and merchant fees from the auction site.
So I don't know....

[Redav]

The strategy can be legit (my brother-in-law did this for a little while) but does LEGO? Everything I've seen (not that I've looked into too much depth) says no but realistically, why would LEGO be dropshipping a brand new series when people will pay RRP for it?

[Ryclen]

It did come from a returns center, it might've been a return although it does look mint.

[Redav]

I guess that's entirely possible. Did the name on the invoice match the name of the person you bought it from? When this happened to me, the delivery order was from someone who wasn't the seller and wasn't me.

[Ryclen]

I doubt it, but the guy did mention a supplier, so it might've been that.

EDIT: Ebay sent me a notice saying that the listing was now unavailable, due to it not following some guidelines. Apparently, if I received the purchase, I wouldn't have to do anything.

Does that mean what I think it means?