Short disclaimer that I did not look into this very deeply, but I just wanted to note that not everything that is priced astronomically on Amazon is a child trafficking front. Also, people need to realize that Amazon is a marketplace, like a swapmeet, where Amazon proper takes the largest and center plot, while they "rent" out space to a variety of 3rd party vendors that are allowed to sell in this marketplace in exchange for fees and a cut of the sales. Anyone can spend 2 minutes signing up and become a "seller" on Amazon. It is impossible for Amazon to micromanage and police individual listings created by 3rd party sellers unless a problem came up.
Also, on other listings where you see crazy prices, most sellers on Amazon use automated software to reprice their listings, and sometimes there are problems with feeds or the data, and quirky prices come up. Additionally, many listings on Amazon are fake, set up by dropshippers with multiple front companies where all they do is spider (copy) listings from other sellers and just mark up the price by whatever multiple they input into their algorithm. When you place the order, they just buy it from a legit seller and have that seller ship it to you while they pocket the difference. Sometimes these things go haywire and the result is crazy high prices or too good to be true low prices where you'll inevitably will get cancelled on if you order. There are always some sort of questionable or weird things going on where profit is to be made, but it isn't always as bad as you think.
This is not to say you shouldn't question things, but you shouldn't jump to conclusions without proper research.
Thank you. I might add that Amazon has had a lot of sketchy or definitely counterfeit stuff in the last year because of this policy. Much of it Chinese. EBay is getting more reliable.
I agree and Amazon loves the profits. One longtime Amazon seller wrote in the forums that he was being sabotaged by Chinese merchants destroying his reputation and trying to get him kicked off the platform with all sorts of "inhuman shady tactics." Some people were posting that sabotaging your competition was common practice in China. Not sure how true that is, but I guess if you ain't cheating you ain't trying.
Agreed, the AZN market is so convoluted and bastardized/rife with fakes that it's become a huge problem for resellers there.
That said, if you can offer a high-quality widget and take the time to photograph and write a coherent listing, there's a lot of opportunity to capitalize on how low the bar has gotten. At least until a CN manufacturer steals your listing and undercuts you because they aren't beholden to copyright/IP law. Big oof.
Short disclaimer that I did not look into this very deeply, but I just wanted to note that not everything that is priced astronomically on Amazon is a child trafficking front. Also, people need to realize that Amazon is a marketplace, like a swapmeet, where Amazon proper takes the largest and center plot, while they "rent" out space to a variety of 3rd party vendors that are allowed to sell in this marketplace in exchange for fees and a cut of the sales. Anyone can spend 2 minutes signing up and become a "seller" on Amazon. It is impossible for Amazon to micromanage and police individual listings created by 3rd party sellers unless a problem came up.
Also, on other listings where you see crazy prices, most sellers on Amazon use automated software to reprice their listings, and sometimes there are problems with feeds or the data, and quirky prices come up. Additionally, many listings on Amazon are fake, set up by dropshippers with multiple front companies where all they do is spider (copy) listings from other sellers and just mark up the price by whatever multiple they input into their algorithm. When you place the order, they just buy it from a legit seller and have that seller ship it to you while they pocket the difference. Sometimes these things go haywire and the result is crazy high prices or too good to be true low prices where you'll inevitably will get cancelled on if you order. There are always some sort of questionable or weird things going on where profit is to be made, but it isn't always as bad as you think.
This is not to say you shouldn't question things, but you shouldn't jump to conclusions without proper research.
Thank you. I might add that Amazon has had a lot of sketchy or definitely counterfeit stuff in the last year because of this policy. Much of it Chinese. EBay is getting more reliable.
I agree and Amazon loves the profits. One longtime Amazon seller wrote in the forums that he was being sabotaged by Chinese merchants destroying his reputation and trying to get him kicked off the platform with all sorts of "inhuman shady tactics." Some people were posting that sabotaging your competition was common practice in China. Not sure how true that is, but I guess if you ain't cheating you ain't trying.
Agreed, the AZN market is so convoluted and bastardized/rife with fakes that it's become a huge problem for resellers there.
That said, if you can offer a high-quality widget and take the time to photograph and write a coherent listing, there's a lot of opportunity to capitalize on how low the bar has gotten. At least until a CN manufacturer steals your listing and undercuts you because they aren't beholden to copyright/IP law. Big oof.