Amazon to eBay Arbitrage: Everything You Need to Know

Amazon to eBay arbitrage, or “dropshipping” from Amazon to eBay, makes some people very angry.

It’s where someone lists a product for sale on eBay, but they don’t actually possess the item they are selling. Once a sale comes through on eBay, they go and buy it on Amazon at a lower price and have it shipped directly to their eBay buyer. Their profit is the difference between the selling prices on eBay and Amazon, less fees.

Why does that make people angry? Well, buyers can get upset if the item they bought on eBay arrives in an Amazon box, and they realize that they could have saved money simply by buying from Amazon instead. The Amazon seller, if they figure out what happened, might be unhappy about being used as a dropship supplier without their knowledge or permission.

The arbitrage seller, though, can feel like they have found the perfect work-from-home business. They don’t have to handle products or deal with suppliers. They just find large price differences, list on eBay, and buy from Amazon.

This article covers everything you need to know about dropshipping from Amazon to eBay, whether you are an eBay buyer, Amazon seller or one of the arbitrage sellers working in between them.

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Why did my eBay purchase arrive in an Amazon box?

You’ve placed an order on eBay but it arrives in an unmistakable Amazon box. This is confusing, what has Amazon got to do with your order when you bought it on eBay?

Are Amazon and eBay now working together? Aren’t they bitter rivals? If you wanted to buy from Amazon then you would have gone there yourself!

Often, this is because you bought from an arbitrage seller, specifically someone doing Amazon to eBay arbitrage. These sellers copy an Amazon listing and post it on eBay at an inflated price.

When you buy the product on eBay, the seller orders it on Amazon at the lower price and arranges for the product to be sent directly to you. They pocket the price difference and in many cases you – the customer – don’t realize what’s going on.

However, there are other reasons why your eBay purchase may have arrived in an Amazon box:

  1. The seller re-used Amazon packaging.
  2. They ran out of stock and bought from Amazon to avoid bad feedback.
  3. The seller stores their stock with Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) and used the Multichannel Fulfillment (MCF) service to get the order sent out to you.

All of the possibilities above are completely legitimate and don’t indicate that arbitrage is going on. Most of the time, however, if an eBay purchase arrives in a brand new Amazon box then it has probably been dropshipped (shipped to order directly from the supplier) by an arbitrage seller.

Does eBay allow arbitrage sellers to dropship from Amazon?

In January 2019, eBay updated their dropshipping policy to specifically mention arbitrage. The US and UK sites have identical wording, saying:

Drop shipping, where you fulfill orders directly from a wholesale supplier, is allowed. However, listing an item on eBay and then purchasing the item from another retailer or marketplace that ships directly to your customer is not permitted.

The change happened just one week after the second edition of this article was published.

While arbitrage has been banned in Australia for some time (see below), eBay has now rolled out this policy to the major markets of the US and UK. Policies still differ in other countries. In Germany, for example, the dropshipping policy is the same as the previous policy in the US – it does not mention arbitrage.

In Australia, eBay has banned both arbitrage and FBA with a restrictive Third-party fulfillment policy. FBA is specifically mentioned, while arbitrage is made impossible by detailed conditions that must be met:

Using a third party to fulfil eBay orders on your behalf [is allowed], provided all of the following conditions are met:

  • You are clearly identified as the seller on all packing slips and invoices, and
  • Using the third-party fulfilment service doesn’t mislead or confuse the buyer as to the origin of their purchase (for example, due to branded packaging), and
  • You ensure the safe fulfilment of the item within the terms stated in your listing, and
  • You ensure that your third-party provider is subject to a contractual condition which prevents them from using or sharing any eBay order information (including the names and contact details of buyers) for any purpose other than the fulfilment of the specific eBay order which they are engaged by you to fulfil.

There’s no way you can satisfy those conditions if you buy from an Amazon seller who doesn’t even know they are being used as a dropshipper. You could only make it work if you have a dropshipping contract with the Amazon seller in advance, and they only do their own fulfillment. But that wouldn’t really be arbitrage!


Does Amazon allow you to have orders shipped to eBay buyers?

When considering if Amazon allows dropshipping to eBay, it’s important to understand the arbitrage seller’s relationship with Amazon.

As far as Amazon are concerned, arbitrage sellers are not sellers at all, they are ordinary Amazon customers. They are probably very high-volume customers, who select “This order contains a gift” all the time, and enter many different shipping addresses, but customers all the same. Selling policies do not apply to them, because they are not Amazon sellers.

Amazon does, however, have its own set of terms and conditions for customers and also for Prime members. Amazon’s Conditions of Use do not prevent arbitrage, but the terms for Prime members include the following:

Prime members are not permitted to purchase products for the purpose of resale, rental, or to ship to their customers or potential customers using Prime benefits.

This makes it clear that arbitrage sellers aren’t allowed to use Amazon Prime to fulfill eBay orders. Arbitrage is allowed, but only using an ordinary Amazon customer account, not one with Prime membership.

Do eBay and Amazon actually enforce their policies against arbitrage?

eBay’s ban on arbitrage is quite a new policy so the level of enforcement is not known, but it appears that they are taking it seriously.

The penalties are harsh, and identical in the US, UK and Australia:

We may limit, restrict or suspend you from buying, selling or using site features. All of your listings may be removed, displayed lower or not shown in search results, without refunding any or all applicable fees. You may forfeit special account status and any discounts.

Despite the tough language, there are no signs that eBay is strongly enforcing the policy yet, as large numbers of arbitrage sellers are still active on the marketplace.

Amazon, on the other hand, only prohibits Prime members from buying products for resale, as covered above.

But there are many arbitrage sellers who do use Prime to fulfill their orders. There are even sellers who question whether Amazon to eBay arbitrage is worth doing at all without fast Prime shipping.

Amazon, however, have indeed cancelled Prime accounts that were being used for resale purposes, although it does not appear to be a major initiative for Amazon at the moment. They have many other issues taking priority.

Is there anything else stopping me from doing Amazon to eBay arbitrage?

Arbitrage selling is, by nature, a secretive or even sneaky practice. It doesn’t sit particularly well with the global trend towards more protection of consumers, data, and intellectual property.

Data protection

Data protection is an area that very few arbitrage sellers are likely to take seriously. In the EU, the new GDPR regulations mean that people must be clearly told who their data is given to, what they will do with it, and how they can get it deleted. So, arbitrage sellers on eBay in Europe should disclose that the buyers’ information will be passed to Amazon, possibly including third-party Amazon sellers, and tell them how they can get that data removed in the future!

Amazon to eBay dropshipping largely relies on the buyer not knowing that they could buy the product cheaper on Amazon, so this requirement will be hard to stomach for arbitrage sellers. GDPR fines, however, range up to 4% of annual global turnover or 20 million euros.

Consumer protection

Consumer law doesn’t prevent you from doing Amazon to eBay arbitrage. However, as the seller of the item, it is your responsibility to deal with any problems, including complaints and returns. You can’t simply direct the buyer to the Amazon seller – there is no direct relationship between those two parties.

If you are not willing or able to provide good customer service in line with the applicable consumer protection laws and eBay selling policies, then arbitrage selling isn’t a great idea for you.

Intellectual property rights

A common tactic used by Amazon sellers who do not want arbitrageurs selling their products, is to report them to eBay for intellectual property infringement under the Verified Rights Owners (VeRO) program.

These reports can be well-founded, particularly if you have used text and images straight from an Amazon listing without any modification or permission to use. But even if the report is baseless, it can be an effective way to get your eBay listings (or entire selling account) suspended.

Future policy or enforcement changes

Amazon or eBay could take strong action against arbitrage at any time. Either side could change their policies and enforcement actions to stamp it out completely. eBay could adjust their algorithms to detect arbitrage listings, then delete listings or severely restrict sales.

There are signs that eBay is starting to take some moderate action, pushing arbitrage listings lower in the search results. This was reported by Adi Reiss, CEO of arbitrage software company SaleFreaks, who then took legal action against eBay.

In February 2019, SaleFreaks reported a conversation with eBay Seller Support saying that accounts using dropshipping will not be suspended but will not be able to get Top Rated Seller status or use Promoted Listings.

Why don’t Amazon sellers like their products being dropshipped to eBay buyers?

Amazon to eBay arbitrage really polarizes the opinions of Amazon sellers. There are two main camps:

  1. A sale is a sale. Arbitrage sellers bring in more sales, with no extra work required.
  2. I’m being exploited. They are ripping people off and ruining my reputation.

Emotions can run high, and there are good arguments for both points of view.

1. A sale is a sale

Those in this camp argue that there are no real losers. Both sellers make a profit. The Amazon seller is making more sales at the price they have set, and their product is getting visibility on another channel without any additional effort required. More sales leads to higher Amazon search rankings as well.

If they really don’t like it, the Amazon sellers could just list their products on eBay themselves. As the source of the product, they can easily undercut the arbitrage seller.

2. I’m being exploited

Those in this camp feel victimized and resentful. They don’t see why arbitrage sellers should profit from their listings. After all, the Amazon seller has done all the hard work of sourcing, purchasing and shipping the products, and the arbitrageur just creams off profit with none of the risks.

A more tangible downside is that some Amazon sellers get more returns as a result of their items being sold through arbitrage on eBay. The eBay listings are often rushed or badly copied and returns come back because the item was not as described. Returns can also occur because the eBay buyer makes a point of avoiding Amazon, or resents paying a higher price unnecessarily. More returns mean more work and additional costs for the seller.

Amazon sellers who have created their own product, and sell under their own brand, can be particularly angry. These sellers have invested a lot into their business, spending many years and thousands of dollars developing a product, registering trademarks, paying for professional photography and so on. To see their “baby” being sold somewhere else for a higher price can feel galling. Ripple Rug is one brand that struggled with exactly this issue.

How is Amazon to eBay arbitrage different to dropshipping from a wholesaler?

People often use the terms “Amazon to eBay arbitrage” and “dropshipping from Amazon to eBay” interchangeably. But Amazon to eBay arbitrage is not actually dropshipping.

There are similarities between arbitrage and dropshipping, but the two practices are really quite different.

Dropshipping

  • A business contract is agreed upfront between the seller and a supplier.
  • The supplier is usually a wholesaler or manufacturer.
  • The products are available to businesses only, at a wholesale price.
  • When a sale is made, the seller asks their supplier to ship directly to the buyer and the seller is charged the agreed price to their account.
  • The seller pays the supplier as agreed in the payment terms.
  • It’s a business relationship, and completely transparent to both businesses.

Amazon to eBay arbitrage

  • No business relationship exists between the eBay seller and the Amazon seller.
  • The Amazon seller does not know their products are being resold.
  • The products are available to anyone, at retail prices.
  • When a sale is made, the eBay seller orders the product from the Amazon seller, saying it is a gift and giving the eBay buyer’s address.
  • The arbitrageur pays the Amazon seller straight away.
  • To the Amazon seller, the transaction is exactly the same as any Amazon customer ordering a product as a gift.

Similarities

In both cases, the eBay seller doesn’t buy any stock upfront and they only place an order once they receive an order themselves. Those benefits are the same in both models, but the relationship with their “supplier” is completely different.

Is Amazon to eBay arbitrage the same as using Amazon FBA?

Amazon to eBay arbitrage is very different to Amazon FBA.

Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) is Amazon’s fulfillment service. Businesses who use FBA buy products then send them to an Amazon warehouse to be stored until sold. When a sale is made, the product is picked, packaged and shipped to the customer directly from the FBA warehouse. Amazon charges fees for the service depending on size, weight, storage time etc.

Sellers can use FBA to ship products that are sold through any platform – not just Amazon. Someone who sells on both Amazon and eBay may choose to use FBA to fulfill their eBay orders, for example. This is called Multichannel Fulfillment (MCF) and has higher prices than using FBA to fulfill Amazon orders. Orders shipped through MCF arrive in an Amazon box, so they look like arbitrage, but they are not. (As a side note, up until 2016 Amazon gave the option for MCF orders to be shipped in plain packaging).

With Amazon to eBay arbitrage, the seller does not purchase any inventory and only buys after the eBay sale is made. Confusingly, the order can often be shipped from Amazon FBA, but that is because the Amazon seller uses FBA. It has nothing to do with the arbitrage seller on eBay.

Is there software to help automate Amazon to eBay arbitrage?

Software can make all the difference to the success of an arbitrage seller. Prices on Amazon fluctuate continuously, and if an arbitrageur does not track them, they may sell products on eBay at a loss. When that happens, the options are either to take a hit and place the order anyway, or cancel the order and damage their eBay performance metrics. Not a great choice.

Profit margins using Amazon to eBay arbitrage can be paper thin, so bulk listings are where the real money is often made. Manually checking prices and adjusting listings for more than a few products is not practical, let alone for the number of listings required to make it worthwhile – which can be up to hundreds of thousands.

Automation software can:

  • Compare prices for the same product on Amazon and eBay
  • Copy Amazon listings to create eBay listings in bulk
  • Reprice eBay listings when Amazon prices change
  • Take down eBay listings when stock runs out on Amazon
  • Automatically order sold items from Amazon
  • Post tracking information back to eBay when the order is dispatched by Amazon

Also see our post on online arbitrage tools and the relevant category in our directory. (Online arbitrage is a wider practice covering other marketplaces and online retailers).

The following tools support Amazon to eBay arbitrage with varying degrees of the automated features described above:

How much can you make dropshipping from Amazon to eBay?

Arbitrage sellers typically set prices on eBay between 5% and 15% above the Amazon price. Out of this comes eBay and PayPal fees, and any other costs such as returns have to be factored in as well.

The sellers who seem to get the best results have made arbitrage their full-time business, and they’re often top-rated sellers on eBay. They tend to list as much as possible, sometimes thousands of items at a time. But eBay’s selling limits can be a real barrier, as they restrict the number of active items for sale, and can only be increased once a month.

Sellers following this strategy will use an automation tool to compile a list of popular products and create eBay listings in bulk. A lot of sales can result, but profit margins are low and there can be a high demand for customer support. Some sellers only just break even, but make a profit from credit card cashback due to their high spending.

Many sellers who’ve tried Amazon to eBay arbitrage on a smaller scale have become disillusioned by the small profits they’re making, especially as eBay fees increase and Amazon prices fluctuate.

Do eBay buyers get upset when they receive their order in an Amazon box?

Yes, sometimes, but it doesn’t happen all that often. Some arbitrage sellers refund the price difference if a buyer complains about being overcharged, which normally prevents negative feedback and can be built into the cost of doing business.

Buyers who are making a point of avoiding Amazon might feel tricked and go on to leave negative feedback. For the big arbitrage sellers, with very high volumes, this is usually a very low percentage of their total feedback.

Why don’t people buy from Amazon if it’s cheaper?

Although consumers are pretty savvy when it comes to price comparison, sometimes they just don’t look. There are many different buying habits, and checking prices on both eBay and Amazon isn’t all that common. Some will go direct to eBay, believing it will always have the best price.

Others might compare prices, but a comparison between a brick-and-mortar store and eBay, for example, may favor eBay even if the product is actually sourced from Amazon and marked up.

Another possibility is that eBay’s Global Shipping Program makes a product available to an international buyer who can’t buy from Amazon directly due to their location, or who finds Amazon’s own international shipping to be prohibitively expensive. In that case, the buyer may know that the item is cheaper on Amazon but still choose to buy on eBay. The seller then arranges for shipping from Amazon to eBay’s domestic warehouse, and leaves it for eBay to arrange shipping to the buyer abroad. That’s how the Global Shipping Program works.

And finally, a buyer with a balance in their PayPal account (from the auction of unwanted gifts or hobby items, for example) may choose to buy on eBay to make use of their balance. While it’s more rational to withdraw the money and then buy from the cheapest retailer, it might be quicker and more satisfying to spend the balance directly.

What are the risks if I dropship from Amazon to eBay?

On balance, Amazon to eBay arbitrage provides a low-risk way to start selling online. But it’s not zero risk – sellers can still lose money. And it’s not zero skill – it’s easy to get started but there is a lot to learn to become successful.

Here are some of the most common risks:

  • Amazon’s price increases
  • Amazon goes out of stock
  • The buyer wants to return the item

If Amazon’s price increases and your eBay listing is not updated accordingly, you could get an order that would lose you money. You can cancel the order, but that is considered a “transaction defect” by eBay. Too many defects can cause your seller level to be downgraded and lead to higher fees, lower search ranking and even the complete loss of selling privileges.

Amazon going out of stock is a similar situation, except that there is no choice but to cancel the order. Performance metrics will take a hit.

There is always a risk of buyers wanting a refund. With arbitrage selling there is an added layer of complexity to refunds and returns. The arbitrage seller will need to go through Amazon to get a returns label and send it to the customer. They will then need to wait for confirmation of the product being received by Amazon (or the third-party seller) before issuing a refund to the customer. That takes time and the eBay buyer might lose patience and leave negative feedback.

Other risks

Negative feedback can be left for other reasons as well. The risks of negative feedback for arbitrage sellers is often elevated due to:

  • The arbitrage seller ordering the wrong product (due to high order volumes)
  • Poor or incorrect listing information
  • The buyer discovering the product came from Amazon
  • The buyer finding the product cheaper on Amazon

Another risk is that angry Amazon sellers file a Verified Rights Owner intellectual property infringement claim (VeRO) because their copyright has been abused. If successful, eBay will remove the affected listings or even suspend your selling account.

Finally, it is worth considering the popularity of Amazon to eBay arbitrage. More and more people are flooding eBay with identical listings and it can be very difficult to make a profit. Only the larger sellers make any real money and even then, it’s not as much as people think.

Is it OK to take the description and photos from Amazon to create an eBay listing?

Some people believe that because an image or wording has been published online that it’s in the public domain and can be freely used. However, unless the description and photos are taken direct from the manufacturer, who will generally permit them to be used to sell the product, the images and description will probably be the copyright of an Amazon seller or perhaps even of Amazon itself.

It can be risky to lift images and descriptions wholesale and use them directly in eBay listings, although a lot of arbitrage sellers do it and some automated software is designed to do exactly that.

To avoid complaints, some arbitrage sellers have a different approach. They list a relatively small number of products, perhaps a few hundred, and work on the titles, photos and descriptions, creating original content such as detailed buying advice. These type of arbitrageurs tend to get a higher proportion of sales on the relatively few listings that they have.

How can I fight back against these arbitrage sellers listing my products on eBay?

Some Amazon sellers become understandably furious when their Amazon listings are hijacked and put onto eBay. Unfortunately it can be very difficult to stop. Neither Amazon or eBay prohibit arbitrage selling. And both Amazon and eBay make money from every arbitrage transaction, so they are not strongly motivated to stop it happening.

So, what can you practically do?

  • File eBay VeRO complaints if sellers are taking your photos and descriptions. If successful, this will get the listings removed.
  • Complain to Amazon if you suspect the arbitrage seller is using their Prime membership to resell products on eBay. This breaks the terms of Prime. Give Amazon as much information as you can to help them in their investigation.
  • Report the seller to eBay. Arbitrage is no longer allowed under the updated dropshipping policy and eBay may take action.
  • List your own products on eBay at a more competitive price than the arbitrage seller.

Some Amazon sellers have even resorted to hiking the price of their own listings on Amazon then quickly placing an order from the arbitrage seller on eBay. The idea is that the arbitrageur will be forced to fulfill the order at a loss or that they’ll cancel it and damage their performance metrics.

However, hiking prices is an extreme approach that could backfire, as the price goes up for genuine customers as well!

This post was originally published in April 2015 and fully updated in January 2019.

Comments

Arty
Arty

Margins can be as high as 20% above the Amazon price, although around 8% is more typical.

According to my accountant, margins of 8% when selling on ebay equals a loss, when you remember that eBay & PayPal are going to take a bit or a bite.
Also remember that breaking even means you are working for free.

R Par
R Par
In reply to R Par

When it comes to saving money on a item, I will take the time and look at eBay! Amazon U.S. & Amazon U.K.! It depends what I am looking for. If DVDs I will look At Amazon U.S, But mostly Amazon U.K. for cheaper deals. I very seldom buy DVDs from eBay, because they are to many people selling pirated DVDs on there. Why? because eBay will not put a stop to it! Always check feedback on these sellers! If they have a lot of bad feed backs, or few sales, stay away from them! When I say few sales, I mean new sellers. If they are selling several DVDs at one time, especially new releases,some pirated DVD sellers will get a ton of bad feed backs, then open up a new eBay account to sell his ill gotten gain of his phony DVDs, elsewhere! I'm not talking about some small time seller who has a used DVD, they want to try and sale. I learned my lesson! Remember, if they are 1/2 the price of most sellers, and this item is suppose to be new, then it is probably to good to be true! Best Shopping to You! Regards!

Jack
Jack
In reply to Jack

I think it's almost the same like in China.

nsm
nsm
In reply to nsm

I think OP means NET 8%.

Jordan Malik
Jordan Malik

Andy - Thank you for writing this, I thought it was fascinating. I've had success in snapping up Amazon deals at rock bottom prices and then (manually) relisting them on eBay, and selling them at 50%+ ROI, but I have to wait months for the sale to occur. The practice delineated above smacks a little bit of day trading where time and speed is of essence, and (generally) total profits are slim. I do see the day when the entire process is automated with software/services but as those solutions become more accessible to more 'traders', the margins will get even slimmer.

Andy Geldman
Andy Geldmanauthor
In reply to Andy Geldman

Thank you Jordan. Yes absolutely, it's very much driven by technology. To make a real business out of it there has to be something that sellers do to differentiate themselves - develop their own software to give them an edge perhaps, or add value to their listings in some way. Otherwise they're in the same boat as hundreds of others and the only way to compete is price.

Jack Phillips
Jack Phillips

I don't think it is a good idea. Like any other kind of drop shipping, you are taking a big risk by turning over any part of your customer contact points to a 3rd party. I do a very small amount of drop shipping with a trusted supplier with a good system, it rarely is as smooth as being able to handle problems and fulfillment from my end. Additionally, I really want to build long term customers (my measures show it takes 3-5 repeat orders on a marketplace to get them to come to my website) and doing this type of arbitrage play is not conducive to building a long term customer relationship.

Robert Lailvaux
Robert Lailvaux
In reply to Robert Lailvaux

Well said Jack,

I am looking for a legitimate way of earning extra money with selling on eBay but there are so many scammers which makes it difficult for me.

I just keep searching maybe soon I will get lucky.

Best

Rob
UK

Joao Jorge
Joao Jorge
In reply to Joao Jorge

Hi Jack,
I have a great training that i provide step by step how to get over 100+ sales daily on ebay. This is my main job.
Let me know if you would like to know more about it.

joe
joe
In reply to joe

Ide Like to know more

Zev
Zev
In reply to Zev

Can you provide me?

Mike Bailey
Mike Bailey
In reply to Mike Bailey

This is definitely of interest to me. How can you help?

Brian
Brian
In reply to Brian

Would like some more information on how you are selling 100+ a day on eBay, thanks .

John Dumas
John Dumas
In reply to John Dumas

Send me info please!

Thanks,
John

Mike Bailey
Mike Bailey
In reply to Mike Bailey

This is definitely of interest. Can you email me with more information? Many thanks.

W.M.T.K.Weerasekara
W.M.T.K.Weerasekara
In reply to W.M.T.K.Weerasekara

Hi Joao , I would like some more information on how to improve my sales on eBay. Thanks a lot .

Fellios
Fellios
In reply to Fellios

Joao must be one of them.

auxy
auxy
In reply to auxy

yes you are right!! Due to large number of scammers it is sometimes very hard to deal with the real customers. one of my customer was buying a phones as he do not have feedback but I put on the process!! the very next day pay pal warned me not to sell to the buyer and next day another customer without review order phone from me I waited till 2 days waiting for pay pal or eBay message but was genuine customer!!

kaladunda
kaladunda

i have a few regular customers who always email "this order is for my friend, please do not enclose an invoice. if this is not possible, then please cancel my order"
i always knew that they were using me as a drop shipper.

i didn't realise the scale of this practice until i read this article

after reading this review I have just cancelled 12 orders today and told them not to use me as drop-shipper any more.

it just causes me headache have so many messages from them and then to handle their order differently to the other orders.

Jeff
Jeff
In reply to Jeff

Why in the world would you turn away this huge opportunity? cancel 12 orders??? lol, I love my dropshippers that buy from me everyday for 3 years. about 10-20 orders a day come from my dropshippers that buy from my ebay stores and resell over on other markets.

Lynne
Lynne
In reply to Lynne

THANK YOU!

W.M.T.K.Weerasekara
W.M.T.K.Weerasekara
In reply to W.M.T.K.Weerasekara

Hi Jeff , I would like to buy from you as a dropshipping seller on ebay . Please send me your store details .Thanks [email protected]

Goldmist
Goldmist
In reply to Goldmist

Who cares if they use you as a drop shipper? You're still getting paid aren't you?

I don't see what the big deal is...

Kitesurfer
Kitesurfer
In reply to Kitesurfer

Exactly!! for past 3 years I've got about 3-6 various eBay buyers that buy from us. We dropship to their buyers everyday!! They bring in about 10-20 orders a day for us. It's laughable that people would not see the huge value of this.

Tissa
Tissa
In reply to Tissa

Hi Kitesurfer , I like to know what you are selling . Please let me know your selling details . I like to buy from you , thanks.

auxy
auxy
In reply to auxy

they are not drop shipper they are scammer!!

Zee
Zee
In reply to Zee

Strictly speaking, shops that buy from wholesalers and resell at a higher price are doing the same thing, just not online.
So what is the big deal?

Martinito
Martinito
In reply to Martinito

Take a look at what is called "channel sales". It's a legitimate branch of trade. Having been on both sides of the business I can tell you that finding good resellers that bring _repeatable_ business without screwing up orders is a time-consuming process. And in most markets the resellers will ask for a reseller discount.

You apparently found resellers that buy at your retail price and bring in (probably still small amount) of repeatable business. You should cherish and expand that by adapting your sales process to their needs. Or otherwise try and find out which markets your are not serving or where your prices are actually lower than they could be.

Billy
Billy

You mentioned huge-river.com but I see no U.S.A choice there. Am I missing something?

Garrett W.
Garrett W.
In reply to Garrett W.

I think there would be a huge appetite here in the US where I live.

Ann
Ann

Is it not true that Amazon frowns on this, and too many 'gift' purchases can get your account suspended?

Ben
Ben
In reply to Ben

I used this method and orderedupto 50 items a day for a few years with no issues

John Dumas
John Dumas
In reply to John Dumas

Hey Ben...

How many listings do you have to get 50 orders a day?

Dave
Dave
In reply to Dave

They close buyer accounts for this? What's your source of this information?

Kevin
Kevin
In reply to Kevin

Rubbish, i was doing this for some time, the only thing Amazon won't allow you to do is dropship with a Prime Account, i never once had my account closed and i did this for 6 months.

R Par
R Par
In reply to R Par

HI! Kevin, I can't see why Amazon would complain about Prime Accounts? Amazon doesn't really give You any discount when You have Prime, if You look, they hike up the price on the Item for sale, so You are really still paying the shipping cost! So even though one has a Amazon Prime Account, they are not saving anything!

Donna
Donna
In reply to Donna

If what you say is true then there would be two different prices showing one for Prime accounts at a higher price with free shipping and another lower price for non Prime with shipping costs. I have not seen two different prices listed as such.

John Dumas
John Dumas
In reply to John Dumas

BS... I know at least 10 people personally that has done this for years and never had one problem with Amazon!

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"The seller may know that the item is cheaper on Amazon but still choose to buy on eBay."

Should it not be "The buyer may know..."?

Andy Geldman
Andy Geldmanauthor
In reply to Andy Geldman

Yes, thanks for spotting that. Now corrected.

jake star
jake star

Are there any legit businesses?

Nuzzo
Nuzzo

But if Amazon closes my account, is it possible to buy or open another one? I believer there are sellers who offer them like Auction Essistance, but is it legal?

Jordan Malik
Jordan Malik
In reply to Jordan Malik

If your Amazon account gets closed, contact Scott from Feedbackrepair.net as he provides a service (for a fee) to help you reinstate your account

John Caraballo
John Caraballo
In reply to John Caraballo

I don't think they let you do that.

Hamza
Hamza

This thing works! I make around $100/week with Amazon to Ebay arbitrage. Let me know if you have questions.

Yit
Yit
In reply to Yit

How do you deal with eBay's title limit of 80 characters while Amazon allows 200 characters. Doesn't that make it impossible to automate sending all your Amazon listings to eBay?

Hamza
Hamza
In reply to Hamza

80 is enough. Stuff your title with keywords related to your item. (Spy on your competitors).

Felix
Felix
In reply to Felix

@Hamza Your website is not working.

Felix
Felix
In reply to Felix

Sounds like tiered marketing scheme to sell same thing that you bought to others. Internet is full of those.

Paul
Paul
In reply to Paul

Hi Robert, has this business idea been dropped ? I checked your link but not much info after initial video

Ken Winland
Ken Winland
In reply to Ken Winland

I'm retired and thinking of trying this on a small scale.
Kind of a hobby for me . I've been selling on amazon for a long time .
Nice to read what other people are doing .
Be Safe
Ken

John
John
In reply to John

If you don't mind me asking, what selling limit do you have on eBay to make that steady amount? Thanks in advance.

Jack
Jack
In reply to Jack

I don't have selling limits. I was never subject to them because I started selling in 1998 on eBay. I wouldn't have any at this point due to length of time selling professionally (10+ at this point).

John Dumas
John Dumas
In reply to John Dumas

I have questions...

John

Hamza Bk
Hamza Bk

Check now, I updated it.

Eric
Eric

Hold up, what about taxes?

Mark Keeler
Mark Keeler

Though third party tools are somewhat touched upon, it bears mentioned most have to rely on Amazon's web service API - and that has throttling in place (and very much enforced) to limit the number of queries that can be sent. Not impossible to do but not nearly as easy as people may realize.

Scott
Scott

I may be interested in selling an eBay account. It only has 250 feedback at 100% but it was opened in the year 2000 so it does not have any selling limits. What do you think that would be worth?

Klark
Klark

Hi , I hear people doing some good money with this

I', planning on buying stealth ebay account and then stealth buyer of amazon. Anyone here with experience in this. My worry is the withdrawing part from paypal - how would you do it and still stay stealth.

Auction Essistance
Auction Essistance
In reply to Auction Essistance

You can still add your own bank, just make sure it is a bank that accepts mismatch deposits. We do have an article on our site listing some good banks to use that are relax on mismatched names.

Uri
Uri

Hi,
I'm kinda new to this niche but i had some recent success with arbitraging on eBay/Amazon but finding products with attractive margins manually is pretty difficult. So i began to search for an online tool to automate this process and found an overwhelming amount of them.

Anybody can advise which are the best? Anybody has experience with any of these:
www.findspotter.com
buy4sell.link
www.nonozama.com

Thanks guys,
Uri

Matt
Matt

I find prices on Amazon are way higher than ebay. I search out listings for certain projector bulbs on ebay. I buy up lots for $3-6/bulb. Single bulbs may sell on ebay for $8 - $20, but I can usually get $18-$40 for the same bulbs on Amazon. I make about $5,000 profit selling a few hundred bulbs a year. Even cell phones. I can sell the same flip phone on Amazon for $33-$40 that I can buy on ebay for $15-20.

A used Samsung Convoy 3 can be found on ebay for $3 to $15, They sell for $25 and up on Amazon.

Felix
Felix
In reply to Felix

And you probably have refunds from Amazon customers who found it cheaper on eBay...

Matt
Matt
In reply to Matt

Actually, over the course of maybe 8,000 orders, I can't recall any of them wanting a discount because it was cheaper on ebay.

Chris
Chris

This is from the eBay License Agreement (9.7-Restricted Activities):

"9.7. Use eBay Services to promote or engage in seller arbitrage (for example, automatically re- pricing eBay listings in response to price changes on competitor sites, automatically ordering sold items from competitor sites, and posting tracking information to eBay when items purchased from competitor sites are shipped)."

So if eBay says it's not allowed, doesn't that make it illegal?

Jeff
Jeff
In reply to Jeff

What is the link to that eBay license agreement?

Felix
Felix
In reply to Felix

I found it Jeff. It's in PDF format. Check this out: https://go.developer.ebay.com/sites/default/files/api_license_agreement_2_0.pdf

John Dumas
John Dumas
In reply to John Dumas

Absolutely not!

Both eBay AND Amazon have formal policy's that they do NOT enforce.

It's all about the "bottom line"

Both company's make extra untold millions from arbitrage sellers. You think they are just going to throw that away?

NOT!!!

Chris
Chris

Sorry I should have included that in my initial comment. Here you go: https://go.developer.ebay.com/api-license-agreement
It's in Section 9

Megan Simmons
Megan Simmons

I have an eBay account, but just recently it has selling limits of 20 items a month on there. That isn't enough. Do you think it would be a good idea to call in to get them raised or would it be wise to open up another account to get around the selling limits?

Chris
Chris
In reply to Chris

They let you increase limits once a month. Just call every month.

John Kelsar
John Kelsar

I've heard not-so-good things about some of the big software companies in this niche, and I've been researching new softwares to automatically fulfill my orders, can't believe this method works but it does.

Anyone have experience with https://arbiship.com ?

I've been using them for a while and they seem pretty good, it's a big relief to have my orders managed automatically, and their support gives great advice that helped me grow my business. However I'm looking for an easy method to manage customer support also. Any advice?

Joe
Joe
In reply to Joe

Could you be more of a shill for your site?

randall
randall

John Kelsar I tried Arbiship when they first started and it was a bit buggy. It ordered the wrong item 4 times and so I quit using them. I can't afford that kind of loss. They may have fixed those issues I don't know.

If you do 3000 sales a month like I do you may not want to pay them $600/month. I think that is a bit outrageous. I don't like paying a set or percentage of each sale.

I use Inkfrog for eBay and Dropship N Paste (www.dropshipnpaste.com) to automatically fill in buyers address for my suppliers. It supports all of the suppliers I use like Amazon, Wayfair and Aliexpress and doesn't cut into my profits but still helps me save time and fill orders much much faster. So I highly recommend that combo over Arbiship

Sarah
Sarah

I personally never had any problems with Arbiship, joined the beta and it's been working great since then. Your extension doesn't do things automatically, it only pastes addresses, thats it :/ I still have to find the item, calculate profit, upload tracking, and items can go out of stock when im not near the computer, or I can send items to the wrong buyer when im doing 50 orders a day. no thanks

Kevin West
Kevin West

Sarah, if you can't handle 50 orders a day without sending a item to the wrong customer dropshipping is definitely not for you. The biggest problem with software like Arbiship is their limitations. It only supports Amazon and Walmart and Amazon prime dropshipping means you have to create new accounts and have multiple accounts using different credit cards and IPs to make it work - so I wouldn't trust a piece of software to handle that automatically. I have purchased over 10million from Amazon so trust me I know what I talk about.

I don't have personal experience using Arbiship but there is no way in hell I would pay for any service that charges me per order, that is incredibly greedy! I am not even sure how we would add 25000 listings to arbiship so that it could auto-order. I assume it is intended to be used from day one as you scale?

For over 5 years I have been dropshipping. I have 2 VAs and between the three of us we process 15000 orders a month and needless to say Arbiship would cost us way more than the VAs do. We do this all by hand, mainly because I hate greedy companies that want to steal profits from hard-working individuals. I would probably actually use dropship paste if I could buy it outright but the only monthly fees I pay are to Amazon, eBay and our repricers. Maybe i'm stingy but I have worked really hard for my money. For me to consider a fully automated ordering service it should be less than 5 cents a order and should work with way more than 2 suppliers.

I'm not trying to knock either one of the services as I have not used them.

Sarah
Sarah

Kevin it's not like I do it every day, but human error happens.

It's kind of ironic how you say you hate greedy companies stealing from individuals but yet you do high volume Arbitrage. Lets do some math. 15000 orders per month is 500 per day, now lets say it takes you ~4 minutes per order including uploading tracking and calculating profit, that's 33 man hours per day which means you must be paying your greedy VAs pennies for 12 hour work days. And then you have to manage them, make sure they don't steal from you, and you also say you have to put in work your self. Even if you can manage an order every 3 minutes, that's still 8 hours per person per day. If you work constantly without breaks and place an order every 3 minutes, in 8 hours you could place 160 orders, which means your time needs to be less than $4 per hour for this to work. If your time is worth $4 per hour then I think you are either exaggerating your success, are bad at math, or you undervalue your time. Placing orders manually causes me too much stress, and I can afford to pay it. maybe raise your profits

Sarah
Sarah

I think you need to work on your mathematics, its funny how you claim to do 500 orders a day but are so bad at basic calculations...

Time = money. I prefer to raise my prices by a few cents so I can have more time and I let the robots do work for me, but if you want to work all day like a zombie then be my guest. Also there are breaks in between those 2 minutes

Let me guess, you use your VA's for repricing too? :)

Kevin West
Kevin West

Sarah, if you bothered to actually read before replying you would understand things more clearly. I said in my first reply "the only monthly fees I pay are to Amazon, eBay and our repricers"

You came up with the 500 figure so I used it. I do not personally do 500 orders a day. We do average 500 a day but the exact figure was yours not mine. I love how you say my math is wrong but don't prove it.

As far as being a zombie I average 8 hours a day, because I love to work. But most of my day is actually work unrelated to my dropship business. In the Christmas season we work much longer. But I also take 2 months a year off and travel and don't work weekends.

But you still don't get it. Your service doesn't even work with most of our suppliers. So I am doomed to be a zombie because your service is LIMITED which is what my original point was.

Rob
Rob

As I buyer, I recently had a frustrating experience with a amazon-to-ebay arbitrage seller.....

While it's been my experience that most of these sellers tend to use ebay's "Buy It Now" option, this one chose to list the item as an auction. I won the auction at a price considerably less than the Amazon price for the same item (I checked). The seller marked it as having shipped and provided a tracking number with Amazon Logistics as the shipper. The item never arrived, and the tracking status (via ebay) never updated

When I contacted the seller, I was given a crude screenshot of what was supposedly the tracking history that showed my item was delivered. After communicating back and forth over the course of a week, I was finally given a refund and asked to provide positive feedback over how the transaction was handled.

It is my belief that the seller purposefully did not ship the item because the selling price on ebay would have resulted in a loss. The communication that ultimately led to a refund was probably just an effort to make it appear like a legitimate effort to ship the product.

Melanie Walters
Melanie Walters

I got banned on Amazon for a fraudulent dispute claiming they never received it. Forward all evidence to Amazon, but they still sided with the buyer. So I lost my money, the item, a hit on my account and now I just got notified that I am suspended.

Tried those appeal services, but they didn't work for me. I just recently got notified that I cannot appeal anymore.

So I am looking for a way back on even tried to create a new account, but got suspended again.

Do you recommend buying an Amazon account from sellers such as the Aspkin forums or Auction Essistance?

Michael A. Sanders
Michael A. Sanders
In reply to Michael A. Sanders

Did you file complaints against Amazon with the Better Business Bureau, RipOffReport.com and various online consumer complaint forums? If not, nobody will take your complaint seriously. You must build the strength of credibility behind your complaint by following through on the complaint submission process.

Guy
Guy

Is it possible to purchase products from some online retailer and having that retailer ship directly to Amazon?

David Croston
David Croston

Hi: I am just starting out with 200 listings on Ebay and looking for a simple to use repricer from Amazon to Ebay. Trying to avoid problem of items going OOS and price changes. Any suggestions?

Jeff Sellers
Jeff Sellers

https://www.priceyak.com

Lynne Norris
Lynne Norris

I will try priceyak too. I think Ive tried every other one out there, with little satisfaction. I was getting ready to go back to Infinii because it has the most accurate repricer that Ive found, but Im going to try this first. Thanks.

Duncan
Duncan

Do a word search on this page for tax, ah nothing comes up... In the UK any company with a turnover (not profit) of about £80,000 has to pay 20% tax on every sale as VAT. You will find that to make a living you need to get your margins up to 30% or more which is going to be hard with something like this.

Matt
Matt

Today I sold a cordless phone on Amazon for $50. I had listed it about a year ago and finally sold. Thing is, I couldn't find it. I did find a similar model and finally figure out what happened. My finger slipped. I had a XXX3XX and listed it as a XXX2XX. The two units are dramatically different, but since I wasn't looking at the photos, I didn't notice at the time. So I went to ebay, ordered the phone I didn't have for $30, shipped it directly to the buyer and listed the mislisted one. I still got the sale, but a smaller profit margin.

Granted, I do this maybe 3-4 times a year, but I don't think trying to run my business like this is sustainable.

New items *may* be cheaper on Amazon, but I find a lot of used items double the price on Amazon than they are on ebay.

Kim H.
Kim H.

MJ, thank you for your thoughtful and informative post. It provides info on another point of risk that most people probably don't think about.

I've recently (within the past few months) started selling online as my new full time career (commercial real estate burnout, stress, cardiac event, etc.). I've been focused on vintage items, and have been doing... OK. I've been doing research on how to bump up my rookie numbers (LOL), and am sifting the wheat from the chaff. The more I've researched it, to me arbitrage (no matter which way it goes) seems like more "chaff". It leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and seems kind of scammy. I run a clean shop, play by whatever rules exist on the venues that I sell on, and am truly grateful for my customers. I don't think I would be comfortable with even one customer calling me out for BS by buying on eBay and receiving a box from Amazon.

Think I'll just focus on sourcing (new) bulk items on a wholesale basis, breaking them up and selling them individually. I've dabbled in this, and so far it has bourne fruit. (Also working on this basis for my vintage sourcing.)

Mj Wilson
Mj Wilson
In reply to Mj Wilson

Hi Kim -

Good luck with your venture. I assume you are selling on Etsy? If not, you should be!

There are tons of Sellers on there who sell "bits and pieces" who seem to do quite well.

I sell handbags, handmade jewelry, but we just started a new Etsy shop, selling "supplies." We barely have 13 items listed so far, but already have 2 sales! Whoo Hoo!

I think this is a path for both of us to folllow. Sourcing items wholesale is not expensive, and the profit margin, for reselling small items is huge.

Take some time and look thru Etsy listings to see the kind of volume these sellers are doing. One person I buy supplies from myself, is one of the top 5 Craft suppliers on Etsy. Some of these people are doing $200-$500K per year!

Good luck with selling your items. Keep adding stock and the buyers will come!

Mj

eshaw
eshaw
In reply to eshaw

A good attitude to have. I've just been caught out by receiving an item from Amazon that I bought on ebay. I'm not happy I hate drop shippers. If I wanted it from Amazon I would have got it from Amazon. It makes me feel cheated. especially as I'm avoiding Amazon as well. They will be getting bad feedback from me.

Peter W.
Peter W.
In reply to Peter W.

Any behavior which leads to a buyer on eBay leaving a Seller negative feedback simply because they received their order from another vendor or company, other than the seller personally, is simply really childish behavior. If you agree to pay a price, then YOU agreed when you completed checkout. Don't complain later that you found it cheaper later. Do you research first instead of being a "karen" later.

All that should really matter to anyone when they place an order - is that they actually RECEIVE exactly what was ordered as it was described. I've received a few dropshipped orders myself from eBay sales, and I don't really care, as long as it's exactly what I ordered.

If they individual is not running their business well, that's something else.

I am going to start this type of business, at least for some time, and I'm going to excel at it beyond most. If one has a problem with it, maybe they should focus on other things like helping the homeless or something. People have to find ways to make a living. As long as they do it with integrity, that's what matters.

What I'd really like is a guide on how to deal with scammers and people who intend on defrauding legitimate sellers and dropshippers. That would be useful.

Ferdinand Catwhisker
Ferdinand Catwhisker

"The buyer may know that the item is cheaper on Amazon but still choose to buy on eBay."

Choose: make a decision consciously and with deliberation. Circumventing people's choices makes them pissy.

Advice on how to stop the practice would be welcome.

Ian C
Ian C

Both Amazon and eBay should be stopping it according to their terms & conditions, but neither appear to care, I assume because their fees are more important to them than their terms & conditions, their buyer's wishes & possibly the law.

If you purchased an item from eBay that was fulfilled by Amazon then give the seller negative feedback.

Report the item to eBay - Report Category = Listing Practices - Reason for Report = Fraudulent Listing Practices - Detailed reason = You suspect that a listing is fraudulent - Submit Report

EBay may or may not take any notice.

If you live in the UK or Europe you can insist that the eBay seller gives you written confirmation from Amazon that your data (name & address) has been removed from their database. This is your right under UK & European Data Protection regulations. If they ignore you then again, they are breaking the law.

Ferdinand Catwhisker
Ferdinand Catwhisker

Wow - thanks very much for helpful reply!!

Mike
Mike

Does Amazon to eBay arbitrage in USA still work as of February 2019?
What tool do you recommend for automation process if so?

Michael
Michael

Hi Mike i haven't used it my self yet (im also investigating) but i think the most advanced is priceyak.com. They no long charge a fixed fee and now charge a small fixed charge for price corrections and orders. they also have a special feature that enbles you to send your amazon orders throught there prime accounts which will save your own one from being closed.

Mohamed
Mohamed

specific question!, what the return address I should put in eBay when I dropshipping from Amazon?

second, what is the solution of buyers who make returns via USPS instead of UPS and don't use Amazon Label?

Thanks

Steve J
Steve J

Here's something ebay buyers should know. If you get a package from Amazon that you purchased on Ebay, tell ebay you didn't receive it. The arbitrator cannot provide ebay with a shipping number as it came through Amazon. The arbitrator cannot prove the package was delivered and will have to refund you. Plain and simple.

Pawel
Pawel

Whats their advantages from easync and other?

Doris
Doris

"Why don’t people buy from Amazon if it’s cheaper?"

Because Amazon and Jeff Bezos are evil and we are trying to boycott Amazon, so we would rather buy from an eBay seller. It doesn't happen often, but it sometimes happens that we buy something from eBay and then get a package from Amazon. >;-(

Thomas Whyle
Thomas Whyle

I suspect it is Amazon themself disguised as these sellers to squash all independent competition through eBay. I've bought from at least a dozen "different" sellers with very convincing feedback histories, and when I receive the Amazon package and leave a negative feedback, they all reply verbatim with the same excuse that their stock was out and they had to source from Amazon, and that they will refund the cost and let me keep the item if I remove the feedback. That is something only Amazon can afford to do, and it can't be coincidence that all these sellers have exactly the same reply. Furthermore, eBay is now removing any negative feedback regarding this and giving you no way to appeal it (under some policy of extortion that does not apply since I have never asked for anything in return nor accepted a refund). So now we have no way to warn other buyers about it. That tells me this is an inside operation, and eBay will inevitably just become another leg of Amazon.

Go Srilanka Smarthub
Go Srilanka Smarthub

How we tell amazon don't include their invoices and other kind of documents with the package when drop shipping?

Andy Geldman
Andy Geldmanauthor
In reply to Andy Geldman

All you can do is to mark the order as a gift.

Go Srilanka Smarthub
Go Srilanka Smarthub
In reply to Go Srilanka Smarthub

Thank you Mr. Andy, I have another issue. Is this arbitrage process only valid in USA or valid to worldwide?

Andy Geldman
Andy Geldmanauthor
In reply to Andy Geldman

It's valid worldwide. All you are doing is entering a different delivery address each time, so as long as you can do that you can do it anywhere.

Go Srilanka Smarthub
Go Srilanka Smarthub

Is their any method or tip to use when we adding amazon item tracking number to e-bay?

Philip Robinson
Philip Robinson

As a buyer, I don't care that I could have bought it cheaper elsewhere. What makes me very very angry is the lies and cheating of Arbitrage. You order something on ebay, a CD, say. Then you are given a delivery date of 3 weeks. If the seller owned the CD, then pop it in an envelope and takes 3 days. Of course they lie and say "Oh its the postal delays COVID" Its an insult. The report to ebay that it has been dispatched. LIAR.

Kaan Y.
Kaan Y.

The problem is that all these software are web-based, I prefer desktop based arbitrage software. ok to be honest, there re positive and negative sides but for me performance and speed is more important, i don't want to wait to receive an information mail about my search result.

Joseph Dane
Joseph Dane

As a newcomer to this arena, I am gratified to have finally found such a clear and thorough discussion of the subtleties and intricacies involved in this topic that had just kept my head spinning the more I read about them. If I now follow it accurately, the distinguishing factor between illicit arbitrage and centuries of market place hagglinlg between buyers and sellers is whether the seller actually has possession of the item they are selling before someone buys it from them. The "illicit" aspect of arbitrage is in secretly passing the impact of profit loss (e.g. the seller's cancelling the order to avoid the loss) on to the buyer without the buyer's knowledge or consent. In principle, it resembles "insider buying" on the stock market.

The focus of our own business will be on reselling used books. So just like any wiley market place vendor of old, if I can find what you want at a lower price than you found or wanted enough to look for, then your "loss" as buyer is just what capitalism calls the commison to me as the seller for my effort and expertise in finding an item you want and making it available at a price you are willing to pay.

However, the new wrinkle in all this is the access technology gives me as seller to illicitly benefit for free from someone else's work that would normally be considered copyrighted intellectual property in the form of copying images and text and posting them as "mine". The irony is that Amazon actually requires such plaigirism in the form or requiring that all vendors use a single centralized "description page" to advertise any item on Amazon.

What makes it murky is whether it is illicit to extend use of the standardized Amazon description to platforms other than Amazon. Techincally and intuitively, the benefit from access to their standardized marketing descriptions is justified by the convenience to buyers of a single consistent description and the increased sales resulting from this. But Amazon's intended ultimate benefactor is Amazon's increased profits, not that of their competitors.

Further murkiness comes when the item being advertized is a used book. It is presumably legitimate to consider the image of a book cover taken from listings with the library of congress as functionally situated in the public domain. But what about the specific wording of a given summary or review of the book's content? Is that to be classified as public or private?

It would seem that pragmatism is probably the major determinant in whether specific marketing material is treated as public or private. It is as if there were a sort of "Gentlepersons' Agreement" that user discretion, unless formally challenged, generally prevails at present,. So the burden of proof currently seems to be on whether or not material can be defended as "implicitly copyrighted" if it is not expliaitly flagged as copyrighted in some recognizable way.

There is probably a level of ambiguity and risk inherent in the very notion of intellectual property rights that practicing merchants must learn to live with. in this sense, it all boils down to using good judgment. The issue is learning to trust one;s own judgement when that seems appropriate, and to seek legal counsel when it is even more appropriate.

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