Same item, two listings.. fishy?

Question

I'm after a laptop and see that a good-priced laptop has two listings and alarm bells started to ring. There are two listings for the same item and I'm curious as to why this is. I understand that sometimes it's a market test to guage an item's worth, but this is appears to be the same item, one auction and one BiN.

i'm considering a purchase, but love your opion before i do.

Thanks

dojobloke · Answer

Hi. Here are the item numbers: 267760619292 and 267760624910. Thanks.

red_magpie · Answer

As has been pointed out, eBay now allows any seller to copy and use any other seller's photos and descriptions. There is nothing that the original seller can do to prevent this; the user agreement requires them to accept it.

This means that there's no guarantee that any item shown in a seller's photos is the actual item they are selling. In your position, I would check which seller first listed the laptop. The most recently listed item would have to be the copy. Unless of course both sellers copied the same photo from an earlier listing. (What a mess! Surely eBay must have realised that allowing this would undermine buyers' confidence??)

tommystrezures · Answer

i'm considering a purchase, but love your opion before i do. My opinion don't buy from eBay and buy from a retailer where you will have a full warranty..

papso22 · Answer

Almost certainly seller error.

john1297576 · Answer

Are you aware that a poor seller can copy another sellers item for sale.

You can obviously see both items, it sould be helpful if you gave item numbers so that we can see these listings.

When ebay offers the 30 day money back guarantee, buyers are protected so do not see how any buyer could lose out, but could be expensive for the seller IF it was one person, which I doubt.

*vyolla* · Answer

Is it the same seller? Are they new to selling?