First, is there any reason why you are reviving older threads on this forum tonight, winorlose1? This forum prefers to leave older threads alone unless the original poster returns to add additional questions. lakrav has not done that.
Just a word of advice from a long-time ebay and amazon seller. The US First Sale Doctrine holds very little water on these sites. If Moose Toys complains to eBay, eBay will remove your listings, plain and simple, without even investigating. And there is nothing you can do about it even though you may be selling them under the premise that they are NIB but never used (in other words, you are claiming you bought them as a consumer but never opened/used them). It will take a lot of effort to get ebay to allow you to relist them and it isn't gonna be worth the time or money.
I agree that eBay and Amazon can pull any items from their site, with or without contact from a trademark holder or a copyright holder. I also agree that most people do not have the funds on hand to fight a large company. It can often be easiest if you are selling a
legal item that has been
legally purchased and you are notified by eBay or Amazon or a trademark/copyright holder that it is infringing, to simply accept the fact you cannot sell the item on eBay or Amazon and try to sell it elsewhere, like at a yard sale. Flea markets, like online sites, are generally patrolled by rights-holders, too, so if you decide to sell at a flea market, you may run into difficulty, as well.
My advice to you would be to see if others are selling Shiopkins toys and try to surmise if they are authorized resellers or not. If they are, then forget it and save yourself a lot of time and money. Also, follow them and see if they get shut down. Even if they are authorized resellers, they may be going against moose toys agreement to NOT sell on Amazon or Ebay (not saying they have this rule, but many companies do depending on their contract with the manufacturer). But CERTAINLY don't just buy the lot of cheap Shopkins without doing your research unless you know you will be able to unload them locally and at least break even.
It is probably a lot easier to check with the manufacturer. They usually provide tips to help you identify a real item from a counterfeit item.
Buying an item from someone you do not know at a price that is well-below the retail value of that item is often a sign that the item is a counterfeit. It
can also be possible to buy legitimate items for a lower price, though, if you are an educated purchaser and you know your seller.
eBay and Amazon favor manufacturers & trademark owners and don't care about the US First Sale Doctrine.
This really isn't true. eBay and Amazon favor sellers who sell legitimate items.
The manufacturers and trademark holders are aggressive in their pursuit of infringers because they have to be. They can lose their trademarks if they are not vigilant. They really don't care for counterfeiters. Counterfeiters try to make money by capitalizing on the hard-earned reputations of others, costing manufacturers and trademark holders millions of dollars a year.
You would be aggressive in policing the marketplace for infringers, too, if you lost as much money as they do.
They just do what the manufacturers and trademark owners tell them to do and you will lose out no matter how unjust it may be. You won;t be able to afford a lawyer to fight it and getting a lawyer to fight it would not be cost effective anyhow and they know it, which is why the US First Sale Doctrine takes a back seat when it comes to the demands of manufacturers on ebay/amazon. ...
Cost is definitely a factor. Large companies have large bank accounts and large teams of experienced lawyers. It is hard for "the little guy" to fight the big guy.
Now, please do not revive any more old threads. Thanks.
