Selling on Ebay

[Ed3116]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida

Hello:
I have a dumb question. The company I work for had some products that were not selling. We contacted the company that we bought that from and asked for help. They were no help told us we could not return them. So I bought some and sold them on ebay as new. I didnlt sell them through my company I did it on my personal account. I sold a couple to overseas people. SO I bought a couple of more off my boss and posted on ebay. About 1/2way through auction a rep form the company my company bought them from called me and told me they knew who I was through my "ebay handle" and demanded that I take them off ebay. I did b/c they freaked me out know who I was through my "ebay name". But did I do anything legally wrong? I bought them and sold them on my personal ebay account.
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

 

[Zigner]

I will give a general "you are fine" for this one. There are exceptions, but you really didn't give any further info...

 

[Ed3116]

follow up

Thanks for your reply. 2 other questions. Any idea on how they found out who i was through ebay. And do you think my boss could get into trouble with the company we bought from? After the company called me and and told me to take the items off ebay. I checked my companies user agreement with this company. all it said was that if my company sells them on ebay our account will be closed. My boss doesn't care if our account closes. He has not been happy with them b/c they would not help when we told them the items we had bought from them were not selling. My boss says I am just over worrying. Now the company keeps calling us and if I do not answer they hand up. Any advice?

 

[Zigner]

Without knowing what you are selling, I won't comment any further.

 

[Ed3116]

what i was selling

I am sorry. I didn't think it mattered. Ergonomic hardware tools. They are big over seas. when my company bought them the company was pushing them here in the states, but then they stopped. We didn't even have a rep for almost 5 months. When they finally did get a rep it was too little to late. The company I work for is a small mom and pop store they wouldn't even know to sell things on line. I wasn't really making money on the tools, but my boss was happy that they were being bought. One of the things my co-worker pointed out was that b/c I bought them I got a 20% discount and that i should worry about that. So I am not sure I should worry too much. The rep for the company is doing stupid things like call us and then hang up and when I question this guy on it he says he has a new phone and that his phone keeps hanging up. Oh well any advice?

 

[mmmagique]

well, I googled ed3116 and got a TON of hits, so then I googled ed3116 and Ebay, and got a few which led me to this: ED3116 -

which led me to this: eBay Seller: hiperformanceclearouts: Car Parts, Accessories, Cars, Bikes, Boats items on eBay Australia

which led me to believe that the person selling these particular things is in Australia, so, it kind of blew my Florida connection, but...

If someone was on Ebay selling an item which is rare enough that a company who sells it can spot it as their own, they can also look at where the item is being shipped from, and make an educated guess from there.

There is an ed3116 on Ebay who has apparently not sold anything, AND an ed3166 who looks like in the past he may have sold parts for cars. They are both from the U.S. but since they no longer have anything listed, it's hard to tell if either (or both!) of them are in Florida.

Good luck on your sales though. It seems to me that if that guy had any say over where these items are sold, EBay would already have been contacted and THEY would have removed your listings.

~Christina

 

[Ed3116]

wow

wow, you guys are good. I figured that if the company my company bought them from had gotten my info form ebay, that if ebay thought i was breaking the law then ebay itself would have pulled my listings. Does that sound about right?

 

[mmmagique]

I agree. (although they don't always catch everything right away)
But if someone complains about copyright infringement or some such, it's usually a very quick pull.
Ebay's discussion board has a very active seller's forum where you might get even more useful info.

Good luck!

~Christina