EBay selling idea? Legal?

[T.]

Ok I want to buy some items on eBay them resell them for more. I have done this before but now I have a new idea. Can I buy an item, say a computer part, my plan is to... Open a listing on eBay without having the item. Sell the item to some one. Use the buyers money to buy the computer part from another seller. Put the item winners address as the shipping address for the computer part.
So pretty much I'll sell an item I don't have, then I'll buy the item with the winners money and have another eBay seller ship an item instead if me. Is this legal?

[Timmy]

Why not? I dont think that should be a problem. Who would know you just re-sold it? lol.
But if you have any questions about what you can/cant do with ebay, check out the source below. This is their seller policy.

have fun!!
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/sell...rview.html

[463]

i think that is allowed. however, the problem is you have no quality or shipping control over the item. so if the other seller messes up you take all the blame

[bron357]

It's not illegal but it's not possible. Unless you are a well established seller, PayPal holds onto the buyers money until you have uploaded tracking information ie shipped the item and after the buyer leaves positive feedback. So you aren't going to have the money from the buyer to pay your seller.And even if you had the money straight away, your buyers waiting for tracking info. You can't provide until after you get it from the other seller. Your seller is obliged to send it to you at the address you have registered with PayPal and eBay, otherwise he has no protection. There is no way a seller will ship to a third party. So that means you have to receive it yourself first, That might take 2 weeks or more. Meanwhile your buyer has lodged a dispute because you took the money and haven't shipped anything. Then there's your potential buyers checking your feedback and seeing you buying and then on selling the same. And finally, what makes you think your buyers aren't going to see the other sellers listings, the place you're buying them from, where they are cheaper? So, your "business model" has a number of serious flaws. Back to the drawing board!

[raja]

Yes you can do it, it's not a legal issue. but it may create some problems to you when you can't able to ship the item to buyer with in the time period. But make sure that you can able to get and ship the item with in your handling days period. And try this type of thing when you have a confidence on the item that you can get it and ship it. But make sure in how many days you can get that item and according to that chose the handling days period.

Happy Selling......................................................

[Burt.]

What happens if they buy the item from you and then you can't buy it from the other guy because that one is already sold? You would have to make sure there are a large number of these items available on ebay for you to purchase at a substantially lower price than what you are charging. You would have to charge enough to cover your ebay and paypal fees plus a profit for yourself. Not sure why anyone would be fool enough to pay your high price when they can buy it cheaper from the other guy. I suppose there are enough stupid people that it would work from time to time, but it seems to me like you are setting yourself up for trouble.

[dourdan]

it is legal BUT what if something goes wrong?

if the seller of the item messes up (puts wrong address, usps looses the item, etc), YOU will be held 100% responsible.