The hunt for bootlegs
Summary: store-of-sweden shared their frustrating experience of purchasing bootleg DVDs and Blu-rays from multiple sellers across China, Hong Kong, and the US, despite being sold as legitimate products. They received immediate refunds from most sellers after opening return cases, except for one who ghosted them. This led to a significant effort by store-of-sweden to report and successfully have over 5,000 counterfeit listings removed from eBay, though the sellers frequently relist using new strategies. store-of-sweden also expressed disappointment with eBay's lack of enforcement and the marketplace's tolerance for such violations, despite benefiting financially from the sales. An eBay representative responded, thanking them for their efforts and assuring that each report is recorded and affects seller standings.
Long story short: I bought DVD and Blu-ray movies from 7 different sellers. Everything I received was bootleg. Burned Blu-rays and DVDs on single-layer discs with horrible quality. 4 sellers from China (duh!), 2 sellers from Hong Kong, and 1 seller from the US. The Blu-rays are obviously created from downloaded material from streaming services.
I opened cases on all orders and asked for return labels. All sellers except one refunded me immediately instead of handling the return. Fine by me. The last seller completely ghosted me and told eBay they had sent return labels to my email, which was a lie. eBay extended the case by 5 days and asked the seller to contact me through eBay messages, probably so they could see what was being written. The seller vanished and never contacted me. eBay extended the case again. I think we are on week 3 now. I want my $170 back, but I guess the seller has already been paid out and the refund now has to come from eBay’s own pocket, which probably stings for them.
I started reporting tons of obvious bootlegs, but at first none of them were taken down. After some arguing and several additional purchases where I could prove that everything these sellers list on eBay is bootleg, things finally started moving.
Over the past few days, I have managed to get more than 1,500 listings taken down. Absolutely insane. The removals happen within 10 minutes and are handled by both AI and actual staff. I have now made it a hobby to report huge amounts of listings every day. I use AI to help spot the listings, and then it gives me lists of item numbers that I can send in batches of 25 at a time.
The sellers have started changing tactics and opening new accounts where they claim the items ship from England or the US, hoping they will not attract attention. They have also started changing their product images.
The sellers have multiple accounts, and some have thousands of items listed. One movie can be sold by 40+ sellers, all with 0-3 positive feedbacks. Some also have 0 positive feedback and only negative feedback. It is fascinating that they are allowed to continue.
I think eBay has shut down 2–3 sellers, which surprises me. Personally, I think all of these accounts should be deleted, but on the other hand, they will probably just open new accounts. Catch-22.
If these bootlegs are removed from eBay, sales for sellers offering genuine products will probably increase. It is hard to compete with something being sold almost for free.
If anyone at eBay sees this and wants more information, feel free to contact me.
alli-1201
·2 months agoSo YOU are the reason we can no longer buy physical copies of our favorite streaming shows which are never released officially on physical media. Thanks a heap. You say they were horrible quality, which is a lie. Every DVD and blu ray I received from a Chinese dealer was top quality, identical to streaming quality, and in very attractive packaging, as nice as any official American release. Why do you lie?
store-of-sweden
OP2 months agoA quick update: Over 5,000 bootlegs have been taken down in the past few weeks. Sellers instantly relist them so catch 22.
I’ve also noticed that many U.S.-based sellers have now started selling these counterfeits. After a bit of detective work, I traced several of these titles back to three different wholesalers in the U.S.
My guess is that the items are being dropshipped by Chinese sellers directly from these wholesalers. One example is dvdwholesales.com.
So now U.S. sellers are buying these movies believing they are genuine. Then those same sellers end up taking the hit when and if things go sideways.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve made test purchases from multiple sellers in both China and the U.S. to see whether they were shipping bootlegs. Every single delivery so far has been burned discs with covers that include some form of Chinese text.
All seven of these sellers received negative feedback. Every single one of those feedback comments was immediately removed by eBay.
The feedback was short and relevant: “Fake discs, buyer beware.”
Some sellers have sold over 3,500 bootlegs. That has generated and continues to generate large amounts of fees for eBay.
The pattern is painfully obvious.
The DVD releases are always single-layer discs, which studios rarely use for proper box sets. The quality of these DVDs and box sets is therefore horrible, because the video has to be compressed even more to fit onto single-layer discs.
I’ve reported over 40 sellers to eBay. None of them have been suspended.
According to someone at eBay, eBay has a system that logs what buyers and sellers do. Once the pattern becomes clear, they supposedly take action. The bitter truth, though, is that these sellers constantly open new accounts, so they are always one step ahead of the algorithm.
I haven’t received any thanks from eBay. I did, however, receive an email saying I’m now breaking the rules because I opened seven return cases in a row and my account will be limited. eBay want's to keep the marketplace a safe place for sellers. The irony.....
I understand why these movies and TV shows sell like crazy.
Most buyers only see the price tag, and many probably don’t even know what a burned Blu-ray disc looks like. They’re also completely unaware that the quality is worse.
I do feel sorry for the sellers who are still trying to do things properly and sell the genuine product.
Over & Out
furisa@ebay
Hello @store-of-sweden
Greetings from team eBay!
Thank you for reporting these counterfeit items and policy violations. Your proactive stance keeps our marketplace safe and directly benefits our entire community of buyers and sellers.
While reports may not result in immediate account suspensions, every submission is officially recorded and impacts the seller's standing. We review each case thoroughly according to our standard operating guidelines before taking final disciplinary action.
Your feedback is very much valuable to us. We highly encourage you to continue reporting any future violations you encounter. Please be assured that we maintain a zero-tolerance policy for fraudulent behavior on our platform.
Have a great day!
Regards,
eBay Team
cause415
·2 months agoeBay makes money on these sales...now if they were fined instead of compensated for these listings, I wonder what would happen?