PSA: The Simple Trick to Check an eBay Seller's REAL Location!

Clear on 22/01/2019 - 15:12

I posted this last year but it seems I'm saying it every week now as people still don't know.

Sellers are putting 'Australia' as the Item Location for their listings when they are infact located overseas like China and Hong Kong. This is particularly common with Chinese goods such as Xiaomi listings. Thanks to the new legislation regarding GST however this problem is now a double edged sword. If overseas sellers put the Item Location as Australia you will not be charged 10% GST.

So how do you check their real location?

Ensure you're on the Desktop site (not mobile or app) and view their profile. Next to the 'Member since:' you will see their location.

For example: This listing says it ships from NSW, Australia, but clicking on their Profile shows that the real location is infact China.

"But Clear some sellers have AU warehouses", "Hey Clear my order arrived in 5 days". Yes there are exceptions to this rule! Some sellers will claim to have an AU warehouse. Sometimes this is true but more often than not they're using couriers like DPEX who ship to Australia quickly through the Auspost China Partnership. Gearbest and Banggood for example currently use this method for their 'AU Express'.

The other possibility is that the seller previously lived overseas and now lives in Australia, as your eBay profile will show the country the account was created in.

Hopefully this helps :)

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Comments

  • one man clan on 22/01/2019 - 15:25
    +15

    How do I find out if there are REALLY hot singles in my area?

    • Clear on 22/01/2019 - 15:27
      +1

      Buy Tinder Gold. You will see who liked you and the fake profiles are usually all the same crazy distance away, e.g. 15000km.

    • [Deactivated] on 22/01/2019 - 15:31
      +2

      Mate, it's been sheriously scorhin' this part of the country. There's ALL the shingles here are REALLY hot.

  • altomic on 22/01/2019 - 15:26
    +6

    What will the Seller do next that WILL SHOCK ME!!

  • lostn on 21/03/2019 - 08:47

    Should I assume that if the goods are "located" in Aust but the seller is from China that the goods will be grey import even if they're already in an AU warehouse?

    • Clear on 21/03/2019 - 09:34

      Usually. Some may have legit AU warehouses but it's hard to say. Normally they use Auspost China/DPEX to have the goods forwarded to the courier's AU warehouse and then to you. That way it looks like it has come from Australia when it has not.

      • lostn on 21/03/2019 - 12:18

        That does make sense.

        I ordered a Xiaomi electric mop listed as AU and express postage, but it looked like there were multiple shipping stickers, one pasted on top of another.

        I still got it pretty quickly. Quickly enough that it had to have been sitting in a warehouse because I don't think it could go from China to the warehouse to me in 2 days.

        Being a Xiaomi product, I wouldn't expect local stock anyway, but there are plenty of smartphones claiming to be AU stock with AU warranty which honestly is vague enough that it can be twisted to mean what they want it to.

        • Clear on 21/03/2019 - 21:09

          The Auspost China agreement does offer sellers the ability to have an 'AU warehouse' as such so that's likely what was done in this case. It's still possible to have orders arrive quickly with couriers though. I've previously had orders shipped with TNT China on Friday and delivered by TNT on Monday arvo.

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