Discussion
PSA: Reporting scalper listings as "presale" does get them removed.
I won't fool myself into thinking this is a huge win against scalpers but I've now made the scalper require some extra steps to get their profit at the cost of fans.
If it happend enough though I wonder if scalpers would move onto easier targets.
So at the very least I wanted someone else to know eBay does respond to these presale listings with an action. Don't think it's completely pointless.
If you report a listing and it a clear violation of the TOS it will normally be taken down within 10 minutes. You need to properly list what rule they are breaking. Its not against the TOS to sell a presale item but it is against the TOS to sell any item you do not have in your possession.
i bet this sounded really smart in your own head.. if you ignore the fact that scalpers use ai bots that are literally faster than a human being could physically order something. it's not capitalism it's scumbags trying to make a profit in literally any way they can lmao
so capitalism. precisely why it's a shit system all around, because it gives birth to scummy practices like this and fedora-tipping redditors like the guy above you.
Dude, scalpers are ultimately a net negative on society. They add no value to a product and operate by controlling supply through illegitimate means, often times with the help of bots, making it impossible for legitimate customers to buy.
That being said, they are a parasitic entity. And yes, people would rightly be happy if they were gone for good.
There were no opinions in that post. Everything in it from beginning to end was an objectively true and demonstrable statement. 2+2=4 is not my opinion.
And an exploit in society or the law being legal doesn’t make something right or moral. Congressional stock trading is widely regarded as immoral and yet it’s perfectly legal and Congressmen take full advantage of it.
I reported 3 listings that were nearly identical. only one was removed, the other 2 they claimed the AI couldn’t find anything wrong which I don’t understand because they literally had the word “presale” right in the title and that’s what I chose for the reason for the report.
To be clear - you reporting them because they are presale is not what is removing them. The actual rule that they are breaking is not being able to dispatch the item within 40 working days from purchase.
The issue is companies releasing limited product and not doing it in a way so that it gets into the hands of the people who actually want said product. There's no reason why MS couldn't have done a 1 preorder per MS account older than 1 year or something like that.
This is exactly how Valve handles orders for their hardware. Your account has to be so old and have a certain minimum amount of hours played on your account to qualify for orders, as it should be.
I'm not sure why people who don't care about scalping somehow care to comment about someone reporting scalping. If you're apathetic, good for you, but perhaps be consistent about it.
Because you guys keep breathlessly posting this shit like you're an internet hero or something. They'll just repost it, or it'll sell on one of the other 100 marketplaces they posted this listing to.
You're wasting your time out of a pettiness and begging others to join you in a totally fruitless endeavor. Relisting this stuff on ebay is 1 click. You worked harder to remove 1 listing than they have to work to repost it 3 times.
You don't have this inalienable right to be a perfomative dork online without any criticism or education on why what you're doing has no purpose.
This isn't gonna make the xbox store magically get back stock for you to buy.
It's the kind of shit a child that didn't understand how e-commerce works would react.
You didn't explain why you care though. You just explained why you think I shouldn't care and nothing you said is news to me. Like, why get so mad and resort to insults, unless you're personally insulted about the comments on scalpers.
I needed a distraction from something else and I wasn't going to achieve anything else before trying to sleep. I am a father of two with a full time job so what usable time I have is precious to me, so trust me when I say this is not time wasted that could be better spent elsewhere.
I did spend more time than I should responding to comments in here though. I find everyone's input quite interesting.
Its already expensive and hard enough to find stuff as is with out some putz scooping em all up and jacking up the price even more I frankly hate scalpers in general
It's not that people dont care about scalping. Its that reporting them is useless. They will just repost it closer to the release if not when it releases. (We not at 100 downvotes yet! C'mon atleast let's get 50)
That's fair. Most of them probably do this for a job anyways. Oh and let's see if this comment can get 100 downvotes at minimum. I want the record for most downvotes
Hopefully, at least a few scalpers will cancel their pre-orders because they’re annoyed by the situation, thereby making one available to a real fan. I got lucky and managed to snag one.
Both are cringe. Although I'd argue wasting your time reporting eBay listing and then bragging about it more cringe than someone buying something that's being scalped.
They're not buying it to prevent people from enjoying it, they're buying it to re-sell to someone willing to pay more to enjoy it. Just a minor distinction.
And no amount of community action is going to prevent them from doing so, even if all of them get de-listed, they'll go right back up once they're in that 40 day window and all that "community action" will have been wasted. Not to mention eBay isn't even the one stop shop for scalper listing, there's plenty of other places people sell scalped products
It's all just humble bragging. "Oh look I got a scalper de-listed, look at me clicking around and taking action against these scalpers"
They're not buying it to prevent people from enjoying it, they're buying it to re-sell to someone willing to pay more to enjoy it. Just a minor distinction
Got it! They're buying it so only the rich people with much more expendable income can buy it! The classism makes it so much better 🤡
They're parasites.
And no amount of community action is going to prevent them from doing so,
That's just a defeatist attitude that allows shitty people to keep doing shitty things.
If enough people give eBay bad press for allowing scalpers then eBay will act.
Do you really think eBay would keep up scalpers posts if there was a mass exodus from eBay because of scalpers? That's unlikely to happen, but I'd rather allow people to keep that attempt going, rather then tell them to give up and yield to the parasites.
If you want to just roll over and allow these parasites to keep being parasites, feel free, but you don't get to mock people for trying to actually make an effort to change the system.
It's not defeatist to understand that people resell things and that if something has a large demand they can ask above msrp.
It's defeatist to tell people to stop their actions that they hope will prevent that.
If mass action gives every resale platform nothing but bad press and loss of business for allowing scalpers then the resale platforms will act in the interest of defending their business and ban resale of items like this.
It's not likely, but telling people to not even try is 100% defeatist.
I certainly recognize that parasites will ask above MSRP on a product they just purchased because they're shitty people who think they're justified in buying out an items supply for their own profits.
You're so laser focused on eBay, you're forgetting all the other places things are sold and resold.
Then people also need to stir up bad press for facebook marketplace, craigslist or any other platform that supports these parasites.
Like you said prior, it's a toy, and you lot are crying like babies because you didn't get one.
I'm not crying about that at all. I just would rather support people trying to make changes as opposed to telling them to give up.
Grow up.
You take your own advice.
You can start by no longer making pathetic attempts at bullying people who fight for businesses to change their shitty practices like allowing scalpers.
Maybe also stop trying to pretend people are being crybabies when they express their hatred of scalpers and parasites like them.
I've had over a dozen removed since reporting. I think it's more successful if you leave a note/comment such as "This item does not release until 13th November 2026"
Either way, keep reporting. Takes a few mins, can do it while taking a shit 🤣🤣
Yh I’ve been reporting a few too, all of them have been approved to get taken down. It’s definitely because of the volume of reports. Hopefully alot of people see your post. I secured a console and seeing those listings makes me so mad for the real Xbox fans smh
It can get banned for reporting too many of the same type of listing too. You just look like an angry competitor trying to take down other peoples listings so yours get more attention.
In fact, you're more likely to get banned for going after the same product over and over than someone relisting a product that eBay clearly has no problem with users selling.
They do. I think the rule for presales on eBay is that the item must be shipped within 40 days from the date of the listing and the listing has to note that its a presale. Provided they meet the citetia, these listings can be posted in under a minute.
And abusing the MS online store violates the ToS in multiple ways.
Enforcing the existing rules would be enough to stop these scalpers, but no one is going to bother until the right people start losing money because of it.
Intangible items are things like the spirit of a dead relative. Basically, if you can't hold it, it can't be sold on eBay. The only exceptions I know of are digital items like Windows keys, but I think those are restricted to only approved vendors. Since these listings are for items that you can eventually hold/touch, they are legitimate, with restrictions.
I think a better way to reduce scalping would be to have waves where the first wave is open to people who have an active gamertag, then move to general population. Or something along those lines of limiting who can buy. But it's always going to be a cat and mouse situation with scalpers.
The scalpers have agreed to purchase the item, but they technically have no ownership of it at the time of auction. Nor are they in physical possession of the item. What people are bidding on is the idea of an Xbox, as the scalpers don't actually have one.
Bottom line: These scalpers do not own or even possess the item being auctioned, and they are auctioning it outside of the "pre-sale" window. They are violating the online store ToS where they intend to purchase the Xbox, and the ToS where they are intending to auction the intangible item. There's also a couple different layers of fraud sprinkled on top, depending on where you live.
Imagine wasting your life on this. Scalpers suck, sure, but these listings will just go back up later and they will not have any issues. You are wasting your most precious resource, time, to barely inconvenience them in the most minor way.
Xbox could have beaten this, by just ending the limited edition crap, and making it permanent. Limited Edition anything in the modern world is scalper bait. It only works if you require people to buy physically only and limited to one a person.
Microsoft dropped the ball so hard I mean Nintendo gave them the blueprint all you had to was offer to xblive members starting with oldest first its not complicated that would have helped alot
Just a fyi if you do purchase one off eBay your 30 day money back guarantee window starts at the estimated delivery date so as long as you file a claim within 30 days starting at your estimated delivery date you’re safe. I don’t agree with scalpers but if you agree to pay that price it’s solely your decision.
Honestly speaking yall don’t find it even a little corny to waste time doing this? The listing will just go up another time and ultimately it’s all for naught as the seller will eventually find a buyer? Like reselling things is what it is but isn’t this just one big waste of time?
You might be right. I don't know what the consequences are, if any, of relisting a removed item from the same account.
However, if they have to create a new account to relist the item then buyers might be cautious if there's no seller history. If they have to wait until they actually have the item in hand then they're less incentivised to pick these sorts of items to scalp and will move on to something people care less about.
Why waste your time? They will still resell them and there’s nothing you can do about it. If their listing is removed they’re just going to wait until they have the console in hand and list again.
If they have the console in hand then at least they're holding the bag and have to keep it somewhere and in good condition. It doesn't need to make them lose money, it just needs to be the least easy win for them to profit. If something else is easier to scalp they'll move to that.
You're not even gonna slow them down. People want to buy it. and they're willing to play scalper prices. You aren't an anti-capitalist freedom fighter.
Bro everyone in this thread is beyond delusional 😵💫
Thinking a scalper is going to cancel the pre order for a console thats making them minimum $1,000 profit because a listing got taken down on eBay a couple times?! Lmfao
Be careful doing this. eBay can pause or ban your account for too many reports if they deem they are inaccurate or malicious. I don’t think it’s worth doing personally. They can either repost the item or just revise the listing (as little as putting a period after a sentence) and eBay will put it back up literally within 10 minutes because their AI will just go through the listing again and check for keywords and see the policy is met. I hate the scalping as much as most people do but it feels pointless to spend time doing that.
Edit: Main point being I don’t want anyone getting their account screwed with trying to stop scalpers.
People reporting scalpers on ebay aren't buying things from scalpers on ebay. Maybe don't use your primary account for this, but reporting them is a net positive.
I mean… if you got the time spare to go on eBay look at listing your not interested in and report them then you do you or you could be happy with the console you already have and get to play the same amazing games…..
It beats being annoyed and doing nothing about it. It takes less than a minute to report a listing and you can do it on your phone when you're just waiting for something else. It's not like I'm sat down reporting en masse when I would have otherwise been able to do something else meaningful.
It makes temrminally online little boys feel like they have power. The OP has convinced himself that if he reports these listings enough the scalpers will get sad and cancel their preorders, and then Microsoft will add those cancelled preorders to the stock in the Xbox store for "real"customers to buy.
That is truly what they believe is going to happen.
I think the funniest thing was in the days leading up to the launch were the countless comments on how the console was 'dumb', nobody was going to buy it, etc. etc.
Now there is provable real demand for it and instead of lambasting the real problem of scalping (the BUYERS) they launch this futile crusade?
Holy shit. I wish these people would put their efforts into real problems
I think you two need to make fewer assumptions and take things less personally. I'm not convinced of anything, really. It's all just speculation.
No one is putting serious energy into this that could be used for good elsewhere. Do you think I have something better to do when I'm on the toilet?
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u/OrganizationSmart146 4d ago
eBay usually sides with the listing until enough people flag it, then it's gone in a few hours