From that article: Um, no. Cutting off access to sell on these sites won't stop this. We had crime before the internet.
I agree but I think it's more about the volume of goods stolen & resold. Without the internet it was impossible to sell in quantities now being sold.
I think they'd still find a way. I remember being approached by someone driving a van back in the day, asking me to buy this or that. Need some speakers? It would be more work for sure, but they could still move the stuff. Any items with no serial number could probably still be passed off to pawn shops. For those of us old enough to remember, there was a functional world before the internet. At this point I miss it.
Things today are not as they were. Most pawn shops today just buy gold & silver, they have **** 15yr old electronics on the shelves at modern day new prices. They don't want to sell the the crap. Nobody would buy it anyways ie no-name boom boxes etc. They have to have it on the shelves to remain open for business according to local regulations. So guys in vans going pssst hey buddy want to buy some speakers? Wouldn't sell 1% of what's being sold on eBay & Amazon.
Possibly, all we can do is speculate. But back to the original point, how are they going to hold these online retailers responsible if they intend to do so? Fine them? That will just get passed to the rest of us. I'd like to see some actual solutions to the things that go on in this world.
For the last 25 years we had a huge flee market in the small city where I live. Well everybody knew most of the stock was stolen goods, finally two years ago the police closed the place.
That's the whole point. Keep the consumers in the dark; that way they'll keep buying. If I'd bought something that turned out to be stolen, I would not hold onto it any longer than absolutely necessary in order to get rid of it, hopefully to the rightful owner. The world is full of crooks.
From my experience, stolen merchandise on eBay is often ridiculously underpriced, like a dehumidifier that usually sells for $200+ being offered for less than $50. I also came across a Buck knife usually retailing for $200+ being advertised for around $100. Whenever I encounter obvious scams and/or stolen items like this, I notify eBay and the listing usually disappears in less than an hour... sometimes within minutes. Items like Levi's jeans have plenty of info on the web pertaining to spotting counterfeits. A seller trying to push stolen products would be better off not going so low below normal retail pricing so as to not create suspicion. That said, there are still many people who don't even blink when they see a too-good-to-be-true ask. They fall all over themselves to place an order.
I've come across plenty of counterfeit stuff on eBay. Usually inferior repros from overseas. Sometimes you don't know until you get it. Sucks at the point. The seller is usually gone, probably operating under a different name. Stolen stuff, you may never know the difference. Only the crooks know for sure.
