Hi,
For some time now, I have noticed rugs on Ebay that are listed for sale by many different sellers. Here is just one example of many. Thus rug is shown for sale from 5 or 6 sellers with similar pricing and exactly the same photos.

What is going on with this?
Thanks

I also am finding a lot of rugs - mostly small, 3x5 4x6 etc that would appear to be from one store/warehouse but have several seller names. There seems to be one town in North Carolina, perhaps two with an awful lot of these rugs. (Of course the examples I cite below would have to be larger.)
I also note titles and details that differ on the same page. Such as calling a rug then stating it is 60 - 70 years old.

Another example


And speaking of names......
There are a couple of those North Carolina sellers that call darn near everything they have Balouch. Then tell you one is Afghan, or another is Iranian but it could be from several different provinces (but Khorasan is probably most common) - I saw one a couple of days ago that was called Balouch from Baku.

very interesting, Welcome to the forum rugaddict! naming names is okay if it's done in an objective manner. When you say the quality declined is this encompassing condition?

Hello rugaddict and welcome!

Your post explains why, after purchasing a small piece (from NC) I got a promotional email from Heritage.

Takrugs
104 Williamson St
Fortmill, SC 29715

Heritageunlimited
Unique USA, 104 Williamson St., Fort Mill, SC 29715.


heh They have/use different phone numbers but the addresses are from emails they sent.

And the small piece I got is Just what I wanted

Takrugs, Ruglady, ZazaDesign, Fantasyrugs, are just a few of the seller names they use. If you look on their site, the rugs that are listed on Ebay are usually 'reserved' for the duration of the auction. As I said, not all of their rugs are bad, and as KrowGyrl pointed out, you have to be thorough in reading the descriptions and looking at the pictures. One of the things that has helped me is to use 'Save picture as..' and transfer the photos to a folder in my computer. Then I can enlarge the photos and inspect the rugs more closely.
I do feel that the general quality of most of the rugs offered on Ebay has declined in the last 6 months. There are less rugs listed, too. I think some of it is due to the economy - dealers don't want to list better rugs if they won't go for better rug prices. Two dealers I buy from have told me that they can't afford to buy in the Iran or Afghanistan anymore and are buying more rugs in Europe. Either way their costs have risen and they are reluctant to sell on Ebay as opposed to their own sites.
Overall, though, Ebay is still a good venue for my business. It's buyer beware, whether you're buying rugs or anything else.

Anyone should be able to see this clearly. All you have to do is search for "rug" sort by price ( low to high ) and you should be able to easily distinguish the same rug being offered dozens of times. No matter who says what, there is no doubt in my mind that it is actually the same person doing this under different logins. If you note they all have sold plenty since their inception. Its something that has gone unnoticed even by people that are sitting in front of their computers looking for rugs on eBAy for years. I off hand am not sure how many sellers are included in this batch but here are some : Rugsource
Takrugs
Stylemarket
Gracious Homes
Zazadesign
2bfashion
fantasyrugs
Nomadrug
Chateaurugs
masterpiecerugs

and probably twenty to thirty more IDs

The image of the rug used, is exactly the same image which signifies that this is a scam and what you can refer to as certain type of Monopoly. The idea behind it is , not everyone is looking for a specific rug and most rug buyers on eBAy just want a rug; most buyers spend an hour or two sifting and picking and then they eventually get tired and bid on something they have picked. Now I am pretty sure 70 to 80 percent of the rugs ( by count ) or even more, are rugs posted by this person / group. So in effect they are destroying the rug market for other unsuspecting rug sellers and dealers with this practice. Most of their rugs are inferior HSN Crap anyways. Now I have not really took time to read all the postings here and so if I am reiterating something that someone else has mentioned already , I apologize.

eBAy is aware of this ( and they either are on it or don't give a damn because they make their stinking commission anyway). If you bother asking them if doing so is illegal, they say yes but if you show them , they will just say ( oh what a beautiful blue sky ) and ignore it right out of your head...

I discussed this with a very well known Economist asking him if this falls within the boundaries of what could be considered monopolizing the rug market on eBAy and whether or not this is a suitable for an anti-trust action . He suggested that it depends on several factors. First of all, if this is being practiced internationally, i.e., this is occurring primarily in nations outside of the U.S., then American anti trust jurisdiction is not applicable. Secondly, if it is 60-70% of the market, then it may be a stretch to say this is true an anti-trust action. It may possibly fall under the Sherman Anti-trust's "conspiracy to monopolize" clause, but only if it could be proved eBay was essentially duped as well and is thus a victim of any possible conspiracy to form a monopoly as specified in the Sherman. Again , I know for a fact that eBay has been notified of such fact and has danced around it , so I guess one could take eBay to court ( which I think would be a good thing to do for all the other rug sellers on eBAy or I don't know maybe just sue the hell out of the group of sellers which are doing this.

Bottom line I guess I have to praise whoever who is doing this as it seems that he/she/they figured a way to dominate the rug market on eBAy!

Ah the hell with it, while we are at it, if anyone uses my thoughts, and pursue some kind of class action / anti-trust case against these people, they owe me royalties, so think twice before you start up one and negotiate my commission. Well another thing while we are at it , I do hope no one will come after me and they better not because I have a laser gun...

Ha ha ha....

As I mentioned, I have bought from some of the people on the list of multiple sellers. It is easy to spot when you see the same exact photo secen or eight times in a row. I have not bought anything (rugs) on ebay in almost a year and a half now because i did a big buy and then stopped and started selling. I don't know about now, but I can say that none of the rugs I bought from them were anything I would remotely call crap. No, they are not "investment" rugs, they're not museum quality, they are not profoundly unique pieces someone loses sleep over and regrets not buying for a lifetime. But they are very nice rugs, and the people who have bought them from me have been very happy. And I have presented them as exactly what they are and no one thinks they have bought the rug equivalent of a Mona Lisa. There are a klot of people out there who love the look of the rugs, want a real hand woven rug, but don't have a fortune to spend or anything like it. To those people I say, Come to mama!

Cloudband ... I completely agree, absolutely. It definitely looks funky and what could possibly be the reason. even if it were like some real estate places that have multiple agents listing the same property, it's awkward. It also clogs up the eBay space with the large number of many multiple listing. But I cam to the conclusuions that eBay will only step in if it could possibly hurt them legally. If it's just the gray zone, they don't want to step on the toes of a customer ... in this case the seller.