The Corner Penthouse

This is another in a series of articles about eBay, who covers up the shady business practices of its sellers, while turning its feedback system into an utter joke. I will do my best to inform the public about eBay's scummy practices and the bad sellers that operate on the platform, so other buyers can avoid them. The issue I will be writing about today has happened to me a few times so far, with the latest being from a seller operating under the eBay ID: dionis_mart

eBay is, basically, a virtual flea market where you can shop from a variety of sellers. Ideally, eBay sellers would be small businesses and individuals selling you their own inventory. Some eBay sellers are larger businesses, who may have inventory stored outside of their own homes and warehouses. That even includes storing items in Amazon's warehouses, with Amazon fulfilling the items. That's fine.

Then there's "dropshipping", which is a retail fulfillment method where a business doesn't keep the products it sells in stock. Instead, when a customer places an order, the business purchases the item from a third-party supplier, who then ships the product directly to the customer. This allows businesses to sell a wide variety of products without the need for inventory management, warehousing, or shipping logistics. While I think that's kinda shady - the customer should be dealing directly with the supplier - there are many legitimate reasons for this.

What ISN'T legitimate is when an eBay seller uses their Amazon Prime account to order the item and have it shipped as a "GIFT" from Amazon to the buyer. Even more unscrupulous is when that eBay seller adds an UNRELATED TRACKING NUMBER into eBay's system in order to deceive eBay into believing that they (the seller) shipped out the item themselves. As I wrote about in this article, there are websites where these scummy sellers can actually BUY LEGITIMATE TRACKING NUMBERS for different packages that were shipped around the same time and going to same town. They put that tracking number into eBay's system, since they could not input the real Amazon tracking number.

You might wonder what the harm is. Well, the fact the eBay seller is putting in FALSE TRACKING INFORMATION into eBay's system should be all I need to tell you to know why this is wrong. Further, if I'm shopping on eBay, it is under the assumption that I'm supporting the business I'm buying the item from. (Yes, I know I'm also supporting evil eBay, but that's an unavoidable side effect.) It is assumed that I am giving the eBay seller money for the items they are going to send me. I am not giving the eBay seller money to be my own personal shopper. That was not an agreed upon part of the transaction. If I wanted to buy the item from Amazon, I am more than capable of buying from Amazon myself.

I haven't noted every instance of an eBay seller gift-shipping from Amazon. I think the first might have been for a bunch of DVD cases in the mid-2010s. I also had an eBay seller gift-ship a Tales From The Crypt DVD from Deep Discount in the late 2010s. I started noting these gift-shipped items here on The Corner Penthouse in late 2018 when eBay actually punished me, the buyer, because I mentioned Amazon in the negative feedback I left for the seller; which eBay deleted anyway. The next time I wrote about this behavior was in early 2025 when I first encountered a scummy seller who not only gift-shipped from Amazon, but also added a tracking number for a different package. Again, eBay covered for that unscrupulous seller by deleting the negative feedback I left. I'm sure they will do the same for the latest seller, so I'll document it here.

On August 15, 2025 I purchased an ApoJodly-branded 6-inch HDMI cable from "dionis_mart" for $9.55. With free shipping and $0.82 tax, it came to a total of $10.37. (Amazon sells it for $6.99 from ApoJodly, fulfilled by Amazon.)


Dionis_Mart marked it as "shipped (untracked)" on August 18th. I messaged Dionis_Mart to ask for a tracking number, but my message was ignored. On August 20th, I found a package from Amazon in my mailbox. Given that I didn't order from Amazon, I was initially confused. Then I remembered the previous scummy eBay seller and I immediately knew this was the 6-inch HDMI cable from "dionis_mart". I was not happy, as I did not want to support Amazon with this purchase. I wanted to support a small business who was selling me their own inventory.


The QR code on the gift receipt points to this page, which tells me that Dionis_Mart placed Amazon Order # 114-8739723-5401859. That's all of the information it provides.


Right after, I saw an e-mail from eBay in my inbox informing me that the item was out of delivery. Since there was no way eBay could know about the Amazon package, and it didn't have a tracking number two days earlier when Dionis_Mart marked it as "shipped", I was a bit perplexed. Sure enough, there was now a UPS tracking number (1ZX612350341026567) on the eBay order page.


Having had the previous experience, I knew that this UPS tracking number was for a DIFFERENT PACKAGE that was being delivered elsewhere in my town. The dead giveaway that this tracking number was NOT for my package - besides the fact that I already had the package in my possession - is that UPS reports the other package a weighing EIGHT POUNDS! No way in hell does a small 6-inch HDMI cable weigh that much. It doesn't even weigh one pound.


While the package from Amazon was delivered on August 20th before 11:00 AM, this unrelated UPS package was delivered at 12:56 PM. Furthermore, the UPS "proof of delivery" photo shows a very large package - at least FOUR FEET LONG - sitting on someone else's porch. No way in hell would a small 6-inch HDMI cable be in a FOUR FOOT Box!


Even though I'm sure eBay will delete it and cover up Dionis_Mart's unscrupulous business practices, I left this negative feedback: "THIS SELLER DOES NOT SELL HIS OWN INVENTORY. He gift-shipped the item from another retailer, who included a GIFT NOTICE in the package. Since the seller sent me a gift, I WANT MY MONEY BACK AS I DO NOT PAY FOR GIFTS GIVEN TO ME! Furthermore, SELLER DECEIVED EBAY by inputting an UNRELATED TRACKING NUMBER into eBay's system. He got a tracking number for a different package that was shipped at the same time and going to someone else in my town, and gave that tracking number to eBay. Unscrupulous."



I also reported Dionis_Mart to both eBay and Amazon, as I'm pretty sure that gift-shipping items is against both companies terms of service. I doubt either will do anything about it. As long as both companies got their piece of the pie, they don't care about the unscrupulous - and frankly illegal - behavior of their users This behavior is also, likely, a violation of the INFORM Consumers Act, which requires certain sellers to disclose if they used a different marketplace seller to supply the item.