Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think this is slightly different than what the article (and by extension my comment) were discussing. For some products and items, the difference between the chinese produced items and the actual items is a world of difference (e.g., electronics batteries, power adapters), but that isn't really the business that the article was talking about the cut into - the issue was resellers who would buy up a warehouse stock…
>It's not a matter of meeting shipping times or any other value propositions, it's "do we need someone to resell a toy boat at twice the price when we can buy the same stock directly That may not apply to toy boats, but it does apply to some things. Take USB to serial adapters, for example. In that case, a middle man does add value. A good middle man ensures that you get what was advertised...for example, the chipset…
On eBay, from a customer's perspective, there's no difference between a US seller and a Chinese one. We have the same way of "punishing" them. I cannot punish a US based seller any more than a Chinese one.
>If these tradeoffs were known before hand, I get your point. Typically, though, they are deliberately not disclosed.
Frankly, the stuff I've bought on eBay from Chinese sellers is so cheap that I don't really care to return them. They fall into the price range of "I don't give a damn". In the US an item may be $30. From the Chinese, $7. It's worth the gamble.
(And it really is worth the gamble. I've not been disappointed once).