I just checked the Ebay ad that I bought the lathe off of, and it looks like the seller is now sold out of them. When I bought mine (the second one he listed), he suddenly showed up with a third unit, but that doesn't show now. Showing 0 available/2 sold. Coincidentally enough, ALL of the sellers selling the identical unit are now sold out as well.
I guess I am just naive about this Chinese method of marketing, but why would a seller create multiple accounts just to sell the same identical items? Particularly when there is a limited amount of stock available? Wouldn't that raise red flags with Ebay when suddenly a bunch of people selling a particular product suddenly show ZERO in stock without having reported a sale through them?
But I guess it is hard for Ebay to resist the Chinese throwing money at them hand over fist. Have you noticed that it is getting rather difficult to even find genuine USA sellers on Ebay lately? And those that you do find are merely Amazon resellers.
Speaking of which, I have bought several items online that wound up being delivered by Amazon. What puzzles me is that I do check the prices, and invariably the prices I got on Ebay were cheaper, sometimes MUCH cheaper, than the same identical item was selling for on Amazon. Yet Amazon shipped the product to me. Not sure how that works at all.
Personally I prefer to not do business with Amazon, but the way things are headed, it may very well become nearly impossible to buy something online that is not coming from either Amazon or China.
One place the Ebay resellers cannot seem to undersell is Harbor Freight. If you are looking for something that Harbor Freight sells, ALWAYS check there first. You will often find the item on HF much cheaper than what Ebay is selling them for.