I have an interesting situation unfolding concerning a product I print and sell. Before I started selling my "widgets" on Ebay, there was only one manufacturer in the world (so far as I could tell) that produced the same product. Since they had no competitors, they charged about $150 for this piece of plastic that probably cost them, at most, a couple of dollars to make. After confirming that they held no patent (nor pending patent) on the item or idea, I decided to design my own version and start printing it and selling it. With a listed price way lower, you can imagine they've been selling like crazy. They look nothing like the manufactured version so there's no case to be made that I copied their design. I just made something that accomplishes the same thing via different means.

So an odd thing happened a few days ago. I normally sell two or three of these things a day. Suddenly one buyer grabs up 50 of them all at once...my entire inventory. While pleased with the big purchase, I became suspicious when the buyer was quite cold and a bit rude in a couple of messages exchanged following the purchase. Checking Ebay for the "ship to" address showed that they had all been ordered by the manufacturer in question.

I have no idea what their game is, but I'm going to ship the items to them as they paid fair and square for them. I figure they bought them all up to make me run behind on sales or they want to look at them close up to see if I copied their design (but why not order just one then?). My slightly more sinister theory is that they bought them all up so they could try to leave 50 instances of negative feedback on my seller account for some made up reason, which could definitely kill my future sales.

Anyway, just a story that I thought other 3ders might be able to relate to or have similar experiences to share. Not sure if I should be nervous or what.