I've come across another over the weekend. I'm in the market for a lathe, not had one for about 20 years since I had a unimat. Anyway scouring places like Axminster tools etc and comparing them to what is on offer on Ebay, it seems that they are all of Chinese origin except those from reputable dealers have been rebranded with their names at double the cost!
So it will be Ebay, now here is where it gets shall we say 'loose' in the sellers. I have looked at a few on ebay UK and Spain, all the sellers offer broadly the same two lathes and prices vary between them by very little, so its choose one and buy it. Except that I chose a Belgian seller (Europe you see!) reading the full description brought me to the bottom of the page where it said in very small type "Item will be sent from our warehouse in Hamburg Germany" Hmmm.
A little bit of digging and it seems that all of the 'sellers' ship from the same two warehouses, one in Southampton and one in Hamburg Germany! This is exactly the same scenario I came across when I bought my laser cutter several years ago, in fact I think I could get good odds on it not only being the same warehouse but in fact the same backstop wholesaler using many accounts!