flippers dont need ebay anymore (with all the ebay- fees and taxes on both sides, buyer and seller), they opened their own FB groups solely for knife exchange/ selling, waffles and live auctions.
not long ago, buying cheap in FB groups and here in the BladeForums exchange section and selling these knives later in auctions/ waffels in the FB knife exchange group or on ebay was the way they usualy made their profit.
buying cheap in FB groups or here on BF and selling with a high profit is no longer possible (with some exceptions) because auf the increasing prices, but these flippers still got the chance to buy new drops at dealer prices and sell them with high profit in waffles, live auctions on FB and on ebay.
that is what happened the last few years, its not the exception, that is the new normality.
its a jungle out there