I have been an avid eBay customer for years. You might even say it is a hobby much like collecting torches! But I have noticed two things with buying torches that does not seem to occur with eBay. One is delivery time, and the other is warranty.
I have bought a few torches recently, and a few other things - hobby chargers, batteries, etc.
I have followed the recommendations from members if this forum, and used suppliers as suggested here. Buying from Manafont, Lightake, DinoDirect, etc is terrible. You would think that they would use the same delivery system inside ebay as outside, but it does not seem to be the case.
When I buy things on Ebay from China (virtually everything), I have never had to wait for more than 2 weeks for an item. 3 weeks might have happened once or twice - but I cannot think when, it is so rare. Why is the delivery time so much faster 'in the ebay world'?
The other HUGE problem is warranty. I have never had a problem with ebay. If it arrives faulty, you get a full refund. No quibbling - it is done with a single email. You do not have to send back and forth emails, videos, birth certificates. Try doing that with Manafont, Lightake, etc. No - outside of ebay, there is basically no warranty.
I think the issue is that on ebay suppliers value their reputation. A few disgruntled customers can do them a lot of damage. So they are forced to provide good service. Of course, that is the reason why ebay is so successful. Outside of ebay, suppliers can do whatever they want, and generally get away with it. A few forums like this one certainly help to highlight the worst suppliers, and hopefully get the rest to lift their games a bit.
I am about to give up getting torches and things from these 'outside' websites. It simply costs too much. And life is simply too short to wait 3-4 weeks for each purchase. With those time frames I have almost forgotten about the original purchase.