@stoph-88,
The issue is not that the posters here approve of how eBay presents results supposedly filtered on supplier's country.
They don't.
It's not even that posters here approve of the facility for a seller in China, for example, to list their product location as being, e.g., Sydney, Australia.
They don't.
However, we could rant like ❝Romeo❞ Coates until the cows in crimson pantaloons come home... and it would not change eBay Management's mind about how eBay China is to be handled. If you search on these boards for the phrase just in time fulfillment, you'll see that eBay will allow items/inventory that is claimed to be in an Australian distribution warehouse (whether it is there, or already en route from China to the warehouse, or about to be despatched from China to the warehouse, or will be despatched at some point from China to the warehouse) to have the item location stated as being within Australia.
Is that misleading? You bet your little black booties that it's misleading. But please do not blame the posters on these boards for that. It isn't their decision; they are simply pragmatic about it now, because the Sturm und Drang is over and there is nothing we can do about it. We can only share information about how to spot listings where it can reasonably be established that the items are almost certainly not located in Australia.
You can complain directly to eBay. Sadly, eBay don't want to know. They not only permit this way of listing, but justify it internally. Even if you complain by quoting eBay's Item location policy, eBay will not take action against the sellers, although you'd have every reason to think that the sellers MUST surely face punishment for breaching eBay's own policy. The reason why the sellers do not face punishment is that they are registered on eBay.cn, not eBay.com.au. eBay are so desperate to maintain whatever foothold they have in China (with access to that huge marketplace) that eBay.cn have a completely different set of policies.
For Chinese eBay sellers, there are specific logistics companies who co-ordinate the shipping of sellers' items to Australia, and from there the items are sent to the respective distribution warehouses, from which the items are despatched with Australia Post tracking. It's harder than ever to tell whether the item from sent from China or from an Australian location...
Being pragmatic about eBay's position on this is not the same as being an eBay sycophant. It's also got nothing to do with being an eBay employee. The people on these boards are by and large knowledgeable, honourable, informative, helpful and trustworthy. They have to know about eBay policies and practices (which frequently change) because they need to know how to survive in a confusing and often illogical landscape. This is from the perspective of both sellers and buyers. Buyers need to know how to shop wisely on eBay; sellers need to know how to sell wisely on eBay.
You DO have to check feedback... and you DO need to check the country of registration of the seller. If you don't, you haven't used the few tools available to us as buyers to make informed choices. If you've ever in doubt about whether an item would be located here, or whether a seller is worth buying from, post here with the item number or item title, and fellow posters will check and give you facts-based advice and insight.
