Common Sense Guide for Buying Designer Labels on EBay
The purpose of this Common Sensee Guide is to 1) share my experience as a seller of fashion name brands navigating several new checks and balances imposed by EBay, 2) expose several myths circulating about sellers selling brand name fashion items on EBay, 3) inform buyers with a common sense checklist geared toward helping them to buy on EBay more safely, and finally 4) to provide online resources the buyer can use to further assure authenticity and learn about how to avoid being the victim of online fraud. In the process, I intend to put into perspective today’s risks experienced by buyers on EBay’s recently enhanced auction platform.
While it is true that EBay has a history of being plagued by a reputation for providing a platform for con artists, swindlers and chiselers to bilk the less-than-savvy buyer looking for famous brand name designer items, sellers actually deserve a little bit more benefit of the doubt than is often portrayed by many authors of “how-to-spot-a-fake-xxx” guides on the Internet. (It is interesting to note however that even in Wikipedia’s definition of EBay, an entire section is devoted to the topic of fraud). But yes, there are actually small and reputable EBay sellers that have brand name shoes, handbags, perfume and jewelry for sale, all authentic, fresh, and at seemingly too-good-to-be-true discount prices. And especially today with the sweeping changes EBay has made to its auction platform for ensuring the “buyers’ and sellers’ trust in EBay’s marketplace”, there has never been a better time for buyers to bid with confidence on the items they desire most. EBay has good motivation to maintain that trust. It is the number one ecommerce site on the planet and it intends to hold on to that title. Popular Amazon ranks a distant second place.
My Experience Confronting EBay’s Enhanced Trust and Safety Features
Overnight my positive feedback dropped to 99.7% from 100% when EBay began counting my one “neutral” feedback as negative. At the same time, my listings dropped further down in keyword search results upon EBay’s implementation of its new best match searches because two customers had given me less than perfect ratings on their perceptions of my shipping charges and an item description on their Detailed Seller Rating scores upon feedback. The bottom line is that buyers today have much more influence in deciding a seller’s online success. Goodbye “buyer beware”. Hello “customer is king”.
To add injury to insult, for the first time this year I experienced the removal of some of my listings by EBay. I was shocked! After all, I’ve always considered myself an excellent EBay seller. I always deal honestly with my customers and apply integrity to all of my dealings. Yet operating in good conscience is suddenly not enough. Overnight, I am responsible for understanding the nuances of international trade law and ever changing restrictions. Now when I list an item using a famous designer label, EBay might remove it until I verify the authenticity of the product and my right to resell something by the designer. Two things are obvious based on these experiences: 1) EBay is holding its seller community much more accountable than ever before to improve its image and to win the trust of the buying public, and 2) unscrupulous sellers, marginal sellers, and maybe even good-but-casual sellers will be weeded out in the wake of tougher standards of performance.
Four Myths About Buying Designer Labels on EBay
EBay has implemented many enhancements to its platform for ensuring trust and safety on EBay. The experiences above describe my encounters when running into only a few of those changes as a seller trying to keep dry while navigating the rapids of a new and more secure environment. Based on this, it seem to me that at least some of our assumptions about selling and buying online have been rendered myths anymore, as I describe below.
- Myth 1 – You are most vulnerable to fraud when you buy online. On the contrary, these tougher standards make a myth out of this once valid assumption, at least with regard to EBay. Instead, you’re really the most vulnerable when purchasing your heart’s desire from the back of a car trunk, New York City curb, alternative auction websites, or at a purse party hosted by a flight attendant just back from China.
- Myth 2 – Any seller with less than 100% feedback is probably guilty of fraudulent selling practices when it comes to designer labels. Not necessarily! Sellers can leave negative feedback for a variety of reasons – late shipping, poor packaging, slow communication from seller, etc. And, with EBay’s recent change to count “neutrals” as negatives, any EBay seller having a neutral feedback comment in its twelve month history experienced a sudden drop in their scores.
- Myth 3 – You can only obtain authentic brand name labels from the designer’s own stores or authorized dealers. That is not true for all brand name labels. There are actually many sellers on EBay offering wholesale listings of these products. Liquidation.com is an auction site that regularly hosts pallet auctions of department store shelf-pulls and season surpluses. Police auctions are a good source of authentic product. Madisonavenuecloseouts.com is another reputable source of wholesale lots of designer label goods. Small sellers can actually obtain authentic designer labels from a variety of reliable wholesale sources if they’ve done the necessary research and work of establishing relationships with their suppliers. At Venus Shoe, our designer labels come from wholesale suppliers validated by World Wide Brands, the only publisher of wholesale supplier information that is certified by EBay.
- Myth 4 – If the price is too good to be true, then it probably is a fake. Actually, here are three good reasons why you can find too-good-to-be-true prices on your favorite designer labels. 1) Auctions starting at .99 to $19.99 are used to generate buyer excitement. Starting with a low opening bid is exactly the point, it’s what an auction is supposed to do! 2) Promotions using a loss leader. An item that is a “loss leader”, according to Wikipedia, is one “priced below cost to attract customers who will then presumably purchase other, profitable products.” Venus Shoe, for example, occasionally offers discounted department store NWT designer purses to attract customers in the hopes of also selling to them its main product line – shoes – at regular prices. 3) The seller simply needs to move inventory, even if it means a loss for the seller. Sellers’ situations change. Suddenly the seller needs to liquidate now. This can translate to grossly discounted prices in listings to the benefit of buyers. These are only a few of the legitimate reasons you will see steeply discounted prices on your favorite designer items.
EBay Buyer’s Top Ten List for Buying Authentic Designer Products
- Use Authenticity Experts and Services if You’re Unsure. There are many reputable resources for these services, typically offering to authenticate the item in question by sending to them links or photos. Typical prices for this service range from $10-$30. See my list of resources at the end of this article for a few of the better sites offering this unique service.
- Examine Listings Carefully! Read all of the fine print. Look over the return policy carefully. Ask the seller questions if you are unsure or don’t understand something. Does the seller offer a no hassle, no questions asked return policy? Does the seller guarantee the veracity of his product’s label (good)? Does the seller go overboard with flowery adjectives in describing the guarantee (bad)? EBay will back you up by holding the seller accountable to the return policy as written in the auction’s listing, so you should be able to accept it at face value. A trick that used to be common in listings selling designer labels is for the seller to state, for example, “Tiffany” in the title of an item’s description, but further down in the description to explain that it is “Tiffany inspired”, which to the buyer searching for an authentic item actually means “knock off”. The seller is hoping that the buyer won’t notice the word “inspired” (or other synonym) in the description in his/her eagerness to make a bid. Sellers believed that by doing this they are absolving themselves of blame by not technically breaking EBay policy. However, this is still a deceptive selling practice and one for which EBay now monitors routinely. Yet another ploy I’ve witnessed by sellers is to talk about a designer item at great length, to dedicate the majority of the listing describing a wonderful designer product, and to provide many appealing photos of the designer product. Then toward the bottom they save a tiny remainder of the description to the actual item being bid on. The bid ends up being actually for a knock-off or similar looking item, and NOT the designer item to which the majority of the description was devoted! This can really trip up speed-reading buyers in a hurry looking for the real thing. I’ve seen this happen often with MAC cosmetics and make-up brush lots as well as with jewelry.
- Don’t Buy from Sellers Overseas with Little to No or Poor Feedback. My hairdresser Kheim once bought a lot of Coach purses from a seller in Brazil, only to discover upon arrival that the handbags were obviously fake. When he went to contact the seller, guess what….the seller wasn’t registered with EBay any longer.
- Be a Smart Electronic Shopper. Be informed about the typical ways in which both sellers and buyers engage in fraud by going to Wikipedia and searching on EBay.
- Too Good to be True. Maybe, Maybe Not. Yes, there is great wisdom in this old adage. It remains true for the current season’s hottest jewelry, perfume or handbags. But don’t dismiss all outrageous sale prices. For the reasons I stated earlier, EBay sellers can obtain and offer steep discounts on designer items that are just one, two, three or more seasons old (and which are still hot!).
- DON’T Necessarily Assume all Designer Items on EBay are Fake! EBay has an aggressive Trust and Safety policy, with automated checks and balances in place today. They haven’t always caught all sellers selling fakes, but they probably will very soon!
- Know your Product. Spend the time to get to know your hoped for handbag a bit better before you bid on it. This means obtaining catalogs of the designer’s products and studying them so that you are familiar with a designer’s flavor, tolerances, nuances and other attributes. You can order these catalogues from designer’s websites typically. Alternatively, many of the top designers offer these in slick multimedia electronic presentations hosted on their websites. Because of the world class eminence of these designers you can simply put there label name into your browser, followed by “dot com” and hit their websites usually the first time. You could also go to websites like catalogs dot com to find upscale sellers offering catalogs free or for sale. The more familiar you are with a product line, the less your risk for purchasing a fake on EBay.
- Protect Your Purchase with a Credit Card or PayPal. Paying with PayPal automatically protects your purchase. In a dispute, the burden of proof typically starts with the seller for ensuring correct follow through on the transaction, that the item was actually received by the buyer, and the buyer’s satisfaction. If PayPal rules in your favor, PayPal will itself refund you and take on the hassle of getting the funds owed by the seller so that you don’t have to be involved for any longer than necessary. So, don’t purchase from a seller if they won’t accept Paypal. Of course, credit cards are preferred as well because all major credit cards offer buyer protection policies.
- Buy Based On Referral. Especially if you are new to buying on EBay, go to a seller’s EBay store on the recommendation and positive experience of a friend. Nothing quite substitutes for a word of mouth endorsement by someone you know.
- KNOW THY SELLER. I saved this one for last because it is the most important piece of advice, in my opinion. If you are considering buying something from a buyer for the first time, be sure to click on the links on the seller’s auction. This includes feedback comments, score, Detailed Seller Rating, About Me, and Store. In the seller’s store, check out any custom pages the seller has created about their business. The point is to get to know the seller better, before you buy. Read recent feedback comments with confidence, since buyers should now be leaving more sincere feedback comments about sellers. EBay removed the ability for sellers to leave buyers negative feedback, effectively removing buyers’ fear of retaliation. In general, here are some key things to look for in assessing the credibility of a seller:
- A sellers’ score of at least 100, which indicates the seller has conducted one hundred sales. This assures you the seller has a requisite level of experience in dealing online.
- Negative feedback comments. You’re looking for accusations of a fake item. If you find any, don’t buy from the seller!
- Timeliness of Response to Your Questions. If you don’t get an answer, or you receive only a meager answer, keep shopping.
- Power Seller status. Power sellers are an elite set of sellers having met minimum selling performance standards. This special designation should be factored into your overall assessment of the seller.
- Photos of the actual product you are considering purchasing, as opposed to stock photos. Photos of real product should be considered much more credible. If a seller only shows stock photos, be wary. Don’t be afraid to ask the seller for more photos either.
- Peruse EBay’s forums by searching on the name of the seller to see what comments others may have left, good or bad.
Ultimately, your decision to buy from an EBay seller should be based on a combination of informed decision making after finding good sellers who fall within your threshold for risk.
Online Resources
There are many, many guides out there describing the technical art of spotting fakes. Some general, many more specific and by brand. Instead of adding my two cents to the weight of all of these good guides, I list the ones I particularly find useful here. I also list below other resources which you will find helpful in your online shopping quest.
- Mypoupette dot com – Has guides and information for spotting fakes, as well as an online service for verifying the authenticity of individual products found online. Emphasis is on Louis Vuitton, but they can also authenticate other brands for just a bit more cost.
- From Bags to Riches dot com – They offer an optional certification service and will put a seal of authenticity on a listing, as well as offering cleaning and restoration services.
- Knowknockoffs dot com – Excellent consumer advocate website for educating consumers to become better online shoppers.
- How To Spot A Fake Designer Purse or Handbag – A professionally written article by Cathy Feldman, contributing editor of designerhandbags101 dot com
- Designerhandbags101 dot com – Excellent background information on a variety of handbag labels.
- How to spot a fake Coach bag – nicely written EBay guide on spotting fake Coach hand bags, written by seller to.much.stuf
- Detect Authentic Coach vs Fake Coach – an extensive and excellent resource for spotting fakes written by seller fionaflyby.
Kevin