Here at Studio_Blu, we've come to realize that finding reputable sellers and authentic items can be a very daunting challenge for the average eBay shopper. There are many wonderful sellers on eBay, but unfortunately there are also many dishonest ones too. We spent some time looking through designer listings and were shocked at some of the things we found. The following are some observations, tips and general advice when purchasing designer items. We hope that this will help ensure you a safe and happy shopping experience on eBay.
Because we have received many inquiries from this guide and found that the information was proving helpful, we have decided to expand it to include more information. There are size restrictions to eBay guides, so this guide has now been put into two parts.
Finding Reputable Sellers:
Feedback. We can't stress enough how important it is to look at a seller's feedback. This is the first clue to any problems (items not being authentic, damaged, slow shipping, etc.). eBay no longer allows sellers to have private feedback (buyers feedback may be private, but all sellers must have visible feedback). This is not the same as having the buyers ids private. Many sellers keep buyer information private to avoid scammers from contacting the buyers, but it also keeps potential buyers from reviewing what items the seller has previously sold. eBay has also changed the bidding process in auctions. The bidders ids now remain private during the course of the auction, only the winning id will be visible at the end of the auction. This is supposed to only happen when the bids are over $200.00, but I have seen this happen on auctions with much lower amounts.
When looking at the feedback, make sure there is feedback from buyers and not sellers. Make sure that your seller has some track record of sales. It is very common for scammers to purchase a lot of low price items to establish feedback to then sell high price bootlegs. Also click into some of the feedback to see what items were sold. You don't want to see that all of a sellers prior sales were for one cent recipes or ebooks and they are now selling Chloe bags. That is a big red flag and the seller will probably not be around for very long.
Location, location, location. We have never seen any authentic designer items coming from any Asian country (Singapore, Hong Kong, China and the Phillipines). Asian countries have a very lucrative bootleg business. Don't be fooled by multiple locations. It is common for bootleggers to have a US city or Canada along with an Asian city for location. This means the item is coming from Asia. This includes seller and item mutliple locations. There are sellers listed in one country and the item location in Asia. Check to make sure both the seller and item are in the same location.
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