Ebay Tips

#16
BagAngel said:
I agree with all the very good advice given here it is so important to stay safe on ebay, there are so many rogue sellers there.
However I just want to comment on the two points above.
Point 6. There isn't anything wrong with a seller selling a last season bag to make some money. Most buyers know the bags production date, if they like a bag & as long as the bag is authentic then buyers are free to negotiate on price or bid what they are prepared to pay for the bag.
Point 7. It is not an indication that the bags are fakes if sellers have several of the same bag. I have sold many of the same bags.
Most experienced bag sellers will know the highly sought after bags & buy several from different stores.

One point I would like to add on how to recognise the fake bags, a lot of them are pictured with a white cloth background this is the factory pic. Sellers of authentic bags will photograph the bag in their own home to prove that they have it & will provide detailed pics of all angles of the bag for the buyers convenience.
& always remember if the price is too good to be true it usually is!
Click to expand...

Yes you are correct. Let me clarify: Pt 6 - I meant really look for these sellers to buy from. Not look OUT. haha sorry.

And Pt 7: Look for sellers who have sold many of the same handbags - Brand new. Handbags that retail for many hundreds of dollars OVER what the seller has been selling them for.

Hope this helps!
 
#18
chloehandbags said:
1. Don't just rely on feedback percentages, as they can appear far better than they actually are. Particularly when the seller has a high feedback score.*

2. Always check through every feedback left by buyers, particularly the negatives and neutrals, including ones that have been removed/withdrawn. If two, or more (and definitely 3 or more!) of them say the same thing, trust their judgment and move on.

3. Check for shill bidding. Not only is it illegal and therefore, against eBay rules, but it also may mean that many of the positive feedbacks a seller has received mean nothing, as they have been left by the seller for themselves (from another eBay account), or by a friend. Not by a genuine customer.

4. Be wary of second chance offers, as some sellers shill bid their own auctions, by nibbling up the price, after you have bid your maximum amount and then pretend that the buyer was a Non Paying Bidder. They then know what your maximum bid was and can offer you a second chance offer for that amount.


* If a seller with a low number of feedbacks receives a neg, it will dramatically affect his/her feedback score. Whereas, if a seller with thousands, or tens of thousands of feedbacks receives a neg, it will barely lower their percentage and may very well not show on their feedback score at all!

This is because feedback scores are only shown to 1 Decimal Place (i.e. 99.4%, not 99.3595791%).

This means that a seller with 100 feedbacks would lose a whole 1% if they received just 1 neg, even though, as I'm sure you'd agree, it would often be unfair to judge a seller with 99 positives and 1 negative on that 1 negative, alone.

Whereas, assuming the percentage rounds up, or down, to the nearest decimal place, until they have received 6 negs, a seller with 10,000 feedbacks wouldn't lose their first 0.1% and they would then have to receive 10 more before another 0.1% loss showed on their feedback score and so on!

If a seller with a high feedback score is unreliable, or downright dishonest, they may feel they can 'afford' to receive a neg, every now and then, as it won't show on their score.

This (along with stringing buyers along until it's too late to leave a neg) is how monaco-babe/paparrazzi-girl/moda-da operates her scams.

IMO, this is a major flaw in the feedback system and one that we should all be aware of.
Click to expand...


Thanks !

Here is a perfect example. Note: My take a min. to load
http://toolhaus.org/cgi-bin/negs?Paparazzi-girl

99% pos. feedback.... but...........
 
#19
#20
Boy! I wish I'd known about this earlier!

I just used Toolhaus.org on my dodgy seller and they've got quite a bit of negative feedback about fake items.

Grrrr...have to look on it as a learning curve...
 
#21
^ :yes: What doesn't kill us, makes us stronger! :biggrin:


Excellent tip, courtesy of Ilikemike65 (hope you don't mind me 'borrowing' it, Ilm?! :flowers:):


Ilikemike65 said:
I get leery of people who have only minimal feedback but very elaborate listings. I know when I first started on eBay I had NO idea what I was doing and did quite a bit of buying before I ever would attemp to sell so when I see "newbies" with listings that look like they've been doing it forever....it really makes me think!
Click to expand...
 
#22
The tip about staying away from sellers with zero feedback is so true. Today, someone was asking about the authenticity of a LV Neo Speedy listed on eBay by a zero-feedback seller. The seller has over 40 photos showing every corner and detail of the bag with her home in the background. I thought I could ignore the risk of her zero-feedback background, due to the meticulous and diligent display of her bag. Furthermore, since I used to own a genuine Neo Speedy, I thought I knew what to look for. I was 99.9999% confident that the bag was authentic. Guess what, someone from the authenticate it thread pointed out the lack of 6-point star screws on the metal clip, in a photo that was missing in my view of the listing (I have a very slow internet connection, so I only saw 2/3 of the photos). Of course, I was shocked. I am amazed at how well these crooks reverse-engineered the Neo Speedy bag to come up with a near perfect replica.
If I were to look for a LV Neo SPeedy, I would have taken the plunge with this fake. Gosh! Just have to be extremely careful when shopping on eBay nowadays.
 
#23
Another tip...................

Make sure the photo is of the actual item being listed.
Some sellers use catalog or magazine photos and don't actually have the item!
 
#25
Thank you for the great advice and tips. If I may be so bold to add a couple of small things.

I agree about the pictures. I steer clear of anyone who uses stock photos, or pics off the company website( especially if they have been selling awhile...a digital camera is necessary for selling).

If they have received a negative for whatever reason, see how they handled it. Did they try to communicate with the other party, did they do a return etc.

Thanks for letting me ramble!
 
#28
Yes--thanks for these sites! I have been an ebayer for a long time and these sites (only looked at goofbay so far) will make it much easier for me to check things out. I am miserable with a bad cold today and reading the posts is making me a bit cheerier--I LOVE the Purse Forum! :love:
 
#30
Thank you to all for the wonderful advice!!! Sadly, I am still in the middle of trying to settle my own ebay fake bag disaster, but after reading this thread I feel confident that I can avoid this situation in the future...
 
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