Fake LV and shill bidding and misleading description... I won, what do I do???

paris5

Member
May 15, 2007
125
0
I bought an LV Keepall at what I thought was a good price for what I was supposed to get (~$275). It was 100 bucks with a buy it now of $350 and a reserve. The buy-it-now was gone so I figured that the new bidder bid (lol) 351.00 or something to get rid of the BIN option. I bid $356, hoping that I would be the highest bidder at $101. I was prepared for it to go up to around $175. I was the highest bidder at $101. In the last few minutes of the auction, a bunch of people started bidding under my $356 -- thus, rasing the price I have to pay with no gain on their part. One of the bidders had only bid on 2 items before -- both from this seller. This makes me belive there was some shill bidding going on. The auction has NO activity until the last hour, so he may have gotten nervous..? Maybe they were expecting at least $260 and wouldn't sell it otherwise?

the seller is a power seller who sells baby clothes, but when i searched through the feedback, he had a negative that said somehting along the lines of "bag is fake! i got the refund but he keeps trying to resell it as authentic!". other than that, he has really great feedback -- but it's mostly about baby clothes. (99% positive w/ 200-250).

there was only one pic of the item, form which i could not really evaulate its authenticity. but because i planned to buy it for around $150, I was alright with this, because if I didn't like it I could resell it at a nice profit.

the pic had the strap, luggage tag, and keys, but he said that since then he has lost the keys and the luggage tag -- both of which sell for around $20 each on eBay.


So anyway -- it turns out this bag sells for as low as $200 on eBay. The ones I found were $500-700, but it turns out there are many keepalls that go for $200-$300. So I wouldn't even make a profit anyway -- esp. if I paid the huge shipping fees. Then I would LOSE money.



So what do I do? I cannot pay for this -- I'm now convinced it's fake.
 
Well if you are convinced there is shill bidding going on report it to eBay and that will cancel the auction. The thing is if you bid $356 you have to be prepared for possibly paying that
 
I bought an LV Keepall at what I thought was a good price for what I was supposed to get (~$275). It was 100 bucks with a buy it now of $350 and a reserve. The buy-it-now was gone so I figured that the new bidder bid (lol) 351.00 or something to get rid of the BIN option. I bid $356, hoping that I would be the highest bidder at $101. I was prepared for it to go up to around $175. I was the highest bidder at $101. In the last few minutes of the auction, a bunch of people started bidding under my $356 -- thus, rasing the price I have to pay with no gain on their part. One of the bidders had only bid on 2 items before -- both from this seller. This makes me belive there was some shill bidding going on. The auction has NO activity until the last hour, so he may have gotten nervous..? Maybe they were expecting at least $260 and wouldn't sell it otherwise?

the seller is a power seller who sells baby clothes, but when i searched through the feedback, he had a negative that said somehting along the lines of "bag is fake! i got the refund but he keeps trying to resell it as authentic!". other than that, he has really great feedback -- but it's mostly about baby clothes. (99% positive w/ 200-250).

there was only one pic of the item, form which i could not really evaulate its authenticity. but because i planned to buy it for around $150, I was alright with this, because if I didn't like it I could resell it at a nice profit.

the pic had the strap, luggage tag, and keys, but he said that since then he has lost the keys and the luggage tag -- both of which sell for around $20 each on eBay.


So anyway -- it turns out this bag sells for as low as $200 on eBay. The ones I found were $500-700, but it turns out there are many keepalls that go for $200-$300. So I wouldn't even make a profit anyway -- esp. if I paid the huge shipping fees. Then I would LOSE money.



So what do I do? I cannot pay for this -- I'm now convinced it's fake.


A few things are confusing me - how can you bid $356 at the start and then get it for less? And also, why would anyone bid above the BIN price?

Secondly, you seem to be saying you wouldn't have cared if it was fake if you could sell it at a profit.

Thirdly, as mooks said, you have to be prepared to pay what you bid - we would all like to win auctions for a lot less than our max bid.

Having said all that, if the picture showed the luggage tag etc, and now he says those aren't provided, you could argue the item is significantly not as described.
 
I guess I would go for the item not as described since you thought you purchased one thing & several parts are now missing.
 
that's how bidding works. eBay bids for you -- you set the max, if your max is higher than the current bidder's, then the current bid increases one increment (ie, a dollar).

people would bid over the BIN price because then the BIN option is canceled, and others can't BIN.. only bid against you. this way, the acution doesn't end early.

see, i had been watching this auction like a hawk the entire time. the entire time, there were very few visits to the site -- significantly less than other LV keepalls. this was because the seller mispelled "louis vuitton" and "louis vuiton". i figured i found a deal, and that few others were going to bid (since so few visited the page). there were no bidders until the very end. i waited until this time to make sure a bunch weren't going to bid -- and then right after i bid, 2 others bid a few times each.

thing is, this bag isn't worth 275. i thought the luggage tag and the keys were included. i thought shipping was free (otherwise it's ). i thought this guy could be trusted because he's a powerseller but supposively he's tried to sell designer goods before and people figured him out. this was way back in his feedback. finally, i thought that all keepalls went for $400 minimum on eBay, with some going for $800. since this one looked exactly like the ones selling for $600 and $800 (even more authentic-looking.. i really did my research), i figured i really just found a deal. i figured that it i really didn't like it for whatever reason, that I could relist it, and possibly make $100-$300 profit, although that was not my intention by bidding. i have a LV luggage collection (mostly restored from the 1800's, early 1900's) and my keepall 60 was recently lost (on a trip to morocco).. i was just trying to replace it, not make profit.



i just cannot pay for this with the risk and everything -- what do i do? i really don't want a strike.. i'll pay for the seller's relisting fees, etc.. how do i let him know? is there anythink i can do?
 
Yes that is how bidding works but you have to be prepared to pay your maximum bid, that's also how bidding works.

As already stated you need to contact eBay and report the other ID's. Otherwise you either have to pay for what you bid on, contact the seller and see if he will agree to a mutual cancellation or take the NPB strike and possibly a neg
 
There seemed to be a lot of red flags on this auction: only one photo, seller selling out of his norm, poor FB, mispellings, and a very low price for popular item. If real, it would sell at retail between $800-$1200. You got to ask yourself why someone would list a real one at $350 BIN.

Having said that, it does appear that he shill-bid this auction and I would report it as that and then for the SNAD. I definitely would not pay for the item.

Finally, I find it a bit worrying that you are willing to buy (and maybe sell on) fake bags
 
Finally, I find it a bit worrying that you are willing to buy (and maybe sell on) fake bags

That was my thought!! If it's fake you CANNOT resell it! You would actually stick someone else for that kind of money for what you know is an illegal item? Shame on you.
 
people would bid over the BIN price because then the BIN option is canceled, and others can't BIN.. only bid against you. this way, the acution doesn't end early.

You are mistaken on this part. If the bidding started at $100 with no reserve and the BIN price was $350, the BIN price would disappear as soon as somebody bid on the item.

If the bidding started at $100 and the BIN price was $350 but there was a reserve price on the auction (say the seller had put a reserve price of $250) then the BIN price would stay until the bidding had got to the reserve price.

You do not have to bid ABOVE the BIN price for the BIN price to disappear from the auction.
 
I said, if I did not like the bag for whatever reason -- if it were too used, if it wasn't as described, whatever -- that I could just resell it. If it were fake, I would resell it as it is, let people know it's a fake (there ARE people on eBay who want fakes and not the real thing.. i'm not one of them.. there are auction which openly state it's a fake, and they get a suprising number of bids.. i think people on this site assume that the people bidding on these items are all 100% gullible and think they aren't aware that this "is too good to be real"..i'm not one of them by any means, but I have a feeling that many ebayers are willing to sacrifice for a bargain) and then hopefully not loose too much money for just reselling. this isn't what i want to do, but it would be a backup plan. i now relize that this wouldn't be so great because theres a chance i could get scammed by this guy and not get anything resembling the description. also -- shipping is high.


so i ask you, now that i will NOT pay for this auction, how do i break it to this seller?


ps... another ebayer messaged me and warned me about his fakes... should i mention this? she said, "i just wanted to let you know tha i bought a fake by this guy and it wasn't a great experience".. can i mention that?
 
the problem with resaling the bag is the fact that selling fake designer bag is illegal.

also just email the guy and tell him that you were unaware of the fact that the bag was fake and you would like mutually end the transaction and be done with it.

I said, if I did not like the bag for whatever reason -- if it were too used, if it wasn't as described, whatever -- that I could just resell it. If it were fake, I would resell it as it is, let people know it's a fake (there ARE people on eBay who want fakes and not the real thing.. i'm not one of them.. there are auction which openly state it's a fake, and they get a suprising number of bids.. i think people on this site assume that the people bidding on these items are all 100% gullible and think they aren't aware that this "is too good to be real"..i'm not one of them by any means, but I have a feeling that many ebayers are willing to sacrifice for a bargain) and then hopefully not loose too much money for just reselling. this isn't what i want to do, but it would be a backup plan. i now relize that this wouldn't be so great because theres a chance i could get scammed by this guy and not get anything resembling the description. also -- shipping is high.


so i ask you, now that i will NOT pay for this auction, how do i break it to this seller?


ps... another ebayer messaged me and warned me about his fakes... should i mention this? she said, "i just wanted to let you know tha i bought a fake by this guy and it wasn't a great experience".. can i mention that?
 
I agree with Shay86. Try to negotiate with the seller to have a mutual agreement to cancel this transaction. If I were you, I'd rather to receive a non-paying strike instead of paying hundreds of dollars for a fake.

For a LV Keepall, unless it is in fairly used condition, BIN for $350 definitely is a red flag.
 
Just so you know for next time, never bid higher then the BIN that doesn't make the BIN disappear just the first bid does. If you had bid $101 the BIN would have gone away.

Also, keepalls do go for min 400 if they are real, the fakes go for less.