Correction: I’ve just seen that a professional seller I was looking at in the VC app did have a gold flag and an indication of their compliance rate. Perhaps this is the first time I’ve stumbled across a professional seller who had a good compliance rate and the ones I saw before were all just lacking, or maybe this is new.
Vestiaire Collective experiences?
- Thread starter Kopisusu
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I think there are several different reasons why items might be ready to ship. I believe also VC do reserve the option for themselves to buy any item listed by a seller at the agreed price. Presumably sometimes then they do this and sell on for profit with some items they think they can do particularly well with and that make their selection look good. Might make you wonder if they undervalue some items so they can make more profit, but then on the other hand none of us is obliged to sell with them. Pros and cons.
You don’t actually need to worry about lowering the price for one buyer; you do it just for them through the offer system - don’t do it in the chat postings. The original price is unaffected.
I found a page on the French government website which explains tax liabilities for French people selling on personal possessions and from memory they have to sell quite a lot before they become liable for tax on it, and I believe this applies also to overseas sellers selling via Vestiaire. It’s in French of course! I can’t remember the figures but I concluded I was not liable for anything. A French accountant confirmed to me that tax is not payable on the sale of ‘personal gears or clothes’ by French people in France and in any case would not apply to anything below an annual turnover of €8000, and gave me to understand this would apply to a UK resident selling via VC. Please don’t take this as a professional opinion from me because I can’t guarantee it, but my understanding was that this applies to those selling via VC from other countries. In the UK I worked out that I am not establishing a trading position by selling on personal effects that were not purchased in order to sell (and I’m making a loss on them anyway if you consider the original purchase price versus the resale value - I’m just recouping something of the value of my own possessions). My accountant advised me always to keep receipts from purchase and a record of the sales just so I could prove this if ever asked. But I did not have to enter a tax return in France, nor declare my sales on my tax return in the UK. This may vary in other countries. It may be different for people who are selling large numbers of items for more than they paid for them. I hope that’s helpful.
Yes it’s annoying when you’re a conscientious seller! Phone, present your case, and ask Vestiaire to restore your perfect score. If it wasn’t your fault the sale was cancelled, I think they will oblige. This happened to me once for something that wasn’t my fault at all. I have one of my sold items listed as ‘Unreceived’ in my account, but it wasn’t anything to do with me and actually I don’t think a buyer can see that screen, just the fact that it took my compliance percentage down till I asked them to restore it, which they did.I'm a trusted seller and can add to this that sometimes we don't have 100% not because the item wasn't authentic but the sale was cancelled. It happened to me - the buyer wasn't serious and asked for cancellation, I agreed but then found this item to be counted as 'not sent' against my score
Yes on VC you can opt to receive offers on all your items, none of them, or to select certain items only to take offers on, all of which is changeable at any time. I do a mixture, depending on the item. It’s in the settings.
That is VERY VERY funny!! I will have to remember this when haggling over price setting!finally after all those insulting lowball offers I received a good one
Thanks. Well my sales don't suffer because of rating lower than 100% - I typically sell almost new bags (I get bored easily) with a full package: receipts, authenticity cards, box etc. so think buyers trust me regardless. Also this. is not a business for me - I typically lose tonnes of money due to high commission so I'm not even inclined to be there any more. I have found a luxury boutique in Poland which at least keeps the price for me non-offensive (no offers - I kind of get you can turn them off but then people start moaning in the comments and you have to reply to keep the trusted seller status...i can't be asked lol). and also some bags (eg. Jimmy Choo, Balenciaga) can be sold due to lower inventory there (on VC there like 10000000 bags lke this and nobody cares).
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Thanks for replying! I’m glad it didn’t affect your sales and quite right too. I just felt indignant on your behalf!
Yes I’m sure people still trust you when your listings are so clearly honest and you’re offering such a good package. You’re one of the good ones, clearly, and people like you are one of the reasons I do still use VC.
It’s just difficult sometimes to judge a seller’s integrity, people here justifiably worry about it a lot, even though there are further safeguards in place (QC, as a first line of defence, authenticators, PayPal, credit card companies etc should QC fail which sometimes it does). So it’s not good for buyers, if a good seller is wrongly downgraded, though most of all it makes me indignant on your behalf that a diligent seller like you gets slightly downgraded for no good reason!
Despite my indignation that they did that to you, I’m not actually put off by a lower than 100% rating myself if the seller is still trusted, has sold a good few items and the listings and comments look generally good (everyone should look at the seller’s sold items on the website as they are no longer visible on the app). And also as long as absence of any comments doesn’t seem odd - you can sometimes also judge whether negative comments might have been removed, by seeing an odd non-flowing conversation, or a complete absence of comments on an item that has been listed for ages but never sold and you have questions in your mind which other people must have had too - did nobody really ask them or have they been asked and removed? So you can get a feel for whether something iffy has been going on even if it’s not visible in the comments. However, one needs to be cautious about rushing to judgement - there’s room to misinterpret comments or lack thereof, eg I sometimes discuss my item with a buyer on the page of an item they are selling and not on the one they’re buying, therefore they wouldn’t be showing up on my product. Though I would take these other things more seriously with a non-trusted seller than with someone with a 90%+ rate and a large number of items sold. The most expensive things I’ve happily bought were from sellers with 93%, 96% etc. (And, actually, one relatively expensive and happily genuine bag from a seller with no trusted status at all - I took the risk because it was a hard bag to find and an unlikely one to be faked).
I get where you’re coming from about not selling there any more, I completely agree it’s a hassle responding to silly comments just to keep your status - I probably don’t have to do it as much as you did because I don’t have that many really high end bags to sell, more of a mixture of the odd top end thing and a wide range of other values. I now have a few polite but definite stock answers to paste in for these somewhat trying situations.
And yes people do start chasing you in the comments if you switch offers off and you have to reply to keep your trusted stats - definitely a hassle and one of the reasons I’m regularly pushing VC to accept my higher prices, so I have room for offers and can keep the offer function on.
And I agree the commission is high, and the prices allowed by VC are very often lower than is reasonable. I always aim to push them up and refuse really low suggestions from the curation team, but after reading some posts here I think I’m going to push for higher prices by resubmitting even more often than I currently do. Sometimes, I think people are reluctant to believe the honest truth that most new items lose a lot of value the moment you’ve bought them, but on the other hand a good item in good condition deserves a good price.
I sometimes wonder actually if some of my sales would be quicker if they let me price higher! There is such a thing as something being ‘reassuringly expensive’ and I don’t think VC gets that psychology (or probably is just more interested in bulk turnover). It’s not unreasonable to price an expensive item in great condition with all the trimmings high, it’s not a try-on, and it just might indicate to buyers who are in the market for a luxury item that they’re looking at the real deal, whereas a lower price could look suspicious. With a justifiably higher price, you might just attract wiser and more experienced buyers willing to pay reasonably for a good item. All the items I sell are either unused or very rarely used, which I specify carefully and honestly, including any minor flaws, and I believe they are worth it.
On balance it is convenient for me, so I’ll keep going on VC; I think that we see more in reviews about negative experiences than about the probably much higher proportion of reasonable positives, and I think there are a lot of positives in selling or buying on VC as long as you’re wise to negatives and adjust for them. I would probably opt for something different like you if I were solely regularly selling very expensive bags in great condition, and I can understand you doing that.
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I think there are several different reasons why items might be ready to ship. I believe also VC do reserve the option for themselves to buy any item listed by a seller at the agreed price. Presumably sometimes then they do this and sell on for profit with some items they think they can do particularly well with and that make their selection look good. Might make you wonder if they undervalue some items so they can make more profit, but then on the other hand none of us is obliged to sell with them. Pros and cons.
I am a bit suspicious of them, I sold a dress through them, they returned it as apparently it had underarm stains, unlikely as I tried it on and put it aside for an event, then lost weight and just didn't think that it would be a good idea to have it altered (the cut of it just would make it really difficult). They sent it back and claimed that it had underarm stains, I checked, no stains, still pristine, photographed the underarms, sent them the pictures, asked why they claimed there were stains, apparently somebody saw stains and so there must have been stains, but I could list it again for a massively reduced price. They already only let me list it for 1/10th of the original price.
I really wish there were other options than VC and Rebelle, they both have no customer service, though since Rebelle raised their percentage and started to gouge prices totally, always claiming the item has a low resale value, even if they sell items they have in commission that are identical for 3 times as much, VC looks a lot better. I am hoping another site will spring up soon. I totally understand that they want to make a profit too, but if they expect you to sell designer for the price of cheap chainstore (after their commission you can blow what you get on a pair of socks), it would be nice if there was a site that has customer service and doesn't try to rip both sides off, and where the QC is actually good.
Totally, if I see an item offered very cheaply, say a dress that I know is a few K and somebody sells it for 50 or 60, I don't buy it because I think there might be something wrong with it, because nobody in their right mind would sell it for that price, despite them trying to force those prices on sellers.
I managed that now, now I just get people moaning that they want me to lower the price, as if the VC price negotiations don't already force you to sell for total dumping prices