eBay’s new eBay Authenticate™ officially launched this week after it’s announcement back in January. It provides an authentication service designed to help the buyers shop with confidence for luxury handbags (A woman’s handbag is purchased every 13 seconds on eBay.com). Items marked with an “Authenticity Verified” label are backed by a 200% Money Back Guarantee.
“We’re making it even easier for our buyers to shop quickly and confidently for luxury handbags. With tens-of-thousands of high-end handbags currently available, eBay is primed to boost customer confidence in selling and shopping for an amazing selection of designer merchandise.”
– Laura Chambers, Vice President of Consumer Selling at eBay
Initially in January it was announced that when a buyer makes a purchase, the product would be reviewed by a professional authenticator before it’s delivered to the buyer. That’s changed somewhat and the service is now more akin to assisted selling.
How to sell with eBay Authenticate
To sell with eBay Authenticate a private seller will send the handbag to an expert (with free shipping. Industry experts verify the handbag’s authenticity, photograph, list, sell, and ship the handbag to its buyer at which point the seller receives 80% of the final selling price. eBay point out that this is nearly twice as much as comparable online services and, for those who send in an eligible luxury handbag by January 31, 2018, they’ll receive 90% of the selling price.
You might think 80% is a little stingy but in reality it’s a pretty good deal. Bear in mind that if you sold an item yourself on eBay.com then at the very least you’d be looking at 10% eBay final value fees plus PayPal’s cut with the shipping costs as an additional expense. Because the bag will be authenticated and one would hope, because the experts can merchandise the handbag with better photos and descriptions than a casual seller could, that the final selling price would exceed that which a private seller could attract.
What can be sold through eBay Authenticate?
Currently 12 high-end brands can be sold on behalf of sellers. Expansion of program to include additional brands and categories planned in 2018.
eBay Authenticate is currently available to consumer sellers through eBay’s quick listing tool for Balenciaga, Burberry, Céline, Chanel, Christian Dior, Fendi, Goyard, Gucci, Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Prada, and Valentino handbags and wallets worth $500 or more. eBay say that they are working to expand access to eBay Authenticate to business sellers as soon as possible.
7 Responses
I’m a qualified leather-worker with huge experience, when I look at quality images of the goods from the above list of “designers” I see nothing that I can’t copy . . if I wanted to. Present me with an example of one of these, give me a bit of time to resource hide, cloth, findings, etc. and make templates and then I’ll make you one that will look like a virtual clone . . . and I’ll make a good living doing so at a fraction of their highly inflated prices.
The ONLY thing I won’t do is add the often small, cheap plastic moulding that carries the design house logo and which, to those pukka producers above, would cost pennies. Yet quality copies are easy as that . . . easy money!
I see nothing in eBay’s words above that will address the clones manufacturers, nothing. They’ll buy a genuine item using a genuine address, have it verified and then kick their under-paid workers in their Far East sweat-shops to churn them out en-mass.
The buck stops with those design houses making huge profits you know, rather than a simple plastic badge they should install some form of chip into the construction where it’s removal would wreck the item. Bit like a VIN for hand-bags. Why not go the full route of individuality for their goods, as I do for some of mine, and burn a unique serial number into the hide?
Maybe the Chinese would get around it eventually but, as soon as they do, change the type or location. They make the money so spend a fraction of it protecting their business.
in our experience experts are expert at claiming an item is fake,
its much easier
if you need to send something for verification then it does the job anyhow it must be near as good as the real thing for personal use
tell ya what
this could be fun
when the chinese forgers get wind of it and start selling their copies thru the service
lol
there are asian fake watches that are actually better than the real thing,
no expert can 100% authenticate some watches as genuine, unless they personally monitor its construction and collect it personally from the factory
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/06/14/alibabas-jack-ma-fakes-are-often-better-than-the-real-thing/
also many of these high value items are produced in china to begin with
you dont think the manufacturer sticks to the amount ordered?
just have a wander around the dragon market in Dubai !