When people are selling designer purses on e-bay for less than retail, where do they get them? Is this legal? There are too many of them to have been received as gifts that weren’t wanted. What else could have been the reason?
Does anyone understand this, before I do something stupid like buy something that was stolen?
They could be fakes. Or wholesalers. I don’t know which.
I have noticed the same things with men’s suits. New suits go for about 10-20 cents on the dollar on ebay. A suit that’d cost $700 in a store is about $120 on ebay. However many of the sellers have 5000+ positive feedback points so I don’t know if they are just wholesalers or really good fences for stolen goods.
Some knockoffs are almost completely indistinguishable from the real article.
I’ve seen Vuitton purses that are real leather, have a serial number and a tag on the inside, and come wrapped in that gauzy cotton LV bag that a new purse from the store comes in. These purses were being sold for $100 on the streets of New York City, and would be worth every penny, even without the designer logo.
So, they might be fantastic fakes. I wouldn’t even know how anyone could tell the difference.
ZJ
Some designers, like Gucci, Prada and (I think) Fendi have outlets in the U.S. or in Italy. Vuitton never goes on sale though, so I’d be very suspicious if the price was too good to be true, especially if it’s a popular style.
Oh, I forgot to add - if it’s a Vuitton and you want to be extra sure it’s authentic, get an evaluation at www.mypoupette.com Or better yet, buy from her recommended sellers - often they also sell other designer bags and while their prices might be a bit higher it’s worth it for the peace of mind.
I read an article recently asserting most of the high end brands of designer purses sold on eBay are fakes. eBay has no intention of doing anything about it either.
Here’s a related article
EBay fights its toughest legal battle - Tiffany lawsuit puts ‘hands off’ approach to the test
When I worked for Gap (warehouse employees get a 50% discount, BTW), they fired a bunch of employees for buying clothes with their discount and then reselling them on eBay and at flea markets.
I listed my girlfriend’s brand new Coach handbag on Ebay. She had it for quite a while and never used it. In fact, I think she might even have one or two other handbags, possibly not designer though, laying around collecting dust. Now this is probably a sexist stereotype and please don’t get mad at me. It has been my personal experience that women have more handbags and shoes that they never or rarely use than men. I have a half dozen pairs of shoes and one wallet. My girlfriend has a closet full of this stuff… and I don’t think she is all that unusual. Everytime I have EVER gone shopping with a woman at the mall, we always take a detour through the shoe/purse area. Now I don’t think that everyone is out buying $500 bags and then selling them unused. I’m just saying that I think there are more unused handbags of all varieties out there floating around than we realize.
Anyway, we listed the $300 bag with a reserve of $75 figuring that a little cash back is better than nothing. We got no bids and not too many “looks”.
But in the end, I’m going with the knock-offs theory.