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The second-hand bag market has been hot for a while and last spring, we shared a piece (Read: 10 Useful Tips for Buying Pre-Owned Bags) that was hopefully helpful for all of you getting in on the action. It’s a highly personal issue to buy or sell on the secondary market, and many of my thoughts are laid out in detail there.
But one of the most important buying tips was number six: double and triple check the bag’s authenticity. We can’t emphasize this enough, especially for Hermes or vintage pieces. It seems that task might be getting a little easier.
Last month, online retailer and peer-to-peer auction platform eBay announced it’s launching a program called eBay Authenticate which is intended to provide an additional level of security and trust for high-dollar transactions. For a fee, a network of specialized authenticators will stand in between buyers and sellers to ensure products are legitimate. If a product subject to their protocol is deemed authentic but actually isn’t, eBay will refund the buyer double the original purchase amount.
While the service obviously benefits buyers, there’s also some potential value for sellers. Many individuals who might be willing to part with, say a Birkin, might not be able to convince a buyer their bag is authentic if they have little or no sales history. This could end up increasing the supply levels on the secondary market in general.
All in all, we think this is a great move by eBay and we commend the effort. It remains to be seen how much a seller will have to pay to opt-in to the program, but we’ll find out soon enough since the first product category in their pilot is… you guessed it… handbags!
Stay tuned!
p.s. – just a thought… adding this authentication step will definitely boost eBay customer confidence. Don’t you think it will encourage people to try to consign and purchase on their own with eBay first. What does this ultimately mean? It removes the middle man = greater profits for the seller and lower prices for the buyer!
Let’s talk about this more on BopTalk! Click here.
Keeping you in the handbag loop,
Your PurseBop
XO
Comments
5 Responses to “Is That Birkin Real? eBay Launches Authentication Program”
How do we know ebay’s authenticators have sufficient knowledge? I can see all sorts of ways buyers and sellers will get hurt. Can one party to a sale force the other to use this service? And are both parties then bound by the decision?
I am not sure that it will actually put more profits for the sellers and cheaper prices for the buyers, because knowing eBay it will eventually charge an arm & a leg for the service which will mean sellers have to increase their price to cover it.
Feed the poor not the birken or kelley