Ebay now offers a service, at this time available for selling only purses and wallets, that 'experts' verify the items’ authenticity, list it, sell it, and ship it for you.

For a $1500 bag, they charge 20%. According to the FAQ:
Independent experts price items at the higher end of the estimated market value. They make this estimate by researching similar items sold on eBay and other sites within the last 90 days.If your item doesn’t sell, it will be relisted up to 10 times at a slightly reduced price.

This part is interesting:
What happens if a buyer wants to return my item?
We’ll never bother you with returns. Once a buyer purchases your item, you receive payment and keep it. If a buyer returns an item, independent experts will process the return and the item becomes their property.

Would you use this service as a seller? Would this service give you more confidence as a buyer?

https://www.ebay.com/s/itemauthentication/seller

 

After the time and effort to build my collection, I’ll be dammed if I’m letting “experts” determine a price for 20%. I know what I have, I know what the flaws are if any and there is plenty of benchmark data available here and elsewhere. E Bay is such a cesspool that I’m not sure I’d ever sell there. As a buyer I doubt that I’d view such an appraisal as mitigating risk.

 

I was wondering when they would do this, since they are obviously losing a share of luxury business to TheRealReal and other consignment services. I think that naive buyers may think that the expert authentication gives them an extra layer of protection, and obviously there is the convenience of not having to handle the listing. This could be particularly helpful for people who are not active collectors, but happen to have some valuable items.

One concern I have is whether the "experts" will actively respond to questions from buyers. TheRealReal "experts" are totally unresponsive. Their attitude is that you should just buy the item based on their crappy description, and then return it if you're not happy.

 

Do the experts determine price too? Sounds like a potential rip-off. Might be good for the person who just wants to get rid of something and doesn't care for how much.

 

+1 No.

 

Unless you have a store and/or selling a sub-2500 watch selling on eBay now is a non-starter. Taking 20% makes it even worse.

 

This probably makes sense for good like purses and wallets that are commonly counterfeited. For 20 juice, I’d rather have Christie’s, Sotheby’s, etc list a watch for me.

 

You have no control over the price it sells for, plus the 20% cut. Its target market is people who just want to get rid of their stuff and not really care how much it sells

 

At catawiki there are 'experts' who are controlling the auctions but I see a lot of frankens or redials which catawiki presents as legit with a high estimated price... I've just took a look at their website and look at this monster... The auctioneer thinks EUR 1100-1300... WTF

 

But I understand that the item wont be returned to the seller but to the experts so my post was totally irrelevant...

 

Having used Vuitton and Hermès bags verified is a big selling point. This isn’t even offered for watches so it’s kind of a moot point. Many people will be able to quickly validate a Rolex they buy from eBay but the average woman may not be sure if the Vuitton bag is a good deal or a total fake. The crazy thing with the Real Real is that they’ll price your item and then mark it down after a couple of weeks (sometimes up to 70%!) and then give you 50% of the net. It’s a much better site for buyers versus sellers

 

Check out this forum somebody recently posted here and tell me these ladies don't know their stuff as much as dudes on this or the BMW forum. https://forum.purseblog.com

 

I got a 69 omega marked as an 80s model from their experts so it can work out in your favor as a buyer if you are willing to sift through the junk on there.

 

And so it begins. Verified by experts! : https://www.ebay.com/rpp/fashion-events/authenticated-luxury-watches

 

It's interesting one of the first watches I looked at is being sold by govberg jewelers. I didn't think that they'd want eBay to cut 20% into their margins.

 

Exactly. Plus those auction houses take quite a bit less than 20% in my experience.

 

There's 2 things to this story:
- Ebay's 20% cut. This is easy to explain. Just jack up the price 20% when the same watch is sold on Ebay. Anyone who knows Govberg will buy the watch on Govberg for cheaper. Anyone who does not want to buy on Govberg is not really a Govberg customer, so the 20% cut is not really a loss.
- I would guess Govberg is not sending watches to Ebay, rather Ebay is authorizing Govberg to have the "Ebay Authenticate" mark on the watches they sell, much like I'm "Certified Pre Owned" on Amazon

 

That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the insight.

 

I guess it does provide some sort or assurance to new buyers but man, 20% is just too steep!

 

It’s a good plan if you can get fakes good enough to fool the eBay experts