Page 1 of Any eBay advice for avoiding fake sellers?

Have been searching eBay tonight for a cheap AC Milan Away (white) short sleeved medium shirt. Thing is, if I want to buy one, nearly all of them come from an asian country, like Thailand/China/Bangkok - so that`s brought me to one conclusion: they are fakes. Am I right in thinking this? They all have an average of about 90% feedback, and even state that they`re based in London, UK on some of them (where the seller description often says something else). I really don`t think I trust them enough to part with my cash, even if it only £10 or £15... :/

Any eBay advice for avoiding buying fakes? Or any recommended sportswear sellers on eBay? :D

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Although I don`t know much about football shirts I checked out some of the auctions running which were from Thailand etc and they amlost all stated replicas.

If the seller is in another country and list UK as where they are from I always see this as deceptive since the default for ebay.co.uk site is for UK based items and not search worldwide, people who think they are buying from the UK and getting a bargain get hit with customs charges when it goes over £18 (whih they don`t tell you about).

As for avoiding fakes, eBay is getting quite a rep for being rip off city being that most designer stuff on there about 95% are fake.

I did find this cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=19300&item=3675143391&rd=1 the seller is in UK and it states in the auction it comes brand new with tags. I can only assume that you know whether it is a fake or not but going through all the listings that is the one I would go with, either that or go to a shop and buy one.

just go by the feedback, if they have over 90% positive feedback, then usually they are trustworthy.

I regularly go by the positive feedback, and so far (touch wood), I have had no problems with the ebay sellers inland and abroad.

floyd
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If you are getting an AC Milan shirt for 10-15 quid, its a fairly safe bet its as real as a pair of Melvin Klein boxers.

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Aw, people can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent.
Forty percent of all people know that.

lol! :D

Thanks for the advice guys.

I have been checking the feedback on most of those Asian sellers floyd, and they really don`t seem to be legit. Even though there feedback is around 90%, the ones who give them negatives all note that the items are fake. These people are almost as bad as those pyramid scheme sellers.

Oh, and thanks for getting me that link Nina and taking the time out to search eBay for me. I never considered the customs thing either - do you advise then not to buy from Worldwide on eBay then?

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I would only advise from buying worldwide with eBay if the items are less than £18. Anything over that which is not coming from the EU you will more than likely get hit with customs, VAT etc. I know some people get lucky and don`t get hit, but buying goods from overseas you have to factor this into the price rather than rely on lady luck. This goes for all products, not just eBay, so if say for example you go to a DVD website and see a DVD boxset going for £20 and say it's coming from USA, because its over £18 you will likely be charged about £7.50 on top of that price from fees etc. Hardly worth a bargain if you could buy it from UK for near enough the same price.

If you are going to buy from overseas on eBay I would only say to pay with Paypal. Although it has many faults and problems it is good for the buyer because in the event of non-delivery or fake goods you can do a chargeback and get your money back. Make sure that you will be paying with your credit card, not debit card. And no problemo about the link :)

Do we pay tax on 2nd hand goods?... and in most cases people are always willing to mark the items as a gift..I`ve had loads of stuff from US sellers.. that hasn`t been touched by customs. despite being clearly over the18 quid limit...

So if people mark it as a gift, chances are you won`t get hit by customs?

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Yes you still have to pay customs charges if its second hand. If people are willing to mark the value of the item as lower and customs get hold of it then they are liable to being prosecuted. Most Americans won't lower the value of the customs docket because they know they can and will get in trouble if they get caught out.

If you check out the US eBay boards there are loads of stories about UK eBayer's asking them to lower the value of goods on the customs form and yes I agree with you a lot of them have done it/still do it but nowadays they are wising up a bit after some have been caught and hit with hefty fines. Lets say that a camera is being sent and it has been marked at £18 when the actual value is clearly say £250 and on the off chance someone from customs decides to open it to check and obviously realises that the written value is lower than the actual value of the item then the sender will get prosecuted for false declaration of value.

Also with gifts, the UK allowance is £36 so even if you get someone to mark it for you as a gift and they left the tags on with price you will get hit.

I wouldn't mess with customs and excise, they are a mean bunch of so and so's and with the whole war/terrorism going on they are now on a crackdown to open/check all packages entering/leaving the UK.

Don`t go on feedback! Even if they have 100% they might be selling fakes. Some people are rubbish at spotting fakes. I can spot them a mile off. For example if it`s a DVD shipping without a hard case then it`s fake. If it shipping from Malaysia or Singapore - fake. If it is a new Hollywood film with Indonesian, Thai or Malay subtitles then it`s fake... If it is a US movie that plays all regions and is a new movie then it`s fake.