Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

EBay Valet

ebay.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–89 of 89 posts

Re: EBay Valet

#81

Post by gnopgnip »

lifeformed wrote: post #79
beambot wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW... this is exactly why we launched Lollipuff (YC W13): https://www.lollipuff.com/ eBay is notoriously plagued with fakes. For some designer brands, fakes can account for 75% (or more) of the items sold [1,2]. The key for Lollipuff: We have brand experts authenticate each and every item -- ie. real, human experts augmented with sophisticated software to make things scalable. We like to think of it as "eBay withou…

Is there still a market for fake-but-good items? If you had a designer purse that was 99.99% indistinguishable from a real one, could you still sell it to people at a big discount, informing them that it's a fake? I wonder if there are people who would gladly knowingly buy a good-quality counterfeit one. You'd still get the social benefit of designer goods, since no one else will know.

That is trademark infringement. You would be at risk of your products being seized and destroyed when they enter the US.

Re: EBay Valet

#82

Post by bebefuzz »

lifeformed wrote: post #79
beambot wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW... this is exactly why we launched Lollipuff (YC W13): https://www.lollipuff.com/ eBay is notoriously plagued with fakes. For some designer brands, fakes can account for 75% (or more) of the items sold [1,2]. The key for Lollipuff: We have brand experts authenticate each and every item -- ie. real, human experts augmented with sophisticated software to make things scalable. We like to think of it as "eBay withou…

Is there still a market for fake-but-good items? If you had a designer purse that was 99.99% indistinguishable from a real one, could you still sell it to people at a big discount, informing them that it's a fake? I wonder if there are people who would gladly knowingly buy a good-quality counterfeit one. You'd still get the social benefit of designer goods, since no one else will know.

I'm sure there is a small market for this.

But, I think that most people do not want to buy a counterfeit on eBay. Ioffer provides much lower prices on fakes, oftentimes direct from China. For instance, on eBay, the average fake Chanel le boy still sells for over $1500, and a Celine mini luggage will sell for around $1400. There is no way that people are paying this kind of money knowingly for a counterfeit.

There are very few counterfeits that are 99.9% accurate. Most of the time I can spot a fake dress or bag on someone from <5 feet away. But, then again, I'm very familiar in this space.

Re: EBay Valet

#83

Post by bebefuzz »

atwebb wrote: post #71
dubcanada wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with watches is typically the only way to tell if it is real or not is to take it apart.

Are there not slight differences in weights from the real to the fakes? The eBay service mentions like-new items so I'm kind of assuming specs would be available.

It is common for fakes and real items to weigh the same: https://www.lollipuff.com/blog/133/pet-peeve-authentication-...

Re: EBay Valet

#84

Post by bebefuzz »

atwebb wrote: post #68
roel_v wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The alternative is 'throw out not completely useless stuff because I can't be arsed to sell it'. It's win win the way I see it, I'd dump half a truck of stuff on their dock if they'd offer this in Europe.

Are there not currently businesses that do exactly this? You drop things off and they list them. I ran one for a while (albeit in the states).

This was exactly what I was thinking too. In a weird way, eBay is competing with itself. There have always been companies where you can drop/ship your stuff off at and have them list it for you.

Re: EBay Valet

#85

Post by michaelt »

justincormack wrote: post #54
michaelt wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While it does not frustrate me personally, it does seem rather pointless to list an item for several days or weeks when the actual sale takes place in the last five minutes, and to show a 'current price' which has little relevance to the final price. Ebay might as well call it a sealed bid second price auction and be done with it.

You need to list it for a while for discoverability. Having a low price makes it seem more attractive while you browse.

  Having a low price makes it seem more attractive 
  while you browse.
I can see how buyers would find that - and by extension sniping - frustrating.

Re: EBay Valet

#86

Post by ghobs91 »

30% commission on top of lower than market pricing in order to sell quickly. Sounds like a steep price to pay for some added convenience that should be part of the experience from the start.

On top of that, like others have said, it's not far fetched for eBay to give Valet listings higher priority in search results, due to their higher profit margins. Punishing users for wanting a streamlined experience, not cool.

I've been dealing with these pain points as both a buyer and seller for over 10 years, and I'm willing to bet I'm not alone here. I'm currently building a p2p marketplace app, and plan to enlist the features of startups like Shyp to make it an all around awesome experience. If anyone has input, feature requests, or would even like to join me, let me know, I'm all ears :)

Re: EBay Valet

#88

Post by zengr »

bebefuzz wrote: post #82
lifeformed wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there still a market for fake-but-good items? If you had a designer purse that was 99.99% indistinguishable from a real one, could you still sell it to people at a big discount, informing them that it's a fake? I wonder if there are people who would gladly knowingly buy a good-quality counterfeit one. You'd still get the social benefit of designer goods, since no one else will know.

I'm sure there is a small market for this. But, I think that most people do not want to buy a counterfeit on eBay. Ioffer provides much lower prices on fakes, oftentimes direct from China. For instance, on eBay, the average fake Chanel le boy still sells for over $1500, and a Celine mini luggage will sell for around $1400. There is no way that people are paying this kind of money knowingly for a counterfeit. There ar…

Any proof to support the claim " I'm sure there is a small market for this."? I think there is a huge market for fake stuff in the US. Some people buy it intentionally, some dont. If you are paying $100 for an LV bag, its probably a fake or heavily used.

Re: EBay Valet

#89

Post by 001sky »

bebefuzz wrote: post #82
lifeformed wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there still a market for fake-but-good items? If you had a designer purse that was 99.99% indistinguishable from a real one, could you still sell it to people at a big discount, informing them that it's a fake? I wonder if there are people who would gladly knowingly buy a good-quality counterfeit one. You'd still get the social benefit of designer goods, since no one else will know.

I'm sure there is a small market for this. But, I think that most people do not want to buy a counterfeit on eBay. Ioffer provides much lower prices on fakes, oftentimes direct from China. For instance, on eBay, the average fake Chanel le boy still sells for over $1500, and a Celine mini luggage will sell for around $1400. There is no way that people are paying this kind of money knowingly for a counterfeit. There ar…

"Most of the time I can spot a fake dress or bag on someone from I'd be worried about survivorship bias. Perhaps you only "see" a sub-set of fakes (the un-convincing ones) and the good ones walk right on by. Isn't this problematic?
Post reply on HN