Lots of replica watches on ebay lately...

[tourbillon360]

Did they change their policy?  Anyone know?  A search of completed items shows several Rolexes, Hublot, Omega, Panerai, etc.  I thought people would get kicked off for replicas.

Edited May 17, 2014 by tourbillon360

[Mike on a bike]

Hey saw a Black Bay for $68 bucks unashamed Rep listing, gone now but was there last night.

[panerai153]

When you think about it, EBay worldwide probably has probably hundreds of thousands of new listings per day, It's a pretty daunting task to try to cull through to find fakes. Although they probably spend a lot of time on watches, just think how many brands out there that are commonly replicated, practically every watch brand, including all of the parts and accessories like boxes, paperwork, bands, etc. Every major jewelry line, pretty daunting task, and one that probably depends a lot on folks like us who are knowledgeable enough to spot something that's not correct.

 

While I believe that it's EBay's responsibility to police their online offerings, it's also the responsibility of the buyers to do their due diligence before bidding. When a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is! There are so many warning signs that pop up when looking at watches, it's amazing that folks continue to bid on items that are sending up red flags and warning sirens like crazy. Are people just that stupid, or they so greed driven that they really think they are getting such a great deal. I believe that sometimes people feel like they are "stealing" something from and unsuspecting seller, when in fact they are the ones that are being set up for a fleecing.

 

Another thing that I believe has led to a lot more "suspect" items being listed is EBay's buyer protection plan. People  believe that they are protected 100% and in some cases you are, but you have to do all the right things to make sure you can substantiate that the  item is not as described. If it were me, I would not count on EBay to protect me if  I was stupid enough to buy a Rolex Submarined for 1000.00 USD from a seller with a handful of previous sales, or a seller who has 95% Positive feedback, or the seller who has lots of sales, but they are all for items like CD's, beanie babies, essentially stuff that sells for less than 10 USD per item., Suddenly he has a couple of 25K watches for sale, come on, chances are probably 99.99% that they are fake, but folks bid like crazy and some poor fool ends up with a 600 USD watch for 5K, and he thinks he got a real bargain!! My advice to him, is, before you wear the watch, you best take it to and a good watchmaker and let him have a look, open the back and take good quality photos, along with a statement from him that the watch is not genuine, if it is not. Then call EBay and start a dispute ASAP. If it is by some slim chance genuine, then go out and celebrate your good fortune.   

[fraggle42]

I really do think that EBay has implemented a policy where only complaints from the copyright holders are acted upon, everything else is just ignored.

 

And I think this is done out of pure greed - they are content to let fakes be sold, sellers to not follow all the safe buying practises so the Buyer protection is not valid. For each sale EBay makes profit from the auction fees. If the fake is discovered after the sale and the buyer did everything by the book, PayPal will refund and EBay makes no profit. But some sales will go through and the rep won't be identified until it's too late and EBay has made money on the sale and money from the PayPal payment.

 

There's far too many companies in this world that have no decency or honesty. Profit is their bottom line.