Ebay not for legitimate sellers
Ebay not for legitimate sellers
Hi Cindy,
Before coming to pearl-guide I was about to make a huge mistake. I was about to buy a tahitian pearl pendant on ebay from one of the fraudulent ebay sellers mentioned frequently on this forum. Thank god I googled the seller's name first and came upon PG's discussion. As a consumer, when it comes to pearls I almost never buy from ebay and buy only from the vendors listed on this site (particularly pearl paradise). this is because with the 99% of frauds out there, it is very difficult to tell who is real and who isn't -- and even if the price is really low (i.e. 99cent bids, etc) it isn't worth the risk. I have made two pearl purchases on ebay so far, generally low price items ($19 and $25), and here are the factors that motivated me to bid (despite my wariness) (pls. note they are not listed in order of importance -- just as they come to mind):
1. the seller was usually not in the business of selling pearls exclusively. they were sellers who sold a variety of items (seemed like individuals who held online garage sales rather than those who are in ebay to run a regular business).
2. seller 99% feedback from
buyers
3. seller's feedback score was numerous in quantity
4. seller's item was covered through paypal's $1000 protection (though this claims process has nightmarish qualities of its own -- at least its something)
5. item was listed at low price -- under $50
6. this was most important: there were numerous pictures of the same product taken under
no staged conditions what i mean by this was that the pearls were either worn on the seller's fingers or held up by a live person. the pictures were taken under sunlight at different angles as well as indoors under ordinary incandescent light. I know this can be faked as well, but at least i could be assured that the pics weren't merely ripped off of other sites (particular from the sites of vendors here).
admitted that simple digi pics such as this don't do justice to the real beauty of pearls, but then again consumers who buy on ebay (generally) aren't buying something expecting it to be top shelf goods. If i wanted a $10K+ tahitian or SS necklace (or fwp of freshadama caliber) I would be better off even at exorbiant retail prices in the brick and mortar stores than ebay.
7. before bidding, when i emailed seller they responded back
8. seller has at least 7 day return policy
9. if seller claims that part of the pearl piece is "gold" then picture showing the proper "10K" or "14K" mark is clearly shown
10. seller is located, and selling from, the US
11. an online store didn't have the particular style of pearl item I wanted to purchase
In the end, I would never trust ebay enough to buy a good quality set of pearls from there. I'm more likely to buy online from a well rated (and verified) business. The main reasons being: the existence of an online retailer can be verified by (1) verifying the domain name ownership (2) verifying the business actually exists by checking with the appropriate state govt (they will have bus id number) (3) reading consumer feedbacks from other independent sources online (ebay feedback scores make me wary -- ever notice how one ebay member accounts for 50% of a seller's positive score
?) and (4) if they claim trademarks on their sites then checking the USPTO's online site for appropriate TM registration. Those are my 2 cents. hope this little rambling was helpful.
Lochi.
