As a seller of Trainers & Football Boots on eBay, I find it frustrating that the fake products and fraudulent sellers can impact on the genuine sellers that sell authentic products. The upshot of this is that the customer becomes wary of buying products as without the expert knowledge of trainers and footwear, how can they be sure that they are buying authentic goods?

Watchdog has recently been critical of eBay citing that they are allowing fake products onto eBay. This is slightly unfair to eBay as they do have a system to remove fake items and all brands are encouraged to report any fake goods via the Vero system but with the volume of goods listed every day, how can they check everything? The bad publicity does not help either the seller or the customer so to try and help customers who are searching for genuine trainers, I have compiled from my own experience in the Sports Trade, experience on eBay and from other sources a list of pointers when looking to identify authenticity.

GOOD THINGS TO LOOK FOR

Feedback

eBay feedback is possibly it’s strongest asset in my opinion. If you are buying a piece of footwear from an eBay seller who sells footwear on a regular basis, it is a good idea to not only look at the feedback but also click on recently received feedback to see what items have been sold and what feedback was given. Suffice to say that a seller with a high positive feedback percentage (certainly over 95%) will have a much higher probability of selling genuine goods than a seller with little feedback or a low positive feedback percentage.

Listing  - Wording

eBay sellers who take the time to accurately list the item offering details of the goods are more likely to be the seller of genuine products than the seller with a description like “Great size 9 trainers”. The more detailed listing the better. Look for sellers who list the sizes, material and colourway within the description. Some of the brands such as Adidas and Nike use unusual colour wordings. For example “Grey” could be described as “Gun Metal” by one of the brands. If a seller has the correct colourway listed, it is more likely that they have the genuine article.

Listing - Photographs

eBay sellers who offer multiple photographs that they took themselves are more likely to be offering a genuine item than the eBay seller that copies and pastes pictures from the web or the seller who provides a poorly taken photograph. Most of the larger sellers or professional sellers do tend to take multiple shots. Some smaller sellers and one off sellers in many cases will be selling genuine products on the basis of one photo but by offering more angles and detail, it offers the customer more to make an informed decision. As an example, the trainers that I list on my eBay shop will have at least three photographs and within my listings, you can click on them to enlarge it to full size in a new window. I also offer a picture of the box so that you can see the brands style code. Many of my pictures also show the tags, barcodes etc. A person selling a fake item is unlikely to offer detailed photographs that they took themselves.

History – The Sellers Who Have Been There

As in all eBay categories, Trainers and Football Boots have some big players who have been selling on eBay for several years. You are almost certain to receive genuine goods from these eBay sellers. Most volume sellers have an eBay shop. They invariably have a constantly high positive feedback score and if any negative feedbacks do exist, you will in most cases find that it is for a reason not associated with fake products such as a delivery problem for example. The bigger sellers tend to offer a fast and efficient delivery service backed up with paperwork for your order. A fake seller is extremely unlikely to be able to build up such feedback momentum over time without attracting a high degree of negative feedback and that’s not to mention eBay and Vero suspending them!
A good example of a large volume eBay seller is D G Sports. They have been on eBay several years, sell authentic goods, have multiple photos of each line that they sell and offer fast & Efficient delivery.

Policy

If a seller offers a fair returns policy especially in line with the sales of goods acts distance selling regulation, it is more likely that the seller is selling authentic goods

AREAS OF CONCERN

Type of Goods

Sellers offering Variants, Look-alikes, Over-runs or unboxed goods are more likely to be fake. If you are not sure about the sellers item but still like it, ask them to provide you with more information via the eBay message system. If the answer is what you want to hear then you can at least make a decision. If the seller is loathe to provide any extra information then it is more likely to be fake. A good question to ask the seller is for the brand style code which will be shown on the box. You can then either visit the brands website, your local store or even google it to check

Poor Listings

Poor descriptions, poor photographs, a lack of a returns policy and poor terms and conditions are all warning signs. The problem here though is that many inexperienced sellers or people selling unwanted trainers fall into this category too and they are probably selling genuine items. Tread with caution, ask the seller questions about the listing, you can probably gauge from the response if the goods are genuine or not.

Overseas

Be wary of importers. Some are genuine but there are quite a few fakes. Look at the feedback and apply some of the “Good things to look for” pointers above.

OTHER COMMENTS

A popular misconception on price is that “If a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is” This is not always the case as eBay sellers usually have a much lower cost base than a high street retailer and as a result do not need to achieve the same profit margin meaning that they can afford to sell goods cheaper. Cheaper goods have always been a cornerstone of eBay so the theory of “too good to be true” often does not apply. For the trainer and football boot market, sellers may have bought clearance lines from brands for a cheaper price or they could be selling goods cheaper due to the ability to operate on a lower margin or they have bought lines cheaper as they are maybe about to be replaced by a newer version or are approaching the end of a season.

Related to price is the fact that brands do have a moving retail price. When the latest line comes out, it is sold at its highest attainable retail price. When a line ages or goes out of season, the retail price reduces.

Quality of goods is a clear indicator of an items authenticity. If you receive sub-standard goods or goods of a low quality, you should be checking to see if you have received a fake item. By using the guide above coupled with communication with the seller you should be able to avoid the pitfalls and have confidence in your purchases.

Gillandden