FIRST THINGS FIRST... welcome all shoe heads.

i am a sneaker head that has been in the shoe game for over 2 years and know quite a bit. i started out with air jordans, personally owning many myself. ebay can be VERY helpful when buying jordans because the end price here is so much cheaper then when shopping on the other sites... cant name any for legal reasons. for example, when buying a pair of jordan vii's chambray, the end price on ebay would be about 140 shipped while on some other sites it costs around 200 shipped. now one thing many buyers must look for is authenticity with shoes. the main way to tell is by checking the person's feedback. check to see if they have sold fakes or have sold authentic shoes. next check to see if the auction actually TELLS you if the shoes are authentic. most of the time, GOOD sellers tell u 100% guaranteed authentic or 3x your money back (or something similar). you can mostly take it from there. if it JUST says 100% guaranteed authentic or your money back, they are probably just trying to make money off u from shipping. always ask if u get a FULL refund including shipping, if they say no, it is fake, no ifs ands or buts... if they say YES then go ahead and purchase, because u get to SEE the shoe, and if they turn out fake, then go ahead and return them and have no worries. check the pictures also (make sure they match that of the sellers, so many sellers STEAL pictures and claim them as their own), make sure they are UP CLOSE pictures. look for things that give away dead fakes. for example when it comes to the jordan XI (very popular, yet so rare) those shoes are made of a carbon fiber on the bottom. sellers that dont show u that are often selling fakes... make sure it has the right material's. also jordan shoes (almost all nikes) have a specific suede, get a custom to what it looks like so u can tell. the final thing is that sellers who dont respond most likely sell fakes.... they are afraid of losing their customer by telling the truth. if a seller gets offensive when asking authenticity and the guarantee, lookout....

another thing to make sure u do when u buy jordans is make sure u get a TRACKING NUMBER... this allows u to assure that ur shoes are shipped rather then the seller telling u that they shipped it and say it got lost... TRACKING NUMBER AND INSURANCE IS A PLUS!!!

when it comes to buying shoes online, make sure that u get them double boxed, this assures the safety of not only the shoes, but the box as well... this keeps your shoe's value up and allows to to maintain it the second they arrive to your door.

another thing to look for is people who sell jordans, nike dunks, air maxes, or anything else in BULK ARE SELLING FAKES. the only companies that get shoes in bulk are companies that are actually affiliated with nike... stores at the mall, etc...

finally, when offering to buy a shoe right then and there, make sure u ask them to make a private auction. there is NO security when an invoice is simply sent... none at all.... so tell them u will be willing to pay an extra 5 bucks to make a private auction so u can buy them right then and there... this assures u that ebay has ur back and no one can cover u better than ebay...

if u have any questions, want me to check authenticity of shoes, ask me anything... let me know and good luck... may the force of the SOLE be with u