Tips for safely purchasing on eBay (and other online sites)

Castira's Tips

• Research the seller. Always check the seller's feedback and look at what other items they are selling or have sold in the past. Do not just look at the ratings. Read through the comments as some buyers who do not want to receive retaliatory negative feedback will leave a positive rating, but in the comments they may write something, such as, "the item was fake but seller provided a full refund". Also, do not assume that because a seller is a PowerSeller that they are selling authentic items. We have seen many PowerSellers selling fake bags.


• Be an informed customer. Carefully research the item you plan to purchase and know all the details of what an authentic one should look like. Also, make sure the pictures you are seeing are of the actual item.


• Do not complete transactions outside of the auction site. Many times, offers you receive to complete a transaction outside of the auction site are not actually from the seller and are scams. Also, you have less protection for transactions completed off the auction site. Beware especially of false second chance offers. Make sure to confirm with the seller that an offer was made and the offer is viewable when logged into the auction site.


• When paying, use your credit card through Paypal for extra protection. If you pay a seller by money order or check, it is much harder to recover your money in the event that something goes wrong.


• For large purchases, you may want verify that the seller's contact information is valid by requesting it and contacting them ahead of time. At the very least, try contacting the seller by email and asking for more photos or questions about the item. This can help to determine how responsive the seller is and to see if the seller has the actual item.


• Be wary of items priced too low or of sellers selling large quantities of brand new bags. If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is!


• Be aware of how much protection you have on a transaction. If on Ebay, you can see on the auction page how much coverage is provided on that particular transaction by Paypal's buyer protection policy.


• Finally, always login from the auction site and do not click on links in emails as there are many fraudulent emails that are phishing for your account information. If you think an email you received is spoof then you can forward it to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for Ebay or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for Paypal.