eBay warning.....

[Rockdiamond]

Here's what I learned today.....
Say a seller wants to sell a diamond ring. Say they don't have a camera. No problem!!
It's now allowed for sellers to "borrow" pics from other sellers. No need to ask, and no need to let the prospective buyers know.
In fact, say the seller can't think of anything to say about this diamond ring.....no problem!!
They can even "borrow" the words of another seller!
So, if someone is selling an L/I2, but somehow does not have a camera ( cameras are so very rare these days), they can simply find a picture of a D/IF and use it.
Or, if they are selling a $99 moissy ring, they can ( and did) post pics of a $5800 diamond ring ( of ours)

Anyway, please be careful out there- and thank you so much for reading my vent.

 

[Dee*Jay]

I particularly like it when I see MY OWN custom made rings for sale on ebay... at a fraction of what I actually paid.

It's a jungle out there!!!

 

[Asscherhalo_lover]

You can't make this stuff up!

 

[whitewave]

Yup. It’s long been happening to a Caysie van Bebber and lately to Julia B Jewelry on Etsy.

 

[Bron357]

ive been buying on eBay 15 years now.
as a buyer from anywhere on the Internet you have to be cautious and realistic.
On eBay there is a big issue with some Indian / Asian origin sellers “stealing” other vendors photos, from anywhere and everywhere on the internet and using those photos to sell their replica rings.
And eBay can’t control these sellers. As fast as they close one down, another dozen appear. It’s terrible if naive buyers are being conned by stolen photos or mislead by fake description / fake certificates.
however these rings are very cheap and the listings invariably say that the photos are only indicative of the actual ring.
And they are all awful, nasty replicas but for a few $$ you wouldn’t expect anything else.
ditto all the loose rubies, emeralds, alexandrite, jade bangles etc with so called “certificates” that sell for a few dollars.
the one benefit is that ebay / PayPal have a “not as described” refund rule and photos do form part of the description.
to reduce the ”risk” of buying on eBay, choose established sellers, chose sellers who offer a return if you don’t like your item (most reputable sellers are confident their listings won’t result in many returns so they are happy to offer a return).
ask if the photo on the listing are of the actual item you’ll receive. Message via eBay, that’s information that you can use if it all goes pear shaped when you receive your item. Ask for more photos, especially if you suspect generic rather than actual.
ebay is “buyer be wary” , not necessarily “buyer beware“.

 

[distracts]

Here's what I learned today.....
Say a seller wants to sell a diamond ring. Say they don't have a camera. No problem!!
It's now allowed for sellers to "borrow" pics from other sellers. No need to ask, and no need to let the prospective buyers know.
In fact, say the seller can't think of anything to say about this diamond ring.....no problem!!
They can even "borrow" the words of another seller!
So, if someone is selling an L/I2, but somehow does not have a camera ( cameras are so very rare these days), they can simply find a picture of a D/IF and use it.
Or, if they are selling a $99 moissy ring, they can ( and did) post pics of a $5800 diamond ring ( of ours)

Anyway, please be careful out there- and thank you so much for reading my vent.

I have seen soooooo many pictures on ebay that I know are not what they are selling... your rings, rings from other vendors I'm familiar with, PSers rings, my OWN ring on one occasion - which I KNOW they weren't selling because I was wearing it! This happens to a lesser extent on Etsy, but more and more as time goes on. The Etsy review system lets people attach pictures to the reviews, and I've seen some where the listing was a CVB ring and the review picture was a cheap blobby mess with dull melee and an ugly CZ. It's the wild west out there.

I used to shop for secondhand jewelry on ebay a lot but it's gotten harder and harder to filter out the dreck I don't want to look at, so I mostly shop elsewhere now. Not as many potential deals, but also not as many potential ripoffs.

Always good to do your research by looking at seller history, reviews, reverse image searching, asking for more info/photos, and asking PS about the item.

 

[Rockdiamond]

I'm totally sure all the vendors mentioned have had their photos pilfered.
DBL, having photos stolen since 1999!
But the thing is, at least eBay used to pretend that it didn't allow people to pirate pics.....
I'm really old, so I can even remember when eBay had people you could speak to, and they would actually pull listings when you could show them evidence of theft ( both through the dates of the listings- as well as context).
Then a few years ago, it switched to having to use "vero" or some totally ineffective reporting method. But at least stealing pics and text was against a rule.
But now if someone has their intellectual property stolen, eBay's position is, "get used to it"
And from the standpoint of buyers: if you want to make sure the pictures posted are real, ask for additional pics.

 

[bludiva]

i have reported several "lifted" listings over the years and i don't think ebay or etsy ever takes them down. a friend who has an etsy store in a different product category was told she had to file a court case in order to get them taken down - even though there's no chance the court case can be executed b/c the listing thieves are in another country. frustrating stuff.

 

[MonkeysInk]

I watched an awesome YouTube video where a woman found photos of a costume that she'd custom made being used to sell a cheap knock-off on AliExpress or somewhere similar, so she ordered it and compared the two in person. I would love to watch similar videos comparing jewelry knockoffs to the originals.