My friend Lo was gullible and bought a Gucci knockoff for $50, thinking she got a great deal.

Not a promising start, eh?

Well, naturally the guy never turns up again, so she's mad as hell, but figures she'll get something out of it. She puts it up for auction on eBay, and get this -- it sold for $450.

She never claimed it was real Gucci. She put "Gucci like" right up there in the title and description. Apparently - and this may come as a real shocker to you, I know - people are idiots.

Knockoffs + idiots = profit!

Give me one good reason I shouldn't start buying knockoffs at the mall and selling them on ebay.

Great stuff but I'm fairly sure ebay can force a refund (and potentially shut her account) when the buyer says it's fake.

Great to know that your friend willingly took advantage of a stranger's confusion! woo woo.

Attempting to mislead buyers -- even stupid ones -- is a violation of eBay's terms of service.

I'm not sure how it's misleading if you say upfront in the title and description that it's only "Gucci-like" - that just seems to be potentially catching the people who don't read.

One good reason not to do this, just to play devil's advocate, is long-term feasibility. It's unlikely you'd be able to continually buy knockoffs at a significantly lesser price than what you sell them for. You'd have to go through different 'dealers' so they don't start marking you as someone to upsell and you'd probably only be able to sell so many before buyers catch onto your reputation. At the very least, it'll likely start becoming more work than it's worth.

How it's misleading is that when you see the bid get up to 450, you're lying to yourself if you're saying they understood that it was fake.

obviously it's quite a few shades less evil than putting up 'gucci purse' and snickering the whole time

I'm not saying it isn't misleading in spirit - I'm saying that they can't really say you technically misled them if the title and description clearly describe it as "Gucci-like." Granted, I'd say you should still feel like slime for knowing people in all likelihood misunderstood without repeated confirmations as a seller, I just don't think eBay is going to 'crack down' in this case. Bad reviews, yes, shut down, probably not.

It's not really much different from the people who were selling "Xbox premium box!!!" on eBay, and I believe they had their accounts shut down.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking, lol.

As for feeling like slime, doesn't apply to me. I have no conscience. ^-^

Main reason... E-bay is run by *******s and goes to extreme lengths to protect the buyer even when they DO buy something genuine. Unless they changed something you are really not supposed to use the work "like" in discriptions for exactly the reason that peoPle are stupid and think Gucci like... Means Gucci. If/when the buyer complains your friend will be forced to give a refund of have their account shut down.

Don't ever expect buyers to read anything beyond the keyword used to find the image they want. My only negative review from back before Paypal was required was from someone who didn't read the description and payment notes at all.

Sell drugs instead.

TINLA

YIILA

While this is true, this is not likely to happen to Lo. It was 12 years ago.

I didn't even realize eBay had been running that long.

When they get it, they will call ebay and shut you down/force a refund.
Hell they could do it even if it was genuine and get away with it. Ebay ****s over small sellers all the time in order to keep buyers.

These events happened 12 years ago?

Yup. She was talking about consumer fraud, which is how it came up.

Your friend sucks.
That is all.

I bet she does suck, Deadman.

I don't know about genius, but she is genius-like.

^ win

Q&A With My New Story About Something Someone I Know Did Twelve Years Ago

N,NIN,S,DDT

I Know What You Did in the Summer of 2000

45 days. If no complaint by then, she's home free with the exception of a credit card chargeback. 60 days and they can't even leave bad feedback.

It could be even be real, and exactly as promised in the description. If the buyer gets it and thinks it smells funny, you WILL be coughing up the money right back to the buyer, including the shipping and you'll be out your eBay fees. Crap shoot if you ever get the item back in sell-able condition. No matter what happens on eBay sellers are ALWAYS WRONG and buyers are ALWAYS RIGHT. It ****ing sucks selling on eBay. Ask me how I know. (Please don't.)

well one sign that ebay decided to say "**** the sellers" was when they decided to remove the seller's ability to leave negative feedback... buyer can leave negative for me but i can only leave positive or no feedback at all... because i'm sure they even removed neutral

and leaving positive with a negative comment doesn't work because PEOPLE GENERALLY ONLY LOOK AT THE FEEDBACK SCORE

if a buyer opened a dispute back when ebay actually cared about fairness the seller could respond and someone from ebay would make a decision after hearing out both sides... these days a buyer can have everything go perfectly right for them in the transaction but still dispute it just out of being a dick and ebay will automatically side with the buyer and the seller ends up forced to refund and may end up with their account banned (the banhammer could even hit their paypal account in the process)

Hmm, didn't know that about ebay -- ignore what I said then.

far less than the same while stroking your moustache.

next step up is doing so while your dog laughs like a chronic smoker.

That is illegal.

He's right, that'd be copyright infringement.