Post by LVOE on Mar 12, 2009 9:54:41 GMT -5
www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/ebay/21558-selling-replica-purses-ebay-lowdown.html
Hello everyone,
I'm fairly new to this forum and I have learned alot since. Seeing there are alot of people interested in replica purses from Smitty's thread. So I think it's time for me to give back about my experiences on ebay as a purse seller.
I have made money online for the past 5 years selling replica purses as well as playing in online casinos. Fake bags alone pretty much paid for my 4 years of college, rent, partying etc. A little background about myself, I'm a Canadian born chinese (girl). My family is from Hong Kong. So I can understand chinese and have a better picture of how things work over there in China. I also love fashion and so I knew what's going on with the bag industry.
I started selling 5 years ago because someone gave me a fake louis vuitton bag. It was so crappy and I didn't know what to do with it. So a friend of mine said "why not sell it on ebay"... I was like... sure... not many people were doing it back then. It sold right away and the bag looked soooo far off from the original. But the customer was happy with the purchase still. From there, I could see some business potential so i searched for sellers in China in forums and alibaba. Got in contacts with a couple. Since I understand chinese, I could tell right away which one is legit and which one isn't. I found a guy doing pretty decent (grade AAA) bags for some cheap prices. I made him ship my bags to my house using EMS... not alot of troubles with customs... but from ordering, to finalizing the orders to finally getting the bags usually took a month. Because there were just so many people ordering from this guy... and lots of models were sold out really fast... and also packages sometimes get stuck in custom... but eventually I would get them all and I didn't ever got in trouble.
The first 2 yrs i was in this biz... business was good on ebay. I had 4 accounts running and each account has 2 or 3 different models of bags on there ALWAYS. I was selling these babies from $250 to 600 a pop. The Murakami went as far as 700 to 900. And i only got them for like $30 to 80 each. Well you do the math. My bags had serial numbers and nice dustbags... the first year i had zero refunds... but on the 2nd yr... people were getting smarter... ebay was getting smarter so there were about 3 to 4 refunds a month. I always say no problem to my customers... if they request it... i give it... most of the time though... i don't bother getting those bags back.
Then in the 3rd year... everybody was getting really cautious... the price for say a Murakami "eye to eye"bag would be from $150 to $4000 on ebay. So I know besides the real... there must be some really good fakes out there... because there is no way there are tons of these limited edition stuff floating around. I was starting to getting more and more refunds... and auctions were easily shut down. Most of the time because the competitors using their other accounts reporting me on ebay.
Well guess what... I finally found the source for the really good fakes!!! There was a girl from Vegas who said she is an agent for FRANCIS TSE. I dunno if you guys know this.. but Francis Tse's bag are really famous replicas because they are 100% MIRROR IMAGE. Francis is a guy from hong kong... obviously a fake name... he has a few agents (wholesalers) here and there... and he never takes small wholesalers or retailers like myself. If you want to buy his stuff... u buy it thru his agents.... so there were tons of these "fake" agents around... saying they got the Francis bags. Anyway... long story short... I found some good shit... and omg... the detailing was immauculate!!! I mean, the material, the linings, the keys, serial numbers, even the boxes!!! The down side was the pricing is considerably higher... an LV would be around $150 to 300. Of course there are other more brands available. So I ditched my old supplier for the really fancy stuff... bought from my new supplier... took lots and lots of close up pictures and started selling again. I wasn't getting any refunds at all! but the profit margin was much smaller... considering everybody and their mama were selling fake stuffs on ebay then.
So I moved on from Vuittons... and tried my hands on Hermes. I dunno if you guys know the difference about these girl's brands. but since i'm a girl and my mom always used nice stuff ... i knew... the Kellys and Birkins are insanely expensive bags that even if you got the dough... u have to get in a waiting list from 2 years to 6 years for some. It was then I heard Francis got some 100% mirror image Birkins available from Korea... he was asking $1000 a pop for the normal leather.. and $3000 to 5000 for the ostrich and crocs. These sell from $4000 to $100k on ebay. (yes... $100k.... not 10k.. check it on ebay...) So I took a chance and ordered 2 $1k birkins... again... immaculate... took a while to sell on ebay though. Because the Hermes market was already saturated with 3 TOP HERMES SELLER. They have really nice templates... professional photography... 1000+ feedbacks... it was hard to beat. I sold a few more and that was that. I moved on concentrating on getting my masters and playing online poker.
I'M NOT DONE YET... guys... you wouldn't believe... so I talked to my supplier on the phone about quitting this biz because of those powersellers. And guys what? She told me that ebay powerseller BOUGHT FROM HER ALSO!!! I was like wtf!!! She said yeah... she has since transferred her directly under Franics Tse because each time he was ordering so many! My supplier told me on a typical month... this guy makes $800K to 1 MIL per month!!! Ok... i know it's hard to swallow... i felt the same too. You can look up ebay and you would still see this guy... (with 2 diff accounts)... he is the ultimate powerseller of birkins. The reason he can make so much is that... now he has established himself as the EXPERT... and no one would question the authenticity of his bags. He focuses on selling HIGH PRICED BIRKINS... less "normal" birkins.. (which sells for $5 to 7K)... more on Crocs... crocs are incredibly expensive... a real one runs up to $100K... and they are selling that full price)
So yeah that was my story. I'm sorry I didn't organize it more into the tips and advice format. But that was my experience... if you want to make money in this business... you have to keep learning... about ebay... about your competitors. How they take photos... if they have receipts... what they are telling the potential customers... what their refund policies are... and then you try to beat them. If you want to sell now... either sell it with a really high pricetag... and try to beat the best. the best of everything. or find some decent quality bags and sell it for cheap... but still manage to make a profit.
Another thing... the time I was selling.... I was OBSESSED with all things designer. (well I still am =P ) So I always would do research on fashion magazines like Vogue to see what's coming and what's hot the next season. If you want to make big money in fake bags... u need to know what women want. They want the IT BAG that all the celebrities are carrying before it hit the Saks. They want the limited edition bags. So yeah... study.... if you can't... at least ask your gf/wife to do it for u.
Besides eBay.. other popular sites to sell on are yahoo auction (yahoo doesn't care about anything), ioffer.com, sell.com.
I hope this thread helped someone. Cheers!
I will never buy off Ebay again!!
Hello everyone,
I'm fairly new to this forum and I have learned alot since. Seeing there are alot of people interested in replica purses from Smitty's thread. So I think it's time for me to give back about my experiences on ebay as a purse seller.
I have made money online for the past 5 years selling replica purses as well as playing in online casinos. Fake bags alone pretty much paid for my 4 years of college, rent, partying etc. A little background about myself, I'm a Canadian born chinese (girl). My family is from Hong Kong. So I can understand chinese and have a better picture of how things work over there in China. I also love fashion and so I knew what's going on with the bag industry.
I started selling 5 years ago because someone gave me a fake louis vuitton bag. It was so crappy and I didn't know what to do with it. So a friend of mine said "why not sell it on ebay"... I was like... sure... not many people were doing it back then. It sold right away and the bag looked soooo far off from the original. But the customer was happy with the purchase still. From there, I could see some business potential so i searched for sellers in China in forums and alibaba. Got in contacts with a couple. Since I understand chinese, I could tell right away which one is legit and which one isn't. I found a guy doing pretty decent (grade AAA) bags for some cheap prices. I made him ship my bags to my house using EMS... not alot of troubles with customs... but from ordering, to finalizing the orders to finally getting the bags usually took a month. Because there were just so many people ordering from this guy... and lots of models were sold out really fast... and also packages sometimes get stuck in custom... but eventually I would get them all and I didn't ever got in trouble.
The first 2 yrs i was in this biz... business was good on ebay. I had 4 accounts running and each account has 2 or 3 different models of bags on there ALWAYS. I was selling these babies from $250 to 600 a pop. The Murakami went as far as 700 to 900. And i only got them for like $30 to 80 each. Well you do the math. My bags had serial numbers and nice dustbags... the first year i had zero refunds... but on the 2nd yr... people were getting smarter... ebay was getting smarter so there were about 3 to 4 refunds a month. I always say no problem to my customers... if they request it... i give it... most of the time though... i don't bother getting those bags back.
Then in the 3rd year... everybody was getting really cautious... the price for say a Murakami "eye to eye"bag would be from $150 to $4000 on ebay. So I know besides the real... there must be some really good fakes out there... because there is no way there are tons of these limited edition stuff floating around. I was starting to getting more and more refunds... and auctions were easily shut down. Most of the time because the competitors using their other accounts reporting me on ebay.
Well guess what... I finally found the source for the really good fakes!!! There was a girl from Vegas who said she is an agent for FRANCIS TSE. I dunno if you guys know this.. but Francis Tse's bag are really famous replicas because they are 100% MIRROR IMAGE. Francis is a guy from hong kong... obviously a fake name... he has a few agents (wholesalers) here and there... and he never takes small wholesalers or retailers like myself. If you want to buy his stuff... u buy it thru his agents.... so there were tons of these "fake" agents around... saying they got the Francis bags. Anyway... long story short... I found some good shit... and omg... the detailing was immauculate!!! I mean, the material, the linings, the keys, serial numbers, even the boxes!!! The down side was the pricing is considerably higher... an LV would be around $150 to 300. Of course there are other more brands available. So I ditched my old supplier for the really fancy stuff... bought from my new supplier... took lots and lots of close up pictures and started selling again. I wasn't getting any refunds at all! but the profit margin was much smaller... considering everybody and their mama were selling fake stuffs on ebay then.
So I moved on from Vuittons... and tried my hands on Hermes. I dunno if you guys know the difference about these girl's brands. but since i'm a girl and my mom always used nice stuff ... i knew... the Kellys and Birkins are insanely expensive bags that even if you got the dough... u have to get in a waiting list from 2 years to 6 years for some. It was then I heard Francis got some 100% mirror image Birkins available from Korea... he was asking $1000 a pop for the normal leather.. and $3000 to 5000 for the ostrich and crocs. These sell from $4000 to $100k on ebay. (yes... $100k.... not 10k.. check it on ebay...) So I took a chance and ordered 2 $1k birkins... again... immaculate... took a while to sell on ebay though. Because the Hermes market was already saturated with 3 TOP HERMES SELLER. They have really nice templates... professional photography... 1000+ feedbacks... it was hard to beat. I sold a few more and that was that. I moved on concentrating on getting my masters and playing online poker.
I'M NOT DONE YET... guys... you wouldn't believe... so I talked to my supplier on the phone about quitting this biz because of those powersellers. And guys what? She told me that ebay powerseller BOUGHT FROM HER ALSO!!! I was like wtf!!! She said yeah... she has since transferred her directly under Franics Tse because each time he was ordering so many! My supplier told me on a typical month... this guy makes $800K to 1 MIL per month!!! Ok... i know it's hard to swallow... i felt the same too. You can look up ebay and you would still see this guy... (with 2 diff accounts)... he is the ultimate powerseller of birkins. The reason he can make so much is that... now he has established himself as the EXPERT... and no one would question the authenticity of his bags. He focuses on selling HIGH PRICED BIRKINS... less "normal" birkins.. (which sells for $5 to 7K)... more on Crocs... crocs are incredibly expensive... a real one runs up to $100K... and they are selling that full price)
So yeah that was my story. I'm sorry I didn't organize it more into the tips and advice format. But that was my experience... if you want to make money in this business... you have to keep learning... about ebay... about your competitors. How they take photos... if they have receipts... what they are telling the potential customers... what their refund policies are... and then you try to beat them. If you want to sell now... either sell it with a really high pricetag... and try to beat the best. the best of everything. or find some decent quality bags and sell it for cheap... but still manage to make a profit.
Another thing... the time I was selling.... I was OBSESSED with all things designer. (well I still am =P ) So I always would do research on fashion magazines like Vogue to see what's coming and what's hot the next season. If you want to make big money in fake bags... u need to know what women want. They want the IT BAG that all the celebrities are carrying before it hit the Saks. They want the limited edition bags. So yeah... study.... if you can't... at least ask your gf/wife to do it for u.
Besides eBay.. other popular sites to sell on are yahoo auction (yahoo doesn't care about anything), ioffer.com, sell.com.
I hope this thread helped someone. Cheers!
I will never buy off Ebay again!!
