EBay Authenticity Guarantee

[CS27]

I’ve just listed my Pelagos 39 at a reasonable price, think it’s lowest on there and got an offer I’m happy with.

Because it’s over £1.5k it’s covered by the authenticity guarantee, which means I post it to eBay to get it checked out first and they then forward it on to the buyer.

Anyone had any problems with this?

Obviously it protects the buyer as they know they are getting a genuine watch but I think it also provides an extra guarantee to me as eBay get to see it first so the buyer can’t do a dodgy claim against me.

[hilly10]

Sounds a great way to sell on EBay and as you say gives the buyer peace of mind. Let us know if you go down that route.

[C5_Steve]

Can't comment on the authenticity guarantee with regards to watches but I know that the same in regards to trainers have had pretty great reviews from sellers.

[OFORBES]

I've got no experience using that feature personally, but that would certainly offer me peace of mind in both purchasing and selling.

[QJumper]

I'd never heard off that, but for high value items it seems like a great idea for both buyers and sellers.

I'll sell quite a bit from time to time on ebay, but have always avoided selling high value stuff for fear of geting scammed, so would definitely use this.

[ro250]

I bought some trainers for my son last year and they came with this guarantee. It seemed to delay delivery because it goes somewhere else first, but it was very reassuring that we weren't buying knock-offs. It's a plus from a buyers perspective.

[SteveStrange]

For those buying or selling trainers and clothing, is that the same £1500 threshold (i.e. ultra high end stuff)?

[hilly10]

I would expect the Rolex and usual suspect copies to now disappear from listings, which will be great news

[s p a c e m a n]

If they decide that it's not authentic do they send it back to you?

[Legacywr]

I've bought a watch via this service, comes with a waxed paper seal around the strap, and you can't return the watch once removed.

There's no way I would have bought an expensive watch off of Ebay without it.

[the_kato]

Sold a Tudor and an Omega via this and it’s a lot less stressful. Once the Authenticator has signed it off there’s no messing about the buyer can do as they have guaranteed it as described

I

[ro250]

SteveStrange said:

For those buying or selling trainers and clothing, is that the same £1500 threshold (i.e. ultra high end stuff)?

The trainers I bought were around £200.

[matt666]

s p a c e m a n said:

If they decide that it's not authentic do they send it back to you?

Interesting question. T’s and C’s state -

You acknowledge and agree that if the Authentication Partner cannot verify an item’s authenticity, a refund will be issued to the buyer and you shall cooperate with removing the item from marketplace circulation.

It doesn’t specify how it should be removed, it would need to be irrefutably a fake to be destroyed by the authentication partner for example.

I used the service recently as a buyer, it works well and doesn’t add much on to delivery times. They received the watch and authenticated and sent out the next day.

I don’t believe they remove the case back to check the movement so it’s not massively thorough, but does offer a level of protection for both buyer and seller

[gregs656]

My brother sold some trainers on eBay that were authenticated. I think it's a good idea.

[T6 vanman]

I watched a programme about this and thought for trainers it was quite sketchy,

The person didn't report they had any manufacturer training, They certainly appeared to not concentrate on one brand,
They looked at the quality of the box, smelt the trainers (then said to the reporter ... genuine trainers have a different smell to fakes) gave them a quick once over then declared them genuine.

I hope the watch authenticity process was more thorough ...... As others have said, the strap was wax papered & mine is genuine (purely based on no one would produce a fake )

[andy tims]

matt666 said:

I used the service recently as a buyer, it works well and doesn’t add much on to delivery times. They received the watch and authenticated and sent out the next day.

I don’t believe they remove the case back to check the movement so it’s not massively thorough, but does offer a level of protection for both buyer and seller

Ditto

I didn't want the caseback removed the watch was an Argon filled Sinn and the gas would have escaped.

It has a display back so I don't know if that gave them enough to go on WRT checking the movement was genuine, or if it's just not that thorough.

Edited by andy tims on Monday 27th February 17:38

[James6112]

Interesting!
I have a 2021 Tudor Gmt which I only wore a few times. Impulse/mistake
If they take out the scam factor, i’d be interested.
Will look into this..

[Horsey McHorseface]

Does it delay the seller getting paid? Do you get paid before or after authenticity is proven?

[-crookedtail-]

Horsey McHorseface said:

Does it delay the seller getting paid? Do you get paid before or after authenticity is proven?

I used this service as a buyer about a year ago. I think the seller is only paid once the authentication process is complete

[LC23]

I've used this as both buyer and seller. It's a very good process overall. I have returned a couple of purchases no problem. However I would have expected the issues to be identified. One was a very gritty winding movement and the other was a deep impact mark on a lug that was conveniently not shown in the pictures.

And as a seller the pay out is made within 24 hours if you have a good seller rating and have used the authenticator process before. It can be clawed back of course if there are issues. I wouldn't sell a watch via ebay without this process. It takes the potential for a scam out of the equation.