You may have noticed various discussions about the negative side of Ebay. A lot has been discussed on Trollbeads Gallery Forum or on this blog. Usually it is warning about the fake beads being sold on Ebay by unscrupulous sellers who are making a killing on the brand’s name. We’ve had many collectors reporting the sellers who continually sell counterfeit beads closing down one selling I.D while opening another. But this discussion isn’t about erroneous beads it’s about erroneous listings. I spent some time cruising around the Ebay site and saw a definite change from when I last looked around about 6 months ago.
I was so aghast at what I saw I thought it was wise to bring it to your attention. As I read each listing it appeared every other one had something untrue about it. How did this happen so quickly? But then I considered the huge upswing in Trollbeads awareness and I think this is one of the natural steps a product takes as it matures in the marketplace. First you have your “counterfeiters” who closely follow the market and try to recreate a product before it hits its tipping point and this we have seen over and over again. Now the curve has widened and the people who are next in line, we’ll call them the “taking advantage” group has now joined the fray. These people are listing beads on Ebay but by twisting words and the truth and they catch people’s eyes and these people want the product to be what it is so badly they don’t recognize the warning signs. I took a quick and brief snapshot of the listings that disturbed me and I have listed them below. These are Ebay listings that to a trained eye would stick out as wrong but to a new collector they seem like everyone’s dream bead. If you are a “newbie” before you go on Ebay remember there is more than just counterfeit beads to worry about, it’s counterfeit listings also. Please just remember you need to do your homework.
1. Retired Eye Bead. The truth: The Eye Bead is not retired.
2. Authentic Grey Prism Trollbead. The Truth: The Grey Prism is not retired
3. Authentic Sterling Penguin Trollbead-Retired.: The Truth: The Penguin has never been a Trollbead so hence it is not a retired Trollbead.
4. Retired Troll Baby. The truth: This has not been retired at this time.
5. Original Authentic Retired Red-Green Dot OOAK. The Truth: This bead is an OOAK, not retired. 6. Authentic Trollbeads “Orange Bubbles” Rare, Retired. The Truth: There has never been an orange bubbles in the line.
7. You’ll find sellers like “collect a troll” selling a retired Rooster for $225.00. The product is real but the price is unreal. Check around at the authorized dealers and you’ll find it for half the price. Trollbeads Gallery has it at $79.00
8.The retired Clown, on this site, is $169.00. Again look around. Other prices are half this amount.
9. The retired “Striped Bud” is $129.00 with the same dealer. Other prices with authorized dealers are always lower. Trollbeads Gallery has it at $45.00. But people must be buying from these dealers and my question is why?
In closing I want to remind you of one basic tenant in the marketplace, Ebay destroys the brands it proliferates. History shows it’s true. Ebay doesn’t mean to but their platform for selling offers the counterfeiters and the “take advantage” people the chance to strut their wares to those people who are unaware. Again, do your homework or better yet, buy from Authorized dealers .
*Not all Ebay dealers are unscrupulous.