Does eBay Sell Fake Sneakers?
Avoiding fake sneakers is always worthwhile. So read on to find out if eBay sells fake sneakers and how to avoid getting stung!
Knock-offs, B grades, bootlegs, counterfeits, and replicas. These are just some of the terms we use to call fake shoes, and pretty sure most of us have accidentally bought fakes online.
But does eBay sell fake sneakers? Does a multi-billion dollar company allow people to use its platform for illegal activities?
Definitely, yes, and it̵7;s a very common thing that happens on daily basis. There are thousands of fake shoes being sold on eBay every month, and it’s not just eBay that does it because other online stores like Wish and Amazon also sell fakes.
Even though Nike, Adidas, Jordan, and other top shoe brands are working closely with eBay, some customers still get fake shoes delivered to their doorstep.
It’s not the fault of big brands that these things happen because it’s usually the third-party sellers that sell fakes. Plus, eBay has more than a million products listed on its site, so it’s just impossible to monitor which ones are fake or not.
Read More: How Can You Bulk Buy Sneakers (Complete Guide)
Does eBay Sell Fake Sneakers? Is It Legal?
It is illegal to sell fake shoes on eBay. The company’s counterfeit policy states that “Items sold using a brand name or a brand logo must be original and made by the brand or manufactured on their behalf. Software, music, movies, and other media must be original and not unauthorized copies. “
As a matter of fact, it’s illegal to sell counterfeit goods anywhere in the U.S. or anywhere in the world.
“What if I specify in my listing that the shoes are fake?“
It’s still illegal, but despite this rule, there are thousands of fake shoes sold online because the people at eBay aren’t experts in authenticating every product listed for sale.
Let’s say you spotted a fake item on eBay, like a fake Yeezy Boost. What do you do? Just contact the shoe company (in this case, Adidas), give them the details of the listing, and let that company and eBay handle the situation.
However, it only takes a few minutes to put up a listing compared to the amount of time required to report a fake listing and take action against it. In most cases, eBay doesn’t anything about it, so it’s up to the buyer to do lots of research on how to spot fake shoes.
How To Spot Fake Shoes On eBay?
Imagine this, you go to eBay, search for an Air Jordan 1 Retro, and buy it for $300. You get your shoes a few weeks later, you open the box, and then you find out they’re FAKES!
That would definitely make you angry.
Fortunately, there are a few ways you can use to spot fake shoes on eBay before you actually buy them.
Do A Background Check Of The Seller
It’s not enough to just check the seller’s eBay profile to verify if the seller is legit or not. If the seller is a retail company, just type the company’s name on Google and check their website and social media accounts. Even if the company has hundreds of good reviews, always check for bad reviews.
If you can contact any of their representatives and ask for more details about their products – much better! But it’s unlikely that these companies will respond to such queries.
It’s usually the small-time individual sellers who take the time to answer questions and provide more details about the shoes they’re selling.
Are The Shoe Photos Grabbed From The Internet?
If they are, the product being sold is most likely fake. Legit sellers will take actual photos of the shoes they’re selling.
Look for sellers who also take the time and effort to take different angle shots of the shoes. This will help you have a better look at the quality of the shoe.
Check The Tag
If you manage to contact the seller, ask for a photo of the tag because a simple tag check will immediately determine if a shoe is fake or not. The tag is typically located inside the shoe, sometimes behind the tongue, or on the sides.
Check the SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) code and do a quick Google search. If the images match the shoes being sold to you, it’s most likely an original.
But take note that this doesn’t work 100% of the time because counterfeiters are getting better at making fakes. Sometimes replicas are exact copies of the original down to the last detail.
Check The Box
Checking the shoe box is just as important as checking the shoes. Original shoes will have a shoe box with a specific design.
For example, the latest Air Jordan 1 shoes will come in a black box with a red Nike swoosh logo. It will also have a black sticker tag (older releases will have white tags) that will have the SKU number on it.
Fakes will typically have a generic box color, like brown or white. However, if the manufacturer was able to copy the box, too, try to ask for a close-up photo of the box. Fake boxes tend to be thinner and cheaper-looking.
Request For Proof Of Purchase
If the shoes are pre-owned, always ask for a photo of the receipt because this is the easiest and surest way to know that the shoes are legit.
Additionally, make sure they provide a photo that can verify that they actually have the receipt on hand. For example, you can ask them to take a selfie with the receipt, box, and shoes. The reason why is that scammers sometimes grab random receipts online.
Legit Sellers Will Always Accept PayPal Payments
PayPal provides protection for the buyer. It allows refunds if the product sold was damaged upon delivery, if the product went missing, or if the product is fake.
If the seller requests that you send the cash via bank transfer, that’s a red flag.
Read More: Does StockX Sell Used Shoes? A Complete Guide
How To Get Refunds
If you paid for the shoes using a credit card or PayPal, there’s a 100% chance you’ll get a full refund. Here’s what you can do:
- Report the listing as a fake product, so eBay will be notified, and they will take action on it.
- Go to your Purchase History and select the reason for the return (within 30 days of delivery).
- If the product you received was broken, damaged, faulty, or did not match the product listing, you can upload up to 10 images for proof.
- Select Send.
Once you’ve sent the request, the seller will have 3 business days to respond to you. These are the refund options that they might offer.
Full Refund
The seller will accept your return request and offer you a full refund of the product. You need to send the shoes back, including receipts, packaging, and all items that came with them. The seller will pay for your shipping expenses.
If the shoes got damaged during the return shipping because you didn’t pack it properly, the seller will deduct money from your refund.
Keep The Item And Get A Partial Refund
This is probably the worst option, but if you did want to keep the fake shoes, the seller should refund you a partial amount.
Replacement
While this is highly unlikely to happen, some sellers might offer the option of replacing the shoes you received with an original one.
Read More: “The Sneaker Culture,” What Started It All?
Which Shoes Are The Most Faked Online?
To maximize their profit, counterfeit manufacturers first determine which shoes are the most in-demand before they make fakes.
If you’re curious about what these models are, have a look:
Yeezy Boost
Kanye’s Yeezy Boost shoe line is one of the most in-demand sneakers of all time. Following the initial release of the Yeezy Boost 750 in 2015, succeeding versions of the shoe line took the shoe community by storm, and of course, the counterfeit industry wanted a piece of the pie.
Here are the most counterfeited Yeezy models:
- Yeezy 350 V2 ‘Beluga’
- Yeezy 350 V1 ‘Turtle Dove’
- Yeezy 700 ‘Waverunner’
Lebron 8 ‘South Beach’
The Lebron 8’s were one of those shoes that combined technology and style. It had a flywire, a 360 air unit, and a lockdown control feature.
However, the Lebron 8 “South Beach” colorway was so in demand because that was the time when King James decided to take his talents to Southbeach to form a Big 3 with Wade and Bosh.
Air Force 1’s ‘Triple White’
The Air Force 1 was first released in 1982, and it’s one of the most classic shoes of all time. It even got more popular when Nelly released his song “Air Force 1” back in 2022.
But even after 4 decades, it’s still one of the trendiest shoes among sneakerheads, so it’s not a surprise why companies want to counterfeit it.
Air Jordan 11 ‘Space Jam’
The “Space Jam” movie is part of every ’90s kid’s childhood. When that movie came out, everybody wanted to be like Mike, and what better way to do that than to get a pair of the Air Jordan 11 “Space Jam” shoes?
The shoe was released in 2000, and it created chaos in the shoe industry. Counterfeit companies created a lot of high-quality replicas for those who wanted pair of an Air Jordan 11 ‘Space Jam’ but couldn’t really afford the real one.
Solefly x Air Jordan 1 ‘Art Basel’
The sneaker world went into a craze for this particular release. It was reported that the release of this sneaker at Art Basel turned into a total frenzy that authorities had to shut down the facility.
That hype raised the prices of the shoe, and so did the counterfeits.
Tom Sachs NikeCraft 2.0
Prices have gone up for this pair, so it’s rare to see an authentic one these days. The Tom Sachs is one of those pairs that’s hard to authenticate, so make sure to buy from a legit seller who knows his stuff.
Travis Scott x SB Dunk ‘Cactus Jack’
The resale price for these shoes has never gone below a thousand dollars, so that’s probably the reason why there are lots of fakes. It’s easy to spot the fakes, too, because replica factories have a hard time copying this pair because of the structure and materials used.
Read More: How To Identify Real vs Fake Sneakers
Where To Buy Legit Sneakers?
Fortunately, there are still a few sites that sell legit sneakers, and you can even sell on these sites if you want to. Here are some of our top picks on where to buy legit sneakers.
StockX
StockX was founded in March 2015 and is one of the biggest sneaker reselling platforms as of 2021, with a net worth of over $3.8 billion. This shoe reselling site has an auction system where sellers list their shoes, and the highest bidders win the shoes.
However, you can guarantee that the items you buy on StockX are legit because sellers are required to ship the items to the StockX warehouse first for authentication.
There is a 3% payment processing fee for every transaction, plus a 9.5% transaction fee depending on your seller level. The lowest level is Level 1, and as you have more successful transactions, your level will increase, and your fees will decrease.
PUSHAS
PUSHAS is another shoe reselling platform that was founded by Justin Truong & Sandy Li. It first started in Australia but eventually found its way into the U.S. market.
According to PUSHAS, they are “the favorite destination to cop the latest Yeezys, Air Jordans, Off-Whites & more. All sneakers are authenticated by hand so you can cop with confidence.”
Not to mention, PUSHAS does it differently than other reselling websites. Most websites require you to list your own item, then when you get a sale, you send it to them within 2 days for authentication before it gets shipped out to the buyer.
With PUSHAS, you can send your shoes to them, and that’s it. You’ll get your profit after all the commission fees have been deducted.
GOAT
GOAT is another reselling website that works like StockX. However, GOAT gets a lot of love from resellers compared to StockX.
The company was founded in 2015 by Eddy Lu and Daishin Sugano. The name was coined after the expression GOAT, aka Greatest Of All Time, which is a term used to describe someone who is the best player in the history of a particular sport.
One of the best things about GOAT is it charges a $5 flat fee on shipping costs, unlike eBay, where it can range between $9 to $30. The platform also has a price calculator tool that lets resellers know how much profit they’ll make after the fees have been deducted.
Flight Club
Flight Club is a retail store that uses the consignment system. Basically, they will keep store and display the shoes for you, and they make a profit off commission fees. Here are the fees: a 9.5% commission fee, a $5 seller fee, and a 2.9% cashout fee.
Founded in 2005, Flight Club is one of the oldest shoe reselling platforms in the industry. Although newcomers like StockX and GOAT have taken a fair share of that market, a lot of people are still loyal to Flight Club.
As a seller, you can earn more money on Flight Club because they drastically inflate the prices, and as a result, you get bigger profits.
Other popular sites, StockX, GOAT, and eBay, all have reputations in the sneaker community. Some are good, some are bad, but they all have one thing in common – the sneaker community thinks they are not perfect.
Flight Club is considered a pioneer in the industry, and it has built a reputation for selling 100% legit sneakers.
However, Flight Club and GOAT have recently decided to partner up with each other, and the deal was actually finalized in February 2018.
Read More: What Is The Best Sneaker Reselling Website?
Why Buy Legit Sneakers?
Fake sneakers or replicas shouldn’t exist in the first place because they’re illegal. But as long as the shoe industry exists, the counterfeit industry will also exist.
No one is stopping you from buying fake sneakers because that’s your money, but there are far more benefits if you’ve bought the real ones.
First of all, authentic sneakers are just better in terms of quality. There are some fakes that are visually just as close to the real thing, but they don’t last long as the real ones.
Second, it just gives you that boost of confidence that fake sneakers can’t give. It feels better knowing that you’re wearing legit sneakers.
Lastly, you can always resell them. If you purchased limited-edition kicks, the resale value could be double or triple the price – depending on the condition, of course.
Before you buy sneakers, make sure you do tons of research. It also helps if you do specific research on the pair that you’re buying. It requires a different skill on how to tell fake Nike than how to tell fake Adidas.
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