No fakes. No fraud. No doubt.

[luxury_handbags@ebay]

Authenticity Guarantee for select luxury handbags is here! Handbags $500+ from 16 designer brands, including Gucci, Chanel, and Louis Vuitton, are now vetted and verified by a team of professionally trained authenticators. 

Following the launch of Authenticity Guarantee for Sneakers and Watches, the expansion to Handbags is part of our continued effort to improve the buyer and seller experience and build trust. You can shop with confidence knowing your purchase has been verified and is the real deal. Learn more about how our authentication process works at eBay.com/authentichandbags. 

You can read the full announcement details here. 

The eligible brands for Authenticity Guarantee are Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci, Hermes, Saint Laurent, Celine, Dior, Prada, Fendi, Goyard, Burberry, Chloe, Valentino, Givenchy, Balenciaga, and Bottega Veneta

[fashionclubgurl]

If Coach bags arent considered "Luxury handbgs" by Ebay, and are NOT eligible under Ebays Authenticity Guarantee Program, why are the posts about Coach being moved here?

And I dont understand why I havent received any answers to my questions on this change that I posted on July 30?

t5/Fashion/quot-The-question-no-one-asked-quot/m-p/32124475#M113276

Why separate handbag posts? What belongs where? And why? And where is an explanation of which brands fall into which category?

Ill repost it here since it refers to this forum, and apparently the change is already causing confusion.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<

from July 30, 2021

@luxury_handbags@ebay

Re the "Luxury handbag forum" announcement -

Why does Ebay / Khoros feel the need for a separate forum for "luxury" bags? Has anyone on the "Posters" or "Users" side asked for this?

What exactly IS a luxury bag? What brands are included? Not included? Is Coach a "luxury" brand or not? Ebays Authenticity Guarantee Service doesnt think so. Thank heaven.

https

://pages.ebay. com/authenticity-guarantee-handbags/index.

h t m l

"The eligible brands for Authenticity Guarantee are Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci, Hermes, Saint Laurent, Celine, Dior, Prada, Fendi, Goyard, Burberry, Chloe, Valentino, Givenchy, Balenciaga, and Bottega Veneta."

Does the new forum have any relation to Ebays recently introduced in-house "authenticty guarantee service"?

Are the forum Mods going to be bouncing purse-related posts back and forth between the "luxury" and the "cheapo" forums? 

How many posts does the current Fashion forum even GET about "luxury" bags?  

The notice says " we'll be moving handbag threads that were created within the last 60 days from the Fashion board to the new Luxury Handbag board. "  So are ALL handbag threads being moved, or just threads referring to whatever Ebay defines as "luxury" bags? Who decides? And if ALL purse threads are being moved, how does that fit with the "luxury bag" designation?

Out of curiosity I took a rough count. Threads about Purses and Wallets ONLY, for the last 3 months from May 1, 2021 to today July 29, 2021 based on the date of the original post. Starting with the most expensive aka "luxury" brands as defined by Ebay at the top :

Hermes - 0

Chanel - 4

Dior - 2

Gucci - 1

Prada - 1

LV - 13

Fendi - 2

Chloe - 1

Celine - 1

Coach -53

Michael Kors - 2

Dooney- 2

Pierre Cardin - 1

So, leaving Coach out of the "luxury" brand category, that's 25 general posts , not only  authentication requests, in 3 months about luxury purses. That just doesnt seem worth starting up a new forum over.

And again, where does Coach sit? As one of the long-time Coach authenticators here, I think I have a legitimate reason for asking. Theres a LOT of potential for confusion here.

Whats the point of disrupting a forum and creating confusion that will possibly result in FEWER posts over something that no one seems to be bothered with or has complained about AFAIK?

Whats the point?

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Some clarification of the above points would be helpful.

And will @luxury_handbags@ebay be answering questions like the one posted by station_85? And answering other questions about disputes concerning purses, luxury or otherwise, that sellers feel were wrongly removed by Ebay?

From the subtitle of this forum "No fakes. No fraud. No doubt.", it sounds more like an advert for an Ebay service, not a place to come to ask questions and solve problems. Will someone authorized by Ebay to do exactly that be posting here full-time?

[albertabrightalberta]

luxury_handbags@ebay 

Can the name of this category be changed to just "Handbags?" 

As was pointed out by @fashionclubgurl , very few posts are actually discussing those considered to be luxury. 

In the "olden days" of the boards, there was a  very busy "Shoes, purses, accessories" board and a separate and also busy "Clothing" board. At some point, they were consolidated to become the "Fashion" board and it looks like ebay is trying to separate them again, which is fine but a more generic "Handbags" title seems more inclusive. 

I'm not sure who to tag to make this request.  Thanks in advance for considering the change. 

tyler@ebay 

sheila@ebay 

rebecca@ebay 

brian@ebay 

brittanie@ebay 

[pasmadu_56]

😍👍

[stainlessenginecovers]

With the Sneakers Authentication Program; buyers are still able to force a return stating 'fake' (and then send back some 'other' shoes)  or do a Credit Card Chargeback, even though they already went through the Authentication Process, and those 'buyers' are then successful at keeping the shoes and the money.

Therefore, that program does nothing; what makes this program any better? 

[fashionclubgurl]

---

@albertabrightalberta wrote:

luxury_handbags@ebay 

Can the name of this category be changed to just "Handbags?" 

As was pointed out by @fashionclubgurl , very few posts are actually discussing those considered to be luxury. 

In the "olden days" of the boards, there was a  very busy "Shoes, purses, accessories" board and a separate and also busy "Clothing" board. At some point, they were consolidated to become the "Fashion" board and it looks like ebay is trying to separate them again, which is fine but a more generic "Handbags" title seems more inclusive. 

I'm not sure who to tag to make this request.  Thanks in advance for considering the change. 

tyler@ebay 

sheila@ebay 

rebecca@ebay 

brian@ebay 

brittanie@ebay 

---

I agree with @albertabrightalberta. The first post directly from Ebay in this forum is specifically narrowing down the "luxury" definition to purses over $500 (New? used?) and to 16 named brands. Why are ALL purses being dumped into this forum including Coaches (I dont believe any of the "Coach" posts involve $500-plus purses, so theyre obviously not considered Luxury Handbags by Ebay )?

Theres also a question about some kink of metal or plastic decoration that someone identified as coming from an "88 Bag" which is a vegan brand. It isnt one of the 16 listed brands either, and isnt even coming up in a quick Ebay search. And there are still posts about handbags at the other forum. Is anyone going to explain which posts about which brands go where? Theres no explanation telling posters where they should be posting.  Either specify clearly what goes where, or like alberta said,  keep all the purses together just in a "Handbags" category.

And theres a post from a long-time seller asking why his or her listings were removed. Is anyone from Ebay going to answer? Because there isnt a thing any of us regular posters can tell him/her about why their items were removed. "No fakes, no fraud, no doubt"? But no answers either. For any of us, I guess.

[fashionclubgurl]

Crickets ...

[sheila@ebay]

Hi all,

My mistake! I thought the Coach brand was a luxury brand. You're right the Coach posts don't belong on this board.

I've updated the opening post to include all of the luxury brands.

I'm going to touch base with the luxury handbags team to see if we should make some changes to this board because @fashionclubgurl you make some good points. In the meantime, I'm moving all of the Coach posts back to the other board.

[fashionclubgurl]

Thank you, it's very much appreciated!

Coach has never been considered a luxury brand. Not just based on pricing, but also on the markets its aimed at. "Up-and-coming" maybe, for many of its current styles, but with almost NO bags in the thousand dollar-plus range like most if not all of the other brands listed in the Authentication Service posts. Even purses in the $700 range are rare. And thats MSRP, not pre-owned. The volume of posts about Coach here is more than double the number of all the listed "Luxury" brands put together. Solidly middle to upper-middle class, whether Coach thinks so or not.

Ebays authentication service would also NEVER be able to handle the kind of volume of products that Coach AND Coach counterfeiters produce and that Ebay members buy. For one thing, I doubt very much if any of them have the experience and the photo and text libraries that would enable them to get things right more than 50 or 60 percent of the time, and thats based on what I and others have seen of actual COAs from almost all the well-known services, with only a tiny handful of exceptions (theres only one professional authentication service I would ever recommend for Coach products). And thats facts, not bragging. The 2 busiest Coach authenticators who post in these Ebay threads have a combined total of roughly 175,000 to 200,000 photos of Coaches, real and fake, showing every possible detail that might prove a "Coach" as one or the other, plus text files of information and details going back almost 60 years. We dont depend on Artificial Intelligence or online "guides" that are probably 10 or 15 years out of date either, like too many authentication services seem to do.

A good example of the sheer volume of Coach authentications - on "another" site, probably the largest Fashion Accessories discussion site in the internet, the Coach Authentication thread just by itself  has logged 64, 086 posts just related to Coach authenticity between December 17, 2014 through about 5 minutes ago. Theres also another 10,000-plus older posts that are Archived, plus several other related threads that are information-only. Without any actual analysis, I would realistically estimate our accuracy rate there to be 97 to 99 percent. And we usually respond within a few hours. And its free. As is all the help we render here at Ebay. And all for one simple reason. We dont like to see people getting cheated.

So no, Coach isnt considered a luxury brand. It IS highly faked but the level of knowledge and quantity and quality of the research materials involved in getting authentications right is massive. 

[auctionairecorp]

---

@fashionclubgurl wrote:

Crickets ...

================================================================
If I was a Coach employee driving through Chinatown and noticed a store that ussually  sells knockoffs but now has a sign out front saying their products are now legitimate

 because they self certify them (LOL), I would let a certain "team" at my company know about it.

Or maybe Coach doesn't want to be associated.

---

[petals_and_vines]

This is a terrible program and ebay REALLY needs to re-think themselves.   I know many people that help authenticate on these boards have long-time and extensive knowledge on their chosen brands (as do I), but WHO ARE YOUR AUTHENTICATORS and what is your screening process? 

Here's an example - there are hundreds of listings, RIGHT NOW, of very questionable bags with "authenticity guarantee" that those of us in the know are facepalming  - a BNWT Goyard St Louis from Russian Federation for half the price of retail. Seems legit! So WHO is checking this bag? 

I have several years and thousands of hours invested in the study of Louis Vuitton - hire ME to help "authenticate". 

[luxury_handbags@ebay]

Hey @petals_and_vines, thank you for your comment! Check out the link below for our programs eligibility. Once an eligible product is purchased, it is shipped to our AG facility for a multi-point inspection. Any counterfeit item that comes through our facility will fail inspection, and in turn protect our buyers.

https://pages.ebay.com/authenticity-guarantee-handbags/

[fashionclubgurl]

I dont think that answered her question. Who - OR WHAT - are your authenticators? What are their qualifications?

Many sellers of luxury purses here have been selling to satisfied customers for years, and often pay for professional authentications from services they trust before they list the purses and other items for sale. Why is Ebay basically forcing them to pay twice for an authentication especially when they dont know the authenticator - or the computer - from Adam and dont have a thimblefull of proof that theyre qualified to authenticate that particular brand? I can see sellers being upset about this, if a were a seller or a  buyer for purses in that price range, Id be upset too. 

And whats happening with the serious complaints that have been posted here already about damaged and missing purses after theyve been sent to Ebays authenticators? So far I dont remember seeing any reports of satisfactory resolutions.

Just on the subject of computer authentications, if Ebay is using one of "those" services, youre going to run into serious problems. Reports on other sites report incorrect and sometimes totally incomprehensible mistakes by at least one well-advertised "AI" service on every midline and highline brand, from Coach to Hermes. 

And where's the common sense? The example that petals_and_vines posted about a Goyard originating in the Russian Federation, one of the planets hotspots for counterfeits distribution, at half the price of retail, illustrates just one of the problems. Who, or what, doing the authenticating is smart enough and experienced enough to smell a rat? 

When sellers are putting their own reputations and even their actual businesses at risk and in unknown hands, I think they deserve transparency. They also deserve the right to Opt Out if theyre not comfortable with the requirements, or theyll go somewhere else.

[the*red*queen*]

Sorry, that did not explain anything. 

WHO are your authenticators? 
HOW are they vetted?
WHERE are you finding them? 
WHAT experience do they have? 

You guys are on dangerous ground. You all clearly have NO idea in regards to what it takes to authenticate handbags - whether they be Hermes or Coach.  

You have NO idea how much time and research it takes to be fully versed in any given brand. There are subtleties and nuances - that can change from year to year - that someone who has not studied the brand for an extensive amount of time will miss. You CANNOT give someone a "checklist" or any type of training that doesn't take many, many months - MINIMUM.  And it constantly changes! 

Heck - there are several authentication "services" out there who are clueless, much less eBay trying to pull people off the street and "train" them to authenticate a brand.  If you had a serious conversation with any of us in the "purse world",  you would know this. But for some reason, someone tried to put together this "authentication program" without seemingly doing due diligence.  I've seen your job postings for authenticators.

You Have: • 1-2+ year of prior handbag authentication or luxury sales experience • You are a fashion expert and have a strong sense of the category • Analytical and problem-solving skills ability to research and address concerns • Flexibility to evolving work-flows and responsibilities • Excellent communication skills (both written and verbal) • Ability to work autonomously • Capacity to work on your feet for several hours & lift 30 lbs as needed. • Knowledge of standard operating systems, word processing, spreadsheets, Slack, etc.

So you only need 1 -2 years, of which could be SALES experience?  My god. 

[fashionclubgurl]

So, Ebay,  not a word about a library of text and photo files of the brand(s) in question. Instead, "... ability to research and address concerns... " Research from where? Some useless internet "Authenticity guide" thats at least 15 years out of date and never was accurate in the first place? 

Heres just one example, from links right at the top of a "search engine starting with G" site using the search "how can you tell if a coach purse is authentic":

"DO ALL COACHES HAVE YKK ZIPPERS?"

"ANSWER - Most authentic Coach purses use the zipper brand YKK– the highest quality of zippers available. So, look carefully at your zipper pull. If your bag is authentic, you will see the tiny letters 'YKK' on your zipper pull. Fake Coach purses do not have the YKK zippers."

WANNA BET ????????

and please notice the date of the question. - Apr 30, 2021

and after at least 15 years of actual facts and photos, the most blatant and debunked lie in the Coach authentication universe is still being told on the Internet. 

So if Ebays authenticators are probably "researching" their authentications by searching the 'net and getting answers like "Fake Coach purses do not have the YKK zippers", thats ok? Even though that bloody LIE was punctured at least 15 years ago and has been debunked at least 50 times just here at ebay, and hundreds if not thousands of times on other sites? Because the Internet is always a reliable source of information, right?  If anyone who thinks so wants to make a wager with me that "fake purses do not have YKK zippers", just leave a PM for me and tell me how much you can afford to lose.

Its like "Experienced brain surgeon wanted. 2 years of hospital experience on any level preferred, 3 seasons of watching "Chicago Med" also acceptable. Must be a registered WebMD user"