Email from Ebay regarding new authentication rules for jewelry over $500.

[lucille.b]

Just got this today. Cutting and pasting.  Not sure if the links will work after cutting and pasting, but I'm sure can be found somewhere on Ebay.

"Dear lucille.b,

As we create the premier marketplace for buyers and sellers of luxury items, we’re excited to announce the extension of Authenticity Guarantee to the jewelry category.  Millions of buyers already shop for jewelry on eBay and new investments in the category will deliver better experiences and improved conversion. 

Starting July 20, 2022, Authenticity Guarantee, our authentication service for luxury items, will begin to cover inventory from eBay sellers who list items that sell for $500 or more in the Fine Jewelry and Engagement and Wedding Jewelry categories. We will be increasing our coverage of listings throughout the summer and fall and we’ll notify you when Authenticity Guarantee applies to your inventory. 

Along with the extension of Authenticity Guarantee to jewelry, we’ll also be investing in marketing to drive traffic and new buyers, and improvements to the jewelry buying experience on our platform. 

To help fulfill our commitment to the jewelry category, final value fees* will increase for most sellers effective September 12, 2022. Learn how the final value fee changes in the Jewelry category may impact your business."

Am I reading this correctly that sellers need to mail any $500+ value sold jewelry items to Ebay for authentication?  What could go wrong? 

In fairness I don't have too many pieces selling in this price range, but curious how this policy is going to work.  It specifically says, "items that sell for $500 or more in the fine jewelry category."  So if you list something at $100, and it exceeds $500, now you need to first send the item to Ebay to get authenticated??   I'd be worried about lost or mixed up inventory and possible other errors.  Where are they going to get all these jewelry appraisers from??  Many questions.

[flipping_treasures]

Increase in final valuation fees goes from 12.55% to 15.00% on sales upto $5,000 without a store.  With a store they go from 11.70% to 13.0%.

Bend over.

"To help fulfill our commitment to the jewelry category, final value fees* will increase for most sellers effective September 12, 2022. Learn how the final value fee changes in the Jewelry category may impact your business."

Nothing distinguishes the difference between fine and costume.  So costume which will not have any "Authenticity Guarantee "  will be paying for the fine jewelry "Authenticity Guarantee".  

What a crock!

[evelyb30]

Yup!  And the saving with paying for a store is ... why did they even bother?   I honestly think they've been trying to drive off small sellers of vintage/costume/lower $ items for a while now.  This is just one more nail.   The email says real GIA-certified folks looking things over, which is why costume jewelry isn't included.  People GIA-trained can't handle costume.  They're clueless.  

Hope they've at least learned something from the debacle with the cards and shoes.  I've been reading stories about shoes being swapped, lost, damaged etc by the so-called authenticators who also are known to call real shoes fakes and fake shoes real.   

[grannys-estate-barn]

Shipping prices have also gone up, while what I paid for each of my items over the years remains the same.   My profit margin is way less than 100%, so, even though 13% sounds low, it eats up a big percentage of my profit margin.

I'm going to look into selling on C-L and FBMP for FREE, 'cause this chit is ridiculous.

Like some politicians, some companies don't understand that raising fees doesn't make the company money, if the customers (sellers ... and therefore a lot of buyers) leave.  Lowering prices and/or offering incentives that can lower fees, attracts customers (sellers ... and therefore a lot of buyers) to stay.

😕

[grannys-estate-barn]

Oh, and, thanks for the heads up.  (Email sent today, effective date ... today) 🙄

[iamonourside]

I have posted the following on the seller's board. CONSEQUENCES!

@lucille.b  All of your questions are answered in the pages linked to the message.

1. The authenticating requirement for jewelry goes into effect today, the same day it is announced.
2. There will no longer be a sales bump from last minute gift buying.
3. The authentication (and delivery delay) applies even to goods that have a GIA certificate.
4. eBay requires sellers to provide more than it will provide through the authenticity program: 

1. Sellers are required to state natural or lab created for all gemstones; GIA will do it only for diamonds, emerald, and sapphires.
2. Sellers must identify all treatments for all gemstones, but GIS will be excused from identifying treatments if treatments are common for the stone.

Size of stones cannot be accurately measured for stones in setting.  Caret is often determined by a mm/caret formula or table. The announced  size tolerances are less than the variation in results from using the published formulas and tables.

Fine jewelry sales over $500 in fine jewelry and wedding jewelry is a small small percentage or total jewelry sales. THIS PROGRAM IS NO NEEDED AND IS NOTHING MORE THAN ANOTHER MONEY GRAB FOR DECLINING QUALITY OF SERVICE.

[mscurl]

I don’t even understand what this means.  Is it true that we would be required to send in an item to eBay first after a sale? That’s just crazy. Are they actually expecting folks from all over the world to do this?  This notification did nothing but confuse me. It also states a very specific category, which just means that sketchy sellers will find a work around. Do you suppose unpaid interns make this stuff up, and then just laugh and laugh and laugh.

Also, showing your “commitment” to a category is not reflected by shafting the sellers in that category. just sayin’

[sweetpea321]

So if I read this correctly, even those of us not eligible for this program will have to pay extra fees to fund it? Something is really wrong with this thinking!

[evelyb30]

Yup.  Fine jewelry sellers get shafted, and we all get to pay for it!  

[dream*peddler]

This is why ebay has seller/buyer protections.  For over 2 decades, shoppers have come to ebay knowing it's a secondary market platform.  The buyer is given an overly generous amount of time to inspect his/her item or take it and have it professionally evaluated by a GIA gemologist.   We know that if a buyer is determined to return something, ebay will side with them and "no return" policies aren't enforced.  The seller has to take the return.  Will this apply to a seller that follows the entire process and the buyer still wants to return the item?  Just how many gemologists will ebay employ?

  I've sold fine jewelry for a pawn shop for the past 9 years, and have caught so many mistakes made by gemologists it's not even funny.  We also found that appraisals didn't impress our buyers because they're fairly savvy and know how to look at a diamond.  For about 60 bucks you can set yourself up with the equipment to do a lot of your own testing.  Running expensive jewelry through unknown entities doesn't appeal to me as either a buyer or seller.  This is way too complicated, and once again, ebay does the opposite of the KISS method.

 

[evelyb30]

---

@dream*peddler wrote:

This is why ebay has seller/buyer protections.  For over 2 decades, shoppers have come to ebay knowing it's a secondary market platform.  The buyer is given an overly generous amount of time to inspect his/her item or take it and have it professionally evaluated by a GIA gemologist.   We know that if a buyer is determined to return something, ebay will side with them and "no return" policies aren't enforced.  The seller has to take the return.  Will this apply to a seller that follows the entire process and the buyer still wants to return the item?  Just how many gemologists will ebay employ?

  I've sold fine jewelry for a pawn shop for the past 9 years, and have caught so many mistakes made by gemologists it's not even funny.  We also found that appraisals didn't impress our buyers because they're fairly savvy and know how to look at a diamond.  For about 60 bucks you can set yourself up with the equipment to do a lot of your own testing.  Running expensive jewelry through unknown entities doesn't appeal to me as either a buyer or seller.  This is way too complicated, and once again, ebay does the opposite of the KISS method.

 

---

I'm primarily a costume "girl" but even I catch stuff the so-called experts didn't.   

[nevaholdings]

Personally I am primarily concerned with time constraint this new policy will create. I sell primarily diamond anniversary and engagement rings. Many times people are under a strict time constraint due to a certain anniversary or special date. I called ebay today and was explained that GIA can have the item for up to 5 days but their goal is to process it within 48 hours. Let’s assume the worst (5 days). Take into account shipping to GIA 3 business days, and the 2 day fedex that gia sends the item to the final destination PLUS a Sunday falls in the middle in there somewhere so that’s potentially 11 days until a customer receives their item.  Amazon has made people so used to instant (next day delivery) with PRIME. I think is is a horrible idea/policy and I believe many sellers will leave, equally I think buyers by human nature will pay a little more by going into a retail store for the instant  gratification. 

Ebay just got done raising the minimum promoted rate from 1% to 2%, now they are implementing more fees on the final value fee just days later. I ask myself when is enough fees? By the time you take into account the fees and the potential returns due to the time restraint it might make more sense to sell locally on craigslist Facebook marketplace or OfferUp. At the end of the day I am calculating I will be paying eBay about 25% of my total sale. (Including 20% on the shipping and sales tax). 

I tend to price my items in local platforms similar to eBay prices, however I think I’m going to lower my prices by 25% locally and blow things out quicker and less hassle. 

Third concern of mine is when I called ebay nobody had any idea. I asked from a buyers perspective when I buy a set diamond in a ring how will I know that I am getting the accurate carat weight? I asked them if they were going to remove the stone from the setting and weigh it to make sure that the weight was accurate. They did not have an answer, as they did not have an answer for seven or eight other questions that I had listed on my notes. Such as a diamond is subjective to who is grading it even GIA will grade the same stone sometimes different when submitted two different times. 

I see this to be a potential catastrophe for not only buyers but also for sellers. 

Best luck to all!

[flipping_treasures]

You are absolutely right nevaholdings.  The changes eBay has made over the last several months to the jewelry category beginning with the "new listing tool" and the item specifics changes to requiring that sellers to know whether a stone on a previously owned piece of jewelry is "natural" or has had some sort of treatment, to this new "Authenticity Guarantee"  to raising the fees on costume sellers to finance the hiring of GIAs, which we will never use, for the fine jewelry sellers is just beyond the pale.  I repeat ... what a crock!  

[treasureislandpearls]

I don't think all this jewelry is actually going direct to GIA, either. 

Most likely Gia trained jewelers at numerous jewelry stores. 

I sold an expensive watch recently, and it went to a regular watch store.  I googled the store, and found some pretty bad reviews about them, but I was stuck sending it there thanks to Ebay.  It was supposed to be sent overnight to the customer.  but it wasn't  - took them 4 days to get it after 'authenticator' checked it out.  after I had told them overnight, luckily they were pretty nice about it.

[iamonourside]

100% agree with all of you.

1. No more serving last minute buyers.

2. Most buyers will not value eBay and GIA interference.

3. Jewelry authentication is the other shoe dropping from the recently announced changes in the definition of fine jewelry. 

• why precious metal jewelry containing simulated stones cannot be listed in fine jewelry. ... GIA won't authenticate it.
• And why eBay is requiring a distinction between synthetic and natural stones, that common folk can't know using widely available technology, the gem tester.

The only benefit of authentication touted by eBay that may actually be real is to encourage more people to offer higher priced jewelry for sale. The program requires all returns to be sent first to the GIA (or their agent) where the GIA will supposedly be able to determine that the item being returned is the unaltered item that was sent. If that turns out to be true, Hurray!  But it also is an over elaborate "solution" to a problem that eBay itself created with its approach to returns.

In the meantime, I am thinking about

1) how is eBay planning to expand authentication (as stated in the email, last sentence of 2nd paragraph)? To other jewelry categories? To lower price levels?

2) Why two tailed tolerances on the GIA review? Will items actually fail authentication if GIA finds carat or clarity was understated!?)