Here is my story every handbag reseller could learn from. I recently restarted reselling preloved handbags again on my E-Bay shop. I have been reselling preloved authentic designer handbags online for 4 years now building my E-Bay shop reputation to a good standing . The recent pandemic forced me to close my E-Bay shop due to USPS shipping issues. Last month , after a whole year of saving all my inventory . I decided to reopen my online business and list all my handbags once again on E-Bay.

There was a beige Prada Fringe handbag i had held on to all year . It is a very rare model and hard to come by if you are well versed with the value of vintage designer bags. This handbag i truly loved and it was hard for me to list online for sale, for some reason i decided to list the bag in the auction setting. Curious as to how much it would sell for. That was the first big mistake. My starting price was $280 thinking that more than one person would bid. This is why you should never start your auctions so low. A hard lesson for me to learn. I had one watcher and she messaged me to ask for pictures of the condition of the handbag. I told her it was heavily used but still beautiful and can send her pictures in the morning with natural sunlight . The next day it slipped my mind and i did not take pictures and my auction was about to end . I thought no one was interested in bidding however ten minutes prior to it ending i had one bidder and it was the same person that messaged me for the pictures. This was a surprise. She won the auction and paid immediately . I was thrilled at her efficiency and sent her a message to say thankyou for the fast payment.

The next day i dropped off the handbag package at the USPS office through priority mail fully insured with a signature requirement on delivery. It was important that i had all my grounds covered in case the package was lost in transit. I once again updated my tracking on E-Bay and sent a message to my buyer that her handbag was on the way. I was proud of my first sale on E-Bay after staying away for so long and not doing business over a year. It was also the 4th of July weekend so she received the package a little later then expected. I was expecting no issues whatsoever until the day after the USPS package delivered notification . The buyer sent me a message saying she was very disappointed with the condition of the handbag and that i did not disclose that there was a rip in the bag. I know there was no rip in the handbag because i myself cleaned, conditioned the leather prior to shipping and had taken countless videos and photos prior to listing online. I replied to my dissatisfied customer that i was more than happy to accept a return if she can show me where the rip was . Please send me pictures of the rip . She responded with “I’m out of town at the moment but i will do it when i get back”. The next morning i woke up to am E-Bay message from my disgruntled customer with pictures of a clear knife cut across the beautiful leather on the front of the gorgeous bag i had sold to her. I responded by sending her pictures of the handbag condition prior to shipping with no obvious knife cut on the front.

Literally feeling sick that someone could actually take such malicious steps . My E-bay return policy was obviously returns accepted but it isn’t necessary to cut up such an expensive item just to get a refund if you don’t like it. I proceeded to call the E-Bay help desk for some advice and i was told that all i can do is wait for her to file a return claim with item not as described and appeal the case with the videos and pictures i have of the bag prior to shipping.

This experience is already prompting me to remove all my E-Bay listings and go back to selling directly only to Fashionphile, Poshmark and the RealReal. I am waiting for further development on her filing a return and we will take it from there.

My recommendation to selling on E-Bay is always take videos and pictures of all angles of your expensive handbag prior to shipping. Document every step of the sale. Try to utilize websites that protect you as a reseller portals such as Poshmark and Fashionphile.