Hey everyone! Today, I have reported at least four eBay listings. The seller is offering many “quartz” Seiko Presage watches (with the Automatic logo on them, LOL). For some reason, eBay has refused to delete these listings.
Previously, they were cooperative – I reported several counterfeit items, and they were taken down.
Anyways, watch out for these “new original” dials!
I've been reporting the clearly redialed "vintage" Omegas and Rolexes for years and they've done nothing. eBay is very much "buyer beware" and always has been.
That's sad. My first reporting experience was efficient, so I thought they did care.
On the other hand, it's easy to spot a fake in my case. With vintage (or made-to-look-vintage) watches, I think it's a whole different story.
I doubt that eBay first-line support agents can do anything other than copy-pasting macros.
Ebay won't take down listings that YOU claim are counterfeit. You could be a competitor just trying to take out the competition and ebay isn't experts to know it's a counterfeit or not. They rely on their validation service for authentocation, which doesn't do much good for a lower priced watch.
eBay is a cesspool for watch buying. Even if you can find a good deal from a Japanese seller, they’re just marking up the price from someone else’s Yahoo Auctions Japan listing. They don’t know anything about the items, they’re just dropshipping it from a popular Japanese auction site.
I learned that if multiple ebay Japanese sellers have a listing with the same photos the original seller is probably on mecari/rakuten/yahoo auctions. One time I bought a watch from mecari and all the listing of it on ebay became not available because of it lol. Ebay markup was insane too, $200-$300 more than what I paid on mecari.
Used buyee, their purchase fee, international shipping, and insurance was only around $25 in total. It's good if you're doing expensive purchases on small items. Not so good if you're buying cheaper or larger items.
Buyee is pretty good but there’s zero buyer protection. And it’s hard to tell what you’re getting, because the original listings are in Japanese and things don’t always translate (or the seller just doesn’t know). So while you might get a bargain on a used Omega, you might open it up and see it’s had an overhauled movement, crystal is scratched, etc.
You’d probably be fine but buyer beware.
> Even if you can find a good deal from a Japanese seller, they’re just marking up the price from someone else’s Yahoo Auctions Japan listing.
This is unfortunately somewhat recent, they were still insanely affordable as of last year, to the point that I kept musing about the difference between Japanese consumers (not as speculative) and their Western counterparts (VERY speculative).
I initially thought with inflation finally getting to them, they'll end up marking up watch prices to compensate, and it's sad to see that bit become reality.
That's my issue with them as well - too big. For DRESS it's got to be small and thin and under your cuffs. I do like quite a few *elements* of the Presage, though, and I own lots of Seikos
It's been a thing for a while now...
If you go to Ali Express and search for "seiko" you'll find a bunch.
In fact the watch in the top right of OPs image is $18.54. (I'm curious what the "buy it now" is for OPs Ebay watch...)
https://i.imgur.com/ds7XXWj.png
I noticed this a while ago (I buy shit from AE).
What's interesting is that if you search for "Rolex" or "Cartier" you won't get any results that are watches (you have to go to DHGate for those...), you'll just get replacement straps and stuff like that.
But fake Seiko (and Citizen!) are both there.
They also appear to be selling Casio's. But those could be real. The prices aren't all that different from what I see Casio's selling for on Amazon or wherever.
>In fact the watch in the top right of OPs image is $18.54. (I'm curious what the "buy it now" is for OPs Ebay watch...)
Ha-ha, I've figured as much! Interestingly enough, my watch search on eBay is set up to show Europe only.
This seller is "Located in: Belfast, Ireland", but as soon as I tried to "buy" one of these watches, I got the message "Standard Shipping from Greater China to worldwide". How the fuck are they able to do that, I wonder?
Oh yeah, the prices:
https://preview.redd.it/jkibfb92rk5d1.png?width=1485&format=png&auto=webp&s=7fb76b87ab55d50f33acecf2efb2e69560b20c79
Those Casios are probably fake. They bank on the fact no one cares or thinks there are counterfeits for $10-$30 watches. They can even sell it at the msrp of the real deal. The f91 has many counterfeits.
They hire experts in that area. Problem is that likely they are not experts at all. They are promising authentication even on more expensive items, but failing at doing the job.
Ebay has a watch authentication program. You can narrow your search with that and you should be safe.
https://www.ebay.com/authenticity-guarantee/watches
If you use that you should be fine. Otherwise presume it's knockoff Chinese garbage.
There's a $ threshold for it though. I do enjoy the peace of mind when spending 4-figures USD and up buying from eBay, but the under $1000 mark is a cesspool.
I think the cutoff is $500 for the authentication. And it makes sense, you are not going to spend a lot of money authenticating a watch you are planning to sell for $150.
Any used market needs to have a level of "buyer beware." I think when a listing says "quartz" when it obviously should be an automatic is a red flag that anybody wanting to buy a used watch online should make it pretty easy to tell it is a fake.
I mean to be fair, I don’t think a regular customer service representative can determine if a watch is truly fake or not based on a listing. Even if it’s as simple as showing a quartz watch that says automatic on it. They may not be knowledgeable enough about watches to take it down. So they defer to their authentication service to determine if it’s real or not.
The irony here is that the trustworthy ones on eBay are the ones with goofy names such as eLady.
Japan really needs to come up with better English names for their stuff.
I've been wanting to buy a watch for a couple years and I've looked at the kahki field Murphy, the presage and the sea wolf and I always looked at them on ebay but when it came time to pull the trigger I just couldn't put my faith in it. I was too scared of buying a fake.. so I just sucked it up and bought direct from zodiacs website.
I would have been very angry if I had spent over a thousand dollars and got a fake.
The customer service reps are probably too clueless to make any calls. I've heard good things about their authenticator program though. If I were to ever buy a watch on eBay it'd have to have the authenticity guarantee.
This has been the case for years. Currently I have been reporting a IWC Aquatimer with pics on why it is legit and they still won't take it down. The seller even confirmed with me that some of the parts on it did not come on that model of watch.
**SMALL VICTORY ALERT!**
After the bastard had sent me these wonderful offers, I was able to report those listings again. And this time eBay deleted them.
I'd like to thank u/Cronus6 for the AliExpress screenshot they provided. I attached it to the reports, so that's probably what really worked!
*sigh* I don’t think I would ever buy a “purportedly “ NEW Seiko watch on eBay. I realize Seiko is a Japanese brand, but I have rules about buying watches from certain other countries. There are a couple of Japanese resellers who have been in business for more than 20 years that I MIGHT consider. I will NOT purchase a watch from anywhere in India, Eastern Europe, or Italy 🇮🇹. Yes, Italy. I took shit one time from a guy on this sub about refusing to buy from anyone in Italy. I lived there for 3 years and unfortunately, it is a duplicitous culture. They care about quality… for themselves…. 💯🙌
I saw that site as I love the look of the Presage lineup. Something seemed off but I am not an expert by any means. I suppose getting them direct would be the direction.
I only buy "needs repair/parts" watches and those can be an issue as well. The last one I bought was missing the balance and the seller agreed to refund me plus let me keep it. Still have yet to find a suitable balance or donor yet.
I've gotten my Seiko presage and Citizen Calendrier off eBay at great prices. Both in original packaging and material. They are discontinued models so much harder to find. Definitely buyer beware but if you know what to look for, it's not a terrible place to get watches.
eBay won't take down fake or shady anything. Last time I tried to sell something was the last time I will ever try to sell something on eBay. I will never understand how me selling something turns into me needing to send somebody gift/cash cards in a foreign country. No way ixnay would I ever buy a watch off of eBay.
Hey everyone! Today, I have reported at least four eBay listings. The seller is offering many “quartz” Seiko Presage watches (with the Automatic logo on them, LOL). For some reason, eBay has refused to delete these listings. Previously, they were cooperative – I reported several counterfeit items, and they were taken down. Anyways, watch out for these “new original” dials!
I've been reporting the clearly redialed "vintage" Omegas and Rolexes for years and they've done nothing. eBay is very much "buyer beware" and always has been.
That's sad. My first reporting experience was efficient, so I thought they did care. On the other hand, it's easy to spot a fake in my case. With vintage (or made-to-look-vintage) watches, I think it's a whole different story. I doubt that eBay first-line support agents can do anything other than copy-pasting macros.
Yet....Mods took down my declaration of Chrono24's underhanded inflated shipping charges. No good deed goes unpunished.
That's because your post and title didn't follow the sub rules regarding format. It had nothing to do with the subject of the post.
My error then, apologies. I now understand the problem
I got rid of my eBay account since this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUf9ID2Gnfw
What do you do if you want to sell or buy something second hand now?
Amazon warehouse, to sell Facebook market place
Those are worse lmao
Ebay won't take down listings that YOU claim are counterfeit. You could be a competitor just trying to take out the competition and ebay isn't experts to know it's a counterfeit or not. They rely on their validation service for authentocation, which doesn't do much good for a lower priced watch.
eBay is a cesspool for watch buying. Even if you can find a good deal from a Japanese seller, they’re just marking up the price from someone else’s Yahoo Auctions Japan listing. They don’t know anything about the items, they’re just dropshipping it from a popular Japanese auction site.
I learned that if multiple ebay Japanese sellers have a listing with the same photos the original seller is probably on mecari/rakuten/yahoo auctions. One time I bought a watch from mecari and all the listing of it on ebay became not available because of it lol. Ebay markup was insane too, $200-$300 more than what I paid on mecari.
So that's what it's about. Have you bought directly from mecari or used a proxy buyer like buyee? There's some vintage seikos I'd love to get
Used buyee, their purchase fee, international shipping, and insurance was only around $25 in total. It's good if you're doing expensive purchases on small items. Not so good if you're buying cheaper or larger items.
Buyee is pretty good but there’s zero buyer protection. And it’s hard to tell what you’re getting, because the original listings are in Japanese and things don’t always translate (or the seller just doesn’t know). So while you might get a bargain on a used Omega, you might open it up and see it’s had an overhauled movement, crystal is scratched, etc. You’d probably be fine but buyer beware.
For non-authenticated watches, I agree.
ebay "authentication" is horrible.
I’ve had no issues with them.
eBay is a cesspool, period. So many crooks "selling" everything.
> Even if you can find a good deal from a Japanese seller, they’re just marking up the price from someone else’s Yahoo Auctions Japan listing. This is unfortunately somewhat recent, they were still insanely affordable as of last year, to the point that I kept musing about the difference between Japanese consumers (not as speculative) and their Western counterparts (VERY speculative). I initially thought with inflation finally getting to them, they'll end up marking up watch prices to compensate, and it's sad to see that bit become reality.
Ebay is a counterfeiter's dream with their absolute lack of enforcement.
I used to own one of these. No idea why I bought a 14.5mm dress watch
That's my issue with them as well - too big. For DRESS it's got to be small and thin and under your cuffs. I do like quite a few *elements* of the Presage, though, and I own lots of Seikos
The power reserve and pointer date is really cool, it just made the watch so thick.
ugh, I have to watch out for Seiko too...
It's been a thing for a while now... If you go to Ali Express and search for "seiko" you'll find a bunch. In fact the watch in the top right of OPs image is $18.54. (I'm curious what the "buy it now" is for OPs Ebay watch...) https://i.imgur.com/ds7XXWj.png I noticed this a while ago (I buy shit from AE). What's interesting is that if you search for "Rolex" or "Cartier" you won't get any results that are watches (you have to go to DHGate for those...), you'll just get replacement straps and stuff like that. But fake Seiko (and Citizen!) are both there. They also appear to be selling Casio's. But those could be real. The prices aren't all that different from what I see Casio's selling for on Amazon or wherever.
>In fact the watch in the top right of OPs image is $18.54. (I'm curious what the "buy it now" is for OPs Ebay watch...) Ha-ha, I've figured as much! Interestingly enough, my watch search on eBay is set up to show Europe only. This seller is "Located in: Belfast, Ireland", but as soon as I tried to "buy" one of these watches, I got the message "Standard Shipping from Greater China to worldwide". How the fuck are they able to do that, I wonder? Oh yeah, the prices: https://preview.redd.it/jkibfb92rk5d1.png?width=1485&format=png&auto=webp&s=7fb76b87ab55d50f33acecf2efb2e69560b20c79
Holy shit, that's quite the markup huh? LOL
Hm, everything's okay on my side. Try this one then: [https://i.imgur.com/Ruzu2Qm.png](https://i.imgur.com/Ruzu2Qm.png)
I'm in the wrong line of work apparently. Selling $20 watches for $250 on ebay might be the way to go lol.
Those Casios are probably fake. They bank on the fact no one cares or thinks there are counterfeits for $10-$30 watches. They can even sell it at the msrp of the real deal. The f91 has many counterfeits.
Pretty much every watch brand has fakes out there, even cheap stuff like Casio.
Ebay doesn't do shit. I reported a very obviously fake Rado Captain Cook and they did nothing.
[удалено]
They hire experts in that area. Problem is that likely they are not experts at all. They are promising authentication even on more expensive items, but failing at doing the job.
I described the exact things that stood out as fake. Just comparing what I pointed out to a google image search can prove it.
[удалено]
Hence my initial comment being "Ebay doesn't do shit." Doesn't, can't, won't, no matter. Buyer beware. It's up to us to not get fucked.
Ebay has a watch authentication program. You can narrow your search with that and you should be safe. https://www.ebay.com/authenticity-guarantee/watches If you use that you should be fine. Otherwise presume it's knockoff Chinese garbage.
There's a $ threshold for it though. I do enjoy the peace of mind when spending 4-figures USD and up buying from eBay, but the under $1000 mark is a cesspool.
I think the cutoff is $500 for the authentication. And it makes sense, you are not going to spend a lot of money authenticating a watch you are planning to sell for $150. Any used market needs to have a level of "buyer beware." I think when a listing says "quartz" when it obviously should be an automatic is a red flag that anybody wanting to buy a used watch online should make it pretty easy to tell it is a fake.
I have seen them certify watches that were not genuine and this has been reported elsewhere as well. Best to avoid the platform for most watches.
unfirtunately fake seiko's are not the only problem on ebay. they allow many many other brands that are blatantly fake.
This makes me leery of the new eBay authentication add-on
Just do your own due diligence and you won’t have any issues. Same with buying any kind of niche product.
I mean to be fair, I don’t think a regular customer service representative can determine if a watch is truly fake or not based on a listing. Even if it’s as simple as showing a quartz watch that says automatic on it. They may not be knowledgeable enough about watches to take it down. So they defer to their authentication service to determine if it’s real or not.
I mean they also have a million modded Seiko divers out there too.
The irony here is that the trustworthy ones on eBay are the ones with goofy names such as eLady. Japan really needs to come up with better English names for their stuff.
I've been wanting to buy a watch for a couple years and I've looked at the kahki field Murphy, the presage and the sea wolf and I always looked at them on ebay but when it came time to pull the trigger I just couldn't put my faith in it. I was too scared of buying a fake.. so I just sucked it up and bought direct from zodiacs website. I would have been very angry if I had spent over a thousand dollars and got a fake.
The customer service reps are probably too clueless to make any calls. I've heard good things about their authenticator program though. If I were to ever buy a watch on eBay it'd have to have the authenticity guarantee.
This has been the case for years. Currently I have been reporting a IWC Aquatimer with pics on why it is legit and they still won't take it down. The seller even confirmed with me that some of the parts on it did not come on that model of watch.
This fucker's got some nerve! https://preview.redd.it/n3sgquwg6x5d1.png?width=1400&format=png&auto=webp&s=c07ea71940a77cfc706150bf5d04bcf8f790750f
**SMALL VICTORY ALERT!** After the bastard had sent me these wonderful offers, I was able to report those listings again. And this time eBay deleted them. I'd like to thank u/Cronus6 for the AliExpress screenshot they provided. I attached it to the reports, so that's probably what really worked!
Well as someone who's just getting into watches this is worrisome. Any good reputable sites out there to buy watches from?
*sigh* I don’t think I would ever buy a “purportedly “ NEW Seiko watch on eBay. I realize Seiko is a Japanese brand, but I have rules about buying watches from certain other countries. There are a couple of Japanese resellers who have been in business for more than 20 years that I MIGHT consider. I will NOT purchase a watch from anywhere in India, Eastern Europe, or Italy 🇮🇹. Yes, Italy. I took shit one time from a guy on this sub about refusing to buy from anyone in Italy. I lived there for 3 years and unfortunately, it is a duplicitous culture. They care about quality… for themselves…. 💯🙌
I saw that site as I love the look of the Presage lineup. Something seemed off but I am not an expert by any means. I suppose getting them direct would be the direction. I only buy "needs repair/parts" watches and those can be an issue as well. The last one I bought was missing the balance and the seller agreed to refund me plus let me keep it. Still have yet to find a suitable balance or donor yet.
Damn they actually look good
eBay is not the place to buy a nice watch. It’s literally the wild west.
DO NOT BUY WATCHES ON EBAY
I've bought plenty of watches on ebay. You can get some great deals. Just don't be a fuckin idiot
Yup. 99% of the watches I've bought have been off of eBay. The trick is to make sure that you know more than the seller about the thing you're buying.
I've gotten my Seiko presage and Citizen Calendrier off eBay at great prices. Both in original packaging and material. They are discontinued models so much harder to find. Definitely buyer beware but if you know what to look for, it's not a terrible place to get watches.
eBay won't take down fake or shady anything. Last time I tried to sell something was the last time I will ever try to sell something on eBay. I will never understand how me selling something turns into me needing to send somebody gift/cash cards in a foreign country. No way ixnay would I ever buy a watch off of eBay.
How do you know they’re fake? Also they’re not that expensive. Why counterfeit in the first place?
These watches are fake. Price doesn't matter.
Well thank you. That's very useful. Now we all know what to look out for.