Featured WARNING-fake lover’s eye brooch on eBay

This seller has caught my attention for a long time because he’s constantly listing lover’s eye brooches of very similar watercolor-ish style.

but this time I got him faking. All beware if lover’s eye brooch is your thing.

I feel sorry for the one whose hair got removed to make space for such a fake.

 

(sigh) How to damage a perfectly good mourning brooch.

 

Hah. That original seller is a hospice organisation I know very well indeed.

 

I was bidding on that original auction but the shipping cost was almost the same as the brooch itself, so I give it up. If I have foreseen this I might have bid more. That’s a nice brooch, so special and never deserves this!

 

Oh, if I'd known, I'd have shipped it for you, I bet it would have been less.

 

Definitely the same brooch.

 

eBay always ask for at least £40 for a small brooch while royal mail could do it for less than £20, tracked and insured all the way across the eurasia

 

It’s inscribed at the back so

 

Ebay sellers all use eBay global shipping because before that when we shipped international ebay gave no protection against scammers or loss. A lot of sellers wouldn't ship international at all. Now they ship to ebay (one shipping cost) and eBay handles international (second shipping cost) and I'm sure they bump that up to pay staff and pocket extra. But if it's lost, they handle it and the seller is covered.

I'm sorry.

Thanks for letting us know about the scammer. I wonder if the eyes are even actually painted.

 

The craziest part is not the postage, it’s the duty ebay asks for which is likely 50% of the listing price, for jewelry

 

Good for you! And thank you for the warning.

It makes me very sad. Not just because the seller is a faker, there are so many around, unfortunately.
But also because of this:

Exactly. The original was made with such love, and the memory and meaning are so precious.

 

This is why I always feel lucky to find and get myself a lovely mourning piece- it’s love being forsaken but eventually retrieved. Heartbreaking to see this not only the brooch is ruined in a foul way, but the remains of one forgotten being trashed

 

I won’t use any seller who uses GSP. It’s a rip off. EBay gets most of the so called duty and they charge on non dutiable things too.

 

I understand. I wouldn't either. I ship direct for my art shop, but eBay's policies are the worst on this.

 

just saw this: £50 postage for a card case royal mail will do like 100 card cases if you don’t mind them uninsured. I hate ebay.

 

One more reason I got out; in the old days a significant chunk of my sales went to other countries.

Currently, eBay sellers in the USA have zero protection if they ship internationally direct, or really anywhere direct. If it gets to eBay and gets lost after that, or the buyer claims it got lost, the seller is off the hook. There is no such protection for domestic sales. However, using eBay International jacks up the shipping so badly that international buyers back off unless the item is going for pennies. If a seller does puts something up for a low price, they're guarenteed to lose money on it, so scratch that idea. The seller is left with a choice of No Sale or No Money, neither of which is acceptable. A lot of them simply won't ship internationaly any more for that reason; it's pointless. It may be different in Canada, the Eurozone, etc.

 

Dutch international shipping costs are high, especially with tracking or registered, which is my choice for jewellery etc. People who live in border regions often ship from Germany or Belgium.
But within the Eurozone there are no import duties, so that is good.

 

And no bleedin' tarriffs.

 

Hmph. Does that Certain Person not realise that VAT isn’t an import tariff?

 

IIRC it's a baked-in sales tax on a national level. Don't give Washington any ideas.