eBay will now verify luxury handbags sold on the site
Sellers of high-end brands can choose to use the authentication service for a fee.
eBay is now offering a new service for sellers of high-end handbags. Today the company launched eBay Authenticate, a program that photographs, lists, sells, ships and verifies the authenticity of luxury handbags from 12 major brands. eBay says the goal is to provide would-be buyers with more confidence in the items they're about to throw down a lot of money for.
The service covers handbags and wallets valued more than $500 and produced by Balenciaga, Burberry, Céline, Chanel, Christian Dior, Fendi, Goyard, Gucci, Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Prada or Valentino. Sellers who want the eBay Authenticate backing just have to send their item to the company for free via FedEx. Then once the bag's authenticity is verified, eBay will take care of the rest. But not for free, of course. The service will collect 20 percent of the final sale price, which is equal to the commission collected by Poshmark and less than that taken by The RealReal -- companies that offer similar services. For buyers, not only do they get a bag marked with an "Authenticity Verified" label, it also comes with a 200 percent money back guarantee.
The service is available now and eBay says it will be expanding it to cover additional brands and items next year. Anyone using eBay Authenticate before January 31st will receive 90 percent of the selling price instead of the regular 80 percent.
