Caveats to look for when buying certain Yurman jewelry!

OK....I admit it! I am sick to death seeing innocent people being "scammed" by certain unscrupulous sellers out to make sometimes thousands of dollars at the expense of others! While I know that this is going on in probably all catagories on okay, since I usually sell mainly designer jewelry such as John Hardy and David Yurman, these are the listings that I most oftenhappen to see. The degree of fake listings byfraudulent sellersseems to be growing at an alarming rate! However, hopefully, here are a few tips when considering bidding on a listing that should keep you safe and make your buying experience on okay a pleasant and joyful one!

Is theSeller brand new within the past 30 days on okay? Let's face it....we all had to start outas new sellers sometime along theway, but there are certain "caveats" to look for when possibly bidding on a new Seller's listing such as:


Does this "new" seller accept Paypal? Most newSellers wish to get themselves established as a reputable Seller on okay as quickly as possible. If the seller's listing does NOT accept Paypal as an accepted method ofpayment, you need to ask some very hard and fast questions of this sellerBEFORE you place a bid on their item(s).
If the seller will not either answer you or gives you an answer in regards to not taking Paypal that just doesn't make sense....such as putting in their listing that they take MC and VISA, but then tell you that they will only accept wire transfers or Western Union.....do NOT bid on their items! This should be a very large "red flag"!
From where does this Seller "hail"....aka where is the Seller's location? Most of us Sellers would like you to know that we're from "Sunny CA", the "East Coast", the "Great state of TX", and the like! If the Seller simply has "USA, United States" AND they're brand new to okay with no feedback, I'd be a bit leery about this too!
Is the Seller using "private listings"? Many experienced Sellers (including myself!) will sometimes use Private listings on higher end items just to protect our bidders (and ourselves) from fraud. However, if the Seller is brand new, this COULD be another "warning bell"! With okay's evolving new listing system that shows "Bidder 1, Bidder 2" etc. and the blocking out of certain parts of bidders' names, I think that the idea of "private listings" even for old workhorse sellers such as myself, will soon be a thing of the past!
Is the Seller selling multiples of the exact same item in several listings.....just maybe 2 different colors or 2 different sizes? Check to see in the "gepleted listings" if this seller has perhaps sold SEVERAL of this very same item (especially if it's a rather expensive item!) in the past month....but is still not showing ANY feedback whatsoever!! This, if nothing else, should make you very ill at ease about bidding on this particular seller's item(s)! Most of us who are sellers, when we first began selling, could not afford the luxury of buying large "lots" of jewelry from suppliers - especially, say, 25 of the very same kind of ring! Now, many of my large seller friends who have big okay stores do sell multiples of the same item, but, you'll also notice that they have large stellar feedback scores too! They have gotten to a point in their okay selling careers that they can afford to buy in huge "lots" from very reputable suppliers....but, for most of us who sell on okay, such as myself (even though I have been fortunate enough to attain a power seller status, I'm still just a "onesie-twosie" kind of gal!), we are often selling items from our own personal collections, a possible mad-idiotic spur of the moment buy we made that just isn't "us" after we got it, or maybe we've received a gorgeous item as a gift that is also just not "us".
Is the Seller ONLY using stock photos (a photo from the manufacturer or designer's website)of the item that they are selling? Or, if they are showing some personal photos....are they often calling some extra items such as a COA (Certificate of Authenticity) "accessories" that are being given with the item that they are selling? Often...but not always, with a lot of the "designer" jewelry, you will get a designer box or apouch, and possibly a polishing cloth....and that's just fine! However, if you see a seller who has zero feedback, brand new, not taking Paypal, private listings, and is selling multiples of the very same item (maybe just 2 particular colors of that item) showing photos of these COAs and advertising such, I'd pause before I bid on the item! While I am not saying that I have not received Certificates of Authenticity - both from extremely reputableokay sellers and from a couple of retailers, you usually don't get one - unless you ask a particular retail store to provide you with one!
If the Seller is new, but does have some feedback scores, check to see what kind of feedback has been recorded for this seller. Is the feedbackonly from Sellers or a bit of both? Remember: Again, let me stress that every single one of us had to start out somewhere with zero feedback and the great majority of Sellers are honest hardworking people just trying to sell their items like anyone else. However, let me share a rather amazing feedback story here that would be funny...if it weren't such a "telling tale" of a scam artist!



I was looking at a particular Yurman ring that was listed for sale by a new Seller who does not take Paypal, has his/her listings private, and was using stock photos that showed that, along with this particular ring (that has been a favorite style for scammers to sell), a pouch, polishing cloth, and the COA was to be given. Now, this particular seller did have a feedback score of 12 at 100% so I got curious since the seller was also selling multiples of an inexpensive bedding product too. When I looked at the Seller's feedback, imagine my surprise when I saw that there was no feedback from his buyers, and that of the 12 sellers who had left him feedback, 5 were no longer registered users, 9 of those sellers who'd left him feedback only used private listings, and just 3 of those 12 feedback scores were able to be seen. All 3 of those were for ONE penny items! Doesn't that sound rather odd to you?? Sure did to me! So, then, I looked at this new Seller's closed listings....so far it shows the same particular ring and the same particular inexpensive bedding items....but, still no feedback scores from his buyers in well over a month!
In conclusion: Just use your gemon sense when you look at bidding on an item....if it doesn't "feel" or "look" right, it probably isn't! Remember: There is nothing for free out there and if it looks just too good to be true...it probably is! (I'm not talking about listings that have a really low opening bid...listing and selling fees are high these days, and Sellers often know that they can start out a listing of a very popular item at a low price because they know that they will get a lot of bids and that the "market" will set the price!) If you have otherquestions on bidding safety, please feel free to contact me via my okay User ID since I too am not only a Seller on okay, but I also am an avid Buyer/Bidder myself.....and I want to see okay continue to be a great place to both buy and sell for ALL of us!
Thank you for taking the time to read this somewhat lengthy "guide" and I hope that maybe I may have been some help to you, so that you enjoy using ALL aspects of okay - whether you are new to okay, a Buyer, or a Seller!