How do you know if the watch you are buying is real of fake?
The old saying is if it’s too good to be true, it probably is. But with Ebay, buying highly sought after items, with a little skill, some luck and good timing, can net a person a rare find while not hurting their wallet enormously.
Ebay, the online buying and selling marketplace, is now stepping up its user experience to help watch collectors make sure what they are buying is truly what it says it is. With its new Ebay Authenticate program, the company is going to greater lengths to verify, through a third-party company, the watches to make sure they are exactly what they say they are.
Why is Ebay doing this now? Well, it keeps users on their website since potential buyers will be able to know, with complete certainty, that what they are buying is the real thing.
The new, vintage and used products number nearly 7,000. The watches available are from the top brands, including Rolex, Omega, Breitling and Audemars Piguet ranging in prices from $500 to upwards of $50,000.
Under the program — that first came about in 2017 to verify and authenticate handbags — Ebay employs third-party experts to examine and verify products. This is all being done to help curb counterfeit products, as the secondary watch market is a $5 billion industry, according to Ebay. The company goes on to say a watch is purchased every five seconds on Ebay, with the Rolex GMT-Master II “Pepsi” the most-sought after watch globally.
