It’s funny…just two weeks ago I was musing that it’s been a while since eBay summary banned me for selling real Tiffany (as they used to like to do). Then I got a notice from eBay that they’re getting rid of their PowerSeller ranking. But…for a decade we’ve been working on climbing the PowerSeller ladder for the wonderful incentives; 15% off final value fees is what lets us offer nice things like free domestic shipping and complementary gift wrap on many orders.

That’s being phased out. The new “gold star” will be the blue “Top Rated Seller” ribbon. According to eBay, the ribbon will be worth a whopping 20% off final value fees. It’s a fantastic incentive, but those PowerSeller stars that we’ve been working hard toward for so long will be capped at 5%. I know it may not seem like a lot, maybe only around $4 or $5 difference per transaction, but those are savings which we have been happily been able to pass along to our clients.

Ebay assured me at length, while dismissing my concerns, that these measures are meant to weed out dishonest sellers. But if this incentive switch is meant to make eBay a safer, more inviting place for people to shop, why spend 10 years baiting us honest sellers with the PowerSeller rankings just to slash them so dramatically? There’s nothing stopping the systems from being fairly combined; the power sellers I’ve asked are, naturally, reaching for the highest mark to reflect the quality they consistently offer. With the Blue Ribbon discount, I could probably start offering patterned tissue instead of solid when gift-wrapping. There’s no need to threaten us honest sellers with cutting incentives and, as great as the Blue Ribbon might seem on paper, I’m seeing a lot of sellers who have less than glowing feedback, a couple even selling blatant forgeries, sporting a “Top Rated Seller” badge.

Of course, in our particular field of fine jewelry, the greatest concern we have is for our clients. With the ease that some classes of seller seem to be able to acquire a blue ribbon (according to one source, “some scammers will even setup 100+ accounts just to make themselves look like a trustworthy seller), I’m most worried that the line separating the good from the bad just got blurrier.

It seems to me the height of irony that, in their effort to remove counterfeits from some sellers stores, eBay is creating a stronger incentive for the dishonest few to counterfeit their own feedback.

ps…for any other fans of courtroom drama, I got to sit mere meters from Kenneth Starr (my new celebrity crush) and Gerald Ullman (also riveting) during a moot court proceeding this week at Santa Clara University School of Law. I was wearing a peach-cashmere sweater set and gold Peretti jewelry. In a courtroom filled with law professors and students in shades ranging from charcoal to navy, I hope I stood out enough to catch his eye.

eBay is encouraging sellers to offer free shipping and best offers. I can see their point in both of these idea. eBay doesn’t make a dime off shipping, so why should the sellers? Forget the fact that we all pay money to ship everything, even a post card, much less anything of weight or value; eBay makes money off people selling, why not encourage sellers to take a hit on their bottom line if it puts eBay more into the green. The post office is raising their fees constantly and everyone seems to have a reason to ask for a free upgrade to express shipping and insurance in a sturdy, tidy box. All of this free shipping forces many sellers to cut corners, using paper envelopes for shipping and paper towels for cushioning. Things get bent, broken, and lost that way and no one wants that.

As far as the best offer feature…I’m all for it. In theory. It makes it fun for buyers and makes it easier for both parties to come together on a price. This is especially true if a buyer has picked out a number of items and wants to work out a deal with with seller. The problem is the buyers who makes ridiculously low offers, then becomes angry and rude if it’s not accepted. Clearly, if a seller has an item with a scrap value of $2,000 and a listed price of $3,900, an offer of $100 is just ridiculous. Then, if you don’t accept the offer, they might go ahead and raise it to $101. I’m curious to hear what other sellers do when this happens (since I get at least five low-ball offers a day, I’m sure others must be getting them too). I usually think it’s best to just ignore these low ball offers and move on to the serious buyer who is asking questions. The fun of eBay is looking for a special buy and hunt for a special treasure; I can’t understand tainting it with insulting offers and aggressive, almost hateful messages.

As a side note, my son, Michael, is participating in a walk on Sunday to raise money for the Susan G. Komen charity. If anyone is interested in participating with or donating money to this very worthy cause, more information can be found here

And a Tiffany related side note, did anyone notice Tiffany’s Fifth Ave on CSI: New York? Loved seeing those big blue bags =)

Posted below is a copy of an email I sent to eBay in response to the changes they’ve recently made to the seller’s payment options. Soon, sellers will no longer be able to accept checks and money orders. This seems to me a very bad idea and I explain why to eBay.

Hello,

I am emailing in response to your new policies regarding checks and money orders. I would strongly suggest that you add jewelery to that list of categories exempt from this change. We sellers of high-value jewelry are already too vulnerable toward Paypal charge backs and the less we are able to work with our customers while ensuring secure payment for ourselves, the more vulnerable we will be. Additionally, my buyers usually prefer to pay with a money order rather than use a paypal e-check because of the processing time. By sending a money order, one of my customers can get his item within the week, with paypal delays, it might be a week or two before I even ship.

Further, due to the risk for us sellers to deal with chargebacks, more sellers will no doubt chose to downgrade their paypal status so that they cannot take credit cards. This means less payment options for buyers and much less revenue for paypal/ebay.

We all appreciate ebay trying to bring more business to sellers and safer business to buyers, but with this policy in place, no one will win.

Please reconsider this policy and the adverse effect it will have on buyers and sellers of high-ticket items, and ebay itself.

Sincerely,
Diane Wiesner

I am trying to wrap my mind around whats going on with paypal these days. Since December, I have had 5 payments reversed after having shipped the pieces. The latest three of which are items I shipped back in November! Now, if paypal wants to charge fees, issue credit cards, and keep financial information, they have a clear fiduciary responsibility to their members. From the minute they send an email titled, “You have funds,” they have charged their fee and issued the seller funds. If they’re not sure they can guarantee the money they say we have, they shouldn’t promise it’s ours. Its up to paypal to verify funds; that’s the service we’re paying for.

After I have shipped to a buyer’s paypal-confirmed address and the buyer is happy, I don’t need to hear about it from paypal ever again about it. Money has been exchanged for goods, transaction complete. The notion of reversals clearly means its not a safe method of collecting payment on ebay. So, once again, the buyer has my Tiffany jewelry, paypal took their funds out of my paypal account. I paid ebay fees plus I am out the jewelry and $1200.00. Paypal, after 2 hours on the phone with Marc, they told him that after 75 days to research and collaborate with the customer’s credit issuer, we will probably get a refund because we shipped to a confirmed address. They wouldn’t guarantee it and deterred him from contacting legal authorities to report fraud or theft. As far as I can tell, this is going to be happening on a regular basis now.

I still believe ebay sellers need protection. It’s getting to a critical stage and if we don’t do it as the management team makes new rules, when will we organize?

Last night I had the pleasure of being in the company of a group of smart, accomplished women. As it usually does, at some point in the evening the subject to jewelry. I throughly enjoyed taking about my collection and having the opportunity to look at their own treasures. Everyone has an interesting story about the jewelry they wear. I love those stories. I think that is part of the reason I enjoy being part of the process of acquiring special pieces of jewelry; they become hallmarks of life. Part of a person’s life. A necklace maybe just a necklace at first. But at some point it becomes the necklace. Like the necklace I wore to work the first day of my new job. The necklace I wore when we moved into our new house. The necklace I wore to my son’s graduation.

Even with all the frustrations and haranguing I get from eBay and Paypal, that’s what keeps me going. To help someone find their next the necklace or the ring, or the bracelet. I love what I do because of what I collect and sell becomes to another.

This is a guest post from Diane’s son Marc. From what I understand, regular blog readers are familiar with my work photographing some of the jewelry Diane sells.

I thought it might be of interest to those who are looking for Tiffany & Co. pieces on eBay to see exactly how easy it is for those lacking moral fiber to buy fake Tiffany and resell it. I was scouring the Internet for some information about a necklace my mother found at an estate sale when I came across an interesting link for a Tiffany jewelry catalog. Thinking it might hold more information about the necklace I clicked over and was utterly shocked by what I found.

Pages and pages of fake designer jewelry. Tiffany & Co., Cartier,  Bulgari, Dior, and Chanel to just name a few. All touted, by the manufacturer, to as “100% Copy Original Tiffany Jewelry” and “Top Grade Quality,” with most pieces costing less than $10. You can see engravings and hallmarks in their pictures and orders over $2,000 even get free shipping. I can understand some people might want a fake if they can’t afford an original piece and don’t care about wearing a knockoff, but ordering enough to get free shipping means more than 200 pieces of fake jewelry. Is the person ordering 200 pieces really going to keep those for him/her self? Would you order 200 pieces of fake designer jewelry as stocking stuffers? This is clearly aimed at those who are looking to get into the designer fake market.
Here’s the icing on the cake though. Looking through this website’s news and announcments section, there’s a warning to their customers to be wary of copy-cat websites that have started to spring up. Isn’t this the height of irony?

This manufacturer and whole seller of fake designer jewelry is feeling like they’re getting ripped off!
Take a look at the website [link] and know what you should be wary of buying. If you see any of these items being sold for $20 when the owner could have taken it back to Tiffany’s for $300 you should probably pass on it because it probably came from this factory (or one of there new rivals).
Safe Shopping

I never imagined that my first job would do so much to prepare me for the world of business. Not in that “sell anything to anybody” way that so many people seem to think is something to be proud of, but for giving me a sense of ethical business. My first job was selling Mazda’s in 1978. I know, ethics and selling cars. Doesn’t seem like a likely match, but bringing ethics into everyday life, even work, is something I was raised with. Selling cars was a way to fulfill my responsibility to my family. Making sure everyone is happy and safe with what they buy was my responsibility to my customers. No questions…

I remember a single mother coming in to buy a car. I helped her find something she was very happy with but I found out later that the mechanics didn’t think the car would last long. I didn’t waste a minute in calling her up, telling her what I just learned, and offering her every cent she paid toward a more reliable car if she wanted to swap it. It may not have been what the bosses would have called “smart business” but it was good business. Honest business. This has been my philosophy throughout my career. I’ve been in situations where I’ve felt that I didn’t get what I paid for; where I’ve felt used, taken advantage of, cheated. We all know what that feels like. The last thing I ever want is to bring those feelings to another person. I like to know I am doing the right thing.

A few weeks ago a woman actually tried to BLACKMAIL me on eBay. She wanted money to leave me positive feedback after I fully refunded her money for a necklace she wasn’t happy with. I reported her to eBay and they told me to ignore it and hope the problem would go away (seems like the same way they handle all of their problems). Sure enough, when I didn’t pay her off she left me terrible feedback because I wouldn’t shell out on top of the full refund I had already given her. My feelings are hurt and I am rather stunned by this new breed of scam artist on eBay. I guess we should have seen it coming. eBay is looking into it, but they clearly have bigger issues to ignore than this.

People have trusted me in buying exotic cars worth hundreds of thousands of dollars But this miserable individual, who received a full refund for a gorgeous piece of Tiffany jewelry wanted money in exchange for positive feedback. I have nothing to be ashamed of and will NEVER pay a liar and a fraud.

The lady who ended up with the necklace had it authenticated and is truly thrilled with it. So the necklace is with someone who loves it and bought it as a gift for her mother. I guess I’m happy at the outcome, just mad that there are creeps like this trolling the halls of eBay.

First of all, I’d like to wish everyone a warm and wonderful new year! Its been busy here and of course, we had a huge storm that took out the power, but was really very exciting.

I usually go off on unscrupulous sellers but I this time I have a few buyer and seller issues on my mind. Lets see…where to start…Before Christmas, I sold a lovely, aka expensive, Tiffany diamond ring. Paypal sent me the much loved message, “You have funds.” Two weeks after I shipped the ring, paypal sent a message I have never seen,”You have a reversal.” The buyer somehow scammed paypal and paypal took the money from my account. Its been a month now and even though they say I am covered by a sellers protection policy, I have yet to see the funds. They did deposit $50.00 in my account as a way to say they are working on things and I am a priority. Hmmm… Still waiting. The buyer has my Tiffany diamond ring and paypal has the funds. Not happy.

As you know, Marc has been working hard taking all of these gorgeous photos. I am finding other sellers using Marc’s pictures that they copy from my ebay listings and website. I have complained about this to ebay, but they keep telling me that these are stock photos in the public domain. I don’t think so. There was one seller using a picture with a ring on my finger! How is my finger public domain?!? All this time I could have been working as a hand model. I pointed out to ebay that they are contributing to the selling of counterfeits by not cracking down on these sellers (not to mention being party to violations of US Copyright law). They want use to use a watermark on our pictures. Thats the next project. So, sellers. lets all complain to ebay when someone steals our pictures.

Another issue that’s come up recently is buyers making up stories about pieces they’ve gotten to cover up their buyer’s remorse. I feel that the most important thing when buying jewelry is that you love it. If you don’t love it, return it. I give full refunds, just as long as you tell me within a few days. I don’t need to hear any stories nor do I enjoy threats and lies. We can all  be cordial and professional. This goes for buyers and sellers. I don’t think anyone needs threats of undeserved negative feedback (ie extortion) or tall tales when dealing with honest humanistic sellers. What has happened to good manners???? If you are buying on ebay, use paypal and make sure the seller will take returns and give you a full refund. Restocking fees for ebay? Don’t be silly. Sellers get the listing fees back as long as the buyer agrees. So, offer that you will agree to this. Lots of sellers, like myself, take returns because we’re happy when out buyers are happy, even if they’re happier after returning a piece. We understand and don’t need threats and lies to motivate us.

And lastly, on this rant of things hurting us sellers, is a recent glitch in eBay’s searching system. Maybe not many noticed it, but eBay’s been having problems in reporting search results. They’ll say there are thousands of items matching a search, but only report the first few dozen. Does anyone appreciate eBay charging listing fees for items that can’t be found? I called eBay about this and after a long, agonizing phone call got it out of them that it’s a problem they know about but decided to not tell anyone about. No listing on their support forums, no notice to sellers putting items up that there’s a chance no one would be able to find their inventory. What’s that called when a company charges for a service that they know they can’t deliver? Oh yea, fraud. eBay told me that the reason there wasn’t a notice on their forums was because they didn’t think the problem was important enough to be reported to sellers. We’re paying to have these items visible to people who want to buy them (the sole purpose of ebay) and a problem that stops this from happening isn’t important to us? That’s exactly what we’re paying for! How is it unimportant to us? Is anyone else tired of eBay acting like they’ve got a Papal Order and can do no wrong?

I think its time for a glass of wine and a wind down. Vito is already in Italy dealing with our obnoxious neighbors. I am going to try to go for a few weeks. Marc will be listing and shipping everything, so there will be absolutely no interruption for Valentine shoppers. I know plenty of you give and receive fine jewelry for these romantic holidays. Last year, I got a new leaf blower from my Valentine Funny thing, I really love my leaf blower…And I know, I’m not shy about buying jewelry.

Ah the holidays are here.

What’s better than the diamond-like twinkle of holiday lights lining houses throughout the neighborhood and, of course, Tiffany’s seasonal displays full of real diamonds, white-gold, sapphire and platinum?

It’s amazing to think that it was this time last year I started this blog and my TiffanyCollector.com website. To celebrate, I’m offering a special 5% off sale for my website’s inventory. Just use the code “newyork” during check-out and the discount is yours! Use it as many times as you like and please tell your friends. I’ll be offering it until January 2nd of ‘08.

Many of you know that I had to start my website to set myself apart from the fakes that started flooding eBay around the holidays last year and, low-and-behold, they’re back again now. This time last week there were roughly 1,400 pieces of Tiffany jewelry on eBay, probably 80% fake. Now there are more than 2,600 and, from the looks of them, about 98% fake. I’m sure that my fellow legitimate sellers will quickly agree that even though we pride ourselves on the authenticity of the pieces we sell, having all those fakes on eBay makes all of us feel uncomfortable.

Since eBay seems happy to leave us all fending for ourselves, I’d like to run through a list of ways buyers can help insulate themselves from the muck covering the floors of eBay’s auction halls.

How can eBay let someone with zero feedback who has been a member for only three days list ten pieces of the SAME Tiffany & Co item? I understand that some people may be wanting to sell a piece of jewelry to get some extra money together for the holidays, but even collectors don’t keep ten of the same piece around and if they did, they probably wouldn’t find themselves suddenly in the position where they need to sell all ten at once which all happen to be in “brand new” condition. Consider this step 1 in spotting spotty sellers. eBay, I’m saying this to you too.

As much as I detest the exorbitant fees that I have to pay PayPal (which have only gotten worse since eBay took them over), I am happy to get that added layer of security on transactions. I hope everyone watches out to avoid sending checks, or worse yet, money orders or western union, to these shady sellers who have started emerging from the dark shadows. This warning isn’t an exaggeration, I’ve had some customers have sent me green cash. Now I pride myself on running my business with untarnished honesty but not all sellers are so honest and, this time of year more than any other, we need to be watching out for sellers who only take money orders or cheks. That’s step 2 in keeping yourself safe, traceable transactions.

Also, if you’re doing business with someone for the first time, take a look at their feedback rating. A good look. If someone has 2000 feedback but it’s all penny items in the last month and they’re now trying to sell high ticket pieces en masse that’s a red flag. I’ve spotted many seller who try to artificially puff up their feedback rating just to create an illusion of honesty and prey on eBay’s inability to notice trends like this AND on people’s good nature. Step 4, don’t just glance at feedback, examine it.

Speaking of what goes under eBay’s radar, there are a lot of misspelled “Tiffffany” items on eBay recently. I believe that this is also an attempt to slip past the screening processes that eBay has on Tiffany & Co. listings. Collectors are not prone to misspelling their collections. One typo could be an accident, ten is probably fraud. Step 5, a Foux-lex isn’t a Rolex and Tiffffany isn’t Tiffany

Watch the rocks. Tiffany only uses superb diamonds in their pieces. VSI’s the name of the game. SI or Included diamonds are not used in authentic Tiffany pieces. It’s ONLY the best for them. And on the quality of metals, Tiffany does not plate or fill. Older pieces may be 14k gold but new pieces do NOT use 14k. It’s the best jewelry and they maintain the BEST quality so watch out for “Tiffany Style” pieces that don’t come anywhere close to meeting Tiffany’s standards. Step 6, if Tiffany wouldn’t have it in their stores, you shouldn’t have it in your Watch List.

Last year, the big fake thing was the “PLEASE RETURN TO TIFFANY” sterling silver collection. This year, it’s onyx beads with a silver toggle. Now if you look at my website, I do have some vintage pieces with silver and onyx beads without toggle. This is all 10-15 year old authentic vintage pieces. Tiffany’s new line does not have silver beads, just a silver toggle. From the look of things, it’s counter fit’s hottest item. Be careful of this new line showing up on eBay, especially in sets. There’s no way that so many of these sets could have been sold and then placed on eBay in such a short time without a GREAT many of them being knock-offs. I have yet to see an authentic set on eBay. Step 7, if it couldn’t possibly be the real thing, it isn’t.

Let me wrap up that slight rant by wishing everybody happy and safe shopping.

On a more personal note, Marc’s finished his LSAT and is taking a well-deserved break. Michael’s continuing to work through his growing list of home-improvement hobbies. He took a tumble off a ladder the other day but is fine. Vito took me shopping to Nordstrom’s today, which I love, and after he recovered from a spell of sticker shock, we got home and had a fine day gardening.

ps..if anyone would like to add to this list of hazards, please comment and share ^_^

It continues…Ebay wants Tiffany to give me permission to sell my own collection of Tiffany jewelry. What possible motivation could Tiffany have for doing this? Besides the fact that ITS MY JEWELRY!!! According to ebay, any entity who has copy write of a brand name can do this..again, I quote, “These laws have been in place for hundreds of years.” Okay, that means all those years I was selling cars, I really needed to ask the manufacturer if I could advertise and sell their cars?? This is getting ridiculous!!!

I am still suspended from ebay. I was also told today that once they let me back on, if I ever list a Tiffany item, if Tiffany hasn’t given their permission, I will be suspended forever. Its time for me to learn how to knit because the only thing we can safely list on ebay is home made crafts. I don’t know what will happen to ebay motors….According to ebay, only home made cars should be listed. That will be very interesting.

Vito is off to Italy. His mother fell out of a fig tree. I hope I’m climbing trees when I’m 80. Without ebay to keep me busy, I am working on my website and swimming.

Yesterday, there was a big fire in the hills near Stanford University. I was swimming my laps and flakes started falling from the sky. It was all very strange. Especially since Michael took me to see the movie 1408 (excellent movie) and I have been a little jumpy.

I have also taken my Lemoncello making to a new level. I have made Kumquatcello with kumquats from Catherine’s family vineyard. Today I made Mangocello. I’m not sure what I’ll make tomorrow. I know this is a funny hobby for someone who doesn’t drink…