HANDBAGS

eBay is facing pressure from the big designer handbag companies to restrict listings that promote replicas as authentic and violate trademark rights. Ebays reaction to this pressure was the seemingly arbitrary removal of any handbag listing that remotely looked like it might be illegal. As a result of the handbag listing removal process, many legitimate designer handbag auctions were removed along with some sellers being suspended.

After some good research, I finally found a legitimate dealer of designer handbags, which I believed met eBays standards. I was a Power Seller with a high feedback rating and a good percentage. Believing all was well, I listed some Fendi and Prada handbags only to find that my account had been suspended and all auctions removed for violating eBay policy.

Now I do not fault eBay for attempting to deal with all the misrepresentation and scamming that goes on in its auctions, especially with such popular name designer handbags. I do however question their methods, which seemingly punish the true blue honest seller. I had no intent of selling replicas or fake designer handbags.

As I poured through the popular designer handbag forums reading some of the handbag sellers thoughts, questions and concerns as to what to do next, I came to the conclusion that many of them were as confused as I am. I believe that eBay owes some loyalty to those legitimate and honest designer handbag sellers who have worked very hard to maintain good- to- excellent customer feedback and who have probably paid eBay thousands of dollars in listing fees, a chance to be fairly heard. eBay needs to be specific about what it is they want in their listings so the honest sellers can adapt to eBays guidelines, not shoot first and ask questions later.

So it seems this is the response after the LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior companies file a lawsuit against eBay, saying that almost 90 percent of the designer handbags listed were fakes. eBay suggests its up to the trademark companies to point this out. Now after the lawsuit, several legitimate eBay designer handbag sellers along with who knows how many replica listings were removed. I am all for the fact of having these replica listings removed. Suspending honest hard working people without giving them a chance to defend or explain themselves is hardly beneficial to either eBay or the designer handbag retailers involved. If eBay is willing to change is stance and truly listen to us honest sellers and allow us to adapt to their policies and rules all again would be rosy in the eBay world.

So where do we go from here? If we are to rectify this situation, I believe we should contact eBay and continue to ask for specific reasons as to why our designer handbag listings were removed and also ask what we can do as sellers to avoid this type of occurrence in the future. There is weight in numbers

It leaves me thinking where does the designer handbag community go, there are not really any other mediums that deliver the true sales power of eBay. Classified ad sites like Craigslist seem to come at a far second compared to the auction giant. For years I relied on this auction listing process like many others to provide a good marketing medium to my customers and to provide myself with a full-time income suddenly to be washed away by the big designer handbag tidal wave.

Nick Hayek, Marketer of Authentic Designer Handbags Purses and Wallets. Head inventory manger and marketer of www.designerpurseshop.com