Tradesy has the honor of being the first online store I ever bought a preloved item from. It was an Alma PM and it was $300. It worked perfectly in my law student budget and it made me feel so legit. (Yes I still say legit all the time. Yes I know there are better works but nothing describes my feeling of carrying that LV bag then legit!)
Since then I have bought a couple different bags from Tradesy. I picked up a Chloe Mini Marcie at the time they were super popular for about $300 off and I bought my 25th birthday present to myself, my Chanel Diana, from Tradesy as well. I have even picked up two SLGs- the Louis Vuitton continental multicolor blanc wallet and the Louis Vuitton Compact Zippy in Damier azure.
I also unfortunately have bought two fake bags on Tradesy. I’ll tell both stories below and in both instances Tradesy refunded me even for one that was at least a month later.
So first the not as exciting story plus a little known fact about Tradesy. Starting with the Tradesy fact- you can contact Tradesy regarding authenticity of your item and they will send you a shipping label so you can send it in to be authenticated. You can then specify that they send it back to you once it’s authenticated or you can request a site credit. In this instance I had purchased a beautiful vintage Dior bag in a lovely shade of grey. When I got the bag it just didn’t feel high enough quality to be authentic but I don’t know much about vintage Dior. I sent it in and unfortunately it ended up being a fake. Tradesy refunded me my money promptly.
The second story is actually crazy. I bought a beautiful vintage Chanel crossbody in black lambskin with gold hardware from a reputable seller who also ran a consignment boutique in the states. This would have been my first Chanel bag ever and I did not know of Tradesy authentication policy at the time. But I wasn’t worried because the bag came with an authentication certificate from Authenticate First, a third party authentication service I had used before. So I received the bag and admired it but noticed the authentication certificate wasn’t as clear as I would like. I messaged the seller and she apologized and promised to email me the electronic copy. I waited a bit and then kept reaching out to the seller who never responded. Needless to say the electronic copy never came so I reached out to Authenticate First to ask them to email me an electronic copy. When I emailed Authenticate First they said sure and could I send over more information so they could locate the certificate. I scanned what I had and email it to them. Authenticate First promptly replied that the seller had faked the authentication certificate and showed me what was wrong on the certificate. By this point I had solidly had the bag for a month (maybe even longer). I reached out to Tradesy with what I had found out and they had me send them a copy of the emails and certificate. Once they got that the information they sent me a return label. When they got the bag they refunded me. I was shocked and very happy with this customer service because I had at this point had the bag for almost two month! Moral of the story: Tradesy does say everything is authentic but it is possible to get a fake bag. If you do get a fake bag Tradesy will help you get back your money.
Pros of Tradesy
- FREE AUTHENTICATION SERVICE- seriously this is very nice and is available for anything you buy on Tradesy.
- Lots of vintage bags which are often not available on sites like Fashionphile and Rebag.
- Some great deals to be found! Plus you can always message the seller and see if they are willing to negotiate with you.
- Buyer and Seller Protection
- SALES- Tradesy often has sales that are either a set amount or a percentage off! These sales can really provide a discount so make sure to take advantage of them.
Cons of Tradesy
- Not all bags are authentic
- Sellers get to choose their list prices so they can often be way over retail or over the general price on the preloved market.
- If you do sell an item on Tradesy it takes forever for you to get your money via paypal. And to make it worse they add another fee to transfer it out of Tradesy– this is on top of the 20% fee of the sale they already take.
Have you seen the rest of my places to buy preloved series? If not check out my Fashionphile review and my The Real Real review.