I love shopping on eBay. People wave their hand to dismiss me and say that all I do is trawl for junk there, but that isn’t true at all! Do you think fashion retailers in Australia get their jewelery from Milan? It all comes from China, baby. All I’m doing is cutting out the middle-man and getting it direct. The savings will blow you away.
I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes you don’t get the exact replica of the item. It’s eBay China, you’re paying $2 instead of $20, you have to give and take a little!
So today I decided to take a look at the hottest jewelery pieces worn around Australia. Statement jewelery is huge. Gigantic! Nobody wants fine, delicate chains or long Bohemian sweater necklaces anymore, everyone’s got their eye out for big, chunky, eye-catching. These bracelets and rings are a few of my top picks. The first image contains the original jewelery (which, in the end, is usually just another counterfeit of some other exxy brand overseas) and the second image are the eBay ‘carbon copies’.
Here are the comparisons:
1. Lykke Chain Linked Cuff, $18.50 | eBay, $2.90
2. OCTE Claw bracelet, $39 | eBay, $2.80
3. Forever New Savana Cuff, $20 | eBay, $7.80
4. ASOS PREMIUM Spiked Cuff, $34 | eBay, $3 x 2
5. Topshop Triangle Ring Set, $13 | eBay, $2.30
6. Lovisa Egyptian headdress Ring, $17 | eBay, $1.50
7. Diva Diamante Stretch Bracelet, $23 | eBay, $2.80
8. Forever New Silver Fish Scale Bracelet, $20 | eBay, $2.10
As you can see, for some of these virtually identical items, the markups that the department stores subject upon us are horrendous (Diva, I’m looking at you and your cheap diamante bracelet)! If you’re going to buy something from stores, do your wallet a favor and look it up on eBay first. Try and be general with your search terms, and descriptive instead of specific to get a better result. Always select the category, then “lowest to highest”, “buy it now”, and tick “worldwide” for best filtering and a wider results pool.
The best thing about buying on eBay? Counterfeiters love to make different colours of the one product, so you’ll usually find more variety than found in stores! Don’t like gold? Pick bronze. Don’t like either? Pick silver or rose gold. It’s all there, you just need to know where to look.