There are a few easy and successful ways of distinguishing between real and fake A&F™ clothing on eBay...
Assuming you've found a listing and are wondering of it's authenticity, there are a few things you want to check.
- Look at the seller's other items. If there are lots of Abercrombie™ items, all in various sizes and styles, then most likely the seller has a shipment of the counterfeit clothing and is trying to sell it on. It will be fake. If, however, the seller has no other Abercrombie™ items or is not selling large amounts of designer clothing, then it will most likely be an individual, and has less chance of being counterfeit.
- Look at how the listing is set up. If it has a dedicated store page, which is clearly a template for selling lots of Abercrombie™/designer clothing, then it's most likely going to be counterfeit. If, however, it looks like an individual effort, and not with a storefront and template for the listing, then it is less likely to be counterfeit.
- Look at what is included with the item. If it has an Abercrombie™ bag with it, and the receipt included, and maybe the listing says that it was bought from the store, but was the wrong size or something similar, then chances are that it will be authentic. So going by this, it is good to look out for included Abercrombie carrier bags (these are large (or small) paper bags with fabric handles), receipts indicating when and where the item was bought, and whether the item smells of the Fierce cologne (the cologne that is sprayed around the stores rather liberally). So if the piece of clothing had genuinely been bought new fairly recently and not washed, then it should still smell of the cologne.
- Look at how the item is presented. Is it in a plastic bag? If so, then it's definitely not from a retail shop, so it must be from the online website. So thus they should have a receipt from their order, or at least a packing slip. If there's not one, and they did not purchase it from a retail store or the online store, then be wary.
- Check the seller's feedback. You should probably do this with all things you buy off eBay, but just to make sure, check the seller's feedback, ideally it should all be positive, and there should be no comments that suggest that the items that the seller is selling are counterfeit.
- Ask for close up pictures of the item. If these are possible to get, then you know that they're not just using stock images of the product, but they could very well still be counterfeit. Pay attention to the detail section in the quick guide to spot features that may distinguish the item as counterfeit.
- And in the rare case that you accidentally buy an item and later discover it is counterfeit. Then take pictures of it (especially the features that indicate that it's counterfeit) and return it. If the seller is unwilling to return it, tell them that they did not sell the item that they described as it is counterfeit, and that you will take the matter to eBay and Paypal. If they still hesitate to let you return it, then contact Paypal and file a dispute, and talk to eBay and tell them that the item is counterfeit. Last of all, leave NEGATIVE feedback. You want other people to know that this seller is selling fake clothing, so that they don't fall into the same trap.
- In general, keep your wits about you, and if anything seems slightly suspicious, then don't buy it.
Saturday, 26 June 2010
Where did you buy it?
Where you purchase A & F clothes is usually a very good sign in determining the authenticity of them. You should bear in mind that their clothes can only be officially bought new in their stores, or online. Therefore any site that is claiming to sell their clothes online as a designer warehouse or past stock clear out is most likely a code word for fake. There are many of these sites around, all of them use a fair amount of advertising, specially with Google adwords (so they will appear in Google ads and seem relevant), and most of them will rank high up in Google searches. Some of them will even seem fairly authentic, especially with the nice website designs, but be warned.
Looking at the prices that the clothes that they sell are offered at, they are very similar to the actual Abercrombie and Fitch prices. The reasons behind this are twofold; if they sold the clothes at the equivalent of £5, then people would suspect something, and not buy from them, hence they make the prices higher to seem more reasonable. Secondly, by making the prices higher, they reap a larger profit.
eBay is also where a lot of A & F is sold and bought. The majority of items available on eBay are counterfeit. That said, there are occasionally some authentic clothes here too. Determining which is which requires only a little careful research. This is explained in a future article.
Hopefully this helps you determine the best places to buy authentic Abercrombie and Fitch clothing, so to summarise:
In an A & F store: BEST
On Abercrombie.com (their official website) BEST
On eBay - Very Hit and Miss, usually bad
On another website - BAD
From another (non Abercrombie) store - BAD
Looking at the prices that the clothes that they sell are offered at, they are very similar to the actual Abercrombie and Fitch prices. The reasons behind this are twofold; if they sold the clothes at the equivalent of £5, then people would suspect something, and not buy from them, hence they make the prices higher to seem more reasonable. Secondly, by making the prices higher, they reap a larger profit.
eBay is also where a lot of A & F is sold and bought. The majority of items available on eBay are counterfeit. That said, there are occasionally some authentic clothes here too. Determining which is which requires only a little careful research. This is explained in a future article.
Hopefully this helps you determine the best places to buy authentic Abercrombie and Fitch clothing, so to summarise:
In an A & F store: BEST
On Abercrombie.com (their official website) BEST
On eBay - Very Hit and Miss, usually bad
On another website - BAD
From another (non Abercrombie) store - BAD
(A Quick Guide to) Spotting Fake Abercrombie and Fitch™
I recently had the lucky experience of purchasing a fake Abercrombie & Fitch™ polo shirt off of eBay. While not intending to buy a fake shirt, I did have my suspicions about buying A&F™ over eBay, though I have successfully bought some stuff before! Being a nice eBay citizen and everything, I thought that I should at least write an eBay guide as to how to spot fakes and the main differences between real shirts and fakes, but eBay has a rather odd (and in my opinion stupid) photo policy where they wouldn't allow any of my Flickr photos to be linked to, so scrap that, I'm gonna post a guide on here and see if anyone finds it useful!
The purpose of this guide is to complement the other 'How to spot fake Abercrombie™ clothes' guides available on eBay by providing a photo comparison between a fake polo shirt (bought here on eBay), and a real one (bought in the A&F™ at The Grove in LA). The fake shirt in question is the Broadhead Trail polo shirt in grey, with "A & Fitch" written on it. For the purposes of this comparison I'm comparing it with a Broadhead Trail polo in Blue (saying "Abercrombie 92"), which I think is a fair enough comparison - so the only differences should be in the motif, the colour and the serial number. But this wasn't necessarily true!
Firstly, I received this from the seller in a plastic bag, which is hardly A&F style presentation - so that doesn't bode particularly well from the start. Once removed from the plastic, the feel of the shirt is very thin and definitely feels cheaper than a real A&F polo shirt. It also does not exhibit any of the 'worn-in' look of the real shirt, this is shown in a few pictures below. Look particularly at where the buttons are, this is clearly more worn on the blue (real) shirt.
Some of the other guides mention about the buttons being different and looking odd on the counterfeit shirts, and this, while subtle, is true! Notice the writing on the buttons and the placement of the writing on the buttons is different on each shirt. The real one has the 'Abercrombie' slightly away from the centre of the button, while the fake one does not! There is also a different font on the buttons, with the real buttons on the blue shirt appearing to have more bold writing on them! When looking at the side angle of the buttons, it is clear that they are different in that the fake one is obviously more of a two layer button and has a differently coloured underside.
The sewn in label also exhibits the different fonts. Looking closely and comparing the two, the 'Established 1892' and the 'Unparalleled In Quality' differ between the two shirts, with the fake one being more blocky. The writing of the 'Abercrombie & Fitch' is also different between the two, though more subtly, look at the base of the letter 'b'. The tags below the sewn in label stating the size are also different dimensions and say different things - pretty odd for the same range of clothing.
The 'Muscle' tag also exhibits the same font difference, but it is also a different tag, with the fake one being wider.
As I mentioned before, the fake one is clearly less worn in, this is shown further around the hem on the bottom of the shirt and around the cuff...
The spare buttons are also worth mentioning in that there are two with the real shirt, and only one with the fake, and their placement in relation to the care instructions tag is different. The colour of the thread used to sew them in differs too, with the fake one having a thread that shows up on the outside of the shirt, while the blue (real) one does not.
The fit of the shirt is also worth mentioning as it obviously shows up as being fake when it does fit the same way. The cuffs are way too loose and long, and the shirt is generally too baggy. The collar, while having fairly thick material, is not thick enough to feel like the real Abercrombie shirt.
Finally, probably the most obvious difference is the incorrect tags and the tags just generally being odd. I was (and still am) pretty sure (actually I'm definitely sure) that this was a Polo shirt and not a short sleeve Henley, so then why does the tag say that this is a Henley? When I google the item number (24013206) I get an Abercrombie Henley, so it clearly isn't the right tags. It also has the wrong price, it says $49.50, when this Polo shirt is actually $59.50. The thick 'Abercrombie and Fitch' tag is also obviously different too.
Spot the fake label. (hint: it's the middle one...)
Anyway, it seems like I've gone into a fairly obscene amount of detail on this, but I just wanted to provide adequate photographic evidence of the kind of fake clothes available on eBay. If you have any questions, then please ask. Good luck on spotting fakes!
The purpose of this guide is to complement the other 'How to spot fake Abercrombie™ clothes' guides available on eBay by providing a photo comparison between a fake polo shirt (bought here on eBay), and a real one (bought in the A&F™ at The Grove in LA). The fake shirt in question is the Broadhead Trail polo shirt in grey, with "A & Fitch" written on it. For the purposes of this comparison I'm comparing it with a Broadhead Trail polo in Blue (saying "Abercrombie 92"), which I think is a fair enough comparison - so the only differences should be in the motif, the colour and the serial number. But this wasn't necessarily true!
Firstly, I received this from the seller in a plastic bag, which is hardly A&F style presentation - so that doesn't bode particularly well from the start. Once removed from the plastic, the feel of the shirt is very thin and definitely feels cheaper than a real A&F polo shirt. It also does not exhibit any of the 'worn-in' look of the real shirt, this is shown in a few pictures below. Look particularly at where the buttons are, this is clearly more worn on the blue (real) shirt.
Some of the other guides mention about the buttons being different and looking odd on the counterfeit shirts, and this, while subtle, is true! Notice the writing on the buttons and the placement of the writing on the buttons is different on each shirt. The real one has the 'Abercrombie' slightly away from the centre of the button, while the fake one does not! There is also a different font on the buttons, with the real buttons on the blue shirt appearing to have more bold writing on them! When looking at the side angle of the buttons, it is clear that they are different in that the fake one is obviously more of a two layer button and has a differently coloured underside.
The sewn in label also exhibits the different fonts. Looking closely and comparing the two, the 'Established 1892' and the 'Unparalleled In Quality' differ between the two shirts, with the fake one being more blocky. The writing of the 'Abercrombie & Fitch' is also different between the two, though more subtly, look at the base of the letter 'b'. The tags below the sewn in label stating the size are also different dimensions and say different things - pretty odd for the same range of clothing.
The 'Muscle' tag also exhibits the same font difference, but it is also a different tag, with the fake one being wider.
As I mentioned before, the fake one is clearly less worn in, this is shown further around the hem on the bottom of the shirt and around the cuff...
The spare buttons are also worth mentioning in that there are two with the real shirt, and only one with the fake, and their placement in relation to the care instructions tag is different. The colour of the thread used to sew them in differs too, with the fake one having a thread that shows up on the outside of the shirt, while the blue (real) one does not.
The fit of the shirt is also worth mentioning as it obviously shows up as being fake when it does fit the same way. The cuffs are way too loose and long, and the shirt is generally too baggy. The collar, while having fairly thick material, is not thick enough to feel like the real Abercrombie shirt.
Finally, probably the most obvious difference is the incorrect tags and the tags just generally being odd. I was (and still am) pretty sure (actually I'm definitely sure) that this was a Polo shirt and not a short sleeve Henley, so then why does the tag say that this is a Henley? When I google the item number (24013206) I get an Abercrombie Henley, so it clearly isn't the right tags. It also has the wrong price, it says $49.50, when this Polo shirt is actually $59.50. The thick 'Abercrombie and Fitch' tag is also obviously different too.
Spot the fake label. (hint: it's the middle one...)
Anyway, it seems like I've gone into a fairly obscene amount of detail on this, but I just wanted to provide adequate photographic evidence of the kind of fake clothes available on eBay. If you have any questions, then please ask. Good luck on spotting fakes!
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