Surplus stock sellers / items with labels cut out

[NomNomNom]

I've been wondering about items on ebay listed as 'surplus stock' and/or with the labels cut out - are these actual surplus stock or fakes?

It's usually clothes and bags, so I'm wondering if they are copies of the actual thing. The items I look out for aren't high-end designer items, so I would think there's not much point in faking them, but on the other hand, the prices seem too good to be true sometimes.

Last year I bought a Boden dress with no label and it was really good apart from the fact that the zip wasn't working properly.

I found a particular item I'm looking for at the moment listed individually on ebay. Further googling brought up the same item in lots of 70+ on Gumtree. (Mark on photo shows it's the same seller.) Is this legit or a bit dodgy?

What's your experience with this kind of listing?

I've only done this once and it was for an item that cost me £3 (£5 in the shop) so I'm sure it must be genuine. Mine was an item that I loved but became end of line and therefore impossible to obtain from the shop so I stocked up while I could and was happy with what I got.

I think that's most likely - that the ebay sellers have bought end of line or possibly (in the case of your Boden dress) seconds. OTOH if there's money to be made it woudln't surprise me if there are fakes too.

I'd have thought in the case of 'normal' clothes there wouldn't be much profit in making fakes like the is with designer labels.

It's probably end if line/excess stock and they have to cut the label out, like the clothes that are in bargain shops and sold on market stalls that have labels removed.

they buy old stock wholesale don't they - nothing dodgy as far as I'm aware. I often find the same seller on ebay, Amazon, Ebid etc.

That sounds promising.

I'm just surprised that the things I look for are available as end of line items in such quantities - the most recent one seems to have been quite popular when it was on sale by the actual shop itself.

This seller does not have any feedback as a seller yet, and under 20 as a buyer. Would you say this is red flag territory?

not necessarily no.

Bit of a late reply, but I think some of these are not genuine. I bought an item recently that was supposed to be a warehouse dress. I have lots of warehouse dresses from over the years and from comparing the part of the label that was left in, plus the inner care label, I am convinced this was not genuine. The quality was more like a market stall, so I'm guessing that although these aren't designer fakes and possibly some are genuine, it can be a way of sellers making a lot more money from very cheap factory stock that probably cost them a couple of pounds a piece.