New but unsealed?

[HelloEllo]

Hi all

A bit of advice please as I don't use eBay that much.

DD bought a face cream from ebay. She's still at school and has a Saturday job so she doesn't have much money and the cream is a well known, fairly expensive brand, so she couldn't afford it from a counter etc.

She received it today and I noticed it was unsealed so I checked the listing. It is listed as 'new but unsealed' but as it's a pot of cream how on earth do you know it's new? The seller has quite a few listed so it could be fake or maybe used testers from a counter?

The buyer has no returns on the listing so I know there's not much we can do but can you sell something that can't be guaranteed as new?

Ps. She's currently annoyed at me as she was excited at receiving it and I've now 'ruined it'.

Look at the reviews of the seller... normally good indication of if it’s real/fake etc

how cheap was it? If it’s a very in demand product and too good to be true price, then it could be a fake, yes. Search online for the differences between the real and fake versions and inspect it carefully.

And YY to checking the sellers feedback. If they are selling fake products then it’s unlikely they’ve got away without any negative reviews.

Thanks for the replies. It's a newish seller so they don't have much feedback, about 20 positive and 1 negative. All their listed items are from the same brand so I'm assuming they're fake or the seller works/worked for them.

I just don't get how something can be sold as new if actually there's no way of telling that. I've told DD to be more careful in future.

Oh and it was half the brand new price. Around £25.

If you want to PM me a link to the listing I can have a look for you and PM you back with my opinion?

PS if it is fake then your DD shouldn’t use it, you have no clue what is in it!

If it was advertised as new but unsealed then it hasn't been mis sold to you (unless it's fake.)
You could message the seller and ask why it's not sealed as you're a little concerned. You could also contact the brand company to see if it's genuine. If it is a fake then you can open a case on eBay as you're not allowed to sell counterfeit goods on there. If you think it's fake then I wouldn't let her use it as it could be made with unsafe ingredients.

If you are regularly near somewhere the original is sold (e.g. work in city centre with a department store), go in there and have a look at what the packaging is like, and check the texture and smell of a tester of the cream. Take pics with you of the eBay one to compare.

lottie, I've pm'd you!

I've told my DD not to use it. I thought about taking it into the local counter but apparently it's a discontinued product, its been reformulated. I googled it and it does look like the 'old' cream but I suppose theres no way of knowing for sure.

I was also worried about it going out of date? If it's an old product and its open it may well go off!

It may well go off if the actual pot has been opened and bacteria has got in, if there are any fingerprints in it you could open a case as it is 'used'.

There is a chance that it is OK, and just old stock. There is also the chance that it is fake, hopefully Lottie will be able to help.

I once bought something hypo-allergenic on Ebay and it wasn't what it should have been, I was quite new to Ebay at the time and have never bought cosmetics on there since.