Shopping on eBay is cheap.
You can get anything you want while saving a small amount of
Or at least that’s what you tell yourself. 😉
But what does “cheap” even mean? And at what cost?
It might be a marketplace, but that doesn’t make it worth using.
Especially if you’re looking for items like anime figures in particular.
There’s daily targets for naive buyers who shop with eBay because they’re trusted.
And sellers who know this take advantage of this either because:
- You don’t care because you’re looking for a good deal.
- You’re new and don’t know any better.
- Or you’re willing to risk it.
Here’s Why Buying Anime Figures On eBay Is A BAD Idea:
1. A needle in a haystack
Let’s suppose I do a search for “Rem
What’s the problem here?
- The anime figures are genuine. Meaning: they’re officially created anime figures.
- Because of this reason, it seems to be a legitimate figurine. You’d assume it’s official.
- But that’s the point: you don’t know if it’s a knock off by looking at the images.
- Unless you know the difference, when your anime figure arrives you’ll assume it’s supposed to be of an average quality.
eBay is a MASSIVE marketplaces. Selling literally thousands of
Because they sell everything it’s “convenient” so I understand why you’d use it.
But as an anime collector, it’s a needle in a haystack.
The time spent trying to find what’s “real” and what’s fake is pointless for what you get out of doing it.
An official anime shop can solve your problems within less than 5% of the time spent on these marketplaces.
2. Sellers are scammers in disguise
Not all sellers obviously, but that’s the point.
It’s a needle in a haystack. Making your shopping experience that much harder.
A lot of these Chinese Sellers (and sellers who aren’t Chinese) are scammers in disguise. They thrive off buyers who are too lazy to do their due diligence.
And of course – buyers who don’t care about whether an anime figure is real or fake either way.
And this is true beyond the anime industry. It’s a problem marketplaces have struggled with for years.
3. When shit hits the fan, there’s little you can do
Marketplaces like eBay don’t talk about it much… because they’re making
But there are dozens of cases where customers lose out for no fault of their own.
Even if they’re able to prove themselves.
There’s only one reason, and that’s because once you’ve been scammed, it’s usually too late.
I’ve been scammed on these marketplaces before, for items that weren’t even “prone” to fakery or knock-off products like anime figures.
So it’s something you should think harder about.
4. The shopping process is longer and more painful
This is what it looks like on eBay:
- You start shopping.
- You browse.
- You search for the anime figures you want.
- You constantly check the sellers profiles.
- You look for comparisons to verify the legitimacy of each anime figure.
- You post on forums ans “ask” if the anime figure is real.
- You spend time judging what’s real and what’s not.
And at some point you either
That doesn’t like a pain in the ass to me.
Why not buy anime figures from a legitimate shop instead? And save yourself tons of time?
5. You’re not putting money back into the anime industry
I get it. You might not care to put
But for those of you who do care, putting
Even though the anime industry’s come a long way in 2018, it’s still not at that critical point where it’s sustainable or profitable on a massive scale.
This is obvious when you see headlines like “anime studio has gone bankrupt” on a regular basis.
Or in other cases: anime shops themselves.
Buying genuine anime figures fuels the industry in more indirect ways than you realize.
After all – anime figures exist because of the anime shows that come before it.
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Recommended:
Your Ultimate Guide To Buying Official Anime Merchandise Online
