Just when you think you have seen it all, something comes along and surprises you.

A Reddit user named CozyPillows sells on eBay… or should I say CozyPillows USED TO sell on eBay, until the day came where he (or she?) received an email stating they are banned for “Confidential Reasons” and now their money is being held. Here’s the live chat between CozyPillows and an eBay representative:

Thankfully, Reddit users rushed to explain what happened and also shared some mega bombshell info about the inner-workings of eBay and higher end designer brands.

Rewind to many years ago: Tiffany, the high end jewelry company, with prices that can be $30,000+ FOR ONE PIECE, didn’t liquidate their damaged stock. Instead they hired a company with the task of melting down the jewelry so it could never be sold. However, over time, the company, who we shall refer to as “Melt Co”, (a fictitious name) started not melting down all pieces. Melt Co began listing them on eBay without Tiffanys knowledge or permission.

As time progressed Melt Co began loading their eBay with massive amounts of this high jewelry.

If you’re not familiar with “Federal Amounts”, basically any transaction of $10,000 or more is usually reviewed. The banks claim this is to prevent things like “funding terrorism”. I know this for a fact because the very first time a buyer ever sent us a Money Order for $10,500 the bank held the funds, which made the buyer think we scammed them, meanwhile we didn’t have the funds so we couldn’t ship until it cleared. I, personally, spent substantial time on the phone with the bank trying to work out this mess. After a couple days they did clear the payment. Anyways, back to the story:

So Melt Co was collecting a literal fortune in payments from selling this jewelry. The amount of high-ticket payments triggered suspicion and (I assume) the FBI got involved… which makes a lot of sense because it would LOOK like this eBay seller robbed a jewelry store or is selling fakes.

Eventually this issue resulted in all kinds of legal problems for the seller. It also forced companies, like Tiffany, to begin monitoring marketplaces (and websites in general) to make sure situations like this never happen again. This led to these companies creating, essentially, “legal task forces” to scour the internet to find their products and to locate counterfeits of their products.

Back to the “Confidential Reasons” banned eBay seller: Reddit users were able to pull up his deleted listings (yes, you really CAN find anything on the internet, even after it’s deleted). The Reddit users pointed out that the high end merchandise CozyPillows was selling was highly suspected of being Counterfeit. Of course CozyPillows insists that the merch is all 100% real, and goes on to say that he goes to Japan and brings it into the USA in suitcases. Reddit users quickly point out that this method of getting inventory, specifically from Japan is mega sketchy and there’s really no way to prove it’s legit.

Then the debate begins, with Cozy saying he is an “expert at identifying authentic items”

And Reddit says “So are the art experts in the Netflix documentaries who all got fooled”

Another Reddit user recommends watching Sour Grapes, a documentary about Fake High End Wine. (<---- EXCELLENT scandal doc! Watch it if you haven't!)

The conversation continues with Cozy arguing the stuff is legit

Then someone points out that IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT COZY SAYS, WHAT MATTERS IS WHAT eBAY SAYS.

… and that, my friends, is what it really does come down to.

Here’s a couple things I know are true:

I do not have any actual knowledge of Tiffany jewelry’s practices but I know that Coach (handbags) has a full department to track down unauthorized dealers… which is basically ANYONE listing multiple Coach bags. I know this because Coach stores do not liquidate to wholesalers; instead Coach uses their Coach Outlets to liquidate. Sometimes we do get their bags in through stores like M*CYS or BL**MINGDALES, but we have very strict requirements for reselling them. In fact, Coach is so strict that many years ago I went to a Coach store and bought my mother and my sister both a bag for Christmas and they made me fill out paperwork saying I will not resell them… OVER TWO BAGS! So, being that Coach doesn’t liquidate and you have to fill out paperwork if you are purchasing more than one purse, Coach can easily identify anyone who is obtaining their merchandise in an unauthorized way. Then they can go after them legally.

With that being said, regarding Cozy’s eBay ban, my suspicion is that the brand name (or FBI if the payment amounts are large and rapid) saw the listings on their eBay account and the brands legal team sent eBay a legal demand to have these listings removed. Equally, I suspect that the brands legal team claimed that the items Cozy listed are not authentic.

So now the question becomes; “Why wouldn’t eBay tell Cozy the reason their account was terminated?” - And my guess, which is just a guess, is that the legal demand received by eBay mentioned legal action being taken. For example, if the FBI is investigating Cozy for fraud or a stolen merchandise ring. Or maybe the brand has (or is planning to) file a lawsuit against Cozy. I would bet my bottom dollar that some form of court will be involved in this, and likely eBay is not able to flat out say “The FBI is investigating you for bank fraud, mail fraud and soliciting stolen property” (or whatever).

Next Read:  What to Do if eBay Terminated Your Account for Bogus Reasons