This is meant to initiate a constructive discussion, food for thoughts so to say, for people who ponder about the same thoughts:
I as many others, purchase Nurition Supplements on eBay on a regular base, due to eBays' fantastic search function (compared to platforms like Amazon)
One issue of course when buying Supplements (anywhere, no matter if online or IRL) is of course how to know if the contents of any Product are genuine and in the ammount stated on the label.
Note I am talking about substances humans ingest, hence it is a different matter to stuff people put on their hair, or give a pet etc (not dismissing pets health of course, just pointing out for "human consumption")
Trust is nice, basically DYOR, then "believe or not", but real verification a sold substances by a (trustworthy) 3rd party is as I see it the only option, as long as this information is SHARED and transparent.
Some examples, note that all of these types of Sellers make money:
- Some Sellers don't mention certification, simply write stuff. No website, no certificate. People buy because it is cheapest, or because it looks fancy. When asked for certification some have it, the others doesnt even bother replying.
- Some Sellers mention "certified" or certificates, but do not link or state the Certifier (and some fail producing such information on request. Duh)
- Some Sellers mention "certified" or certificates, and DO link or state the Certifier; mostly a Lab of some kind. Certificates can be quite dated. But at least something.
Note that even with an existing Certificate you can see as a Buyer, you still need to ckeck with the Lab if it is a real, issued valid certificate, as such can easily photoshopped (less likely, still a posibility)
To play devils advocate, the more likely possibility, if a seller wants to cut product pricing is dilution; get a certificate once, then later sell whatever he wants (as nobody checks again anyway)
So again, Trust and DYOR about reputation and appearance of any given seller is a factor.
That's where eBay makes its recent great Move with the product(specific, not seller) reviews, as so far this was only something Amzon had, and was actually one useful thing to look at amazon which is search-wise totally useless and aggrivating (thumbs up eBay for offering such a great search capabilty)
Now recently I came across a nice feature on an eBay supplement listing called "Online medicines seller registry" which I never seen before - as a buyer of course appreciated, I can imagine this might be quite costly, and it is probably more for drugs etc, so not very aplicable for vitamins etc
(example of this actual seller on ebay: medicine-seller-register.mhra.gov.uk/search-registry/1108 )
The other example I want to add as food for though in context to above is the certificate shared by a Seller in a listing, again much appreciated, as many others do not share such, but again, this then makes you think "is this actually real". But, it is really great to see some sellers show a certificate (or link to one somehwere)
...so to conclude, in the end as a Buyer we somehow have to make the decision to trust a Seller at some point, or not. As we do in the pharmacy in a way as well (where we trust the regulatory body above, I think it is the MHRA in UK)
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PS: I am sure there are as usual people reading this thinking and potential already stretching their fingers to reply "If you want genuine then buy in your local pharmacy, why do you buy on eBay" ...please skip that comment for now, as 1) we are on eBay (and we all love it) and 2) Prices in pharmacies are simply not for everyones' wallet, double, triple to 5x, so if above people leave their contact after their comment I'm sure many of us will be happy to have them buy our stuff for parmacy prices and give them a warm hug 😉
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