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The RealReal’s Authentication Process Cannot be Trusted

Post author By Fashion Raid
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The RealReal has become a giant in the fashion and clothing re-sale market. The company was started in 2011, and by 2019 they were a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ, with nearly $300 million in revenue. But can you trust that what you are purchasing from them is even from the brand they claim, let alone legit? The answer is no, and we will show you the real world examples.

The RealReal claims that they have “the most rigorous authentication process in the marketplace .” Furthermore, “We are the only resale company in the world that authenticates every single item we sell.” They explain that they have high risk (Hermes, Rolex, etc) and low risk items, both of which are examined by an authenticator, as well as checked again by the Quality Control team.

For the low risk items, which seems to be the vast majority of items, including many expensive contemporary designer brands, “Our lower-risk authenticators are deeply trained in authentication. They currently receive a minimum of 40 hours of training, including during onboarding, job shadowing, daily training sessions and quizzes.” Does your job require you to complete online training sessions? If so, you know this type of training is not the most effective. Even if the rest of the training is useful, this still says that in as little as one week an employee can be considered an authenticator. With how quickly the company has grown, it doesn’t seem like they have been able to keep up with hiring and training quality authenticators.

Job Requirements and Past Controversies

Here are the job requirements for becoming an Authenticator for The RealReal. In a world where we are used to seeing ridiculous requirements like 3 years of experience for an entry level position, these qualifications are at the other end of the spectrum and appear thin. The role of Assistant Manager in Authentication has no skill requirements listed at all. Only the High Risk Authenticator position requires a college degree (no mention of any specific majors) or actual experience. Hopefully the authentication process of the high risk items is better, but even that does not seem to be flawless. The RealReal has previously been sued by Chanel, who claimed that The RealReal was allowing counterfeit items to be sold on its website.

Here is an excerpt from a press release discussing a lawsuit brought by stakeholders of the company, claiming that The RealReal made statements regarding their IPO that “featured allegedly false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that the Company’s employees received little training on how to spot fake items, that the Company’s strict quotas on its employees exacerbated product authentication issues, that consequently, the potential for counterfeit or mislabeled items to make it through Company’s authentication process was higher than disclosed“

The Evidence

Finally, we have some examples from The RealReal’s website to show you.

Take a look at these three items which The RealReal lists as Casablanca, which they correctly label as an emerging brand. The brand was founded by French-Moroccan Charaf Tajer, and they make very cool clothing. If you know anything about the brand, or if you simply browse their website for two minutes, you will have no doubt that these items have nothing to do with this Casablanca, which was established in 2018. It’s completely obvious, but the styles are nothing like anything from the real brand, and they are clearly very old items, decades out of style. And if you had the items in front of you, you would see that the labels are incorrect. So what happened? Were these items mislabeled? No; They are from a different brand that was called Casablanca, and the fact that these items were accepted by The RealReal gives us ZERO faith in their ability to truly authenticate any items.

Take a look at what one of these leather jackets looks like in detail:

This is the exact model jacket as shown above from The RealReal (Here is the one on therealreal.com, and here is the one from Yahoo Japan Auctions). This jacket, which will cost you about $30 from Yahoo Japan Auctions, is listed for $795, marked down to $397.50 at The RealReal.

Look at the label from the Yahoo listing! This item had to have been accepted by the consignment team, authenticated, then through quality control, styled, photographed, measured, priced and listed on the website, and not ONE of those people was able to tell that this item is not what it claims to be? The embarrassment is almost as overwhelming as the incompetence.

A More Egregious Example

Take a look at the following photo. Clearly a vintage belted leather jacket that is worth almost nothing, and surely not an item of interest to a designer consignment store, right?

If you are The RealReal, you’d say that this item was from Golden Goose. Take a look at the lining, which is clearly shown in their photos, and see if you have any doubt.

Would anyone in their right mind believe that this was from the incredible luxe Italian brand that was founded in 2013? Take a look at this photo, which shows what brand this jacket is actually from.

This is an old brand called Golden Goose by Daniel Young. Absolutely no connection to the contemporary designer brand. Again, we ask how these items made it onto the site. We even brought this one to their attention, yet the item remained until it was actually sold a couple months later!

This is where we gave up. In addition to all the people who physically handled the item and somehow could not identify the problem, even The RealReal customer service is untrained or unwilling to work to rectify an error brought to their attention.

This brings us to our conclusion; If The RealReal cannot be trusted to even properly identify a brand, how can they be trusted to authenticate a counterfeit item that was designed to fool people? How many people have been ripped off, intentionally or not, by The RealReal? We have zero faith in their ability to authenticate items and find it hard to imagine how these items can pass through their system if it is as thorough as they claim. In our opinion, there is no excuse.

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The Elder Statesman Archive Sale Review

Post author By Fashion Raid
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1 Comment on The Elder Statesman Archive Sale Review

The Elder Statesman Tie Dye Cashmere Tshirt Red

The Elder Statesman recently held their first Archive Sale. Unfortunately this website was still in the building process when the sale opened so we were not able to share it with you, but this will serve as a guide and reference for future sales, and as a general review of some of The Elder Statesman’s products.

If you are unfamiliar with the brand, they are known for making high end luxury cashmere goods. We think their cashmere sweaters are the best on the market in terms of quality and style. There may be some nicer fabrics from brands like Loro Piana but they are usually rather basic, and even more expensive for what you are getting. The Elder Statesman gives you incredibly soft cashmere in interesting styles. They also make cashmere accessories, as well as nice shirts and jackets, among other things.

Their recent Archive sale, the first they’ve ever held, opened at elderstatesmanarchive.com on September 15th, though there was a pre-access for those who signed up, opening on September 14th with password “statesman”.

They offered an impressive amount of product, both newer and older styles. The newer items were more expensive, but the items that were from a few seasons prior were available for great prices. Not all staple pieces were available, but some were. Picasso sweaters, graphic sweaters, all kinds of accessories; There was something for everyone, both men and women.

The best deals we found were on non-cashmere or cashmere blend items. Some items were up to 80% off, and maybe more. The 100% cashmere items were closer to 50% off, some less, and some up to 70% off. Below is a rundown of our purchases and how much they cost. All were great deals, especially the silk shirts and the felt sweater, which is a particularly amazing item.

The Elder Statesman Silk Betony Camp Collar Spider Webs Button Down Shirt

These silk shirts were one of the highest discount items available in the sale. The retail price was near $750, maybe more. During the archive sale it was available for $125. It’s high quality silk in a camp collar cut shirt with a spider web pattern.

The Elder Statesman Silk Betony Camp Collar Javanese Floral Button Down Shirt

Another silk shirt in a “Javanese Floral” design. This one was also $125

The Elder Statesman Alex Israel Sky Printed Felt Sweater

This is by far the nicest piece of the group. The retail price for these felt cashmere blend sweater / sweatshirts is around $2,200. During the archive sale they were $250, and they were worth every penny. The Elder Statesman always uses high quality cashmere, but this blend which is 80% cashmere feels like a cloud. This print is especially nice, based on Alex Israel’s Sky Backdrop artwork. Technically a unisex piece, it fits a bit relaxed, like many of the brand’s pieces. They also had a thermal print which was very nice.

The Elder Statesman Cashmere Blend Tshirts

The sale had a good amount of Tshirts in both Cotton, Cotton/Cashmere, and Cashmere/Silk Blends. The Elder Statesman ‘Favorite’ Tshirts are their nicest, which are 85% Cashmere and 15% Silk. The Cotton/Cashmere Tshirts were the best deal, and the fabric is nearly as nice as the more expensive Cashmere/Silk versions. This black one was a steal for $65, while the ‘Magic Rings’ versions below were $125.

The Elder Statesman Dip Dye Fleece Sweatshirt

Here is a 100% Cotton sweatshirt in a maroon dip dye pattern. It’s a nice soft fleece, though the sleeves are very long. This was $85

The Elder Statesman Whirlwind Denim Jacket and Shirt + Dress

There were a number of pieces in the ‘Whirlwind’ pattern, including this denim jacket. $225

They also had this short sleeve work shirt for $155. While the denim jacket above is TTS, slightly oversized, this shirt is massive. It fits more like an XL than a Medium.

There was also a raw silk long sleeve shirt version, which was $250. Unfortunately, they accidentally sent a shirt dress version. Photos included below to show the fabric, which is substantial and almost flannel like

Now, we must mention that The Elder Statesman’s customer service has been spotty. We contacted them about one order we placed, which was for about $1,400, 12 days after the order was placed with no sign of it shipping (a subsequent smaller order had shipped almost a week before). Two days later we got an email about some of the items being out of stock; It’s unclear whether this email was a response to our initial inquiry or they just coincidentally finally got around to emailing us. They were very helpful and even provided some photos of some possible replacement items they had available. Once sorted, the order shipped soon after.

Sadly, our emails about the dress being sent incorrectly have gone unanswered since October 3rd, almost 20 days ago. A follow up was sent directly to the person who helped with the other order, but that was 6 days ago with no response. We are in a unique situation these days, but these wait times are rather excessive. For such a high end and expensive brand, I’d expect better service, even for an Archive sale.

At the end of the day, the sale was a great one. The products The Elder Statesman offers are all beautiful and it’s rare that they are available for the prices seen in the Archive Sale. They previously had a lower end line, ‘Tyro’ by TES but it doesn’t seem like they produce it anymore. They used less cashmere, either a blend or even alpaca or cotton. Some of it can be found on the secondary market, but if you’re able, The Elder Statesman stuff is well worth seeking out. You’d have to be very well off to afford it at retail, but don’t pass up a good sale.

Tags The Elder Statesman

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Grailed Fee is now 9% – Is it still worth selling there?

Post author By Fashion Raid
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Grailed has recently faced some backlash from users after raising their fee / commission to 9%. We’re going to breakdown whether that fee is reasonable, or whether you’re better off selling on Ebay or StockX.

Let’s start with the obvious, that 9% fee. It was raised on August 12th, 2020 from 6%. In an attempt to explain the increase, Grailed stated that they have been spending a lot of money on authenticating items, and that they will be investing further in improving the site for sellers. We’ll discuss authentication in detail below, and we don’t have any new major seller features yet. So how does this 9% fee stack up?

Ebay is the most obvious competitor to compare against. Ebay has been charging a 10% fee for quite a while, and Paypal charges 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction = 12.9% + 30 cents. With their new Managed Payments format, that number will now be 12.35% + 30 cents. Grailed’s 9% + 2.9% and 30 cent Paypal fee equates to 11.9% + 30 cents. That’s less than half a percent difference, in favor of Grailed. But here’s the kicker; Ebay offers discounted shipping labels. Depending on your method of shipping, USPS labels will usually cost you about 15-40% less than what you’ll be paying if you purchase a label through Paypal. This means it is most likely that your fees will be higher when selling on Grailed than on Ebay once you account for shipping. However, you can also use a third-party shipping site to get the discounted rate, regardless of whether you sell on Ebay or Grailed. PirateShip is our suggestion, and they make it easy to ship with USPS or UPS.

But we’re not finished. At the end of 2019 Ebay eliminated final value fees for items sold for over $100 in the Athletic Shoes category; Yes, that means 0% fee for sneakers that you sell for over $100! This is a huge advantage for Ebay over Grailed. *2022 Update* As of January 19, 2022, Ebay has reinstated a final value fee for sneakers. For Sneakers over $100 in value, the fee is 8%. While this is a huge disappointment, there is no additional Paypal fee, so the 8% fee is about 3% less than the fee you’ll pay for selling on Grailed.

Even if you went an easier route with StockX, they charge 9.5% (or less) and you don’t even have to pay to ship your shoes, they provide a label, which means they are definitely cheaper than the Grailed fee as well. Plus, StockX physically authenticates every pair of shoes that gets sold on the platform. Do you know who does not physically authenticate ANY items?

That’s right, Grailed. The first thing you should know is that Grailed does not personally inspect any items. This means that a seller could easily use photos of a legit item but ship you a fake. This can happen on any platform, of course, but Grailed is the only one with the lack of integrity to claim an item has been authenticated without ever actually seeing it. StockX will catch most fake items, while Ebay will not, but nor will they ever claim to be able to verify an item as authentic.

And we’re still not done. Grailed’s “authentication” process is a combination of human and machine moderation. They do not make it clear what percentage of items are reviewed by humans, or how they determine which items to tag “Digitally Authenticated,” but they do claim every item is reviewed. We have come across some oddities which are cause for concern.

Here is a listing we came across when it was first listed. This was a listing from a user with no feedback, selling an expensive sweater from The Elder Statesman, and only using stock photos from the brand’s own website. The Grailed authentication page details what is considers a “high-risk” item and this certainly meets the criteria. How it was possibly authenticated is beyond comprehension. The seller has subsequently added some real photos, but the listing was posted and remained authenticated for two weeks while it only had the stock photos.

Here’s another we randomly came across, nearly a year after this article was originally written. One stock photo from a seller with no feedback, yet it is somehow “Digitally Authenticated.” To put any trust in this process would be unwise.

Here is one of many Travis Scott burgers from McDonalds we saw posted when it was first released. I wonder how these made it through the filter if every item is reviewed?

Is the Grailed Authentication process good? No. Is it better than nothing? Maybe. Is it a complete waste of time and resources for them? Absolutely. At the end of the day, it’s a worthless service, and the time and money would be better spent elsewhere. It’s terribly misleading to potential buyers and a real shame if the cost of this service contributed to them deciding to increase their fee. It’s even worse considering that they certainly must know that this service doesn’t provide any real value and is probably only being provided as a marketing tool and a way for them to justify charging sellers more money.

So it is still worth using Grailed? While Ebay has its own flaws, Grailed no longer offers any real advantage to sellers since raising the Grailed fee. Ebay also still has a much bigger user base. It’s up to you to determine whether to continue selling at one or both sites, but we have made made our argument and we rest our case.

Tags Ebay, Grailed, StockX, The Elder Statesman, Travis Scott

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Yoox Luckyoox Mystery Box Review

Post author By Fashion Raid
Post date

Yoox.com describes their ‘Luckyoox’ boxes as follows:

“Each Luckyoox bag contains a surprise mix of clothing and accessory items valued at $350 or more. Contents of each bag are unique, and the quantity and variety of items vary for each box. Limited availability. The composition of the items may be different from one box to another. This Luckyoox bag contains men’s products.”

Yoox seems to be discontinuing these mystery boxes, though there are a few remaining at a discount, marked down to $109 from $150. I was curious what kind of items might be included, and what the $350 value is based on. Is that the brand’s retail cost or Yoox’s price?

Here is the box I received a few days after ordering, with a shoe box for scale. It weighed 6 pounds:

I started to wonder whether I was lucky enough to receive a pair of shoes as part of the box. Here’s what was inside:

No shoes, but still some potentially nice items. A red Fossil tin (watch?), a camouflage backpack, and a box which I assumed contained a clothing item, likely a shirt. The box was exciting, as I took it to be a sign that it was a quality item.

Here is a closer look at the accessories:

The Fossil tin contained a leather bracelet, not a watch. The backpack is by Herschel, a decent Canadian brand, known for their bags.

Now for the final box:

Costume National Homme. This is an Italian brand which I have never sought out, but for the cost of the mystery box I was happy with it.

The shirt inside was nice, though the blue color feels a bit outdated. It has a black contract tipped collar and the fabric is an interesting cotton/nylon blend. It’s not my style but it’s a nice enough shirt.

So was it worth it? Yes and no. For $109, the price is fair.

The Fossil Leather Bracelet retails for $50-60
The Herschel Backpack is worth $40-50
The Costume National Homme shirt likely retails for around $200 or higher (let’s call it $250, which puts us at the $350 value yoox claims for the entire box)

Now, it’s not exactly fair to say we’re getting a $350 value for $109. That is if we are paying retail price, while in reality, it probably wouldn’t be too difficult to find these items on sale. Combined with the fact that it is a blind purchase, with no ability to control or choose what you are getting, it becomes tougher to determine whether it is worth it. If you are lucky enough to get some items you like and will use, it can be a great deal. If you get things you don’t like, it doesn’t matter how big of a discount you’re getting.

At the $150 original price I’d be pretty disappointed, but for $109 it was worth the gamble. If you want to test your luck, here is a link to the Yoox Luckyoox page.

Tags Costume National, Fossil, Herschel, Yoox