THERE is no doubt you can grab some great designer deals online, but did you know that a typo could help you save hundreds of pounds on top brands?
An unfortunate spelling mistake on an eBay UK listing could be the difference between paying top dollar and bargain basement prices.
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But how much can you save? The Sun checked the auction website to find some examples.
We found a pair of used, women’s Balenciaga Triple S clear sole trainers which have previously sold for £380 on eBay on June 20.
But a pair of identical misspelt “Balanciaga” trainers sold for just a fraction of the price at £83 on March 27.
They usually retail for £825. This means the buyer saved a whopping £297.
We also found a pair of Tiffany and Co sunglasses sold for £56 after attracting three bids.
They were listed under the name “Tifany and Co” and sold on April 18.
A similar pair with the correct spelling sold for £234 on June 19. That’s a difference of more than £182.
While a Vintage Fred Perry Harrington jacket, which costs £250 new, sold for just £40 with the spelling “Fred Pery”.
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As well as checking all brand names are spelt correctly, Emma Grant, head of pre-loved at Ebay UK, says pictures, details and pricing are all important factors for sellers hoping to make their product stand out.
How to find misspelt bargains
There are specialist sites that can be used to trawl eBay for all possible spelling mistakes.
These include FatFinders, bidkit and barginchecker.com.
Fred Perry has the most commonly misspelt listings, with incorrectly spelt items accounting for more than 8% of all the brand’s listings, according to Wholesale Clearance UK.
There were almost 9,000 misspelt listings with the most common misspelt listing being ‘Red Perry’.
On average, customers saved 20p on misspelt Fred Perry items.
Bigger savings come on brands such as Nike, where a typo can help customers to save an average of £30.05.
Buyers looking for a deal on designer Rayban sunglasses could save an average of £26 by searching for Rayyan, Ryan and Raban.
A typical listing on ‘Rayban’ sells for £45, but if you are savvy and search for a misspelling you can get an average price of £19.
Other brands commonly misspelt in listings include New Balance, Puma, and Harvey Nichols.
All misspellings for each brand were input into eBay’s own market research tool, Terapeak, to identify the average selling price and number of listings.
Beware of fakes
Shoppers need to watch out for fakes when buying on the likes of eBay.
As part of its rules, eBay says it doesn’t allow counterfeit items to be listed.
To crack down on this, eBay says all sellers should include original and clear photographs of their items.
Any items that do not follow the rules are either cancelled, hidden or demoted.
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