Photo by John Mark Arnold on Unsplash When buying "Designer Items" online or in-person, spend some time to educate yourself. It's no longer just educating yourself regarding the product, but also about what online platform (eBay, Amazon, Shopify) you are buying from, what payment gateway the seller is asking you to pay with (PayPal, Stripe), and who the seller is and if they have a established website or Facebook page. It may look like all the items we have mentioned are for online only, but nowadays there is not much difference in selling online and selling in-person. Example: Shopify now allows a seller to take their store listing offline through an App, and track all the transaction to all items recorded in single place. Not everyone will use the same platforms or payment systems. What you need to worry about is, if you are paying with a Credit Card and not using the payment services like PayPal, then will your credit card information will stay safe or not.