Trend reselling and spotting fakes

Whatnot’s browse page shows how many people are watching each category live, from trading card games to blind boxes, LEGO and squishy toys. Note the counts for the categories you buy in at the same times each week.

Those numbers are snapshots. Watch the same rows over a few weeks before you spend on stock: a category whose viewers fall while sold prices drop is a craze cooling.

Fake Labubu dolls, often called Lafufus, spread widely in 2025, and US Customs and Border Protection reported seizing shipments of them. Some fakes have small parts that come loose, a choking risk for young children.

Collectors check that the QR code on the box leads to Pop Mart’s own site and not a lookalike page, and look for a mark on the foot that shows under UV light. Compare print sharpness, colors and the sealed foil against a box from an official Pop Mart store. Treat a price far below other sold listings as the clearest warning.

Fakes often have a lighter blue back, blurry text or a glossy surface where the real card is textured. Hold the card up to a phone flashlight: genuine cards have a dark inner layer, and many fakes let more light through.

Weigh a card you pulled from a sealed pack on a 0.1 g pocket scale and compare suspect cards with it. Sealed booster boxes and tins can be resealed, so check the wrap against a known good box. A clip-on macro lens shows the print pattern; photograph it for your listing.

Sonny Angels sell blind in sealed boxes, so check the outer box print, the seal and the figure’s paint against one from an official stockist. Ask sellers of rare figures for photos of the box and insert together.

For sneakers, compare the box label with the size tag inside the shoe, the stitching, the insole print and the smell of the glue. On eBay, eligible sneakers, handbags, watches and trading cards above set prices go to an authenticator before the buyer gets them.

A pocket scale reading to 0.1 g catches thin card stock and light figures. A clip-on macro lens kit shows print dots, stitching and tiny logo details your phone camera blurs.

A light tent gives even light so colors match from one photo to the next. Photograph the item, the box codes and the scale reading before you list. Those photos answer an authenticity claim and show buyers you checked.

eBay, Mercari, Poshmark and Whatnot all ban counterfeits, remove listings and can suspend accounts. Read each platform’s counterfeit policy in its help center before you list hyped stock.

eBay’s Authenticity Guarantee covers selected categories above set prices, and Poshmark authenticates eligible luxury items. Below those prices, you carry the counterfeit risk, and a buyer’s claim usually ends in a refund.

Vestiaire Collective puts an expert between you and the buyer: the buyer can have the item checked at an authentication center before it reaches them, and a failed check cancels the sale. Keep receipts, boxes and tags with anything you list there.