Replacements: Dodgy China & Crystal Marketplace

Replacements Ltd. Review:

Replacements is a marketplace for vintage items, from estate jewelry to patterned china and crystal figurines. This site buys and sells.

But like many sites that offer to buy your second-hand goods for resale, Replacements gets good reviews from buyers and rotten reviews from sellers.

How it works

If you want to sell the china you inherited here, you’ll fill out a form that identifies the pattern and the pieces you have for sale. Replacements will then give you an “offer.” But this offer is contingent on the items reaching them in one piece, without any damage, and being in excellent condition.

The site doesn’t charge a commission. It simply buys your stuff and then resells it to others. Most often, they’re reselling for several times the price that they offer you. That’s not unusual for a reseller. But, you should ask yourself whether you’d be better off marketing the item to the final buyer, instead of a reseller like Replacements.

Shipping

The site suggests that you ship by Federal Express or the U.S. Post Office and buy insurance for your package. Replacements also provides packing instructions and suggestions. However, the cost of shipping — and the risk of items being damaged in transit — is completely on the seller.

When the items get to Replacements, the site will open the package, evaluate your items and either send you a check for the original offer or revise their offer.

Where it goes wrong

All too often, sellers maintain that Replacements rescinded the original purchase offer and replaced it with an offer that provided less than the cost of shipping. In some cases, that was because items were damaged in transit or not in the condition the seller described, according to the site. The site can revise offers if they maintain that the item was poorly described by the seller.

However, given that the seller will need to pay for the return shipping, which may cost hundreds of dollars more, some people just take the low-ball offer and call it an expensive lesson.

Recommendations

Shipping heavy items is expensive. Shipping fragile items is risky. And, when you’re selling to a reseller, you know you’re not getting top dollar because the site is reselling your goods and wants to make a profit. So, should you sell here? No.

You can list your items for sale on eBay or Amazon and market to a massive national/international audience. Your chance of getting a better price selling to the end consumer is great. Admittedly, it’s likely to take longer. But it doesn’t involve spending a small fortune on shipping.

You can also sell to local buyers through OfferUp or Facebook Marketplace for free. Even if this doesn’t net the biggest purchase price, you may end up better off, once you account for shipping and site fees.

As one disgruntled seller puts it: “If you want to sell, they offer a tenth of what they charge. Apparently, if it is in THEIR hands it’s priceless, if it’s in YOUR hands, it’s worthless. eBay is a much better bet!”

What their sellers say (from ResellerRatings)

Man. Do I feel like an idiot. I always read the reviews but this time i didn’t. And I didn’t get insurance because I packaged the dishes like they were going to war. I was supposed to get a few dollars shy of $400.00 for what i sent. It cost $70.00 to ship. They told me almost all the dishes were broke and offered me $67.00.

“Replacements.com quoted me $55.00 to purchase a Grand Baroque sterling silver knife. Then, after I had paid to ship it, were going to cut a check for $24.00 –less than half what they had quoted. To add insult to injury, they wouldn’t stand behind their quote and I had to pay shipping again to get it back. In my opinion, that’s consumer fraud.”

Everything broke

“We sent 3 boxes of my mother’s porcelain dinnerware double boxed in layers of bubble wrap. Two weeks later, we received notice that something in every box was broken and that the original offer of $149.00 was reduced to $87.00. To make a claim on the insurance, we need to bring the broken items to the Post Office, but we can’t get them back.

I was happy to use professional packing and shipping services to send my dishes to Replacements, since the “Offer to Purchase” was quite fair. (Very little compared to what I paid, but that was expected.) Two weeks later, their email reduced that offer by a full third. Ultimately I netted about $1.25 per piece. I would not have gone to the trouble had I expected this outcome.

Won’t return ‘damaged’ platters

On September 17, 2020 we sent 2 perfectly packaged brand new in the original box china platters to this company. (My husband works for FedEx for 2 decades, so we know how to send fragile items.) They were sent in 2 separate shipments. They were accepted by Replacements, Ltd. And then we were notified that both were damaged with major chips and breaks. We asked for them to be returned to us at our cost and they will not return the items. It is now January 2021. We have given up but I advise anyone else to stay clear away. What a scam. I’m sure they are not returning our items because they have sold them on their site.”

Based on the “offer to buy” my Pfaltzgraff dinnerware should have been worth around $300. It cost us $142 to ship it. Their revised offer came in at $114.00—–WAY lower than expected. SO….they will return it. But YOU pay for return shipping.

Not prudent

“I see that Replacements is currently selling the dinner plate in my china pattern for $26. However, they are only willing to offer me $6.00. The same goes for other pieces in my set. Cheap to me, reap for them. Not gonna do it. Woudn’t be prudent.”

I just got burned by them, Wish I’d read reviews first. Color me STUPID. “