Before You Buy Barcodes from eBay!
Many new sellers will want to get their products listed as quickly as possible onto an online shopping platform.
Sometimes you have everything you need to do this except one thing, a barcode. Many online platforms now require that all new products listed need to be bar-coded. Amazon has this requirement for a few years, now eBay has also stipulated this requirement for some products.
Purchasing barcodes can appear to be a minefield as price varies wildly from pence to pounds.
You could reason that all barcode sellers are the same and a barcode is just a number, so the cheapest option is going to the best… WRONG!
I have always lived by two phrases ‘if it sounds too good to be true it probably is’ and ‘you get what you pay for’. These two simple statements have served me well throughout life, and the same applies to buying barcodes.
Ok you might say “what is the worst that could happen as a result of buying cheap barcodes from an online auction website?”
Two scenarios of buying cheap barcodes are listed below, you may experience one of these or both as a result of buying CHEAP barcodes from an online auction website.
First scenario: You try to use the barcodes on Amazon or eBay only to find the barcodes are already in use. This will stop you listing your products and you have wasted time as now you need to find a reputable seller of barcodes and start all over again.
Second scenario: You have spent money printing barcode labels or worse you have had packaging printed using your cheap barcodes. This expensive packaging has to be thrown away as is now useless. You have wasted time and money. Now you need to find a reputable seller of barcodes and start all over again.
Are these realistic examples we have described or are we just playing out the worst case scenarios?
As a research experiment we bought barcodes form an online auction site last month. All seemed to be fine with the purchase until we started asking the seller some questions:
How many barcodes could we buy with the same prefix?
Was there any limit to the amount of barcode we could buy?
Can these barcode be used in retail stores?
His response was shocking!
We were told that we could buy as many barcodes as we required, as the numbers we had purchased were ghost barcodes, which could NOT be used in ANY retail store ANYWHERE in the world.
What did this mean? The seller had basically MADE UP his own database of barcode numbers so he could churn out as many FAKE, WORTHLESS barcodes has he wanted without any care of the impact this would eventual cause to the unsuspecting buyer.
This online auction seller had a great ad page giving lots of information about barcodes, where these could be used online. This only underscores how many buyers could be fooled into buying barcodes which are FAKE and WORTHLESS. These barcodes CANNOT be used on any platform, online or in retail stores.
In an effort to find a trusted source of barcodes without experience the pitfalls of fake barcode we came across some suppliers listed below who are worth a look.
www.BarcodesForAmazon.co.uk This site is dedicated to the Amazon and eBay platforms, selling barcode numbers only option and barcode with graphics. (Based in the UK)
www.BuyABarcode.co.uk This site also sells barcode for use on all online platforms as well as retail stores worldwide. (Based in the UK)
www.gs1uk.org This site is aimed at large scale businesses. (Based Globally)
www.ozbarcodes.com.au This is a basic website which is easy to use. (based in Australia)
Before you type your card details into a website, ensure that the site is secure. Look out for a small padlock symbol in the address bar (or elsewhere in your browser window) and a web address beginning with https:// (the s stands for ‘secure’).
You also need to check that the website is trustworthy. Here are a few suggestions for ways in which you can reduce the risk of using an untrustworthy site:
- Be suspicious of offers that seem too good to be true. This could indicate that a site might be selling illegal or pirated items.
- If you’re not familiar with the website, you could ask trusted friends, colleagues or family members for their opinion. They might be able to offer you recommendations for alternatives.
- You could also do an internet search to see if the site you are investigating is mentioned favourably on sites you already trust.
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