How to really, really, get the best deal on Rimowa

Updated on November 10th, 2022

Very good deals on Rimowa suitcases can be found on eBay. eBay still has deals which offer products below the retail price, which is amazing! And not to forget, eBay is with us for years and is a trusted and reliable source for purchasing new and used items. But things have changed a bit lately.

Fees and Sales Tax

Now we have arrived in 2020 things have shifted. The biggest fear of eBay and eBay consumers has arrived and it’s called sales tax collection. Previously customs or the postal service would be responsible for collecting import duty or taxes. Nine out of ten times these aren’t collected simply because of the administrative hassle which makes it very time consuming. If all packages would have to be checked and taxed by USPS, Fedex or DHL then global trading would come to a stand still. Because the government misses out on an enormous amount of taxes the most logical step is to make the selling platform responsible for collecting the taxes. In this case eBay. The downside to this all is that the consumer is hit with an average increase of 5 to 10 percent on a purchase through eBay. Even on used products! eBay isn’t the first platform who are obliged to collect sales tax. Amazon is already doing this for years.

So next to the already hefty eBay fee, which is around 10 percent, an additional 5 to 10 percent (depending on the state where you live) is added to this. Eventually the consumer will pay for the fee and the sales tax.

Emerging Online Marketplaces

Luckily the last couple of years other online marketplaces have emerged which focus on a more specific market, whereas eBay sells it all. Etsy and Grailed are good examples of successful online marketplaces which focus on a niche. Grailed focusses on used designer apparel. Rimowa is also one of the brands which are sold on this platform. The advantage Grailed has over eBay is that the fees for sellers are lower. Six percent on Grailed which is 4 percent lower than the 10 percent eBay charges. Eventually this will result in a lower price for the consumer. A 4 percent discount on a Rimowa suitcase can amount to a $50 dollar discount. Another big advantage for consumers is that Grailed doesn’t collect taxes. This means the price can be another 5 to 10 percent lower. My guess is that it will be a matter of time before Grailed and other relatively new marketplaces will be collecting sales tax any time soon. But for now my advice is to make good use of this!

In the table above the additional costs for sellers, which are eventually passed on to the buyer, can range from 20% on eBay to 6% on Grailed. In the worst case this is a 14% difference. This can result in a price difference of $100 dollar between eBay and Grailed.

Pros and Cons between eBay and Grailed

Even though Grailed has less costs, which will result in a lower price, there are more differences between the two marketplaces. Difference like shipping, buyer protection etc. are outlined in the table below.