Some questions on authentic colognes on the bay or other places.

I am in the gradual process of restoring my shave den. My issue is everything is so darn expensive. This has me turning to the bay as well as the bst threads. My question are similar. First is there a place to get authentic Creed for reasonable price? If any on the bay are authentic, how do you tell it apart from the fake?

Next is mainstream cologne. Do they fake Ralph Lauren polo variants? I am thinking most everything except the green. I know Floris, Penhaligons, T&H, and most of the not well known British houses outside of people like us.

I'm not sure that I'd want to drop a lot of cash for an expensive cologne purchased off EBay. I suspect that if you've heard good things about the seller from others here that are knowledgeable and have purchased from them then you might be ok but I wouldn't take a chance on it myself. I'd think that the more expensive it is the more apt it is to be faked. You'll find some info on telling the fake bottles from the real ones if you google it but then again it's no guarantee that the cologne is authentic just because the bottle looks legit. I've heard of the pictures on the site being different than what you are sent as well, so there's always that.

I've bought some Penhaligon's colognes from FragranceNet.com and they are totally legit at a much discounted price (about half, or slightly more than half of the retail price). I know that they sell Creed as well but that it's not usually discounted quite as much. Some of the Creed fragrances are priced at a higher discount than others with the popular ones usually costing a bit more.

I'm with David. I generally only buy from Amazon (if and only if it's a legitimate seller), Overstock, fragrancenet or fragrancex. I know there other legitimate discount retailers out there (and would to hear about them from all y'all). I've only bought one fragrance on the Bay: Kalemat, which is made in Saudi Arabia and can't be purchased in the US. It was a blind buy, but if it's a fake, it's a good one--it's currently in my top five.

I've bought a few - I wouldn't buy Creed on ebay or Amazon. The two that I bought were Issey Myake ones that are hard to find -- bought them when they were sealed (shrinkwrap) and in the original packaging. That still doesn't stop damage from being in extreme heat for years. But the two I got that way seem legit. And it wasn't like they were $200 perfumes, just around $50 so chance of going to all the trouble of watering down, rewrapping, etc. seems much less.

I've also heard that Amazon is buyer-beware as well. So good to hear about Fragrancenet and Fragrancex. I also bought one from Sephora and that seemed good.

I purchased some Penhaligon's from Gerald's decants, and found them to be genuine. He is in Europe (Germany I think) and takes payment in euros, but he is the only source for Racquets Formula as far as I can tell. He lists Creed for sale.
http://flacon.ambaric.net/viewtopic.php?t=7&sid=0923937aaf56f840a80349fa609a39ab
He has a lot on offer. Received package in about 2 weeks as I recall.

Agree with the others. If you can't justify an entire bottle of your favorite Creed, get a decant. This is a good idea because it lets you use a fragrance over a longer time and decide if the full bottle is really what you want. The decant strategy has saved me a lot of money in fragrances not purchased at the whole bottle level. Some I want around but don't care for enough to buy a spendy bottle, and decants are perfect for that.

As far as third party sellers go, "cheap" and "Creed" don't go together.

Cheers, Steve

Thanks for all the comments. I will look into decants.

I bought some Creed GIT off Ebay, it was fake.
It was a bid and not a BIN item. I purchased another bottle from Beauty Encounter, and it was the real deal.
The price on Ebay was $70(I should have known better), the price from Beauty Encounter was $140.
I used the fake and it did not smell anything like the original.
The bottles are very close to being the same but; you can tell a difference.
I kept the fake bottle as a reminder as a lesson learned!

If you use it, you're better off to join a Facebook group and get in when some of the more respected members buy flaccon's (8-17oz).

I just recently got 50ml of GIT for $55.

I've had success buying some vintage fragrances in eBay but you really need to be careful and know what you're doing. I wouldn't recommend eBay for popular brands or novice buyers.

Definitely agree with others re: fragrancenet. I've yet to experience a problem with them, and their prices are often the best I can find.

Just remembered something else worth mentioning - if you are interested in Chanel, I suggest avoiding *any* discount sellers. Chanel has tight controls on distribution channels, and there are numerous fakes "out there". If you happen to want Chanel, be prepared to pay retail for full bottles (Sephora, Ulta, Macy's, Nordstrom, etc).