Three kinds of check
“Authenticated” means three different things across the resale market. At the top is physical inspection: the seller sends the pair to the platform's own facility, someone handles it, and only a pair that passes goes on to the buyer. Below that is a review of the listing — photographs and description read by a person or a machine — which can catch a careless fake and cannot weigh, smell or open a shoe. At the bottom is no check at all: counterfeits are forbidden, and a buyer who receives one is protected by a refund policy rather than by an inspection.
All three have a place. What matters is knowing which one a particular sale is under, because the same platform can apply different routes to different pairs, prices and countries.
A review of the listing reads what a camera sees — which is exactly what counterfeiters copy.
| Platform | What is checked | When it applies | If a pair fails |
|---|---|---|---|
| eBay (US) | The pair, at eBay's authentication facility | Eligible sneakers on eBay.com, US seller to US buyer; from $75 or $100 by model | Not sent on; buyer refunded; pair back to seller, counterfeits may be destroyed |
| eBay (UK) | The pair, by eBay's authentication team | £100 and over (select models below), posting within the UK | Not sent on; buyer refunded |
| StockX | The pair, at a verification centre | Verified Marketplace orders, unless the seller is a Verified Seller shipping direct | Usually returned to the seller, with a penalty fee |
| GOAT | The pair, at a GOAT facility | All resale sneakers, at no extra cost to the buyer | Seller charged $15; buyer refunded in full |
| Poshmark | The pair, at its authentication facility | Select brands, including Nike, Jordan and adidas, at $500+ (C$700 in Canada) | Order cancelled, buyer refunded, pair cannot be relisted |
| Vinted | The pair, at a verification hub — if the buyer pays | Eligible brands, £85+ in the UK (£10); €100+ in France and Germany (€10) | Back to the seller; buyer refunded in full |
| Grailed | The listing's photographs and content | Listings Grailed considers in scope | Listing deleted; buyer covered if reported within 3 days |
| Mercari (US) | Photographs, by a third party | Designer brands only — not Nike, Jordan or adidas | Listing deleted; returns for counterfeits within 72 hours |
| Depop | No authentication service advertised | — | Counterfeits count as significantly not as described |
| Shoe Scanner | One photograph, read by the instrument | Any pair, free, before anyone pays | Nothing — it is a first signal, not a sale or a certificate |
As each platform's help pages stated it on 24 October 2026. Thresholds and fees change; read the current page before relying on one.
eBay: the Authenticity Guarantee
On eBay.com, sneakers that qualify are routed automatically: the seller ships to eBay's authentication facility, the pair is physically inspected and tagged, and only then does it go on to the buyer. There is no opting in or out. Eligibility depends on brand, model and price — eBay's seller help puts the line at $100, with select models lower, while its buyer page says it authenticates select items starting at $75 — and the sale must be from a US seller to a US address, with Canadian and Australian buyers included only on final-sale listings. The inspection itself is free; the buyer pays a flat eBay shipping fee on these orders.
If the pair cannot be confirmed as genuine, or does not match the listing, it is not sent on and the buyer is refunded in full, and eBay reserves the right to confiscate and destroy counterfeits. In the UK the same programme covers sneakers at £100 and over, and select models below, for orders posted within the UK. One caveat in eBay's own words matters more than any threshold: if the seller ships directly to you, the pair has not been checked.
StockX and GOAT: inspected before they ship
StockX built its business on routing new, unworn pairs through its own verification centres, where they are inspected against StockX's condition guidelines before the buyer receives them. Since April 2025 there is an exception: an invite-only group of Verified Sellers ship directly to buyers. Used and one-off pairs on its US-only Listings Marketplace are verified only if the buyer pays $12.50 at checkout.
GOAT requires resale sneakers to be shipped to one of its facilities first, where they are verified by what it describes as digital authentication, in-hand verification and machine learning, typically within one or two business days and at no extra cost to the buyer. Pairs sold as new retail stock ship pre-verified from GOAT's partners. A pair found to be a replica costs the seller $15 and the buyer is refunded.
No inspection is infallible. In Nike's lawsuit against StockX, a court found StockX liable for selling counterfeit pairs, as Complex reported; the two companies settled in August 2025. A platform's check lowers the risk a great deal. It does not remove it.
Poshmark and Vinted: a check above a threshold
Poshmark's Posh Authenticate sends eligible orders to its own authentication facility before they reach the buyer, free to both sides. It applies to select luxury brands and categories at $500 and above in the United States and C$700 in Canada, and its brand list includes Nike, Jordan, adidas, Yeezy and New Balance — so a valuable pair from those names qualifies, and a pair below the threshold is covered by Poshmark's return protection rather than by an inspection.
Vinted's Item Verification is optional and paid for by the buyer: in the UK, £10 on eligible-brand items priced at £85 or more, shoes included; in France and Germany, €10 at €100 or more. If the buyer adds it, the seller ships to a verification hub, and the pair goes on with a tag and a report — or back to the seller, with the buyer refunded. It checks authenticity, not condition, and it is not offered in the United States.
Grailed, Mercari and Depop: photographs, policies and refunds
Grailed does not handle the pairs sold on it. A Grailed Verified badge means the listing's photographs and description were reviewed — by a person for items Grailed considers high-risk, by machine for the rest. Listings found inauthentic are deleted, and a buyer who receives a fake is covered if they report it within three days of delivery.
Mercari's authentication in the United States is a photograph review by an independent third party, for designer brands only; its list does not include Nike, Jordan or adidas, so most sneakers sold there are not authenticated by Mercari at all. A buyer can request a return for an inauthentic item within 72 hours of delivery.
Depop does not advertise an authentication service. Counterfeits are prohibited, a fake counts as significantly not as described, and Depop's own buying advice is to ask the seller for proof of authenticity on higher-priced items — and to pay inside the app, because purchases paid outside it are not protected.
In a shop: Plato's Closet and Foot Locker
Plato's Closet stores are independently owned franchises, and how they check a pair depends on the store. Several say they buy only when they are certain an item is authentic; some use a third-party service, and one charges a fee when a pair it sends out comes back inauthentic. Ask the store before you bring a valuable pair in.
Foot Locker is a retailer of new stock bought from the brands — Nike supplied about 65% of everything it bought in 2023, by its own annual report — and its help centre describes no service for checking a pair bought elsewhere.
Choosing where to buy or sell a valuable pair
For a pair worth real money, the safest route is one where it passes through an inspection before payment reaches the seller. Check that the listing is eligible, keep the sale inside the platform, and refuse any offer to ship direct or to pay outside the app — both take the pair out of the system that was protecting you.
Selling, the same inspection works in your favour: a buyer pays more for a pair they cannot be cheated on, and an unverifiable pair sells at a discount even when it is genuine. Read the photographs a careful buyer will ask for — the label inside the tongue, the box label, the soles — before you list, and make sure they agree.
- Is this listing eligible for the platform's inspection, at this price and in this country?
- Will the pair travel through the platform's facility, or straight from the seller?
- Is payment made, and held, inside the platform?
- If the pair fails, who refunds whom, and in how many days must a problem be reported?
What the instrument adds
Shoe Scanner reads a photograph and gives an original-or-replica reading with its confidence, alongside the model, the condition and a resale estimate. It is useful in the minutes before a decision — scrolling listings, meeting a seller, choosing which pair to send for a paid check — and it costs nothing.
It is not an inspection and does not pretend to be one. A photograph carries what replicas copy best, and the house examines no pair and issues no certificates. For a valuable pair, the table above is the next step.