I thought people might find this interesting -

What GHD officials have to say about their products being sold on Ebay

from a *ghd-uk* representative

I was looking at ghd MK4s on ebay and was at first amazed and excited at the prices I saw them being offered for - as little as £1!!!  But luckily my senses took over, and I thought even whole-salers could not pull that off and make a profit.  Although I did watch some of them go in my ebay, and in each case it turned into a bidding war on each one, and they ended up going for around £80.  So maybe that's how they do it - to attract buyers knowing in the end it would escalate to a profitable price.

Still, I did my research, good student that I am, and I read some very convincing seller descriptions, saying they were "Authorised GHD Retailers", they had good seller ratings, and they showed positive feedback for GHDs. 

However, I looked up this "Authorised Retailer" thing, as surely being authorised there would be some way of verifying this, right?

I contacted representatives through the ghd official uk website *ghd-uk* asking them if there was any way to find out who their authorised retailers are, or if they could verify that these ebay buyers were genuine retailers.  This is the response I got:

Dear Charlotte,

Thanks for your enquiry.

Ghd do not have any associations with eBay or it's sellers, so we
definitely don't have any authorised sellers on eBay. We would not
recommend purchasing the irons from eBay, as you're unable to guarantee
you will be receiving authentic stock.

Just thought people might be interested in hearing what ghd had to say about it.  I guess there's the possibility they ARE authorised retailers, and sell some of the stock on ebay on the side, but I don't know if this would be breaching any of the agreements to GHD, or if it would be possible to sell on stock in this way (ie without proof for taxation purposes) and supposedly GHD would be aware of where and how their products were being sold my their "Authorised Retailers" or else they would not be authorised, would they?

I have decided not to go for them on Ebay, but to buy them either in-store or from a reputable online source, if only for the security and assurance that it IS authentic (so won't break on me), that if ANYTHING goes wrong you have a 2 year warranty GUARANTEED (and though ebay sellers assure you do get this with their product, this is NO GUARANTEE: if something goes wrong but it turns out they are fake YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE ANYTHING as ghd are not liable.) 

Buying them knowing they are authentic is worth the extra in my mind, as when you think about it the proper ones last for years, so really the extra doesn't amount to too much   :)

It does not even have to be the official GHD website you buy from, as I think the price is a little steep on there, although you do get free gifts which might be worth it for the price (£199).  I have seen the MK4 advertised in the online sites of known stores for £99.

Please vote if you found this at all helpful, and I recommend reading the other reviews on this subject here on ebay, as they helped me too.