Why You Shouldn’t Buy Mary Kay Products on Amazon or eBay
This is a popular meme floating around that is meant to discourage consumers from buying their Mary Kay products from eBay, Amazon, or other online outlets. But directly from a Mary Kay consultant!
The biggest argument is that you risk buying expired or damaged products. Newsflash: the risk is the same with a Mary Kay consultant. In fact, the risk may be HIGHER with an MK lady because she isn’t subject to an online rating system. Sellers on Amazon and eBay can get rated by the buyers. If they were selling expired products, they’d get bad reviews and you’d be able to see that.
The MK ladies also say you might get counterfeit products. Stop it. No one is making fake Mary Kay products to sell. High end brands? Maybe. Mary Kay stuff? No. I’ve also heard about the “porch thieves” who allegedly steal boxes of MK products of front porches after UPS delivers them. I don’t doubt that boxes are stolen. I just doubt that the thieves spend their time trying to sell one cleanser at a time on eBay.
The one advantage to buying from a Mary Kay consultant is the product guarantee. You are supposed to be able to return your products for replacement or a refund at any time. Good luck getting your consultant to give your money back! If necessary, you CAN go directly to corporate regarding the guarantee. But you have to have proof of who you purchased it from and when. If you don’t have a receipt, they won’t help you. If you got the products off Amazon or eBay, the guarantee is void. I doubt many buyers care about this aspect, however.
If you ever signed a Mary Kay consultant agreement, it is a violation of the terms of that contract to sell on Amazon, eBay, or any other site… even if you are no longer a consultant. Sorry, it’s what you agreed to. What about people who buy products from consultants and sell them on the internet? They don’t have a contract with Mary Kay, so they *should* be able to sell products that they legally purchased. Unfortunately, Mary Kay Inc. has a bad habit of suing these sellers, on the basis that they are damaging Mary Kay’s brand by selling products that may be expired and that do not come with the product guarantee. They have scared many into not selling on the internet, and they have also won court cases against others who didn’t willingly stop.
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One of the IBC’s in my unit once traded product with me that were literally yellowing. I also got product returned to me with someone else’s label on it. (Once I quit MK and returned my product). The returned products were supposedly the ones that were over one year. I guess the company itself recycles products. Since the focus is profit, even trading products is frowned upon. The amount of men’s products and those horrid heavily scented unsold Christmas lotions must be extreme. Thousands of unsold products rotting on shelves. Better NOT to buy them to begin with. Even better to at least have e bay try to get rid of them. Our land fills are full enough already.
You are correct. A product could be expired whether it came from corporate, an active consultant, or eBay. I’d just avoid MK products all together.
Since MK is trash that is where it ends up landfills. Mk corporate counts on the landfills. That is where mine went all of it. and proud of it.
Let’s think.
Okay, I’ll buy from you, Consultant, but only at 50% off. You do want to make “production”, don’t you? You do want to keep your rank, correct? No??? You won’t sell to me at 50% off? Well, since I could be your best customer potentially buying lots of products, I think I’ll just sign-up, save, and try to make a buck myself – like you. The company prefers that anyway, as maybe I’ll recruit others who also purchase directly FROM THE COMPANY.
See? Who needs Amazon? So Rachel’s point is moot.
Thing is, MLMers usually don’t resell at double price anyway. Only a fool, or favorite aunt, would pay full fake “retail” for an MLM product. The reality is, the affiliate is desperate to unload her previously purchased product, that she bought to make rank, at any price.
I wanted to point out how MLM is inherently flawed as a product resale business. If you can’t sell for a profit, you might as well focus on recruiting. But wait! Without majority non-affiliate sales, it’s an illegal product-based pyramid scheme. A con game.
You, the consultant, are actually the customer spending your money. You find the company other customers to spend money and boost company profits. They, the company, is now worth billions and debt-free. They thank you, dear consultants, for your purchases and support. The marketing strategy of dubbing you a “business owner consultant” was very effective FOR THEM.
The top position in the company is CEO, not NSD as purported in a wannabe’s recent teary-eyed video. CEO David Holl is currently on paid vacation after his recent health event that was covered by his MK group insurance. He’s enjoying a round of golf at the club and thinking about his retirement income. (Not really, but probably) He’d like to thank you consultants for affording him such a life a luxury.
Everything in life is relative. Even the rare 100k a year kickback reward for scamming other women is chump change to most. Try not to be ‘that’ impressed. There are better paying con games out there if you’re really interested in that line of “work”.
It really bothers me to see scumbags disguised as saints taking advantage of people. People who just want to make a better life for themselves. They see a dangled carrot and believe the manipulation. Don’t think for one minute that Corporate is helping the little guy, as they have a scam business to run. They are not empowering women. They are using her for that golf game. Unfortunately, the “successful” MLMers aka “leaders” are in on the con. That really frosts my balls – if I had them. I really enjoy your posts NayMKWay.
To add to Char’s sentiment, the MLM companies twist common business words to sound “business-like”. The most blatant one in Mary Kay is the concept of “wholesale” vs. “retail”. Mary Kay reps do not pay “wholesale” for the products they sell. Mary Kay calls it “wholesale”, but it is actually “retail” from Mary Kay corporate’s perspective. Mary Kay pays wholesale to their supplier for their products, then their MLM distribution channel marks it up for retail sale to the consultants. All the distribution costs and delivery profits are built into the price…making it “retail”. If the rep got product directly from the supplier at true wholesale, the consultant would easily be able to sell them at “market” prices for a margin well above “wholesale”. But because of the outrageous distribution costs associated with Mary Kay’s MLM distribution channel, their “wholesale” is significantly higher than the going “retail” rate for products of similar quality, making them unattractive to anyone other than those interested in the “opportunity” that comes with selling.
The Mary Kay consultant is indeed the target customer. The entire Mary Kay corporate business plan, pricing, incentives, distribution model…all of it is built around this central truth.
The people who sell this on amazon, ebay, and remember the liquidators a few years back, etc.
Well they had not yet come to the realization that this stuff is worthless and is trash worthy.
Who can fault a person for trying to make a quick buck after market. No one.
The liquidators got squeezed by MK corporate legal dept.
The liquidators at the get go thought they had a gold mine resale of MK products. All now in the trash or funneled onto sites…..in some hope of sale.
For the sake of your sanity throw it in trash NOW. Let the light of life shine in,,,
better yet —
take it to local recycle place for hazardous waste such as batteries paint buckets etc. They take care of it.
THANK YOU PINK TRUTH!
I actually had orders stolen off my front porch in the past. In some areas of the country, it wasn’t all that uncommon. Thieves would also steal Amazon, Target, and other packages, and those MK boxes were always tempting. The big rose flower thing, all the MK 45 years of beauty crap, and the boxes were bundled together!! Easy peasy, lemon squeezy! Where that crap ended up is beyond me — maybe the local flea market.
What I never understood from MK is why former consultants and directors were not permitted to sell off their remaining inventory through various retail outlets. WE bought that stuff; we should be allowed to sell it. The market is so saturated with MK products; just look at Poshmark, Amazon, and eBay. All three sites are LOADED with MK crap. (I gave away a lot of stuff, sold out a bunch, and then trashed the rest. That albatross was not hanging around my home.)