Authenticity cannot be settled on a video call, and anybody telling you otherwise is selling you confidence rather than shoes. What a live show is genuinely good for is getting a seller to show you things on request — and what they do when you ask is itself information.
What to ask them to show
The inside size label and the box label, in the same frame. You are not checking a particular detail; you are asking for two things that should describe the same pair, photographed together so neither can be swapped later.
The stitching, close and in focus, along the toe and around the heel.
The sole, under direct light. Ask them to tilt it.
The box as it will be posted. This matters twice: a box used as the shipping carton arrives crushed, and for a boxed pair the box is part of what you are paying for.
Anything that came with them — spare laces, inserts, the receipt if there is one.
What a refusal means
A seller with nothing to hide finds these requests boring. An honest one will say "hold on" and go and get the box.
Watch for the three answers that should cost a seller your bid: changing the subject, telling you the photographs are enough, or offering reassurance in place of a photograph — "trust me, I buy only authentic." You asked for a picture and received a feeling.
"I will send more photographs after you win" is not an answer. Afterwards is too late to decide.
What this page will not do
It will not give you a checklist of tells. The things that genuinely separate a good fake from a real pair in this category change with every production run, and a tell that was true last year is how people get caught this year.
If the pair is expensive enough that being wrong would hurt, the answer is not a better checklist. It is photographs good enough to show somebody who authenticates this for a living, before you bid.
What protects you if you get it wrong
A counterfeit is not a disappointing purchase; it is an item that is not as described. That makes it returnable for 7 days whatever the store's own returns policy says, and it is reportable — counterfeits are banned here, and acting on reports is the one part of this a marketplace can genuinely do.
Questions people ask
Does Metzee check that items are real?
No. Nothing passes through us, so we cannot inspect anything before it is sent. We act on reports.
Is a seller with good reviews safe?
Safer, and not proof. Reviews say the parcels arrived as described — which is worth a lot and is not authentication.
What if I only realise after it arrives?
Report it and open a return. Keep the packaging and photograph everything before you unwrap further.
More: spotting a counterfeit before you bid, Metzee's position on counterfeits, reporting a seller, questions to ask before bidding on sneakers.