A TikToker posted a viral video warning shoppers against buying designer brands at thrift stores. After another content creator posted a video saying they found Prada shoes for $300 at Goodwill, Marc (@verifiedbluecheckmarc) shared his warning and advised the shopper to get a refund.
Marc has previously gone viral for warning customers against buying designer goods at T.J. Maxx and informing them of a HomeGoods price tag scam.
His video begins with a stitched clip of a woman holding a pair of Prada shoes inside a Goodwill. The woman’s video had an on-screen caption that says, “POV you walk into a Goodwill in Denver + immediately find patent leather Prada loafers that are in perfect condition in your size.”
After the clip ends, Marc says, “If you go to the thrift store and find ‘designer’ and then come on here and share your find, and embrace its fakeness, … you do you.”
“But this is not embracing,” he adds.
Marc shares a screenshot of the original TikToker’s comments section, where she shared how much she purchased the shoes for. “I bought them for $300. It’s expensive for a goodwill purchase, but they were in perfect condition!” she wrote.
“That’s embarrassing,” Marc says. “I think this is the fourth week in a row I had to come on here and let the internet know that Google.com is free.”
Next, Marc pulls up a screenshot of Prada Chocolate brushed leather loafers, which are sold online for $1,200. “I think it took a whole five-second search to get me here,” he says.
“I’m baffled how anyone could think this,” he continues as he zooms into the picture of the Prada loafers, “is the same as this,” he adds, panning to a zoomed-in photo of the Goodwill loafers.
Marc says he sees this on the internet every week if not every day: “A young person going to a thrift store and [getting] bamboozled by a designer brand logo paired with a thrift store’s corrupt price.”
Predicting what some comments might say, Marc exclaims, “If you wanna come back and say, ‘They don’t know any better,’ like I said, ‘Google.com is free.’ You don’t have to be an expert in luxury or authentication to use it.”
“This is so disrespectful to yourself and to your finances. You’re not being a hero paying $300 for shoes that are brand new on DHgate for 50 bucks,” he adds, referencing a Chinese e-commerce site that has become well-known on TikTok for designer replicas, as Elle magazine reports.
Before ending his video, Marc says, “The consumer being careless with their spending is not the biggest problem here. The biggest problem here is the Goodwill.”
Marc captioned his video, “Please go return those,” and tagged the original TikToker, Maiya Mindoro (@maiyamindoro).
@verifiedbluecheckmarc Please go return those @Maiya • Life in Denver #greenscreen #greenscreenvideo #goodwillfinds #designershoes #prada ♬ original sound – Marc ($14.99/month)
Mindoro has since posted update videos explaining how she found out the shoes were counterfeits. After her video was covered on Business Insider, she posted again, saying Goodwill had refunded her.
“This is totally my fault, not the store’s fault,” she says in one of the follow-ups. “They never claimed that they were authentic.”
Goodwill of Colorado commented on Mindoro’s refund post, saying, “Thank you for shopping with us Maiya, we appreciate your support and we’re glad we were able to make this right.”
@maiyamindoro Replying to @C ♬ original sound – Maiya • Life in Denver
Marc told the Daily Dot via TikTok direct message, “the Business Insider article or the buyer did not acknowledge my post that brought it to the internet’s attention.”
As of the publication of this story, Marc has reached over 1.2 million views and 56,000 likes on his video; Mindoro’s original post has over 472,800 views and 15,000 likes.
“It was counterfeit which led her to get her $300 refund,” Marc continued.
He added that the only direct communication he’s had with Mindoro was leaving a comment on her post. “I said return, not take ownership and say it wasn’t the fault of Goodwill…” he reported commenting on her post.
The Daily Dot reached out to Mindoro via email and TikTok direct message and to Goodwill of Colorado via TikTok direct message for more information.