Hi all,
In anticipation of my upcoming 50th birthday, I decided to sell several bags that I no longer use, in order to fund the purchase of my first Birkin. My rationale was, I wouldn’t really be spending any money... I’d just be reorganizing it, Hee hee!
My Hermes inventory consists of jewelry, a watch, a special order strap, and a belt. Knowing my sales history would never land me a B from the boutique, I decided I was more than happy to eventually find one preloved.
I knew I wanted a black 35 in Clemence, with palladium hardware. And because I prefer a slightly slouchy look, I figured preloved would work in my favor.
My birthday’s not til March. But I reached my goal rather quickly. So I started really looking several months ago.
I fell in love with one on Rebag, and they were offering 10% off at the time. The bag is from 2000, and the condition was rated as Fair. Yet, it looked great in the pictures! I think this rating was almost exclusively due to its “loss of shape”... which again, didn’t bother me in the least. Especially since I knew I’d be using a bag insert, and storing with a pillow when not in use. I literally couldn’t see anything else “wrong” with the bag. So I pulled the trigger, and figured I would return if disappointed.
I had it authenticated with Bababebi after it arrived, just to be certain. And P.S. she is as thorough and wonderful as everyone says!
I could only find 2 flaws when it arrived: a tiny little rub on one bottom corner, and one side of the loop end of the clochette (the tirette, I believe) looked like it was splitting, if that makes sense.
I didn’t want to worry that it would eventually break and cause me to lose the lock.
So I decided to make an appointment at the the Madison Ave store to see about having it repaired or replaced. And even though the bag otherwise looked great (at least to me), I figured I’d inquire about whether or not it would benefit from a spa treatment while I was there.
When I took it in, the SA couldn’t believe the bag was 20 years old. He told me it looks better than many 2 year old bags he sees. He looked at the clochette, and offered to bring a craftsman out to see whether it should be repaired, or replaced. At that point I asked him for his opinion about having a spa treatment. He looked it over very carefully, and said that the little rub could easily be fixed.
He said it was entirely up to me, because it didn’t really need any repairs. So I asked how long it would take. Since it would be done in house, he said one month.
Side note: He mentioned that the bags that needed to go to Paris were taking 6-8 months. Ugh. Glad I wasn’t looking at that option.
Even though I would have gotten more bang for my buck if I had waited for it to show more wear before being spa’ed, I decided to leave it.
The turn around time was quick enough, and with COVID.... who knows how hard it might be to get back to the city in the future. If nothing else, it would get cleaned, conditioned and looked over... and I would have the peace of mind knowing that if anything needed to be fixed, it would be taken care of.
I left the bag on October 19, and was given an estimated pick of of November 18.
Much to my delight, it was ready yesterday (11/9)... ahead of schedule!
I zipped in to the city today to pick her up. She’s perfect in every way. The leather doesn’t feel different to me, but I’m certainly not complaining. It leads me to believe it must have been in pretty good shape when it went in.
The cost of the spa treatment was $305. And the clochette was replaced for only $90.
Thank you for indulging me. I know that was a long read. I’m very happy. I wanted to include the info about the spa pricing, turn around time, and clochette replacement in case that might be helpful to someone else.
Best to all,Dawn
In anticipation of my upcoming 50th birthday, I decided to sell several bags that I no longer use, in order to fund the purchase of my first Birkin. My rationale was, I wouldn’t really be spending any money... I’d just be reorganizing it, Hee hee!
My Hermes inventory consists of jewelry, a watch, a special order strap, and a belt. Knowing my sales history would never land me a B from the boutique, I decided I was more than happy to eventually find one preloved.
I knew I wanted a black 35 in Clemence, with palladium hardware. And because I prefer a slightly slouchy look, I figured preloved would work in my favor.
My birthday’s not til March. But I reached my goal rather quickly. So I started really looking several months ago.
I fell in love with one on Rebag, and they were offering 10% off at the time. The bag is from 2000, and the condition was rated as Fair. Yet, it looked great in the pictures! I think this rating was almost exclusively due to its “loss of shape”... which again, didn’t bother me in the least. Especially since I knew I’d be using a bag insert, and storing with a pillow when not in use. I literally couldn’t see anything else “wrong” with the bag. So I pulled the trigger, and figured I would return if disappointed.
I had it authenticated with Bababebi after it arrived, just to be certain. And P.S. she is as thorough and wonderful as everyone says!
I could only find 2 flaws when it arrived: a tiny little rub on one bottom corner, and one side of the loop end of the clochette (the tirette, I believe) looked like it was splitting, if that makes sense.
I didn’t want to worry that it would eventually break and cause me to lose the lock.
So I decided to make an appointment at the the Madison Ave store to see about having it repaired or replaced. And even though the bag otherwise looked great (at least to me), I figured I’d inquire about whether or not it would benefit from a spa treatment while I was there.
When I took it in, the SA couldn’t believe the bag was 20 years old. He told me it looks better than many 2 year old bags he sees. He looked at the clochette, and offered to bring a craftsman out to see whether it should be repaired, or replaced. At that point I asked him for his opinion about having a spa treatment. He looked it over very carefully, and said that the little rub could easily be fixed.
He said it was entirely up to me, because it didn’t really need any repairs. So I asked how long it would take. Since it would be done in house, he said one month.
Side note: He mentioned that the bags that needed to go to Paris were taking 6-8 months. Ugh. Glad I wasn’t looking at that option.
Even though I would have gotten more bang for my buck if I had waited for it to show more wear before being spa’ed, I decided to leave it.
The turn around time was quick enough, and with COVID.... who knows how hard it might be to get back to the city in the future. If nothing else, it would get cleaned, conditioned and looked over... and I would have the peace of mind knowing that if anything needed to be fixed, it would be taken care of.
I left the bag on October 19, and was given an estimated pick of of November 18.
Much to my delight, it was ready yesterday (11/9)... ahead of schedule!
I zipped in to the city today to pick her up. She’s perfect in every way. The leather doesn’t feel different to me, but I’m certainly not complaining. It leads me to believe it must have been in pretty good shape when it went in.
The cost of the spa treatment was $305. And the clochette was replaced for only $90.
Thank you for indulging me. I know that was a long read. I’m very happy. I wanted to include the info about the spa pricing, turn around time, and clochette replacement in case that might be helpful to someone else.
Best to all,Dawn
Thank you for sharing your story and happy birthday!!