answers to AUTHENTICITY questions!!!

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I hope this is the right thread for posting this question. If not, I sincerely apologize!

I am wondering whether Coach stores can authenticate a current bag if I bring it in? I have three days to get a bag authenticated before the return policy runs out on a bag I might be buying. Hyacinth in the authentication thread was very helpful, and said it looks alright. I would just like to be 100% certain!

I have obviously never done this before and I hope no sales associates look down on me for buying a preloved!
 
I hope this is the right thread for posting this question. If not, I sincerely apologize!

I am wondering whether Coach stores can authenticate a current bag if I bring it in? I have three days to get a bag authenticated before the return policy runs out on a bag I might be buying. Hyacinth in the authentication thread was very helpful, and said it looks alright. I would just like to be 100% certain!

I have obviously never done this before and I hope no sales associates look down on me for buying a preloved!

Please NEVER waste youir time taking any Coach item to any store for authentication. Coach employees are NOT trained to spot fakes and in at least 80 percent of the cases we've heard of, have totally misidentified fakes as real, and vice versa. And 99 percent of their sales associates don't know a bloody thing about older styles.

If you want more opinions, ask at Ebay's Shoes & Purses forum but make sure you get one of the regular posters to answer.
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/forum/Shoes-Purses-And/1000000009
 
Hyacinth said:
Please NEVER waste youir time taking any Coach item to any store for authentication. Coach employees are NOT trained to spot fakes and in at least 80 percent of the cases we've heard of, have totally misidentified fakes as real, and vice versa. And 99 percent of their sales associates don't know a bloody thing about older styles.

If you want more opinions, ask at Ebay's Shoes & Purses forum but make sure you get one of the regular posters to answer.
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/forum/Shoes-Purses-And/1000000009

Okay, thank you so much! I really appreciate all of your help. If this wasn't a newer style (and your own admission that you are not an expert with these new styles, thank you for your honesty!) I wouldn't ask for another opinion.

I will definitely give the EBay forums a try!
 
L05Q-5688

This is another serial number that's been showing up on fakes for several years. For a while in 2009, there were various Bonnie canvas wannabes that were showing up with this style number. In the last 6 months, copies of scarf print bags, signature demis and styles that never existed have been popping up with the same serial number.

As far as I can tell, style 5688 doesn't exist.
 
L05Q-5688

This is another serial number that's been showing up on fakes for several years. For a while in 2009, there were various Bonnie canvas wannabes that were showing up with this style number. In the last 6 months, copies of scarf print bags, signature demis and styles that never existed have been popping up with the same serial number.

As far as I can tell, style 5688 doesn't exist.

I can't find any genuine styles with that number either. And according to several posts here in 2009 that number was also used in fake leather Lilys:
http://forum.purseblog.com/coach-shopping/authenticate-this-coach-492978-33.html#post12095703

Google Images under Coach 5688 also shows a variety of tacky and obvious fakes in different Op Art and Sig fabrics, none of which were ever made by Coach and in styles and patterns that were never made anytime close to 2005.

Thanks, BB!
 
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We talk a lot about the fake 2-piece white with brown trimmed boxes that are so often shown with fake Coach keychains. Because we're so used to seeing fakes with the phony 2-piece keychain boxes and bogus "JKRSL PAVEFOB" labels, I wanted to show what a genuine box looked like. (Note that these boxes were discontinued approximately 2005-ish so it's rare to see them.)

I found a listing and it had fairly decent pictures of a keychain and the authentic white with brown trimmed box that used to come with them.

These pictures show that the box has the tuck-in end flaps, a label that matches the correct style of fob and the keychain, also with the correct tag. (Note that occasionally, you might see a genuine box with a mis-matched label/fob. Back when these boxes were used, department stores would remove the keychains from the boxes to display them. When an item sold, the SAs didn't realize (or care) that the boxes were marked with information to match the item so sometimes, they grabbed any box to give to the customer.

Note that the pictures below are from an ebay seller's listing and are not my own. I am grateful that the seller showed such a complete listing with legible and fairly clear pictures. I hope she doesn't mind my "borrowing" her pictures as an example.

7327picframefobwithboxAUTH1.png


7327picframefobwithboxAUTH2.png


7327picframefobwithboxAUTH3.png


7327picframefobwithboxAUTH4.png


7327picframefobwithboxAUTH5.png


7327picframefobwithboxAUTH6.png
 
I received a coach Candace from eBay. The creed is c1273-99999. The bag compares exactly as my uv Candace. I contacted the seller and he told me it is a sample bag? Has anyone heard of such a thing? Why don't

Sample bags have the same creed as the other bags? And if they don't how do we determine if they are real or fake, like I said it is the same in all regards as my uv Candace except for the creed. Tia d
 
I received a coach Candace from eBay. The creed is c1273-99999. The bag compares exactly as my uv Candace. I contacted the seller and he told me it is a sample bag? Has anyone heard of such a thing? Why don't

Sample bags have the same creed as the other bags? And if they don't how do we determine if they are real or fake, like I said it is the same in all regards as my uv Candace except for the creed. Tia d

Yes, the style number 99999 is used for samples. Unfortunately, there is almost no way to completely authenticate it. If it is exactly the same as your other Candace, then it is probably authentic. According to this creed, it was made in March 2012, which should be before this style was released. I have a sample duffle with the same date, and I remember getting it in July, right when they were released.
 
Yes, the style number 99999 is used for samples. Unfortunately, there is almost no way to completely authenticate it. If it is exactly the same as your other Candace, then it is probably authentic. According to this creed, it was made in March 2012, which should be before this style was released. I have a sample duffle with the same date, and I remember getting it in July, right when they were released.

Hi...I am hijacking your response here:p...just want to say thanks for clearing up the "b4" in the listing I posted in the Coach finds sticky. Maybe I should have said "obscurely listed"!
Thanks again...I had no clue what it was referring to.
 
Hi...I am hijacking your response here:p...just want to say thanks for clearing up the "b4" in the listing I posted in Deals and Steals. Maybe I should have said "obscurely listed"!
Thanks again...I had no clue what it was referring to.

You're welcome. It is definitely poorly listed! The seller left off the important information like the name of the style. I'm sure most people have no idea what that title means.
 
Yes, the style number 99999 is used for samples. Unfortunately, there is almost no way to completely authenticate it. If it is exactly the same as your other Candace, then it is probably authentic. According to this creed, it was made in March 2012, which should be before this style was released. I have a sample duffle with the same date, and I remember getting it in July, right when they were released.

Thanks whateve, that was very helpful.

So do all sample bags have 99999 as the last 5 digits?

I know of another bag that the bag looks, feels and acts just like a coach. All the stitching is beautiful, the bag leather matches its "real coach sister" and the lining is exactly the same as on the real coach, but this questionable coach has no number on the creed. What are your thoughts on that one?
 
Thanks whateve, that was very helpful.

So do all sample bags have 99999 as the last 5 digits?

I know of another bag that the bag looks, feels and acts just like a coach. All the stitching is beautiful, the bag leather matches its "real coach sister" and the lining is exactly the same as on the real coach, but this questionable coach has no number on the creed. What are your thoughts on that one?

I have seen samples like that as well. My sample is the worst - it doesn't have the 99999 - it has the wrong style number! I was sure it was fake because of that. The seller was a photographer who was given the bag for a photo shoot. It came with some documentation from the factory that supported his story and the ladies at tpf determined that was enough proof of its authenticity.

I think you would have trouble selling these though. We have seen fakes that don't have a number or have the 99999 so a lot of buyers would be leery of them. Some of them are scary good.

The seller you bought your bag from should have disclosed that it was a sample.
 
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