Authenticate This COACH - **see first post for format**

[Vlad]

IMPORTANT READ-ME

Please post authenticity questions related to COACH in this thread. No PMs please.
For further information, please refer to the first post on page 1 of this thread.

Please follow the following requests:

• Before you submit a request for authentication, please search this thread to make sure that the item has not previously been authenticated by searching the seller ID and/or item number. This is not a thread to ask general questions about COACH, please refer to our main Coach forum for such information.
• Note that authenticators have the right to refuse any requests. This is a free service, but it is imperative that you help our authenticators by using the following format:
• FOR ITEMS LISTED ONLINE:
  Item:
  Listing number:
  Seller and site where listed
  Link:
  Comments:
  
  
• FOR ITEMS NOT LISTED ONLINE:
  Item:
  Where purchased or how obtained
  Comments:

BASIC PICTURES REQUIRED (but more may be requested): If necessary pictures are in the listing, it's not necessary to upload and duplicate them.

• Front of item
• Back of item
• Full clear and legible creed text and serial number
• Made in tags (when available)
• Measurements
• For bags with turnlock closures, show pictures of back of female side of turnlock
• For bags with magnetic snaps, show pictures of the male part of the snap so that the numbers and letters on it can be read
• If applicable, search interior of bag and/or pockets for small white tag with production information and include a picture of that.

Thank you and be safe!

 

[Hyacinth]

The format of the numbers can tell us when a bag was made, when combined with the wording of the creed and especially with how the creed shows where the bag was made. Those details changed often during the 1970s thru the 1990s but we can usually nail it down to within a few years.

There's a set of Guides posted here called the Salearea Coach Guides that have accurate information on dates and serial numbers, the link is posted right at the top of most pages here in the Coach Shopping forum:
https://forum.purseblog.com/threads/salearea-guides.983575/

or you can post photos of the Station-type bag along with the creed stamp and serial number at the ID This Coach thread in the "main" Coach forum and get a name and approximate date for your bags:
https://forum.purseblog.com/threads...st-any-coach-item-name-questions-here.355205/
Again, actual photos of the creed and serial number are extremely important when identifying, authenticating or dating a Coach bag.

Silver hardware only started to be used on Coach handbags in 1998 and was introduced at different times on different styles and lines between 1998 and 2000. Silver-color hardware became available on the Willis toward the end of 1998, but in the beginning only with Black or Gray leather. The black Willis in your photos that you two-toned was made in October 1998 so it would have been one of the first ones with silver or nickel-color hardware.

ETA - I had one of the early Station Bags from the late 1980s that was a 2-tone British Tan with black trim, but it had actually been done by Coach back in the day when they offered a repair service. The previous owner had sent it in for repair because the piping had been damaged and needed to be replaced. The bag was originally a solid Tan, but the color had darkened over the years, so the repair people, with the owner's OK, had replaced the tan piping with black, and also had changed the turnlock tab color, replaced the tan top handle with a black one, and sent her a solid black strap just like the original tan one. They did a very nice job too, even the stitching was Coach quality. Sometimes I wish I had kept that bag just because it was so unusual, but it was just too small for all the things I needed to carry, it barely held my full size wallet and my driving glasses.

EATA - Didn't realize that I still had a photo of it :

 

[bolsathemosta]

I'm giving her a photo shoot tomorrow. I hate trying to get good pics of the inside of these bags with my big phone. I had to take and retake them to satisfy Mercari as the authenticators app wont let you upload pics from file, add comments , has a ridiculous close up feature that makes it impossible to get the whole creed tag in the photo. Then they make you take two more of it for where it's made and the number. It wont let you upload them until you do, and apparently they arent even looking at your post because I had to write on a piece of paper that the bag had the color change done to it by me and take a picture of that.

I used to be a beta tester for software and the way some of these marketplaces have their software designed makes me crazy!

 

[whateve]

I'm giving her a photo shoot tomorrow. I hate trying to get good pics of the inside of these bags with my big phone. I had to take and retake them to satisfy Mercari as the authenticators app wont let you upload pics from file, add comments , has a ridiculous close up feature that makes it impossible to get the whole creed tag in the photo. Then they make you take two more of it for where it's made and the number. It wont let you upload them until you do, and apparently they arent even looking at your post because I had to write on a piece of paper that the bag had the color change done to it by me and take a picture of that.

I used to be a beta tester for software and the way some of these marketplaces have their software designed makes me crazy!

I used to be a software coder, and it annoys me too.

 

[Hyacinth]

I'm giving her a photo shoot tomorrow. I hate trying to get good pics of the inside of these bags with my big phone. I had to take and retake them to satisfy Mercari as the authenticators app wont let you upload pics from file, add comments , has a ridiculous close up feature that makes it impossible to get the whole creed tag in the photo. Then they make you take two more of it for where it's made and the number. It wont let you upload them until you do, and apparently they arent even looking at your post because I had to write on a piece of paper that the bag had the color change done to it by me and take a picture of that.

I used to be a beta tester for software and the way some of these marketplaces have their software designed makes me crazy!

And with all those silly requirements, Mercari still lists a LOT of fakes.

I don't know if you saw it before you posted but I thought you might like to see a Station Bag 2-tone actually done by Coach. This is one of those times when I wish I still had it, see the pic and post above yours.

 

[bolsathemosta]

ETA - I had one of the early Station Bags from the late 1980s that was a 2-tone British Tan with black trim, but it had actually been done by Coach back in the day when they offered a repair service. The previous owner had sent it in for repair because the piping had been damaged and needed to be replaced. The bag was originally a solid Tan, but the color had darkened over the years, so the repair people, with the owner's OK, had replaced the tan piping with black, and also had changed the turnlock tab color, replaced the tan top handle with a black one, and sent her a solid black strap just like the original tan one. They did a very nice job too, even the stitching was Coach quality. Sometimes I wish I had kept that bag just because it was so unusual, but it was just too small for all the things I needed to carry, it barely held my full size wallet and my driving glasses.

EATA - Didn't realize that I still had a photo of it :

View attachment 4718123

That is a lovely bag. It does look like the other one that's drying right now. I really want to find a nice vintage backpack to do something creative with. There was one of the flat hippy ones on goodwill today but I think I'm gonna go bigger.

 

[bolsathemosta]

Oh I bet. I'm no coder but I know it's not too hard to make uploading pics on poshmark faster and easier. I hate how I have to do them one at a time and have to do a full navigation through my folders to do the next one.

I used to be a software coder, and it annoys me too.

 

[valv54]

ETA - I had one of the early Station Bags from the late 1980s that was a 2-tone British Tan with black trim, but it had actually been done by Coach back in the day when they offered a repair service. The previous owner had sent it in for repair because the piping had been damaged and needed to be replaced. The bag was originally a solid Tan, but the color had darkened over the years, so the repair people, with the owner's OK, had replaced the tan piping with black, and also had changed the turnlock tab color, replaced the tan top handle with a black one, and sent her a solid black strap just like the original tan one. They did a very nice job too, even the stitching was Coach quality. Sometimes I wish I had kept that bag just because it was so unusual, but it was just too small for all the things I needed to carry, it barely held my full size wallet and my driving glasses.

EATA - Didn't realize that I still had a photo of it :

View attachment 4718123

I really wish coach still offered full repair services. I think that would set them apart from other brands, especially since they want to highlight the vintage and such.

 

[bolsathemosta]

I really wish coach still offered full repair services. I think that would set them apart from other brands, especially since they want to highlight the vintage and such.

They would have to stop making all of their low quality outlet bags then because some times an entire years line of a particular design will not last more than a few months with regular use.
I've had several.bags that were very popular designs that had major design flaws. Most of them being related to straps and handles.
Large heavy bags with straps less than half an inch wide sewn with a single stitch line in the seam...with a rivet that doesn't even connect the strap and bag.
I have a cute watercolor striped canvas backpack where the thin straps are sewn into the seam with a single stitch line and the reinforcing material between the two pieces of leather that make the strap ends an inch above where its sewn in.
And the quality of the patent coating on bag straps has been so bad its peeling from handles and straps on bags that look almost new everywhere else.
I'm glad they seem to be going back to their roots with this new design campaign. I hope they stop making all of those crappy canvas and bonded leather strap bags and get better QC all around.

 

[LunaSilver]

Good morning,
Could you authenciate this eBay listing, thank you.
Seller:mimzwhimz
https://www.ebay.com/itm/114201674525

 

[Hyacinth]

Good morning,
Could you authenciate this eBay listing, thank you.
Seller:mimzwhimz
https://www.ebay.com/itm/114201674525

It looks good to me.

 

[LunaSilver]

It looks good to me.

Thank you very much, have a wonderful day.

 

[hut girl]

This is the first bag I bought which started my obsession. I paid $3 at a thrift store. I love it! It measures 11 1/2" wide x 8" tall. The two sides are identical like the first photo. I am hoping to any info about it. Thanks!

 

[bolsathemosta]

This is the first bag I bought which started my obsession. I paid $3 at a thrift store. I love it! It measures 11 1/2" wide x 8" tall. The two sides are identical like the first photo. I am hoping to any info about it. Thanks!

I would live to know the details on it too so I might find one. I know it's an old one and really cool though. I made a custom concert bag for a friend to take to Coachella from one of these.

 

[whateve]

This is the first bag I bought which started my obsession. I paid $3 at a thrift store. I love it! It measures 11 1/2" wide x 8" tall. The two sides are identical like the first photo. I am hoping to any info about it. Thanks!

I would live to know the details on it too so I might find one. I know it's an old one and really cool though. I made a custom concert bag for a friend to take to Coachella from one of these.

It's an authentic swagger #9820, made in the 1980s.

 

[BeenBurned]

This is the first bag I bought which started my obsession. I paid $3 at a thrift store. I love it! It measures 11 1/2" wide x 8" tall. The two sides are identical like the first photo. I am hoping to any info about it. Thanks!

It's an authentic swagger #9820, made in the 1980s.

Was the strap shortened?

My bag had a strap drop of 20" but your strap appears to be shorter.