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!

 

[missymisst]

You're an angel, BeenBurned! Thank you so much!!!!

 

[Hoalatha]

Item: Vintage COACH Carry-On Bag in British Chestnt, Pre-Owned
Listing number: 301804164393
Seller: treasuresmore1
Link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-COA...164393?hash=item4644ee1529:g:RGUAAOSwIwhWTy8O
Comments: I think this is fake, due to the Salearea guides saying that Coach never manufactured in Korea. Wanted to check to make sure. I think the seller also just sold an identical one.

 

[avalavender]

All of the above. That's why we recommend strongly that no one ever buy a Coach bag without a clear readable photo of the creed and serial number.

Poshmark has listed a large number of fakes. And some Etsy sellers are former Ebay sellers who have been pointed out by us or suspended or banned by Ebay for selling fakes, or they use Etsy, Poshmark, Facebook and other poorly regulated sites to dump verified fakes on unsuspecting buyers. There are also several notorious Etsy sellers who don't show creeds not only because some of their bags are fakes, but also because the year codes in the serial numbers would prove to anyone who knows how to read them that the bag does NOT meet Etsy's 20-year-old "vintage" qualification, or isn't even close to being "Bonnie Cashin Era".

As for stealing creed pictures - since the best proof of a bag being genuine - OR fake - is in the creed and serial number, whoever bought the bag could find out really fast if it's genuine by posting a creed picture here once they receive it. .

But why take a chance? If someone won't show that photo, hit the Back button. There are almost NO "One-of-a-Kind" Coaches. If you have to pass on one, another similar one will show up eventually. And HAVE THEM AUTHENTICATED HERE BEFORE YOU BUY THEM.

Almost ALL of the classic styles have been faked, some more than others. Anyone who buys a Willis, Taft, Patricia's Legacy especially without authenticating is taking a big chance, but for the most part if Coach has made it, someone has already faked it.

Thanks Hyacinth for the clarification! I see a lot of Etsy sellers with good ratings-- even when they don't provide creed pictures in any of their listings-- so I was really confused by the feedback they were receiving. Some of these same sellers, even when requested, will not provide me with creed pictures, but I'm still so tempted because they sometimes have bags that I can't find on Ebay.

Based on your experience/opinion, do you think buying from Ebay is better than Etsy/Poshmark?

 

[Hyacinth]

Thanks Hyacinth!!
It's not long enough to be a cross body for me either : (
And now that I know navy was a color option, I definitely think it's navy.

A few questions:
-Is this bag considered a Bonnie Cashin design? (Many people list it that way)
-Would the fact that this bag has no serial number put this on the earlier end of the age spectrum (70s)?

Also, not sure if this is the right thread, but if I plan to sell, what do you think a fair price would be given the age, irregularity, (semi) rarity? I've seen them go for anywhere between $300 to $770+

Your wealth of knowledge is invaluable! I especially love seeing old ads and catalog photos! I hope someone is paying you for all this work!

I'm not sure on the Cashin question but it's possible, it's a lot like many of her other designs. But it's not in the 1976 catalog and since she stopped designing for Coach in 1974, it might not have a direct line back to one of her designs. Possibly it's a remake or a style based on her designs. I'm not a Cashin expert.

The dates I quoted in my original answer are when I think it would have been made. There are no dependable dates for the different early creed and serial number formats, all I can do is base my guesses on the excellent guide written by passionate vintage Coach collector and seller SacsMagnifiques that's posted at Ebay.
http://www.ebay.com/gds/Guide-to-Vintage-Coach-Hang-tags-and-Creeds-/10000000177697673/g.html

Be careful when using other "guides" that claim to give dates to various creed and number styles, many of them are seriously inaccurate and shouldn't be used. Even SacsMagnifiques hasn't been able to pin down those early dates exactly and if she can't I don't know if anyone can.

I can be more accurate with newer bags made after the late 1980s, and I researched and wrote a series of 6 Coach Guides including 2 just on creeds and serial numbers. You might be interested in reading them, they were posted by Ebay seller Salearea and can be found either by checking his/her personal pages at Ebay or by going here:

SALEAREA GUIDES
http://search.reviews.ebay.com/members/salearea_W0QQcpnameZmembersQQprZsaleareaQQuqtZg

They're as accurate as almost 10 years of research can make them, although one or two dates still could use a little tweaking as we see more and more late vintage (late 80s-early 90s) creed photos that can be accurately dated.

As for getting paid - nope, except as a paid consultant for writing the Salearea Guides. All the rest is just out of love. Or obsession. I'm not really sure.

And I can't guesstimate prices, everything depends on who's buying, when, and how badly they want it. Use the Sold Completed listings at Ebay as a guide. Forum rules also don't allow us to quote values, even if we knew.

 

[Hyacinth]

Thanks Hyacinth for the clarification! I see a lot of Etsy sellers with good ratings-- even when they don't provide creed pictures in any of their listings-- so I was really confused by the feedback they were receiving. Some of these same sellers, even when requested, will not provide me with creed pictures, but I'm still so tempted because they sometimes have bags that I can't find on Ebay.

Based on your experience/opinion, do you think buying from Ebay is better than Etsy/Poshmark?

It's hard to compare them. Etsy doesn't seem to care if things like purses are less than 20 years old even when their rules are being broken. They almost never remove them, or even proveable fakes, even when they're reported by someone who's qualified to know. And sellers who have been reported even half a dozen times or more for selling fakes or for violating the 20-year-old rule are still allowed to sell there. That stinks.

Poshmark is also bad about removing reported fakes. Only a real expert, and I mean of the calibre of the ones who authenticate here at tPF, should ever take the risk of buying a Coach there without a full set of readable photos.

Ebay sellers who have had fakes removed will often list them at Poshmark, Etsy, and especially Facebook. FB is one of the most dangerous places to buy any highly-faked brands, along with Listia, iOffer and some others.

Ebay is a PITA, but they DO have a strong system, sometimes TOO strong, for buyers to get refunds if they've been sold a fake. But the site is an absolute nightmare if you're a seller instead of a buyer.

As for all that glowing feedback - 95 percent of buyers probably have NO idea what to look for to tell real from fake. All they care about is the price. Just seeing the kind of horrible, hideous, "I-need-to-bleach-my-eyeballs" fakes many people buy should prove that. A lot of them wouldn't know a fake if it bit them on the backside, all they care about is that it says "Coach" and it's cheap. Sadly, a lot of them pay more for a piece of Canal Street trash than what they could buy a genuine Coach for.

 

[Hyacinth]

Item: Vintage COACH Carry-On Bag in British Chestnt, Pre-Owned
Listing number: 301804164393
Seller: treasuresmore1
Link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-COA...164393?hash=item4644ee1529:g:RGUAAOSwIwhWTy8O
Comments: I think this is fake, due to the Salearea guides saying that Coach never manufactured in Korea. Wanted to check to make sure. I think the seller also just sold an identical one.

If it says Made In Korea, I don't even need to look at it (but I will, if only to make sure it gets reported). And as I said in the Salearea Guides and as dozens of people have posted all over the internet, Coach has never made bags in Korea. Or wallets, for that matter. Or in this case, luggage. In fact I think we reported that same POS about 2 weeks ago, the seller may have relisted. Along with the Korea origin there are a LOT of smaller details that would never have been found in a genuine Coach.

They DID make some clothing items there but not many. Korea was probably the Fake Coach Capital of the World before China beat them out for that title in the early years of the Millenium.

 

[avalavender]

Ebay sellers who have had fakes removed will often list them at Poshmark, Etsy, and especially Facebook. FB is one of the most dangerous places to buy any highly-faked brands, along with Listia, iOffer and some others.

I was not aware of this-- when Etsy first started, I used to buy hand-made clothes and accessories from the small community of sellers there-- maybe the quality of the place has gone down since then? Thanks for your advice! I will stick to Ebay and come back here for authentications.

 

[Hyacinth]

I was not aware of this-- when Etsy first started, I used to buy hand-made clothes and accessories from the small community of sellers there-- maybe the quality of the place has gone down since then? Thanks for your advice! I will stick to Ebay and come back here for authentications.

IT HAS gone down, and it's being flooded by Chinese scammers who are counterfeiting and copying handmade items in bulk, MASS PRODUCING THEM, and flooding the site with them. It doesn't directly affect the vintage purse market there but it's just a matter of time before more scammers find more ways of cheating the buyers. Amazon is going to have the same problem soon. And so far Etsy won't, or can't, try and stop or control the problem.

Let me find some links - be back soon.

http://www.dailydot.com/business/etsy-brave-new-economy-crumbling/

http://www.wired.com/2015/02/etsy-not-good-for-crafters/

Here's a Forbes article talking about Etsy, China and fake luxury and designeer goods - like handbags

http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurengensler/2015/05/11/does-etsy-have-a-problem-with-fake-goods/

If you Google "Etsy china" you'll find a LOT of reading material, including posters at the Etsy forums complaining vehemently about the situation.

Any selling site is only as good as the people at the top. And there seems to have been an overabundance of greedy and just plain incompetant management in high places in way too many of those sites in the last 10 years. Meg Whitman started the stampede when she opened up Ebay to Chinese sellers in 2007. Over the next 3 months a dozen major categories including Clothing, Fashion Accessories, Sporting Goods, Electronics and others I can't think of were being flooded by thousands, probably tens of thousands, of fraudulent listings coming from China every weekend. Ebay management lied about the problem, tried to ignore it, and removed EVERY SINGLE POST in any Ebay forum where it was mentioned, while a small group of us sat at our computers every weekend from Thursday to Sunday morning, often with just a few hours' sleep, trying to report all the fraudulent listings we could find, and each of us reported hundreds every weekend. It took Ebay and their greedy people at the top over three months to do ANYTHING about it. They ended up blocking Chinese sellers in "dangerous" categories from listing on Ebay US. Temporarily. And supposedly ending One-Day BIN auctions.

This is what happens when management gets greedy, and this is just a TINY percentage of what was happening every weekend. AND EBAY COVERED IT UP COMPLETELY.

 

[avalavender]

Wow. When I first learned about Etsy, I was still in high school. After entering college, I stopped shopping for a long time in order to save money/work/graduate/etc. I just recently landed a job that finally allows me the luxury of shopping for fun. It looks like it is during the time that I stopped all my shopping habits that Etsy has changed their business ethics.

Ugh. I am so disappointed. The reason I love vintage purses goes beyond appreciating their superior quality. I also love the idea of recycling and reusing fashion for sustainability.

The problem is that I live in an area where a lot of young people also appreciate the value of thrifting, and the Goodwill here is considered a "hip" place to shop at. It's just so hard to find good deals at a brick and mortar consignment store. Thanks Hyacinth for these articles. I thought I was coming back to the same old Etsy. Guess I have to keep looking and search harder to grow my collection of Coach bags.

 

[Hyacinth]

Wow. When I first learned about Etsy, I was still in high school. After entering college, I stopped shopping for a long time in order to save money/work/graduate/etc. I just recently landed a job that finally allows me the luxury of shopping for fun. It looks like it is during the time that I stopped all my shopping habits that Etsy has changed their business ethics.

Ugh. I am so disappointed. The reason I love vintage purses goes beyond appreciating their superior quality. I also love the idea of recycling and reusing fashion for sustainability.

The problem is that I live in an area where a lot of young people also appreciate the value of thrifting, and the Goodwill here is considered a "hip" place to shop at. It's just so hard to find good deals at a brick and mortar consignment store. Thanks Hyacinth for these articles. I thought I was coming back to the same old Etsy. Guess I have to keep looking and search harder to grow my collection of Coach bags.

Please don't be completely discouraged. There are still plenty of honest sellers on Etsy, and also on Ebay and Bonanza too. You can find a huge variety of GENUINE classic and vintage bags on those sites. In fact Bonanza probably has the strongest record of cracking down on fakes sellers, and Ebay still has the largest pool of sellers on the planet except for Alibaba (and AB still has a LONG way to go in getting rid of counterfeits and fraudsters!).

The important thing is to HAVE THE BAGS YOU'RE INTERESTED IN AUTHENTICATED HERE FIRST. And alsways pay with Paypal or a major credit (NOT debit!) card so you can get a quick refund or credit if the item turns out to be fake or Not As Described.

As for unique handmade items, it will be interesting to watch Amazon's new store, but you know the counterfeiters and scammers are going to be trying to force their way in there in a really big way. As someone who used to enjoy buying unique handmade jewelry items from Etsy sellers, I miss what they used to be too.

 

[Belltoes]

Item: Vintage Coach Bag // City Messenger Bag British Tan Pre 9790 // Coach Leather Handbag Purse
Seller: magnoliavintageco
Link: https://www.etsy.com/listing/256210...search_query=coach city bag&ref=sr_gallery_18
Comments: Speaking of Etsy...

I think this style/size would best replace my everyday bag (a fake leather bag that has seen much better days) better than the Court. The court may be a tad small, I think.

Hyacinth, I just hit "buy" on that Stewardess you authenticated for me a few days ago to replace my canvas tote for work -- I think it will be more functional and professional looking. I just restored an old leather couch so I think I could give it the right TLC if needed. Thank you!

 

[avalavender]

Please don't be completely discouraged. There are still plenty of honest sellers on Etsy, and also on Ebay and Bonanza too. You can find a huge variety of GENUINE classic and vintage bags on those sites. In fact Bonanza probably has the strongest record of cracking down on fakes sellers, and Ebay still has the largest pool of sellers on the planet except for Alibaba (and AB still has a LONG way to go in getting rid of counterfeits and fraudsters!).

The important thing is to HAVE THE BAGS YOU'RE INTERESTED IN AUTHENTICATED HERE FIRST. And alsways pay with Paypal or a major credit (NOT debit!) card so you can get a quick refund or credit if the item turns out to be fake or Not As Described.

As for unique handmade items, it will be interesting to watch Amazon's new store, but you know the counterfeiters and scammers are going to be trying to force their way in there in a really big way. As someone who used to enjoy buying unique handmade jewelry items from Etsy sellers, I miss what they used to be too.

Oooh I did not know about Bonanza, so I'm going to add that to my list of places to check. And I will still check Etsy-- but I'm just weary of all these sellers not providing me the creed pictures *sigh* Getting my hopes up for nothing whenever I see their listings.

And as for Alibaba, :shame: when I considered getting fake Chanel bags because I was so desperate to own one but didn't have the means, that was the first place I checked. But OMG, the prices on those fake/possibly-terrible quality bags! And some fake Coach bags-- so obviously fake, even to a newb like me-- would cost the same if not more than the real ones I've seen authenticated here.

I do have an authentication question today! This looks real to me, but the color threw me off.

Item: Don't know the style name but it's listed as "COACH VINTAGE HTF 9333 PURPLE LEATHER SMALL CROSS BODY PURSE ZIPPER BAG CB"

Listing number: 262104411998

Seller: vintagechicandco

Link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/COACH-VINTA...411998?hash=item3d06a3ef5e:g:0wIAAOSwu4BVy3fj

Comments: I love unusual colored bags! But I wasn't aware that any of these older Coaches came in purple! And it's missing a hang tag, which is too bad because a leather hang tag in purple would be so pretty.

 

[whateve]

Oooh I did not know about Bonanza, so I'm going to add that to my list of places to check. And I will still check Etsy-- but I'm just weary of all these sellers not providing me the creed pictures *sigh* Getting my hopes up for nothing whenever I see their listings.

And as for Alibaba, :shame: when I considered getting fake Chanel bags because I was so desperate to own one but didn't have the means, that was the first place I checked. But OMG, the prices on those fake/possibly-terrible quality bags! And some fake Coach bags-- so obviously fake, even to a newb like me-- would cost the same if not more than the real ones I've seen authenticated here.

I do have an authentication question today! This looks real to me, but the color threw me off.

Item: Don't know the style name but it's listed as "COACH VINTAGE HTF 9333 PURPLE LEATHER SMALL CROSS BODY PURSE ZIPPER BAG CB"

Listing number: 262104411998

Seller: vintagechicandco

Link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/COACH-VINTA...411998?hash=item3d06a3ef5e:g:0wIAAOSwu4BVy3fj

Comments: I love unusual colored bags! But I wasn't aware that any of these older Coaches came in purple! And it's missing a hang tag, which is too bad because a leather hang tag in purple would be so pretty.

It looks authentic. It's a small zippered pouch #9655. Coach made several styles in this purple in the early 90s.

Don't buy a fake Chanel, or a fake anything for that matter. Don't contribute to fakes manufacturing.

One of the reasons Etsy sellers don't show creeds is because Etsy only allows 5 photos.

 

[whateve]

Item: Vintage Coach Bag // City Messenger Bag British Tan Pre 9790 // Coach Leather Handbag Purse
Seller: magnoliavintageco
Link: https://www.etsy.com/listing/256210...search_query=coach city bag&ref=sr_gallery_18
Comments: Speaking of Etsy...

I think this style/size would best replace my everyday bag (a fake leather bag that has seen much better days) better than the Court. The court may be a tad small, I think.

Hyacinth, I just hit "buy" on that Stewardess you authenticated for me a few days ago to replace my canvas tote for work -- I think it will be more functional and professional looking. I just restored an old leather couch so I think I could give it the right TLC if needed. Thank you!

Authentic city bag from around 1989 - 1991.

For rehab techniques, visit our Rehab clubhouse. http://forum.purseblog.com/coach-clubhouse/coach-rehab-and-rescue-club-833400.html
This bag can be washed.

 

[avalavender]

It looks authentic. It's a small zippered pouch #9655. Coach made several styles in this purple in the early 90s.

Don't buy a fake Chanel, or a fake anything for that matter. Don't contribute to fakes manufacturing.

One of the reasons Etsy sellers don't show creeds is because Etsy only allows 5 photos.

Thanks whateve for the authentication.

Now, I would never think to buy a fake anything as I am trying to be a more conscious consumer. That being said, I am a bag addict at heart, so I am at least limiting myself to buying only secondhand.