AUTHENTICATE this COACH!

[JaNan16]

You girls sure have been busy! I am learning so much following this thread. Whateve, Hyacinth and Beenburned, you all are so great! Did you guys used to work at Coach, or you have just been studying so long? I would like to know more about you all.

Joodlz are your photos of your GW finds after you have cleaned them or are they as found? You sure find some great ones!

 

[Hyacinth]

Bag and wallet

If they're purple they're from the Holiday 1993 season. The catalogs don't show the Scooter Bag but it had been in production since at least 1991 so Coach may have just decided to try it in purple before semi-retiring it.

Colors for that year are tricky and purples don't photograph accurately most of the time. The only other color that would be close was a Sapphire color from earlier that year but it was definitely more of a light Navy than a purple tone. The wallet looks to be from about the same time period.

 

[whateve]

You girls sure have been busy! I am learning so much following this thread. Whateve, Hyacinth and Beenburned, you all are so great! Did you guys used to work at Coach, or you have just been studying so long? I would like to know more about you all.

Joodlz are your photos of your GW finds after you have cleaned them or are they as found? You sure find some great ones!

Thank you! If you could find my first posts on tpf, they were for Coach authentication. I didn't have a clue how to tell fake from authentic. The only reason I bought my first Coach on ebay was to prove to my daughter that she didn't have to spend $400 for a Coach bag. (I had bought Coach directly from the Coach store in the late 70s and early 80s, but once I stopped working and had kids, I started carrying bags I bought from Penneys.)

I lucked out in that my first ebay purchase was authentic, but the second, third and fourth weren't. I had to open a case against the seller for one of them in order to get my money back, and the other two I didn't realize were fake until it was too late to open a case. That was when I figured out that I needed to get the bags authenticated before I purchased.

When I decided to start collecting vintage, it became a necessity to learn as much as I could in order to keep from being cheated. A few of my vintage buys turned out to be fake and I didn't discover that until months after purchase. I started authenticating in order to pay it forward.

I've learned most of what I know from Hyacinth and Beenburned and noshoepolish and Demram, and from examining the authentic bags I own. I save pictures of creeds and unique details to compare with the bags I authenticate. I learn more every day.

 

[BeenBurned]

You girls sure have been busy! I am learning so much following this thread. Whateve, Hyacinth and Beenburned, you all are so great! Did you guys used to work at Coach, or you have just been studying so long? I would like to know more about you all.

I've never worked for Coach and in fact, I started as a Dooney girl. But even my first Dooney purchase (for resale) turned out to be a fake.

I'd bought it at Marshall's, listed for sale on ebay (approx. 2000) and shortly thereafter got a nice email from a member telling me my bag was fake and why.

I was shocked but immediately ended the listing and returned it to Marshalls. Evidently, Marshalls had been victim to a scamming customer who bought a genuine bag and returned the fake for a refund.

After that experience, I realized the importance of authenticating items and began studying the brands I bought both for my own use as well as for resale. Although generally, it's not necessary to authenticate items purchased from retailers (except consignment and thrifts), it's impressed on me the importance of knowing the products you buy and sell.

My starting knowledge of Coach was more limited to the newer ( mid-2000's and later) items but has expanded. I have a huge photo library of pictures of bags, creeds, hangtags and quite a few side by side comps of "authentic vs. 'good' fakes".

I've learned a lot about classic and vintage Coach from Hyacinth, DemRam, Denimbarks, (no longer posting), NSP.

There are a lot of wonderful teachers here and on other discussion forums who freely give of their time and knowledge to help us all be educated consumers.

 

[JaNan16]

Ahhh, so there is hope for all of us! I think I have only bought two bags from Coach at a factory store back in the 90's. The others I have came from eBay, estate sales, and auctions. Some accidental like the trunk full of old Coaches. But I have bought numerous fakes off eBay too! I didn't even know this purse forum existed until just a couple of months ago. I'm bound and determined to never buy another fake, thanks to you guys!!!

I really like the vintage bags better because I love leather bags. The smell and the feel is so....elegant. I am not very fond of the cloth signature bags. Though I do have a couple of the swing bags, is that what they are called? I wore a Coach fanny pack until the piping wore through the leather.

 

[JaNan16]

I have quite a few Dooney's, and Brighton's and Fossil's. Shoot, I guess I am just a bag gal. I have a small database for my Brighton's and I am starting to build one for my Coaches.

I would have been really P O'd if I had bought a fake from Marshal's!!!

Speaking of Brighton, is there a forum for those? I have found the Dooney forum.

I am trying to reduce my purse hoarding. I am just trying to find specific colors and and styles now and get rid of all the rest. We'll see how that goes.

 

[whateve]

I have quite a few Dooney's, and Brighton's and Fossil's. Shoot, I guess I am just a bag gal. I have a small database for my Brighton's and I am starting to build one for my Coaches.

I would have been really P O'd if I had bought a fake from Marshal's!!!

Speaking of Brighton, is there a forum for those? I have found the Dooney forum.

I am trying to reduce my purse hoarding. I am just trying to find specific colors and and styles now and get rid of all the rest. We'll see how that goes.

There isn't a Brighton forum as far as I know. I have a few Brighton bags. I love their jewelry.

 

[JaNan16]

I have Brighton jewelry too!

I know there is a maker that tries to copy the Brighton styles. I think they put M C or something like that on it sometimes.

I am a vintage jewelry geek! The quality of old jewelry is so much better than anything made now. I guess I kind of feel that way about my bags too.

The older I get the more I appreciate things that have some age and history to them Ha! Ha! :greengrin:

 

[frenchieRU]

yes, it's a dinky, probably from the mid 80s. If you go to a Coach store, they have some hangtags from the Legacy line that look a lot like the two-sided hangtags from the 90s. They work well on vintage bags. My outlet had some one-sided hangtags with antiqued brass chains too. I think they are bigger than the original hangtags.

Sweet! Thanks, Whateve I'm lucky enough to live near both a factory and FP Coach store, so I'll take what I can get.

 

[Hyacinth]

You girls sure have been busy! I am learning so much following this thread. Whateve, Hyacinth and Beenburned, you all are so great! Did you guys used to work at Coach, or you have just been studying so long? I would like to know more about you all.

Joodlz are your photos of your GW finds after you have cleaned them or are they as found? You sure find some great ones!

I never worked for Coach either, and learned from the same posters BB and Whateve mentioned, going back to Ebay's old Shoes & Purses Board before it self-destructed. And like the others, I've gotten stuck with a few fakes too.

I've been studying and sniffing out fakes since around 2006, when I finally realized that there was such a thing as a fake Coach after finding one with the infamous NT-4903 serial number, and since I had a genuine style 4903 bought at Marshall Field's years ago it was obvious that something was fishy. Since then I've been learning all I can about how to tell real from fake. And like BeenBurned mentioned, a large library of photos and notes is absolutely essential - no one can spot every fake just from memory.

 

[JaNan16]

Hyacinth are you strictly a Coach girl? Someone mentioned a few pages back Sesame Street. Are you an actress?

Whateve, does your daughter like the vintage bags like you or is she more of a modern bag girl? My daughter likes those huge bags you can put over your shoulder and tuck up under your arm. She's not even 5'3" so they swallow her up!

Beenburned is your pup in your avatar a Belgian Malinois?

I still have probably 6 or 8 fakes. Would you guys like me to post for your files? I think they would be considered pretty "good". They are all leather.

I really appreciate you all so much!

 

[fuzzymummy]

I have Brighton jewelry too!

I know there is a maker that tries to copy the Brighton styles. I think they put M C or something like that on it sometimes.

I am a vintage jewelry geek! The quality of old jewelry is so much better than anything made now. I guess I kind of feel that way about my bags too.

The older I get the more I appreciate things that have some age and history to them Ha! Ha! :greengrin:

Brighton is fun, reasonably priced jewelry and I think the company that copies their jewelry designs is Brighton Bay. I don't wear a lot of jewelry, but I like bracelets and have lots of Brighton bracelets and earrings because they make leverback earrings. I also have waaaay too many Pandora bracelets but I think my obsession ended when I started buying Zina of Beverley Hills bracelets, thank goodness!

 

[Lily and Roses]

Item: Coach Mini Madison Christie Carryall in Saffiano Leather
Color: Pink Ruby

Please help me authenticate this item! Thank you!

 

[BeenBurned]

Beenburned is your pup in your avatar a Belgian Malinois?

We were told she's shepherd, whippet and chow although we were asked if she was a dingo, a coyote, and any number of other wild animals. No one really knows the history. We found her at a no-kill shelter 14.5 years ago. Her pregnant mother had been rescued from a kill shelter and subsequently had 6 puppies.

By the time we found her, the other pups had been adopted out and she was the last one left. She was 7 weeks old and we had her until about 14 months ago when we had to make the most painful decision in our lives. We had to put her to sleep and I still miss her and cry for her daily.

 

[BeenBurned]

Item: Coach Mini Madison Christie Carryall in Saffiano Leather
Color: Pink Ruby

Please help me authenticate this item! Thank you!

It seems good.