Not to complicate maters, but I purchased my black one on 11/20/08 from the boutique and it said "Coach Archive Limited Edition". I had to order it, the store didn't carry it of course. At first the manager doubted she could even order it for me, but then she looked up the style number and saw that she could.
What I did think was odd that my store that doesn't normally carry items like that (limited editions/exotics, etc) was then carrying them in stock and displayed a month later.
Actually, Selketkrb, you didn't complicate matters, but this actually clears it up!!
As I said before, while people were ticked off about the Ellies, their trick for add'l production lots was to change the numbering. This is how they got around the "limited number" problem. One of my SAs said people really complained about the new numbering scheme for that, which was basically just a number for the new set. I should post pics of two of my Ellies which show this differentiation.
As for this Peyton, I do not think they just ran out of the hangtags and decided to suddenly produce "Coach Archive" tags, but I think it was done on purpose to differentiate the runs in the same manner as their other LE items that are restocked (in addition to the factory production date on the creed). A trick yes, but still a boutique production! Of course we already knew the outlet bags were NOT outlet rereleases when we looked at the creed and style number info.
I could have believed any scenario with Coach, though, so I'm glad we hammered this out.
One reason I was curious initially about a possible outlet run is because those of you who are older members probably remember me posting a thread asking about any cracking around the topstitching of some/all of the front pocket areas. Mine had a little light cracking on a couple of pockets, and so I tried to exchange my patent but could not find a consistent enough bag (texture-wise) to do it, and at that time I remember them telling me the bags were down to only 100 in quantity and they would not be restocking! That was WEEKS ago!!
So yes, hence my surprise they have showed up in mass at the outlet, and at outlets that are not supposed to get Bleecker St items. I know this because that's what I was told at my outlet, but yet they continue to get some of these items and have been for a few months now.
So, I knew as Selketkrb stated that the count on the patent bags was really low way back then. That now makes sense that what they did is restock more to try to fit the demand. But like with other bags, they didn't sell them (especially at $900), so they were sent to the outlets. It will be interesting to see if the leather restocks share this same new identity with the tag. I am positive they have restocked colors like the fuchsia at least a couple of times. I'm also certain this was done prior to the major economic crisis, or before they put a halt on some of the production...so they probably have more than they would have now for new bags coming out.
Sorry for not digging my bag out last night, but I just checked, and my creed reads F0869-10351. Tag is Bleecker St. I purchased my patent one during PCE with the first run of the leather Peytons that I did a PCE price adjustment on. I think that was at the Aug. PCE, and I had had the leather Peytons for a few weeks since I purchased one at the gallery store and the other one I ordered from JAX since they told me they were only producing 50 in the atlantic. HA!
Also, for what it's worth, a Bleecker St. store (meaning the NYC one and the gallery stores) WILL carry both Archive Edition bags as well as Bleecker St. bags. There's really a mix of various LE items if you randomly pick up items up at these stores. Possibly some of these are restocked items, but I also believe this is what they call some of their original LE items as well. In this case, it's just their trick to differentiate between the lots...in other words a way to get around the fact that the initial run was SUPPOSED TO BE more limited...kwim??
Now I have 6 Peytons total, and all of mine (3 that originally came from the outlet), except for one I have not yet received from a charge send, all show the "Bleecker St." tag. I'll see what my other one says once it arrives.
This is something that has bothered with me Coach for a while now because I'm a quasi-collector. I've even complained formally about how they do this, and the fact that the consumer is never given any production info or history for the item. I was told they "agree with me", but that's the way Coach does it.
However, the fact remains is that you either buy the bag because you like it...or you don't, simple as that! The point is that buying a LE bag from Coach is usually not the same as another brand because they take these shortcuts, and we all know that nothing "limited" is sacred...if they want to make more, they will! So I just buy what I like, laugh about it since I can't do anything, and move on. If I cared enough I would not be buying Coach LE items! So... given the tag issue, I would actually take the Coach Archive bag in a heartbeat since it's way cheaper than what I paid for mine even on PCE! It's just not that big of a deal to me, but I'm sure glad this mystery is solved. I probably would not have liked it had they taken the original bags and done an outlet rerelease (especially for a Bleecker St. item). Thanks SO much everyone, for your help!!
Little mysteries like this bug me till they're solved!