@Gabs007 is right that the bags on VC haven’t been through VC’s checking process yet if they are still with the seller; the team that puts the items online is not an authentication team. This will happen when VC physically receives the item after purchase and the item is checked before being sent to the buyer. At that point you would get a full refund if the item is found not to be genuine or should be offered a price reduction or the chance to refuse the item if it’s found not to meet the declared condition.
The only items on VC that are already checked are those marked ‘Ready to ship’.
They don’t just put any old thing online though. I’ve had items rejected for selling because they deemed they didn’t fit the catalogue, and there was a period a while back when lots of resale sites including VC were flooded with fake Givenchy Antigonas from Italian sellers, but I imagine they didn’t make it past QC, and I noticed they all disappeared completely from the listings after a while (not sold, but removed).
I don’t know anything about the Spy but as regards the leather I doubt you can draw conclusions about authenticity on that basis. I recently bought three supposedly identical large black calfskin Peekaboos directly from
Fendi, and the leather on each was quite different. I wanted the smoothest calfskin like my other Peekaboos, but one of the ones I was sent was really quite pebbly, almost like my Selleria one. Natural variation: in the opposite direction to the difference you are noticing, but an example of differences in the same model of the genuine article direct from the manufacturer. And as Gabs says, the bag has been manufactured in plenty of different combinations; if you look at Peekaboos or the Kan I or any other model over the years, there have been constant variations in leather, design features, colours etc, so it would be pretty hard to authenticate from an article which may not have all the background.
I don’t think
Fendi still makes the Spy and I doubt from my experience with them that
Fendi themselves would offer you any help with authenticating a pre-owned bag; their customer service is fine if you’re spending with them but I doubt they’d help with this. They would probably just say a polite ‘no’!
I would suggest not trying to authenticate yourself from an article which may be inaccurate, but try to get an authentication before purchase. I see you’re a new member here but I just had a look at the Fendi authentication thread on this forum and, unlike the Hermès authentication thread, it doesn’t appear you have to be a previously active member to ask for an authentication. You could ask there for help. You need to read the first post in the thread to make sure you’re giving all the required info in the right format or you might not get an answer. I believe they drop in to authenticate when they can, so it might not be immediate. Here’s the link:
https://forum.purseblog.com/threads/authenticate-this-fendi.820058/. I believe there are also paid authentication services if you have doubts either before or after buying, but I’ve never used one. Somebody in that thread might be able to advise you where to go.
I’ve bought five or six very pricey bags from VC including a Fendi (but not a Spy) and each one has been authentic and in the condition declared and meeting the description. I’ve bought a lot of other expensive things there too and I am also a frequent seller on VC, and I have had no significant problems at any time. They gave me the opportunity at authentication/quality control to back out of one bag purchase because the seller didn’t include the original receipt, but I already knew she wasn’t sending the receipt and wasn’t worried; I knew the bag was genuine. They offered one of my buyers a reduction for a virtually invisible unravelled stitch on the inside of a garment in a seam that was just finishing, not structural, that I hadn’t seen when I inspected it carefully before selling!
My experience with VC authentication has been good, but as with all resale sites with human authentication, the odd mistake could still happen and something slip through; it’s just an unfortunate hazard of buying pre-owned as you’ll already know if you ever buy pre-owned, and all the sites get accused of it at times. If you were to receive a fake you could get a paid authenticator to verify that and VC would have to refund you if they had made a mistake. The only time I received something wrong from VC, it was that they had lost an accessory from an item I bought, at quality control. They offered me a full refund or a reduction; I took the reduction and used it to buy a new matching accessory. I can’t comment on how other resale sites operate in similar situations; I haven’t used them.
I don’t know if you’ve used VC before? You need to check the criteria VC states for the level of condition to make sure you’re happy with the level. Ask for more photos if you need them. A lot of - I’m not saying all - dissatisfaction you read in these threads is based on false expectation and not checking the terms & conditions before buying, and people who’ve been happy don’t all come running to announce it here. My misgivings in the past about VC involved their slow and sometimes unresponsive customer service, but mainly that never really happened to me and I was basing it on what other people wrote here, and they’ve been working on improving it lately too. If you are new to VC, I’ve posted a lot of points earlier in this thread about checking out your seller as much as you can, and so have other people. It might be worth a look back through this thread. Note that if you are using the VC app, seller status is not currently showing there, as they’ve been changing their seller rating system and software, but if you go to the website you can see if you are buying from an ‘Expert Seller’ or a ‘Trusted Seller’ and what specifically that means (it doesn’t mean a seller who can authenticate or anything, I am an ‘Expert Seller’, and it mainly means I’ve consistently sold a lot, shipped it quickly and met quality control and authenticity). This doesn’t mean you can’t get a good experience buying from a seller without the badges though. They all have to start somewhere and maybe just haven’t sold enough recently to qualify; no reason to rule them out if they’re responsive and all the photos look good. You can check that out if you look at the desktop site where you can see their sold items.
Hope you find your bag!
