Well, ok it went like this... around 2009 I developed a fetish for
Gucci (mostly footwear). I quickly found that I had acquired almost all of the Gucci sneaker releases in the U.S. I had a POC in all of the flagship Gucci stores and would get a pair (or two) reserved for me once they arrived to the store. After owning all of the U.S. releases I started to focus on international releases and even that was short lived. One day, while looking through a family photo album I saw a photo of my older brother in the late 80's with a pair of red hightop Gucci sneakers on and I knew I had to find a pair. I immediately started looking for vintage Gucci sneakers... I knew no one would have them but me if I could find them. So now I'm calling Thrift stores, attending auctions ect. looking for these sneakers and one lucky day I found a pair
BUT in order to get them I had to buy the entire lot at the auction which consisted of a few vintage gucci bags also. After buying the lot I posted a few pictures on Instagram and received tons of comments from women that use to own the bags that I had purchased from the auction. I was asked If the bags were for sale and I immediately knew I would start selling vintage gucci. I started by researching the brand and how to authenticate the bags. I then began buying from ebay, etsy, auctions ect. and then took the pieces to a local cobbler to have repaired before selling. Once I realized I was paying the cobbler $1,000 for every $20 worth of materials that was being used I started to refurbish them myself
. Business picked up pretty fast and soon my customers requested me to repair their newer pieces. Gucci gave the ok and I became a vendor to do repairs for Gucci customers... I received paperwork in the mail a week later from Gucci America and then proceeded to fix their pieces along with mines. Fast forward a year later after growing my collection I started receiving emails from the archives about my then small collection. Then in 2018 the archives flew to my home in Pennsylvania from Italy and a great relationship was formed. The rest is History
and thank you. I stopped doing repairs for Gucci fairly quickly because financially it made more sense to repair my own items and keep 100% of the profit then to collect a percentage of Gucci's customers. I am however still listed as a vendor for Gucci America every year they send me the same paperwork in the mail. I'm currently in Iraq (I work for the DOD) so I don't post that much but yes you can have my Instagram. @vintageguccifinds is my name and I buy at least a few items a week
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