What have you learned through your handbag addiction?

TPF may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, and others

Wow, I started this thread in 2007!

I am so over handbags. For whatever reason, I had something missing in my life and handbags apparently fulfilled that need for a while.
 
Wow, I started this thread in 2007!

I am so over handbags. For whatever reason, I had something missing in my life and handbags apparently fulfilled that need for a while.

:ghi5: That's awesome to hear. Congratulations! I dug it back up, because I think I'm filling some void with expensive "stuff." Did you move on to something else or did you actually fill the gap?
 
1. buy classic bags that are not too mature, but elegant in design

2. know the practicality of the bag

3. don't purchase something that you would be disliking after a while

4. expensive bags have flaws too, they're not really perfect

5. daddy isn't a uber rich guy, so i can't ask for bags all the time. there are far more important things other than bags

6. avoid purchasing light colored bags, since i wear jeans most of the time

7. and most of all, i just learned that my small bag collection is enough (as of now). i don't use them much anyways, and 4 designer bags is actually too much for me (i'm just a student) and that i should be happy and proud of my own bags no matter how few they are! i love them so much!
 
I could learn what material,price,brand and style of this handbag.And what we should notice when we wash or carry this handbag!It seems that we don't pay much attention to this.Maybe I should try to learn more from it!
 
LOL, I learned so much and the list is way tooooo long. But, one of the things that I learned I have an IMPULSE to buy another bag. LOL, I guess I have OCD when it comes to bags and the sad part is I have no intentions of being treated. I'll just keep buying...
 
:ghi5: That's awesome to hear. Congratulations! I dug it back up, because I think I'm filling some void with expensive "stuff." Did you move on to something else or did you actually fill the gap?

Thank you. I reached the point where it made me sick to look at all the bags I had. All that energy spent on searching, buying, selling, returning. It was exciting for a while before it turned to disgust.

I gave away or sold most of my bags. I enjoy the ones that I kept. I am a writer and became a lot more focused on my career. These days, when I visit this forum, I immediately go to Health and Fitness. Frankly, I am rarely on the board b/c I am too busy exercising, writing, playing with my children, hanging out with my amazing husband or spending face to face time with family and friends. Enjoying and living my wonderful life. :D
 
In addition,

1.) They truly do not make me happy at all no matter how complete my collection is when I have aspects of the foundation of my life bugging the wits out of me and in need of reformation and mega improvmement.
 
Wow, I started this thread in 2007!

I am so over handbags. For whatever reason, I had something missing in my life and handbags apparently fulfilled that need for a while.

I had aspects of my life that I profoundly value as who I was that I did not work on either and they manifested themselves in handbags! This is a sensitive topic to me, so I will not discuss it here yet, but I know why I had been as addicted to handbags as I was!

Thank you. I reached the point where it made me sick to look at all the bags I had. All that energy spent on searching, buying, selling, returning. It was exciting for a while before it turned to disgust.

I gave away or sold most of my bags. I enjoy the ones that I kept. I am a writer and became a lot more focused on my career. These days, when I visit this forum, I immediately go to Health and Fitness. Frankly, I am rarely on the board b/c I am too busy exercising, writing, playing with my children, hanging out with my amazing husband or spending face to face time with family and friends. Enjoying and living my wonderful life. :D


Judie, I really am so happy for you. You sound so liberated and productive!

I have been going through a similar transition, but I'm not necessarily over handbags; it's just the urge to have my collection complete is ill on its deathbed, lol. I still really enjoy talking and looking at handbags while enjoying my current collection (which I plan to sell about a fifth of), but it is a very much healthier mentality of doing so now. I feel the same way you did about how much time, health, and money I had invested in bags because it only made my life more like hell in the end. People out there in the world will mostly not care about what bags I have as much as all the other things they see in front of their eyes- whatever talent, intelligence, educational background, hobbies, career goals, other interests, other attributes of my physical appearance, and so forth! This shocks me into believing that I need to hugely curb these miniscule and insignificant things- the handbags.
 
NagaJolokia, I hear you. Society tells us that certain logos or brands, Gucci, LV, etc mean something. So if you carry that brand, YOU must mean something. Is that true? Yes because society makes it so. However, YOU don't have to follow that. I am an amazing person regardless of what bag I am carrying. I will admit that carrying my MJ makes me feel a certain way but I laugh at myself. I know I am being so silly.

When I was very active on this board a few years ago, I read things that happened with people's lives that scared me. Someone posted about their marriage falling apart and one reason was the person's addiction to hand bags.

Ladies and gents, life is too damn short to spend so much time on this board or worrying about your handbag. Go out and hug someone. Tell your mom/dad/sibling/friend/coworker/stranger on the street that you love their smile or their laugh. Go take a walk. Read a book. Volunteer at the local soup kitchen.

Of course not everyone is obsessed. Some people post they are looking for black bag under $100, get suggestions, buy the bag and they are done. That was not me at that time :p
 
I have learned that
1- certain premier designer handbags are like jewelry, with the resale value going up or down depending on the trend
2- that it is best to buy what you really like and try not to get into peer pressure
3- buyer's remorse is a terrible thing!
 
- Don't buy bags on credit - if I don't have the money in hand to buy it, I don't need it
- Know thyself - just because it works for someone else doesn't mean that it will work for me
- If it's not comfortable/practical to carry, forget about it
- Designers at all price points can produce fantastic (as well as hideous) bags, both in terms of aesthetics and/or construction
- "It" bag trends are often fleeting
- A small collection is all that I personally require
- Poor customer service is inexcusable
- Impulse buying is almost always a mistake
- Never settle - be patient and wait for what you really want
- Sometimes it's an excellent idea to take a break from tPF!
- While I love love LOVE handbags, there are infinitely more important things in life. :heart:

ETA: - Why pay retail? Do your homework and you can almost always avoid it. ;)
 
Last edited:
Thank you. I reached the point where it made me sick to look at all the bags I had. All that energy spent on searching, buying, selling, returning. It was exciting for a while before it turned to disgust.

I gave away or sold most of my bags. I enjoy the ones that I kept. I am a writer and became a lot more focused on my career. These days, when I visit this forum, I immediately go to Health and Fitness. Frankly, I am rarely on the board b/c I am too busy exercising, writing, playing with my children, hanging out with my amazing husband or spending face to face time with family and friends. Enjoying and living my wonderful life. :D

Yay for you!!! I do find that when I have a life, I obsess about bags less. My spending season is tax season. I'm a CPA, so for three months of the year I have no life, so whatever free time I have is spent on bag shopping. Bags are easy, because I can do it online and don't have to worry about fit. And then every year around this time I wake up out of my haze, take a gander at the bank account and go WTF??!!!
 
Top