Why Do People Buy Fake Designer Bags Or Fake Designer Anything?

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#1,216
I personally love the authentic bags. I don't judge people (well try not to) who carry fakes. Although, I don't understand why a person would buy a fake and try to pretend that it is the real thing. If you can't afford the real thing, but what you can afford. Or if you feel that paying over $300 for a bag is crazy. Then carry your no name under $300 bags proudly. Don't spend $100 to keep you under your max and act like you are carrying a $1200 bag. I am dying for a new LV bag. I can't afford, so I will not have it until I can. I'm not going to go buy a knock off just to say I have the LV bag I want. The funny part is that there are sooooo many different opinions about knock offs. It's like arguing religion. LOL
 
#1,217
junebug35 said:
I live in the south...and I don't know about everywhere else...but this area is abundant with fake Coach bags. Everywhere I turn I see one. That is why I've just kind of gotten out of the Coach Signature line.
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Same here. I live in North Georgia (next to Chattanooga). Tons (literally!) of fake D&B animal print bags. Not an over-abundance of LV, fake or real. Most here have no clue what a Birkin is.
 
#1,218
trisha48228 said:
I personally love the authentic bags. I don't judge people (well try not to) who carry fakes. Although, I don't understand why a person would buy a fake and try to pretend that it is the real thing. If you can't afford the real thing, but what you can afford. Or if you feel that paying over $300 for a bag is crazy. Then carry your no name under $300 bags proudly. Don't spend $100 to keep you under your max and act like you are carrying a $1200 bag. I am dying for a new LV bag. I can't afford, so I will not have it until I can. I'm not going to go buy a knock off just to say I have the LV bag I want. The funny part is that there are sooooo many different opinions about knock offs. It's like arguing religion. LOL
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Fake bags run the spectrum of quality. They are either extremely poor quality and clearly fake, or fall in the middle area where you might think they're real at a distance, but upon closer examination, you discover they're not, or it's one of the pricey fakes that are nearly 100% mirror image along with a believable date code, hallmarks and the whole nine yards. It would take an expert to prove it fake. Those are few and far between.

I NEVER discuss the cost of my handbags with anyone. DH knows, but sometimes he says he'd rather not!
 
#1,219
trisha48228 said:
I personally love the authentic bags. I don't judge people (well try not to) who carry fakes. Although, I don't understand why a person would buy a fake and try to pretend that it is the real thing. If you can't afford the real thing, but what you can afford. Or if you feel that paying over $300 for a bag is crazy. Then carry your no name under $300 bags proudly. Don't spend $100 to keep you under your max and act like you are carrying a $1200 bag.
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This is what bothers me the most. I browse my local Craigslist a lot, and I see fake bags posted all the time. Fake Birkins $100, fake Coach and Dooney bags $60-$77! It surprises me because for the $60 or $75 or $100 someone is going to drop on a fake bag, they could go to a Coach outlet, or TJ Maxx, or Steinmart, or even the Dillard's 50% off sale, and score a *real* designer bag! It is ridiculous when you think about it.

Coach seems to be the #1 faked brand around here. And, I see a ton of the fake swingpacks, which perplexes me so much my eyes hurt. That's probably one of their least costly bags. I don't get it! For the price of a fake, you can very easily get a real one if you just shop around.
 
#1,222
pmburk said:
IThis is what bothers me the most. I browse my local Craigslist a lot, and I see fake bags posted all the time. Fake Birkins $100, fake Coach bags $60! It surprises me because for the $60 or $75 or $100 someone is going to drop on a fake bag, they could go to a Coach outlet, or TJ Maxx, or Steinmart, or even the Dillard's 50% off sale, and score a *real* designer bag! It is kind of ridiculous when you think about it.

Coach seems to be the #1 faked brand around here. And, I see a ton of the fake swingpacks, which perplexes me beyond belief. That's probably one of their least costly bags. I don't get it! For the price of a fake, you can very easily get a real one if you just shop around.
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A know a bunch of gals that bought the fake swing pack in NYC for $5 a pop! That is why!
 
#1,223
pmburk said:
This is what bothers me the most. I browse my local Craigslist a lot, and I see fake bags posted all the time. Fake Birkins $100, fake Coach and Dooney bags $60-$77! It surprises me because for the $60 or $75 or $100 someone is going to drop on a fake bag, they could go to a Coach outlet, or TJ Maxx, or Steinmart, or even the Dillard's 50% off sale, and score a *real* designer bag! It is ridiculous when you think about it.

EXACTLY!

Edit- I've never been to NYC, so I don't know how cheap the fakes are there.
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#1,224
pmburk said:
This is what bothers me the most. I browse my local Craigslist a lot, and I see fake bags posted all the time. Fake Birkins $100, fake Coach and Dooney bags $60-$77! It surprises me because for the $60 or $75 or $100 someone is going to drop on a fake bag, they could go to a Coach outlet, or TJ Maxx, or Steinmart, or even the Dillard's 50% off sale, and score a *real* designer bag! It is ridiculous when you think about it.

Coach seems to be the #1 faked brand around here. And, I see a ton of the fake swingpacks, which perplexes me so much my eyes hurt. That's probably one of their least costly bags. I don't get it! For the price of a fake, you can very easily get a real one if you just shop around.
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LOL You are so right about the fake swing bags. I think the people who carry those have never even priced a real one. LOL Seriously the real one only cost $130 and under. Why bother with the $50 fake that will need to be replaced in 6 months if you're lucky. LOL To funny.
 
#1,227
Swanky Mama Of Three said:
to be honest, I think some of us are just on one side of this ethical line and others are not.
There's no educated or logical reason to support the counterfeit trade no matter what the reason . . . some people can justify anything. No point in trying to educate them.
Actually, maybe someone will steal or copy something from them one day and make a lucrative living at it and send the $ from the sales to drug dealers/traffickers, sweat shops, terrorism. . . then maybe they'll get it.
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This is one of the best posts I've ever read on TPF. Thank you Swanky, I totally agree!!! :woohoo:

i could go on further on why I don't support fakes, but I think Swanky summed it up pretty well. I agree, the people who continue to believe that "there is nothing wrong" with knowingly supporting the counterfeit industry will only understand once they are on the other side of the coin....say, once their apartment is broken into and their TV, computer, etc is stolen and then days later they overhear someone bragging about how they found a TV for 1/2 price on the black market... maybe then they will understand? :shrugs:
 
#1,228
kachesle said:
Yeah, during the course of this thread, several people have stated that even if they don't carry fakes they don't "judge" people who do. But why shouldn't we judge them?! After all, if we knew someone was a thief, we'd think them worthy of condemnation. Buying fakes is just one step removed, because you're buying from the thieves.

That said, as I mentioned when the person is quite young I'm more understanding, since they probably just don't know better.
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YES, exactly!!!! I totally agree, I think the same way. Knowingly buying fakes is knowingly buying from thieves. HOW is that "ok", and how am I being "judgmental" buy saying I don't approve of it and I think it is wrong when people do it?? I will never get it.

And yeah, i can see how many people just "don't know any better" re: buying fakes...many people are unaware about the consequences of the counterfeit industry. Yet when someone is FULLY AWARE that 1) they're buying a counterfeit item 2) that the sale of counterfeit items is illegal and 3) the sale of fake items supports organized crime, sweatshops, etc and STILL buys it because they want to carry around a "designer" bag for 1/10th the price, then that says something about their character to me. Sorry. It's the same if someone came to me bragging that they got a new stereo for 1/2 price because they bought it from a thief who stole it, and were fully aware it was stolen, but didn't care because they wanted to save some $$$. :tdown: I'm sorry but i just cannot support that attitude of thinking, it sounds so wrong to me.
 
#1,229
kachesle said:
In a word: eBay.
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Precisely. I bought 2 fake Kate Spades on the 'bay several years ago when the "Sam" bags were all the rage. I knew some of the details to look for, but not all, and the photos both looked good. I felt like I did my research, even though I admittedly did not know much about designer bags at the time, and of course Kate Spade was highly counterfeited. I paid pretty nicely for both of them as well. One was supposedly a nice black leather Sam, and when it arrived (clearly a different bag than what was pictured in the auction) it was cheap plastic! I was furious. Even not being a bag aficionado, I knew I'd been taken. The other bag arrived and it seemed to be of good quality, looked pretty real from what I could tell, and I carried it for a while, until I discovered that it too was a fake. I sold them both in a garage sale.

I say ebay and the general lack of knowledge, I know that was the case for me. If you just know you want a certain bag and haven't researched every detail of it to know how to spot a fake, you see one on ebay and the seller claims it is real, it looks real to you, and maybe there are several bidders going after it - it is very easy to assume you've found the real thing. I wouldn't say the same for a kiosk selling $30 LVs in the mall or at a flea market, however.
 
#1,230
Some people clearly do not buy into the fakes= terrorism argument, whether they carry counterfeits or not. If they DO carry fake bags, they may well believe their bags were manufactured in conditions just as humane as those employed by high-end designers. And how would we know the history of any particular bag? I'm sure some knockoffs look OK, so if a person isn't bothered by copyright infringement, they may well carry fakes.

I don't get the chance to study people's bags in detail, although at Dublin airport the other day I saw various bags that looked like fakes. But for all I know they were perfectly legitimately-manufactured 'inspired by' bags. I was in too much of a hurry
to pay close attention.
 
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