Why most of the Epi speedy sellers from ebay are from Japan?

I'm not sure if this has something to do with the fact that majority of people who buy LV items are the Japanese (correct me if I'm wrong,about 40% of LV sales worldwide). I don't think they tolerate selling conterfeit items in Japan. Based on my experience, all items I buy on ebay that comes from Japan are authentic. Hope this helps.
 
I am currently looking for a second handed Epi speedy in either 25 or 30, but I found most of the ebay epi bags are from Japan. Are those seller trust-worth?

Think it has to do with the high turnover rate at which women update their bags. Women in Asia always want to have the newest style so always sell rather than keep the bag in the closet since it is useless if they never want to use it again. If you take a close look, most of the bags are discontinued color/styles. And they also liquidate to fund a new bag. That is also why there are so many second hand shops that sell only handbags and slgs. Some even sell shoes and rtw.

But like ayla said, as always, try to authenticate because you don't know who to trust or if a fake slipped through their security screening~
 
I am currently looking for a second handed Epi speedy in either 25 or 30, but I found most of the ebay epi bags are from Japan. Are those seller trust-worth?

I'm not sure if this has something to do with the fact that majority of people who buy LV items are the Japanese (correct me if I'm wrong,about 40% of LV sales worldwide). I don't think they tolerate selling conterfeit items in Japan. Based on my experience, all items I buy on ebay that comes from Japan are authentic. Hope this helps.

You should always get the item authenticated, no matter what 'reputation' a seller has. :yes:

Think it has to do with the high turnover rate at which women update their bags. Women in Asia always want to have the newest style so always sell rather than keep the bag in the closet since it is useless if they never want to use it again. If you take a close look, most of the bags are discontinued color/styles. And they also liquidate to fund a new bag. That is also why there are so many second hand shops that sell only handbags and slgs. Some even sell shoes and rtw.

But like ayla said, as always, try to authenticate because you don't know who to trust or if a fake slipped through their security screening~

I live in Japan. I can go about 1 km from my house in semi rural Japan, to find a shop that I can buy an authentic LV in. Any time I go into a nearby city, the number of amazing designer bags that go past me in trains, shops or crowds, is frankly astonishing. The number of high end stores selling bags is also pretty high. There is very low tolerance here of counterfeiting. People take good care of their items in general and there's also a strong culture of keeping things that come in boxes, in those boxes when not in use. You would almost never see a bag touch the ground here.

I also agree that naturally, authenticating is always the way to go. But as a person who lives in Japan, I feel very comfortable buying recycled here because I know people have a high value for designer items and take care of them.
 
I bought my first pre-loved bag from a seller in Japan and it was the best experience I had on the bay. She was very friendly, efficient and the bag arrived packed securely. I also received the bag in about a week! That's quicker than some of the bags I've won from sellers in nearby states. I even bought a wallet a few months later from the same seller.
 
My greatest concern about buying bags from Japan is that they frequently have a very strong musty odor. :nuts: Unless a seller directly refers to the odor of a bag in the listing, I don't even bother to have it authenticated. Just my experience, of course.
 
I collect discontinued Louis Vuitton items and I love to use Japanese online sits. Honestly, I do not want anymore competing shoppers to fish out my favorite market, but I will explain some facts to answer the question.

I grew up in Japan during Japanese bubble economy. Everyone bought expensive brand names back then. I had my first Louis Vuitton and channel when I was a junior in high school during 1980s and first Rolex during college in early 90s. It was not unusual to see kids carry around real stuff on the street.
Single adults who had all the money just for themselves traveled to Hawaii or Guam twice a year and blew thousands of dollars on shopping.
Even after the bubble busted, Japanese economy was still strong enough for a while to allow people to live like that.
Now, those people are in their mid-age, ranging from late 30s to early 50s, look too old in what they've purchased when they were young.
Also, their kids, called "herbivorous generation," who have never seen materialistic way of living in their life time think owning brand names is uncool and ridiculous thing to do. Instead of paying lot of money for being same with others, they prefer to pay less and purse their individual styles.
Those moms whose kids reject and make fun of 80s and 90s values are now selling their stash one at a time to support their household budget trough on-going depression.
There are still of millions of Louis Vuittons sitting in the closets all over Japan. Most of them were unnecessary when they were first purchased, but people bought them anyways because spending money like that was the way of living back then.

Trustworthy?
Conditions of the item might look too good to be true. If the seller is a business which also operates within Japan, I would not doubt the authenticity of their items.
Japanese people are so used to see real stuff. Selling counterfeit is almost a suicide to businesses. It might also harder to find counterfeit than to find real.

Japanese people tend not to hesitate to throw away good-conditioned items because there is no place to take or give away (there is no thrift store in Japan), and living space are so limited. Accumulating junks in their closets are too costly. If the item you found was kept in good condition for all these years and made it to auction or online stores, I would say that was because the initial owner spent real price to it. Otherwise, it would have been thrown away long time ago.

Why all Epi is from Japan?
I don't mean to be rude to you, but no one uses Epi in Japan anymore. There has been no renovation on Epi line since it was first introduced. It is a symbol of bubble and smells like 90s. It sounds to me like those sellers are trying to get rid of the carrying cost of old inventories even though they are loosing money from selling those in U.S. dollar (it is week now).
 
I totally agree. I lived in Japan for 5 years and they tend to wear there handbags and other things for just that season and sell it to fund the next purchase. They are very brand conscious.


I collect discontinued Louis Vuitton items and I love to use Japanese online sits. Honestly, I do not want anymore competing shoppers to fish out my favorite market, but I will explain some facts to answer the question.

I grew up in Japan during Japanese bubble economy. Everyone bought expensive brand names back then. I had my first Louis Vuitton and channel when I was a junior in high school during 1980s and first Rolex during college in early 90s. It was not unusual to see kids carry around real stuff on the street.
Single adults who had all the money just for themselves traveled to Hawaii or Guam twice a year and blew thousands of dollars on shopping.
Even after the bubble busted, Japanese economy was still strong enough for a while to allow people to live like that.
Now, those people are in their mid-age, ranging from late 30s to early 50s, look too old in what they've purchased when they were young.
Also, their kids, called "herbivorous generation," who have never seen materialistic way of living in their life time think owning brand names is uncool and ridiculous thing to do. Instead of paying lot of money for being same with others, they prefer to pay less and purse their individual styles.
Those moms whose kids reject and make fun of 80s and 90s values are now selling their stash one at a time to support their household budget trough on-going depression.
There are still of millions of Louis Vuittons sitting in the closets all over Japan. Most of them were unnecessary when they were first purchased, but people bought them anyways because spending money like that was the way of living back then.

Trustworthy?
Conditions of the item might look too good to be true. If the seller is a business which also operates within Japan, I would not doubt the authenticity of their items.
Japanese people are so used to see real stuff. Selling counterfeit is almost a suicide to businesses. It might also harder to find counterfeit than to find real.

Japanese people tend not to hesitate to throw away good-conditioned items because there is no place to take or give away (there is no thrift store in Japan), and living space are so limited. Accumulating junks in their closets are too costly. If the item you found was kept in good condition for all these years and made it to auction or online stores, I would say that was because the initial owner spent real price to it. Otherwise, it would have been thrown away long time ago.

Why all Epi is from Japan?
I don't mean to be rude to you, but no one uses Epi in Japan anymore. There has been no renovation on Epi line since it was first introduced. It is a symbol of bubble and smells like 90s. It sounds to me like those sellers are trying to get rid of the carrying cost of old inventories even though they are loosing money from selling those in U.S. dollar (it is week now).
 
A lot of their homes do not have insulation like ours. I remember I lived in a Japanese mansion (more than 900 sft) by Tokyo Bay and remember the places having a stench. It is freezing in your home in the winter and hot as an inferno in the summer.

My greatest concern about buying bags from Japan is that they frequently have a very strong musty odor. :nuts: Unless a seller directly refers to the odor of a bag in the listing, I don't even bother to have it authenticated. Just my experience, of course.
 
I collect discontinued Louis Vuitton items and I love to use Japanese online sits. Honestly, I do not want anymore competing shoppers to fish out my favorite market, but I will explain some facts to answer the question.

I grew up in Japan during Japanese bubble economy. Everyone bought expensive brand names back then. I had my first Louis Vuitton and channel when I was a junior in high school during 1980s and first Rolex during college in early 90s. It was not unusual to see kids carry around real stuff on the street.
Single adults who had all the money just for themselves traveled to Hawaii or Guam twice a year and blew thousands of dollars on shopping.
Even after the bubble busted, Japanese economy was still strong enough for a while to allow people to live like that.
Now, those people are in their mid-age, ranging from late 30s to early 50s, look too old in what they've purchased when they were young.
Also, their kids, called "herbivorous generation," who have never seen materialistic way of living in their life time think owning brand names is uncool and ridiculous thing to do. Instead of paying lot of money for being same with others, they prefer to pay less and purse their individual styles.
Those moms whose kids reject and make fun of 80s and 90s values are now selling their stash one at a time to support their household budget trough on-going depression.
There are still of millions of Louis Vuittons sitting in the closets all over Japan. Most of them were unnecessary when they were first purchased, but people bought them anyways because spending money like that was the way of living back then.

Trustworthy?
Conditions of the item might look too good to be true. If the seller is a business which also operates within Japan, I would not doubt the authenticity of their items.
Japanese people are so used to see real stuff. Selling counterfeit is almost a suicide to businesses. It might also harder to find counterfeit than to find real.

Japanese people tend not to hesitate to throw away good-conditioned items because there is no place to take or give away (there is no thrift store in Japan), and living space are so limited. Accumulating junks in their closets are too costly. If the item you found was kept in good condition for all these years and made it to auction or online stores, I would say that was because the initial owner spent real price to it. Otherwise, it would have been thrown away long time ago.

Why all Epi is from Japan?
I don't mean to be rude to you, but no one uses Epi in Japan anymore. There has been no renovation on Epi line since it was first introduced. It is a symbol of bubble and smells like 90s. It sounds to me like those sellers are trying to get rid of the carrying cost of old inventories even though they are loosing money from selling those in U.S. dollar (it is week now).

I still agree with most of the sentiments in this post. However, I was in LV in Nagoya Japan the other day. There were several ranges of Epi items up on the shelf in the current lines. So Epi seems to be out and about again.