Louis, Gucci, Prada, Burberry…who wouldn’t want a shiny looking bag from any of these shiny designer brands? Whatever floats your luxurious boat, handbags today are seen as a status symbol, a way to make or break an outfit and even occasionally an efficient way to carry around your daily essentials. A growing number of people looking for authentic designer brands at bargain prices are searching further afield than department stores and boutiques. With this, however, comes room for counterfeiting crooks to jump in and offer up some suspiciously good prices to their consumers. Handbags are the most popular infringed product on the market and even though they are badly made, hold no lasting value and just generally a fashion faux pas, they contribute an enormous amount to the $600 billion that counterfeited goods ring in annually. How to get the real deal and still invest for a little less, read on to discover some essential tips when buying designer handbags and how catawiki.com can help you out!
Brought to you by Sigrid Markus - auctioneer designer handbags
Fake is not Chic. Fact
Ok, so not most can causally drop thousands on a luxury handbag making it no surprise that a cheap knock off which looks exactly like the real thing could be a little tempting to the eye and wallet. There are a few things you might want to remember though if you ever do find yourself down a grimy back alley or cheap street market negotiating back and forth whether to pay forty of fifty smackers for that piece of almost luxury bag you’ve always wanted. Firstly, luxury cannot be copied. If you think even half the skill, craftsmanship and sentiment has gone into the production of what you are buying then quite frankly you are wrong. A fake designer handbag holds no value, sustainability or ethical values to its fake designer name. Secondly, counterfeit handbags are closely connected to numerous of illegal and dangerous activities including prostitution, child labour, terrorism, money laundering and drug trafficking.
The Devil is in the Detail
As counterfeiters become better and better at their copying game, it can be easy to be fooled into thinking that what you are getting is the real deal. The best way to steer clear of this to filter a few factors into your brain before buying:
Compare and Contrast: Compare the price of the item on sale to its original wholesale price and competing sites. If the tag is considerably and suspiciously lower than anything else on the market than 99.9% of time, unfortunately, it is too good to be true.
Trimmings: The devil is truly in the detail when it comes to luxury brands and their expensive products. Accuracy and meticulousness in the teeny tiny interior stitching and pockets are never off point. For example, in every Louis Vuitton Speedy handbag, one of the most copied bags out there, there will always be a fixed number of stitches. Adding to this, the patterning of the LV monogram is asymmetrical and there will always be an upside LV on one side of every bag and no bottom seam as they only ever use one continuous piece of leather.
The smell. It may sound obvious but if what you are buying smells of cheap synthetic plastic, excessive glue, or just of heavy chemicals then do not go there. Luxury does not smell funky.
Logos: Surprisingly logos are the most common place where counterfeiters slip up. Many have slight variations in design and spelling so before you buy check, study and know exactly what the logo of your preferred brand looks like and how it is spelt!
Luxury for Less
Fear not luxury lovers, just because you can’t afford the real thing does not mean you cannot have your own piece of the luxury pie. Online is a great way to purchase designer goods without being fearful of what you are getting is being sold by a fraudster. As always, Catawiki.com has got your back and is home to hundreds of designer bags waiting for you at auction that have been checked thoroughly making them 100% the real deal. Gucci, Chanel, Marc Jacobs…plus many more, take your pick and head to auction now!