I want a Louie, but a good one is too expensive and many are fake looking. I bought one on Poshmark and sent it back. The Real handles expensive stuff, I'm going to try and sell some designer suits. right now, I'm into Coach...here in L.A., everyone has a Michael Kors, even my cleaning woman.

@Madetoshop wrote:

@Niner, yes but I trust the Real Real as they back their sales with authentication. Haven't bought a bag from them yet but if you are familiar with the real thing and well versed with the brand, you know what to look for and expect. I own 2 Louis V bags and a wallet. I love them. Can you tell I am a bag and shoe fanatic? I know I need help.

I don't trust their authentication though. For something like a Chanel bag, I would go to Chanel. Fakes have gotten pretty decent lately. Woodbury Commons in NY has a Gucci and a YSL outlet that I have purchaced bags from. At least you know those are authentic. It comes down to whatever you are comfortable with.

I got my last bag at goodwill for $3.

I buy clothes at consignment stores, Ebay, Goodwill, etc. You learn to recognize quality materials, quality brands, and classic styling. You could buy a nice structured leather bag for $3 that could look great. It's having an eye for it. The $3 item at Goodwill could look much better than something much more costly at a fast fashion/high street type store.

CNBC investigated RealReal and found issues with authentication. Here is one link: [www.morningbrew.com] There are other stories as well.

@Madetoshop wrote:

@Niner, yes but I trust the Real Real as they back their sales with authentication. Haven't bought a bag from them yet but if you are familiar with the real thing and well versed with the brand, you know what to look for and expect. I own 2 Louis V bags and a wallet. I love them. Can you tell I am a bag and shoe fanatic? I know I need help.

My Mom buys designer clothes and bags from thrift stores and sells them at consignment shops. This weekend, she gave me authentic LV, Coach and Dooney purses that were headed for consignment.

@CoffeeQueen wrote:

I got my last bag at goodwill for $3.

I bought a Coach bag at a thrift shop here years ago and paid $35 for it. The price tag was much higher but they were having a half price sale and the salesperson sold it to me for that even tho it was not probably supposed to be on that table. Now I need it cleaned and can send it to Coach to clean for more than twice what I paid! If anyone has any tips let me know. I tried a few things I fouind online. It is a traditional Coach that has leather. with a nap,
Did an apt shop myself years ago. It paid around $30 at the time but was not worth the time and effort and then writing a long report afterwards. If some one does not need or want hte money they can tour these fancy apts any day for free and not be bogged down with an uninteresting report. If they like writing they can write for their kids school parent newsletter or something more meaningful than $15 for several hours of work. If they need the money that is different.
There was a parking job at one of my companies that was at several boutique hotels. The pay was $5 and they reimbursed. I asked the scheduler why the pay was so low and who would do it. I was told the client thought someone staying at the hotel might be interested in having their parking reimbursed. Rooms were $400-500 and overnight parking was not reimbursed so they would have still had to pay to park their car overnight.

Coach has lifetime warranties on their goods. I found out the hard way that "lifetime" means the lifetime of the bag, not forever. Lifetime in my case was 10 years or so.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/01/2019 08:29PM by HonnyBrown.

Okay, all this talk about Coach. When I was new at this, in the dial-up days, pre-Google, I took a Coach shop. I had no idea what that was except that it was a store in a mall. I am, and always have been, a low-end kind of gal. How I pulled that one off, I will never know. Honestly, I was in a daze from sticker shock and slightly nauseous over the prices I was seeing. But now I know what Coach is, and that is not for me, at all! Hahaha.

The coach reminds me of Cinderella's fanciful transpo, Is that how the Marcia Brown, the Disney, or some other coach looks? Cinderella is a kid. Am I too old for the brand?

@honny...I recently bought a coach bag for very little on Poshmark...one of our members told me about it, so, tell your Mom to sign if she's on the computer. Never saw such great buys, I also sold a Calvin Klein handbag that was too small to hold my stuff, basically it was a trade, costing nothing. They have very low shipping costs due to their volume., and items can be returned within three days. I'm looking for a Louie, but the good newer ones are still costly. I also bought a coach for my daughter, and she's Mom, these are expensive, I just said, "honny, your worth it"... #smart shoppers win

I don't care about fashion. This bag is a Nicole Miller. There are some like it at Poshmark for $30 (used) so it was a good deal. I love this bag because of the ease of use. Everything about it is perfect for me.

@Niner wrote:

I buy clothes at consignment stores, Ebay, Goodwill, etc. You learn to recognize quality materials, quality brands, and classic styling. You could buy a nice structured leather bag for $3 that could look great. It's having an eye for it. The $3 item at Goodwill could look much better than something much more costly at a fast fashion/high street type store.

Location may be considered as to who likes name handbags...in L.A. shopping the upscale Beverly Hills retail,
it matters, living rural, I see it wouldn't matter, it's all good.

EPMS expects so much for so little. I've found other apartment rental services which pay more for the same work, but significantly less narrative.

@sandyf, you might try emailing Coach directly and ask about cleaning. I find I get better results writing to the company rather than walking into their retail store. My daughters own many Longchamp bags and use them daily for school. Their corners get frayed. Longchamp will send them out to repair at no charge. Perhaps Coach will accommodate you with cleaning? I know Coach sells a bag cleaning solution. I don't know how effective it is.

I have not used the bag in a few years but I did check on cleaning and was told the cost was around $85. I did not ever ask if they would do it for free since they have a service to do it for a free so I assumed they would want to get paid for cleaning. I might check with them again.

I have a small vintage Coach bag that I love. I think I paid something like $10 for it at a thrift shop. It's a small cross-body, and I take it with me whenever I travel by plane or need to "pack light." Subsquently, I've purchased other vintage Coach bags for resale and have had good luck with them. Although I have one now from the 90s that's not selling.

But I worked in a high-end department store a few years back, and they sold Coach. I can say that the newer Coach bags aren't anywhere as nice as the old ones. The leather is thinner, and the linings aren't the best quality. The old Coach bags had just the reverse side of the leather on the inside -- which does get soiled if you're not careful, but you can't ruin those bags no matter what! For my money in new bags, I'll take a nice Tig (and have found a few great deals at the thrifts) or Stone Mountain. They're not fancy designer names, but they're good quality. But I'd take an older Coach over anything.

Man, I freaking LOVE Dooney. They're the best. I want the Duck Bag. I've wanted it for years and years. If I ever got a Dooney shop (with reimbursement), that'd be my buy.
Wonder who does their shops....

@HonnyBrown wrote:

My Mom buys designer clothes and bags from thrift stores and sells them at consignment shops. This weekend, she gave me authentic LV, Coach and Dooney purses that were headed for consignment.

@CoffeeQueen wrote:

I got my last bag at goodwill for $3.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/10/2019 12:36AM by naivasna.

I have a number of Dooney bags. I had one that I hadn't taken care of properly, like I really should have cleaned/conditioned it. After 20 years of carrying it pretty much all the time, or at least frequently and a decent portion of each of those years, because it was my favorite small bag, I put it on the floor of the car, like I always did. Well, it turns out that it was raining that day and the strap got wet and cracked. The only thing that was wrong with that bag prior to the cracking was that the bottom was slightly worn, and the trim was a bit more worn than the bottom.

Dooney replaced all the trim. Replaced the strap, and sadly, they couldn't replace my metal Dooney duck tag, but, they fixed everything. With shipping and "fixing" charges, it came to like $35 to get an almost brand new bag. It's good for another 20 years. That bag was not babied at all. When Dooney says lifetime, they mean lifetime. Well, honestly, it could be the lifetime of the bag, but their bags, I've never had to check it out. They did tell me that if I decided I wanted a different bag, they offer a discount when that bag dies or I decide that I don't want it. Like, in other words, if I had decided not do the repairs.

@HonnyBrown wrote:

Coach has lifetime warranties on their goods. I found out the hard way that "lifetime" means the lifetime of the bag, not forever. Lifetime in my case was 10 years or so.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/10/2019 12:45AM by naivasna.

@naivasna, one of my 4 sisters is a die hard Dooney fan. Still waiting for one of her castoffs.....it will never happen. ????

LOL, probably not, but I will say that you can go to a Dooney outlet, and the stuff that they have in the outlet is every bit as nice as what's in their main stores. I was thinking that Coach was sending their rejects now, where they used to do what Dooney does, and just send things that weren't as popular from whichever store it wasn't selling at. But I know the outlets around here will ship a Dooney bag to you. They're still pricey, but when you compare it to the fact that I have had that little purse for... well over 20 years, and before I started buying good handbags, I was paying $15 or $20 (back when everything was way cheaper) and I'd be lucky if they lasted six months, it paid for itself easily in a few years.

The only downside is, well, they don't fall apart, ever. So, you have to find a reason to go get a new one... but hey, on the upside, maybe your sister will decide that giving you a Dooney she's no longer attached to will be the reason she has to go buy a new one. This could work in your favor.

I couldn't believe how far Coach had gone downhill last time I was in the outlet. Honestly, all the things you're taught to look for to identify a knockoff, like the emblems not being precisely centered, were things I saw there. And I picked up a wallet, and it didn't even feel like leather. The associate is like.. well, it's *cow* leather, after all. So I walked into Dooney and was like, "Excuse me. What type of leather is this bag made from?" "Cow." "And this one?" "Cow." "This one?" "Cow." The sales associate was like are you looking for a certain type? I said, "Nope. Just irritated with a Coach employee who has an attitude." I ultimately ended up buying the "cow" wallet (and four Dooney bags), I think, but it's the last Coach product for me.

My wife and I walked into a Coach outlet store a few years back, just out of curiousity. I noticed a nice looking Coach logo fitted ballcap and tried it on. It was a good enough cap, but nothing too special. The price was $45, about double what I paid at the mall for a nice, American made fitted cap with my favorite football teams logo. I then checked the label and it stated the cap was made in Indonesia.

So yeah, um, no.