Buying Used Chanel - Spotting Fakes
The problem of fakes has been prevalent as long as you can imagine. Chanel was quoted saying “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”. Chanel most likely could not have envisioned the market for counterfeit luxury goods growing into billions of dollars in sales, often damaging the long deserved reputation of a design house.
A true Chanel collector can expect quality luxury products. Fakes are made of pleather with metal that chips and tarnishes, cheap zippers that break and seams that come unsewn. If you dare to try to shop on the internet for luxury goods these days, you have to be properly armed with knowledge and caution. With some helpful tips you can proceed with carefully into sales done from non-authorized Chanel boutiques or department stores. Some lines of Chanel goods that are widely mimicked are the classic flap bags, the travel line, the cambon line, the bowling bag line, heart chain link classic flap bags, many quilted CC tote bags not to mention jewelry, sunglasses and the J12 watches. It’s best completely avoid all websites such as ioffer.com or any other internet website with dealers passing off large quantities of Chanel purses. Chanel makes most lines of purses in very limited runs to keep up exclusivity. Make any purchases online with a major credit card. Document all transactions with receipts and copies of auction listings as well as emails from the seller. This will be for your protection if you end up mistakenly buying a fake item.
With the help of burburry_princess on Ebay, you can now try to authenticate Chanel purses on the internet before you purchase them from a non-authorized Chanel boutique or department store.
Here are some good points to help you spot fakes:
All bags should have serial numbers on a tab or sticker inside the purse. The number should correspond with the authenticity card. Newer looking 2.55 purses will not be missing these serial number tabs. Fraudulent buys have been trying to sell bags off lately saying they come from the mother manufacturing company, and serial tags are not attached till much later. Do not believe them! Run the other way!
Vintage purses should never have a metal “Chanel” brand tag plate on the inside of a purse.
Purses will not have any black paper hand tags. All hang tags are price tags in white from the Chanel boutique or department store.
Purse hardware will match the metallic Chanel(R) imprint on the inside leather strip sew to the interior.
Quilting should be symmetrical with the front and back of the purse. Be weary if there is a whole diamond on the left edge of a purse, but a 1/3rd of a diamond on the other side. If the quilting looks to diamond shaped, with the corners of the quilts not at a right angle, be weary. Quilting on the separate side pieces of purses are not always lined up with the quilting on the front.
In an authentic CC logo, the top portion of the right C overlaps the top portion of the left C and the bottom portion of the left C overlaps the bottom portion of the right.
Chanel does not wholesale to anyone. If a internet dealer is trying to tell you they do, they are lying.
For more tips, please visit burburry_princess’s Ebay *ME* page.
I have a chanel briefcase, with a serial # inside it which matches the card with it. The owner doesn’t buy fakes and says it is real. One concern: the hardware has some gold wash faded and I am told it is quite old, with black quilting.
Do you think it is real?
Thanks
devra January 16, 2006 @ 2:34 pm
It is very hard to say with no photo.
Rhiannon January 16, 2006 @ 3:46 pm
Hi
I have a few Chanel handbags (2.55 and baguette) which all I bought from a Chanel boutique. I must say that I prefer caviar leather since it is so durable. However, I have one beautiful lambskin in light beige (2.55) with silver hardware (dressy / understated elegance). I am not gonna get another lambskin though. I rarely take it out since it is so soft and easy to scratch. Once I took it to a Chanel boutique in a different country and the girl who works there was so surprised to see its excellent condition! All my Chanel handbags have silver hardware; I am hoping to buy one with gold hardware this year (last year the Chanel shops where I live receive most bags with silver hardware for some reason). I also prefer baguette since I can just carry it under my arm and tuck the chain inside the bag, so it looks like a clutch bag! My friends only buy Chanel bags with gold hardware and don’t like silver hardware at all. I thought silver is nice since it goes with my white gold jewellery. Do you prefer gold or silver hardware on your Chanel flapbags? There is one deep pink baguette in caviar/silver hardware at the moment in Chanel and I have my eye on it. Should I buy it or wait for a baguette gold hardware? Really, I only want a bag with gold hardware just for the sake of owning one with gold hardware! Please advise.
Balustroid April 20, 2006 @ 11:21 am
Gold usally doesn’t thrill me either. The only gold hardware Chanel I have is the 2.55 reissue. I like the color gold though as it is very rose gold, antique gold, not bright flashy Flordia mobster gold. (laugh) If you can track one down on ebay, maybe that will work for you? I find this shade of gold is so 50’s chic Marilyn Monroe vintage. I’m not sure what to suggest in current bags.
Rhiannon April 20, 2006 @ 11:30 am
Thanks for the opinion. The bright flashy gold looks very 80’s to me! At the moment, I prefer to stick with 2.55 since one can never go wrong with it. I went to my local Chanel 10 days ago but didn’t see any 2.55 I like (colour wise). There’s always an excuse for another visit to Chanel!
Balustroid April 21, 2006 @ 12:25 am
I bought a Chanel handbag from a friend of a friend. I love Chanel purses but not very educated on them at all, which style types, anything. It was my dream to own one, I really didn’t care to ask if it was real or not. It looked real. I’m just concerned with it actually being real or not.
It has two black short straps coming from the top center and a black flap over the top with silver turn knob. It has the right CC on all the pulls and the inside is a camel colour suede material. Hardwear all matches. NO SERIAL CODE THOUGH? “31″ On one side of the off-white bag and the classic “CC” on the other. It also on the inside has the CC CHANEL Paris on leather written in silver.
I hope this gives you a good discription and can help me out!! thank you!
Jennifer August 13, 2006 @ 2:11 pm
I always buy my bags in the Chanel store, or in the Galeries Lafayette. I would never buy a fake!
mili October 2, 2006 @ 12:54 pm
I disagree with what you said that vintage chanel never have “metal” Chanel plate inside. There was a time when they made bags with metal plates inside. TY!
jen October 10, 2006 @ 5:48 pm
Is this real? It has a tag inside Chanel Made in France. There is not a number inside. This came from a custom closet manufacturer who had in a display showroom & when they closed down gave it in lieu of payroll owed. I am wanting to sell but I don’t want to sell something if its not real. It is leather.
Carol October 18, 2006 @ 4:53 pm
I wouldn’t trust it. All Chanel purses have serial numbers on the inside.
Mars October 18, 2006 @ 6:24 pm
Hi, I have a Chanel bag that I was told is vintage but I REALLY need an expert opinion on it. Can anybody help? thank you
CLODAGH November 14, 2006 @ 2:05 am
my boss was given a chanel bag, that she believes to be true, I do not think it is. It is an older bag and cheaply done in my opinion, although it has a seriel number stamped in gold lettering on the inside is there a way to check the seriel number for authanticity?
kelly petrosino November 26, 2006 @ 11:01 am
I was recently given a light pink (leather? lambskin?) bag that is supposed to be authentic Chanel. It has the original white price tag, authenticity card, etc. How can I know for sure?
Thanks
Sharon Keegan January 22, 2007 @ 1:26 am
can you tell how old a chanel puse is or when it was made by the serial number?
Thank you,
Diane February 3, 2007 @ 2:19 pm