8 Tips for Buying and Authenticating Pre-Loved Bags

Chanel, Louis Vuitton and countless other luxury brands are constantly raising the prices of their bags, sometimes multiple times a year. Luxury enthusiasts may find themselves turning to eBay, Poshmark or a consignment store to buy a secondhand or "pre-loved" bag in hopes of scoring a deal.

It makes a lot of financial sense when Chanel is charging $8,000 for a bag - after all, you can find a lot of great discounts out there, sometimes for less than half of the original retail price. It's also a great way to get access to seasonal colours or discontinued styles. Generally, quality was better in the past, so you can often find thicker canvas or thicker leather in older bags.

What also makes a lot of financial sense is for luxury replica manufacturers to improve the accuracy and quality of their replica bags - stitch for stitch, piece for piece. The more popular and expensive a design is, the better the rationale for investing resources to copy it. In fact, fakes are so good these days that it could take a microscope to determine its authenticity. If you're after the real deal, it can be very tricky to determine whether you're buying from an honest person decluttering their closet, or a scammer trying to rip you off.

I have purchased pre-loved before and follow several consignment stores, and have learned a few things over the years. Here are a few tips for avoiding fakes and making sure you're getting the real deal!

1) Do your research on the original brand and bag.

If you're taking the plunge on a pre-loved bag, chances are you've viewed it extensively either on the brand's website, on influencers or on some other retailer. Pay attention to the colour, fabric details, hardware and inside of the bag. Oftentimes replicas will get small details such as the number of stitches, the hardware (colour/weight/shape), the logo and the inside of the bag slightly wrong. Most brands also have a date code stamp inside the bag which follows a particular nomenclature.

Questions to ask when comparing to the original brand/bag include:

• Is the colourway/leather/hardware combination accurate to the authentic?
• Does the date code make sense for the style? As an example, if the date code says it's from 2016 but the style didn't come out until 2018, it's probably a fake.
• Are the logo stamps the correct size, font and spacing?

There are multiple authentication resources out there for popular bag designs, which will point out details on the serial number, authenticity cards and tags that come with the bag. LegitGrails and Legit Check both have free authentication guides for popular designers.

Source: PurseForum

2) Do your research on replicas for that brand and bag.

The Reddit forum r/RepLadies was established several years ago to facilitate buying and selling high quality replicas from China. Generally, the goal of these users is to buy a replica and pass it off as the real thing to their social circle. The moderators do not condone misrepresenting replicas as authentic on the resale market, or even reselling replicas at a profit.

While the ethics and economics of replicas can be debated endlessly, r/RepLadies does provide one valuable resource - a free authentication guide. Users are encouraged to post reviews with detailed photos of the replica, as well as an accuracy rating. This makes r/RepLadies a great reference point for authentication. A good way to search is to use the search engine Reddit Search, as Reddit's own search function isn't particularly good.

What I've learned from r/RepLadies is that replicas don't always get the colour, stitching, glazing or logo font exactly right on the replicas. It comes down to very miniscule details that you wouldn't notice at first glance.

3) Do your research on the seller.

Even if you're purchasing from a well-known consignment shop such as Fashionphile, TheRealReal, Vestiaire Collective, etc., do some basic research on their authentication process including:

• Looking through their website for details on their authentication process
• Looking through the news articles and PurseForum for any controversies involving selling fakes (accidentally or intentionally)
• Look up YouTube reviews of their service and products

If you're purchasing from an online marketplace such as eBay, Poshmark, Facebook Marketplace, etc. look up the individual seller's history and reviews. For example, there are multiple legitimate Japanese consignment stores on eBay, but you may want to stay away from individual sellers with very few reviews or very little history.

Source: eBay

4) Reverse image search the seller's photos.

Oftentimes, people trying to sell replicas at too-good-to-be-true prices will use replica factory stock photos, or steal other people's photos of their authentic bag. Websites such as Tineye can crawl the web for duplicate images and let you know if someone is being dishonest with their photos. Reverse image search doesn't always work, so don't use it at the only research method.

5) Request important details, including close-up photos, where the seller bought the bag, and the reason for selling. 

If the seller is trying to pass a fake as authentic, they will typically refuse to provide clear photos of features such as the hardware, interior tags, serial number and zippers. If they do provide close-up photos, follow the steps in the rest of this guide.

People selling counterfeits often have vague stories of how they got the bag and the reason for selling it, such as "I received it as a gift and don't like the style". Although this is a legitimate reason, put your detective hat on and probe for more details - for example, when did they receive the gift and does it coincide with the time period of the bag design?

6) Make sure you can get a refund in case the bag is fake.

Most consignment shops and online marketplaces will guarantee authenticity or provide you a full refund, which is especially true of the bigger online luxury consignment shops like Fashionphile. If you're paying with PayPal Goods & Services, you can often dispute the transaction if you're able to prove the bag is fake.

If you're buying off of Instagram and/or don't pay through PayPal, it will be more difficult for you to recover your money in case your bag ends up being fake - so it is really important to research your seller and find trustworthy reviews. As an example, I've included the authenticity guarantee of libraluxe, an Instagram reseller based in Calgary.

7) Get a second opinion from a trusted authenticator.

While reputable consignment shops will have their own authentication processes, I would always advise spending the extra $15-20 to get your product authenticated by an independent service that ONLY does authentication. Some examples of authenticators include:

• LegitGrails (I have used them before for Loewe)
• Legit Check
• Authenticate First (used by several Instagram consignment stores)

These companies have databases with reference photos of both counterfeit and authentic products, and will typically get back to you within a few days.

Another free resource is the PurseForum, although keep in mind these are volunteers so there is no guarantee of accuracy. I would use this as a third opinion (the first one being your own / the seller's guarantee and the second one being a paid authentication service).

8) Inspect the inside of the bag and everything that came with the bag - the tags, authenticity card, dust bag and/or box.

Usually replica manufacturers will focus on the exterior of the bag, but will skip details on the inside of the bag, and/or on the packaging. Similar to step 1, do a thorough comparison of the inside of the pre-loved bag against photos of the original bag.

Another way to check is by looking at the authenticity card, if available. 

• Louis Vuitton bags do not come with an authenticity card, so if you see one, it's fake. 
• Prior to 2021, Chanel issued plastic authenticity cards with a serial number matching the bag, but this has now been replaced with a microchip. 
• Chloé started providing paper authenticity cards in 2018, whereas a lot of replicas still come with outdated plastic authenticity cards.

Familiarize yourself with the brand's dust bags and boxes, as this is typically where replicas tend not to spend too much effort - usually a combination of the colours, logo and sizing is wrong.

Source: RepLadies

I hope this was a helpful guide for buying pre-loved and doing your due diligence on pre-loved bags. There are certainly lots of great deals to be had, but it is important to be vigilant as there are many scammers out there too. Of course, for peace of mind you may also want to consider paying a little bit more to authorized luxury retailers. 

Happy bargain hunting!