Buying Used Louis Vuitton: A Guide to Avoid Being Scammed

Once upon a time, I was a thirty-thousandaire. You know, the 20-something with a decent job, and no bills, blowing money like I was Paris Hilton. Ok, I admit. I only just woke up from that dream-period.

Starting in college, I had one goal: to own accessories that would be the envy of my friends.

To begin, I lusted after authentic Louis Vuittons. I didn't even know a store that sold Louis Vuitton. There are still no stores in my state, by the way. When I heard about the fakes on Canal Street, I began making trips there to buy all the latest styles. No harm, no foul, I figured. But, I wasn't happy having a knock-off, and I sensed that people could tell the difference. Then something horrible happened. The tragedy that is September 11th. Soon after I heard truly crushing news. The terrorists paid for the flight school training, and even for their plane tickets that day, by selling counterfeit goods. What were they selling? Fake bags.

I truly felt like I had blood on my hands. I threw away all of my fakes, and went back to my Nine West life.

All the while, I was still lusting after the luxury look, and wanted to find it at a reasonable price. I turned to Ebay. I found bags I thought were obvious fakes, bags I thought were probably real, and soon... I realized I had no idea what I was looking at. That's when I stumbled upon mypoupette.com.

Mypoupette is a site for Louis Vuitton lovers. It has a lot of valuable information for anyone interested LV bags. By reading her guide, and eventually owning some authentic Louis Vuittons of my own, I began to know what to look for in a bag. I will share the general guidelines of distinguishing real from fake, but, there is a warning too: it's harder than it seems.

Here are the basics:

Outlet, Overstock, Sale, etc. is not in Louis Vuitton's vocabulary. They only sell Louis Vuitton in Louis Vuitton stores, in high-end department stores that rent space to Louis Vuitton (such as Harrods) and online only at eluxury.com. If a bag does not sell through these outlets, they are reportedly burned. There is no secondary market for Louis Vuittons. Anyone telling you that there is is pulling the wool over your eyes. If you want to buy a fake, I suppose I cannot stop you, but, don't let them trick you into thinking you are getting the real deal.

Alignment is very important. With the majority of designs, the LVs will be perfectly aligned, and will not be cut. With some of the newer styles of bags that have odd shapes, this is not always possible. However, this is a good rule of thumb to follow.

Stitching is also very important. Louis Vuitton is very particular about stitching. Bad fakes will have clumpy stitching, or uneven stitching. A Louis Vuitton has very precise and neat stitching.

Hang tags are often displayed on fake Louis Vuittons. I've seen them in more Ebay auctions for "Authentic" Louis Vuitton bags than I could possibly count. They have a string, and then a little circle with LV on it, and then a tag, like a price tag. This is never seen on an authentic Louis Vuitton. An authentic Louis Vuitton does, however, come with some little pieces of paper. One is a little tag (not attached to the bag) and the other is a care booklet. Sometimes these are lost by the time someone is putting them up for auction.

Receipts are easily faked. People even sell their authentic receipts to the fakers, who put the two together to give you "evidence' that you are buying the real deal.

Multicolor fakes are often lacking enough color. They will have about a dozen or so colors, and no variations of hue. On my authentic multicolor Louis Vuittons, there are variations of hue for similar colors. For example, there are several shades of pink, green, blue, etc.

Vachetta is the natural, untreated leather on a Louis Vuitton. Vachetta gets darker over time. It also is very sensitive to moisture, and will discolor where it has gotten wet. Fake bags sometimes have fake vachetta which will not change over time.

Lining is important. I suggest you familiarize yourself with the authentic version of the bag so you know which lining it should have. There are different linings, from canvas, to alcantra (which is a suede-like material) and different bags use different linings. If you found a multicolor alma with a canvas lining, you would know it was fake. A damier papillion with a brown canvas lining would also be fake.

Brass is also important. Louis Vuitton uses distinctive hardware, and uses different hardware on different bags. Familiarize yourself with the real deal to make sure you're not being taken. Just because a zipper has "Louis Vuitton" engraved into it, does not mean it is authentic.

Serial numbers are figments of fakers imagination. There is no serial number on a Louis Vuitton bag. There is however, a datecode.

Date codes are very important with authenticating a Louis Vuitton. Each bag has its own location for the date code, so that is another important factor to study. Date codes can take several different forms, but, the most common form I've seen is two letters, followed by four numbers. The numbers can be read to tell you the date the bag was made. For example, a bag with the numbers 0036 would be made in March of 2006. The first number and third are put together, and the second and fourth are put together.

Think you know what you're looking for now? GOOD! But... so do the fakers. A good fake could have a valid date code, and every bit of the bag could look authentic. It's very tricky to tell the real deal these days.

My advice is to get to know your seller. Build a strong relationship with them. Ask to see as many photos as it takes to make you comfortable. Ask how they came to own it, where they bought it, why they are selling it.

Buying resale Louis Vuitton is difficult, but, it can be done with great success. Or, save your money a little longer and buy yourself a new one from one of their stores or on eluxury.com.

I always found buying resale Louis Vuittons too intimidating (plus I hated seeing water damaged vachetta!) so I only ended up buying two bags by this method (my alma which I later sold, and my speedy, which I still own and love). The majority of my bags were bought on eluxury.com or by calling 866-VUITTON to have them locate whatever it was that my heart desired. If you call 866-VUITTON, they can locate your bag and have it shipped to you. Now that's what I call service!

Best of luck on your search for Authentic Louis Vuitton!