eBay Community Discussion Board on Fashion: You can post requests for handbag help on this board, and you may find other members that are very familiar with Coach bags that are willing to help.

For all other items, you'll need to include the item name if known, link if available, and photos of the item, including a clear, readable image of the creed stamp and serial number, along with the bag's measurements for older or vintage Coach items. For auction listings, you must include item, listing number, seller, and any comments about the bag or item. This is a free service, and designated Authenticator members will respond to your post, but you'll need to include detailed information. To get help, you'll need to register to become a member of the forum.

The Purse Forum, in particular its 'Authenticate This' thread specific to Coach, can be helpful to those looking to verify a serial number and authenticate a bag.

You can find them and ask for their help by visiting: They're usually happy to tell you about your bag's serial number and, if asked, to help authenticate your new or vintage bag. Coach enthusiasts are serious about serial numbers and may have near-encyclopedic knowledge of them. If there are only one or two, or if the number is letters instead, then the bag is likely a fake.Īnother way to find out what the serial number in your Coach bags has to tell you is to turn to online handbag communities.

Bags made after 1994 will have at least three digits in the first part of the serial number.

If the seller won't send you these pictures, you may want to pass on making that purchase.

If you're considering buying a bag from an online consignment store or a site like eBay, ask the seller for a picture of the creed and serial number.

A bag with fewer than seven digits in the serial number is almost certainly a fake.

According to Bag Bliss, if the serial number doesn't begin with 'No.,' the abbreviation for 'number,' then it's probably not authentic.

While it's tough to identify a counterfeit Coach bag, the serial number contains certain clues. According to Forbes, in fact, it can even be difficult for the company distinguish the real thing, although they have both overt and covert ways to tell (such as hidden stitch counts).

Some are fairly high quality and look similar to their authentic counterparts, which makes it tough to identify the real thing.

There's a huge market in fake designer handbags.

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