Vintage Coach Purses at Great Prices

The answer is simple: Coach has been in style since I can remember. My first designer purse was a Coach bag, and in the mid-90s, Coach bags were a status symbol among young women...and they still are. Some of the older styles bring feelings of nostalgia, but they are also very classic in their design, and extremely durable. I have Coach bags that are almost 15 years old that look GREAT. The leather is thick, soft, supple, and sturdy. The styles are elegant and stylish. How can you go wrong with that?

Plus, you can't beat Coach's lifetime warranty. I have a Small Hippie (circa 1999) that I'm about to send to the Florida factory for repair - at no charge. You just can't beat Coach quality with lifetime servicing. Coach handbags are a wise investment, and a fashionable choice, every time.

It's true - you can great deals on AUTHENTIC Coach items on eBay. I have gotten some GREAT Coach items on "the Bay" myself, and for great prices. Despite what you may have heard, eBay is a safe place to buy designer products if you are an informed shopper. If you have no idea what a real Coach bag looks like, then you could possible get taken by one of the very few dishonest sellers. However, eBay has so improved their marketplace in recent years that if a seller is offering fake products, it is usually spotted and removed before the auction ends. Furthermore, the old adage really does ring true: if it sounds too good to be true, IT PROBABLY IS.

So, use your common sense and the following secrets to buying authentic Coach bags and accessories on eBay:

1) Only buy from sellers using original pictures of the actual item offered. If a seller is using a catalogue/website picture of an item, it's only because there is something wrong with the item being sold. If they can't access a camera, they have no business selling on eBay. So, don't even go there.

2) Stick with sellers who provide CLEAR pictures of the interior and Coach creed. Sometimes a seller who doesn't sell purses very often may only include exterior pictures, especially if the bag they are selling is in a popular style. However, if you can't tell for sure that it's a real, popular bag, DON'T RISK IT. If you are looking for an authentic bag, you should look for sellers who show a photo of the item being sold with the creed (leather patch with the model number and company creed found on the inside of authentic Coach bags).

3) Whenever you can, buy from sellers who offer a money-back authenticity guarantee. That's simple enough, isn't it? This kind of guarantee is now very common on eBay, so if you choose to just stick to those seller, you should be able to find some great items on a regular basis.

4) Don't be afraid to buy from less-than power sellers - you might get a great deal. Everyone selling Coach on eBay isn't going to be a power seller. Sometimes you have regular joes who sell on eBay from time to time getting rid of excess stuff cluttering up their closets. That's perfectly fine. Just make sure the eBay seller knows the culture of eBay and the importance of providing detailed pics that show accurate representations of the item and the Coach creed inside the bag.

5) When you can, stick to buying from sellers who post the Coach model number in the title. Sellers who do this are usually Coach fans selling authentic bags that they purchased themselves at Coach stores or department stores.

6) If you are buying a bag that you have never seen before, LOOK IT UP! There are a number of things that you can do to research the authenticity of a bag that you are thinking of buying. First, type "Coach" and the creed number you are looking for into your favorite search engine (preferably Google or Yahoo!) and see what comes up. Click through the links and look at the pictures. This may be all you need to do, if it is a popular bag that you're researching. However, if you are looking for information on an older, less popular bag (like my old-school Wendie #9031) or a special edition bag (the anniversary bags, for instance, look strange and might be mistaken to be fakes), the search engines might not give you any results that you can use. Don't assume prematurely that it's a fake, however, There are two more things that you can do to get information:

a) Join the Coach forum at http://forum.purseblog.com. There are reference guides for helping to authenticate Coach bags written by avid fans. However, there are some novices mixed in the bunch, so wait until you have a broad range of opinions and a consensus among the older members/moderators before you make your decision.

b) Use my TOP SECRET method of purse authentication, and use the Wayback Machine (http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://coach.com). You will gain access to all of the archived Coach websites from 1998 to 2008. However, due to the nature of Coach's websites through the years (they are oftentimes Flash sites), only certain years are easily accessible and searchable. Also, drop-down menus and such will not work, so in order to see the images of bags on the older websites, you may have to do some clever clicking in order to find the web pages that show catalogue-style organization. However, if you have a good idea what era a purse is from, but you just want to see if it's the real deal and not a look-alike, this is the way to go. I used the Wayback machine to find the MSRP on a bag I bought on eBay that was maybe four years old. I got the bag for about 30% of the MSRP in like-new condition!