A rough guide to buying authentic Chanel bags

At first, I was quite skeptical of spending so much $$$$$ online. Prefer to see, touch, feel & even smell the leather bags.

However, I really love vintage Chanel bags and alot of them are found online. Plus, I trust only the Japanese resellers. Read my previous post to know why. http://sgtaitai.blogspot.sg/2012/11/vintage-chanel-bags.html

I will get it authenticated at the purseforum before buying. After researching online, there are the few tips I learned to spot a fake Chanel vintage bag.

How to spot a fake Chanel vintage bag
1) The sewing of the quilting is perfect diamond shape, front & back with at least 10 stitches per inch, all evenly done even when the bag is closed.

2) The right side of the C overlaps the left side of the C - Chanel Logo

3) The logo plate at the back of the Chanel logo with flat head screws. On the left side says Chanel & the right side, Paris, both direction to the right. Note: There seems to have logo plates with Chanel at the top & Paris at the bottom. However, cos I have read a few websites saying the real ones are left & right so I will choose only bags like that instead of the top & bottom though they may not be fake.

4) The Chanel logo at the back of cover - the spacing between the 2 C are the same spacing as the width of the letters of the C and should be slightly raised.

5) Serial number of the hologram sticker at the bottom of the bag matches the authencity card. However, this is easy to replicate though I also insist on this cos I think this may help if I want to re-sell my bags later. Some extremely old vintage bags may not even have the hologram stickers.

6) Serial number is only maximum 8 numbers. The lines & wordings on authencity card is perfectly aligned

7) Rule of the thumb: Online Sellers should provide high quality photos indicating all of the above & if the pricing is only a few hundreds, well, common sense should warn you right ?

8) Fake vintage Chanel bags are not as common in the market yet though it always best to check.

9) Always pay by paypal or credit card. If something goes wrong, you can always get back your $$ by alerting paypal or your bank!