Coach Creed Update

Hot on the heels of giving you all a crash course on Coach Creed Patches, they go and change things again! They are phasing out the stamped registration numbers on the leather Creed Patches inside the hag in favor of a cloth tag that will have this information. Here is the Coach Khaki/Brown Otl Zip Top Tote:

As you can see in the bottom photo, the number is now on the tag and not the creed patch.  It is in the same format as it was on the creed A1557-F36185, just fit to size on the tag. Also note, the No still has the underline under the o. If you want to do your google search to verify authenticity, you would do it the same way you did before; Use the title of the bag and the numbers following the F. Not shown is the back side of the tag, which shows the country of manufacture.

So, in closing, only the very old and very new creed patches will not h ave the registration numbers on them.

Be sure and check out our next auction on Friday May 2015 HERE.

Picture Comparison of Authentic and Counterfeit Coach

The counterfeit Coach bags seem to be getting better, at least to the  untrained eye, today I am going to go step by step comparing 2 bags, one counterfeit and one authentic.   These are all the things you can look for that will help you to determine if the bag you got is authentic.

Normally I would just do a google search using the creed number.  Most counterfeit bags will have the wrong style number for that bag so when you do a the search, a different bag will show up. But when the style number is correct in the counterfeit bag, thats when you need to use your knowledge of authentic bags to find the less noticeable things that will tell you whether or not the bag is authentic.  This bag is just such a case, having an authentic style number, but notice the details!

This is the Coach Signature Multi Stripe Diaper Bag

This is the seam side, notice that the letter Cs do not line up, nor are they centered.  Now, on some styles, while the Cs may not line up, they are ALWAYS centered. Also notice that the colored leather patches, while they appear to be in the right color order, the colors don't match to the authentic bag.  Of course, you may not have a bag to compare it with, so the most obvious thing is how sloppy the pattern is right on the seam.

Again, the pattern is not centered on the counterfeit bag.

Now the inside is a major clue.  A baby bag will have the gathered pockets on the sides, the counterfeit bag has the 2 slip pockets and 1 zipper pocket like you find in the handbags.

I don't have a good picture of the authentic bag zipped closed, but this angle of the inside shows 1 side of the zipper.  It's what's called a "break away" zipper, meaning it unzips and separates.  Note on the counterfeit bag that it's not a true break away zipper, it is connected on one end.

And now we're at the creed patch.  At first glance you can see the differences. The wording is spread out, so the border around the wording goes right to the edges of the creed patch.  The words "superior" and "attention" look different.  It's hard to tell if they are misspelled, but there appears to be a "t" on the end of superior and the end  of attention appears to have something wrong with it.  Always read the words in the creed patch and make sure they are all spelled correctly, and evenly spaced.  Something I have run across on a few counterfeit bags is wording that indicates the whole bag is made of leather instead of just trimmed in leather.  Also note the prefix letters/numbers are short one on the counterfeit creed, and while the authentic bag was made in 2007, the counterfeit would indicate 2006.  The numbers/letters on the creed patches have changed over the years, so you can't say any one thing about them is an absolute, except that the No in front of the set of numbers/letters is always a capital N with a small o underlined.  On the counterfeit bag you really don't see it stand out like it does on the authentic bag.

I hope this has been helpful, it takes a lot of skill to know what to look for and that takes time to develop.  Guides like this one may help you be more confident in buying pre owned Coach bags, but the best thing to do is to have confidence in the people you buy from.  We, at Exclusively Coach pride ourselves on our knowledge of Coach and our superior customer service.

Stop in to our next auction on April 14th, 2015 here , we have expanded to bring you more designers, however we are still primarily Coach.

Exclusively Coach! Auction Sneak Peek

The listings are getting in and many buyers are using the Buy Now feature, so get in there and take a look and see if there's anything you want!

Here are just a few things in the lineup:

Welcome to the New Exclusively Coach Auctions!

We have spun off into our own group now, bringing the same great variety of Coach merchandise, brand new, pre owned, vintage and hard to find pieces, all guaranteed to be authentic.

Our auctions will be on Tuesday's at 10am.  Our first auction was on Tuesday, October 7th and was a huge success.  Don't miss our next auction on Tuesday October 14th at 10am.

We have a lot of new and exciting things in store for our customers, giveaways, contests and more.

Stay tuned.........

Authenticating Your Coach Bag

Although most of our customers are familiar with Coach, there are a lot out there who are not.  And even those who are familiar with Coach probably have not seen every bag ever made, so here we're going to give you some tips and some resources.

The biggest one is the creed patch. The lettering should be well spaced and there should be no misspellings in it.  Here is a clear example of a bag that is counterfeit, the word "enduring" is misspelled and the style number, when you research it shows a completely different bag.  This happens to be a very commonly counterfeit style number.

This is the bag the creed patch above is from

And this is the bag for that style number

So, if the creed patch appears fine, next, take the style name and number and do a search on google.  Go to "images" and there you should see pictures of your bag.  Now, the lack of pictures does not automatically mean your bag is a fake, so take a deep breath.  Many of the bags we sell are no longer in production and people may not be willing to part with them, so you won't see them for sale.  I would say that 98% of the time you will see at least a couple of bags that will match so, while it's not foolproof, it's a good first step and may be all you need.

NOT ALL COACH BAGS HAVE CREED PATCHES!!!!

A very common misconception is that if it doesn't have a creed patch, it's not authentic.  WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.  Typically Coach does not put a creed patch in wristlets, wallets, swingpacks and other accessory type bags like the top handled pouch bags.  Occasionally they will have one if they are a limited edition or otherwise special production, but it's quite common to see them without.  Your larger bags that are termed "handbags" according to Coach will always have a creed patch.

Here we searched for the COACH Poppy Storypatch Shoulder Bag 44088

As you can see, there are plenty of these bags available to verify that your bag is authentic.  Don't worry about the bags that don't match, sometimes people get the names or numbers wrong, or if there are no other bags that match the search query you'll get the next thing on the list.

You probably won't question a bag that has the sales tag still attached, but in case you do, here is the tag for the Poppy bag above. It's true that tags are not necessarily proof, as sales tags can be counterfeit as well.  Usually they lack some of the information that an authentic tag will have.  It will have the style number and it will have an abbreviation of the style name.  Here is an example of the Poppy Story Patch. You can see the abbreviation for the bag Poppy Story Patch Top Handled Bag and the style number 44088 and the color is the Blue. It matches the bag you have and the bag in the search.

There is a misconception that the pattern must match at the seams.  This is not true, what is true is that the pattern will always be centered.  It's almost impossible on some patterns to match it exactly, but as you can see here the pattern is not centered at all.

Here you can compare, notice the symmetry

In addition to symmetry, Coach always has the signature c's in pairs, never in single rows:

YKK zippers are not always used on Coach bags, despite the fact that many so called experts will tell you this.

You have to be very careful using random websites out there to get your information.  Many of them have false information.  There are only 2 places I trust to get my bags authenticated for free, and that is The Purse Forum  Those gals know their stuff.  The second place is ebay's community forums in the Clothing, Shoes and Accessories Forum

The best thing to do if you question the authenticity of your bag is to talk with your seller.  Most times they can calm your fears and reassure you as to the bag's authenticity.

We, at The Exclusively Coach Partner Auction do purchase directly from Coach, but much of the variety that we are known for comes from other resources.  We spend a lot of time authenticating our bags for you.  We don't bring you the bags until we are certain they are authentic.  Our reputation is important to us, and you, our customers are important to us.