If you're a big Coach fan, you should know some of the basics and what to look for when buying a Coach Bag online. With the amount of fakes and replicas being mass produced, it's very important to know exactly what you're buying. Let's face it, it's a lot easier to tell if a Coach is authentic or not when you're able to hold it and thoroughly examine it yourself if you know what you're looking for. But when you're buying a Coach Bag online, you only see what the seller and pictures allow you to see which unfortunately sometimes isn't enough.
*** In this guide, I'll start with a few basic tips that everyone who buys Coach Bags should know. Then I'll go into more detail of the format and description of the serial number on the interior square leather patch... also known as the Coach Creed.
<> BASICS <>
TIP #1... Signature Coach Bags will NEVER have signature C's on the interior lining. This is the most important thing to remember and it's a DEAD GIVEAWAY that the bag is a fake. All of the newer style Coach Bags whether they are signature, leather, patchwork, among other designs will NEVER have the signature C lining. I cannot speak for all of the older bags. I've only ever seen 1 older style all leather Coach Bag that had the signature lining and it was indeed authentic.
TIP #2... Coach ALWAYS uses "YKK" zippers. These zippers are of the highest quality. So make sure you see "YKK" engraved into all zippers.
TIP #3... Coach will NEVER wrap their handles with plastic when selling them new. Once again... a DEAD GIVEAWAY.
<> COACH CREED <>
The Coach Creed refers to the interior square leather patch with the serial #. But don't be fooled... most fakes and replicas will have a patch with some combination of letters and numbers, but it's fake and most likely won't follow the correct format. Say you have a serial # that looks like this:
EXAMPLE: No. L1160-F13533
* This is the Correct Format of the Serial #... You will ALWAYS see "No." before the actual serial number and you should NEVER see any spaces... they will all have this same format. Although some of the older Coach Bags have a slightly different format (which I still have yet to figure out!). Most of my energy and interest have gone toward the newer styles. So at this time, I'm only speaking on behalf of those :)
* MONTH CODE... First is the month code: the "L" in this case stands for November, which is the month it was manufactured in (A=January; B=February; C=March; etc...). "I" is always skipped and there will never be a letter after "M" (M=December).
* YEAR CODE... Next is the year code: After the letter month code, you will always see 2 numbers. In this case "11" stands for the year 2011 (99=1999; 01=2001; 02=2002; 10=2010; etc...).
* FACTORY CODE... These next 2 numbers are the code for the factory in which the bag was manufactured in. These numbers are more for reference tham anything. Unless you work in a Coach Factory, you wouldn't need to know the code nor would it give you any advantage to trying to figure out if your Coach bag is real or not. Plus, there are just way too many to memorize!
*** NEXT WILL ALWAYS BE A DASH... After the dash you will sometimes see an "F" (See Below)
F... In this case there is an F after the dash which stands for Factory, meaning the bag was bought/sold at a Coach Factory Outlet not from a Coach Store or a Macy's, Nordstrom, etc.. but nonetheless they are still very much authentic.
NO F... If there is no F after the dash, you will just see 5 numbers (some of the older styles will only have 4 #'s). This set of numbers are considered the Style #. Meaning every Coach Bag with this number will look the same... maybe a different color, but ALWAYS the same design and style.
The easiest way to look up a style # on your own is by going to Yahoo, Google, or even eBay and do a search for "Caoch" then type in the 5 digit style # and you should see lots of the same bags come up in your search results. The Example serial/style # above refers to the Signature Stripe Framed Carryall. If you do a search on eBay for "Coach 13533" you should see some Signature Striped Framed Carryall's (I just did a search and found 20 of them). It all depends on how many are being sold at the time of your search BUT there may be more of them on eBay but many sellers don't put the style # in their title so they won't show up in this type of search when searching by the serial #.
* TOP RIGHT MARKING... Last is the marking that may be stamped in the top right corner of the patch. If you see FS it stands for Final Sale (this means it is no longer under Coach Warranty). If you see an X it means it was sold at a TJ Maxx, Marshall's, or another discounted store. If there is an ES it means it was an Emplyee Sale. There may be more markings, but these are just a sample of explanations. These bags are all Authentic and Genuine Coach Bags and there's nothing wrong with them. These markings are just to differentiate how/where they were purchased.
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So these are just some of the basics to authenticating a Coach Bag by yourself and unlocking the question of "what do those numbers mean???" without actually needing to take it to an authorized Coach dealer. By understanding the Coach Creed, I'm hoping you'll feel a little more comfortable and knowledgeable going forward when trying to decipher if the Coach Bag you're interested in buying is indeed authentic and not some poorly made replica. But if you have any doubts and feel more comfortable having an expert look at it, you should take it to an authorized Coach retailer and have them authenticate it for free :)
I really hope this helps my fellow Coach lovers and puts you in a better position when looking at a bag and trying to decide if it's a real or fake. When buying online from Craigslist or eBay, make sure you get a picture of the Coach Creed. If you don't have a clear picture of it, or any picture at all, the seller should be more than happy to send it to you if they're not trying to hide anything. There are sooo many websites that sell fake Coach Bags trying to pass them off as the real deal. If the price seems too good to be true, than it probably is! Just please be EXTREMELY CAREFUL when buying Coach Bags(or any other designer bags) online!
*** PLEASE NOTE *** I am NOT affiliated with Coach in any way (although I'd love to be!), I just love the beauty of their handbags, which is the reason why I had so much motivation to do as much research as possible could over the years so that I don't accidentally waste my money on a fake! I wanted to pass along some of my knowledge to you because I don't want those fake and replica companies make another penny!!!
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