Designer Handbags

You shelved yourself out of a thousand dollars for that grand designer handbag you carry. You proudly sport it around your friends initially caught in awe with your latest fashion treasure. Later, they noticed something different about it. You try to dismiss their doubt by showing the hundred thousand dollar receipt you got after making the purchase on the Internet. But when they take a closer look with your Louis Vuitton label it lacks one “t”!

Exclusive, sexy, and stylish is what spells a real fashionista carrying an expensive designer handbag to complete a perfect head-to-toe wardrobe. It is for this sophisticated image designer handbags give that those women from all around the world drool over for the most luxurious handy companion.

Price and style always come together. Aside from the trendy but quality signature labels, as everyone knows, designer handbags also come with a thousand bucks.

But with counterfeiters mushrooming all around the globe to take advantage of the ever growing market of women who go crazy for that coveted precious handbag by a prominent fashion designer, one can hardly make sure if the designer handbag you are sporting is a real one.

Fakes Are Everywhere

Fake designer handbags are all over the place. Counterfeiters, now, not only limit themselves in selling in the streets or mobile car trunks. They, at present, have gone Internet-savvy penetrating online auction sites in the worldwide web.

A “designer handbags” keyword search, for instance, on Google gives more than 2 million results. And there’s no assurance that clicking only on sites with screaming “authentic” titles in selling their goods will give you a safe online shopping spree.

In fact, fashion-related items including signature handbags comprise about 18% of the $98- million counterfeit products seized by the U.S. Customs in 2002, according to the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition (IACC).

Aside from spreading themselves all over the world, counterfeiters are getting smarter too! So spotting fakes and knockoff designer handbags also known as replicas and imitations are no longer limited to flimsy hardware, cheap leather, and misspelled logos.

Worst, fakes can even cost you a real deal price.

Getting Real Online

Buying in authorized dealers or boutique shops is one of the safest ways to protect you from getting fake designer handbags. But if you can’t help to go to the Internet, which saves you from leg-wrecking stroll in the mall, it is advised to be stylishly critical on your online shopping.

To get choices of the real ones flashing on your computer monitor screen, always visit an authorized Internet sites such company-owned websites of designer handbag products and legitimate designer etailers among these are www.yoox.com, www.eluxury.com, and www.net-a-porter.com.

As much as possible avoid unfamiliar auction sites. If you can’t avoid tempting auction sites, which offer discount designer handbags, try to be extra suspicious on its offered items. Check also the location of the seller and be careful on countries, especially where intellectual property laws are vague, known to manufacture replica products such as in China, Korea, and Singapore.

It also pays to be price conscious. Although Ebay.com has set rules prohibiting the sale of counterfeit goods, still you can find in the site a new Louis Vuitton handbag for $100. If you encounter an offer like this don’t buy it because it is not authentic. The real thing costs a price range of $500 to more than $1000. It is the same thing for other high-end authentic handbags.

One can also be critical on online shopping by guarding yourself from sellers of wholesale designer handbags. Although wholesale or bulk buying gives you huge discounts, most often than not its items are also not authentic.

Beware Of Screaming Adjectives

Again, beware of enticing titles of etailers, who sell items in an online auction sites and use very screaming and luring adjectives such as “authentic” and “genuine” because most of these descriptions are overkill. It is also useful to note reading fine prints in the site where you may find out that the items sold or auctioned are only “Inspired by”, which means the merchandise is not only fake but also not an exact copy.

The handbag wrappings in the picture could also help you spot telltale signs of a fake designer handbag. If you notice paper around the buckles, plastic over handles, and square tags of material hanging from a strap, these items are but imitation designer handbags.

Finally, never get too excited on purchasing or bidding for an item online and always be critical on the price and choice you make.

Always remember that the glamour that fashion evokes should not let anyone easily be fooled around. Just like in projecting an elegant image, nothing beats a smart buyer fashionista.