Garage Sale Gal Louis Vuitton: Real or Fake Lynda Hammond

Garage Sale Gal
Louis Vuitton: Real or Fake
Lynda Hammond
It’s happened to me, to Diane Deleon and I’ll bet it’s happened to you, too.
You buy something at a garage sale and you’re certain it’s the real deal, only to get home and
discover you’ve been duped. You’ve bought a fake. This tends to occur often with purses and
wallets. There are a lot of replicas out there so, buyer beware.
I have had some good fortune though. I’ve bought many authentic bags and wallets at garage
sales and have been able to turn around and sell them at a profit.
But my luck ran out when I bought two “Louis Vuitton” designer wallets at a garage sale
recently for $30. The seller said she “thought” they were real. I figured I’d take a chance and if
they were fake heck, I figured, I’ll write a column on it! They looked pretty good with real
leather inside, the famous stamped logo and the signature “LV” fabric intact.
But then I took them to the mall to be checked over by the experts.
“No, they’re both fake,” Jocelyn Romig a service associate at Louis Vuitton at the Scottsdale
Fashion Square said while looking at them closely. “We see them in here all the time,” she adds.
They were pretty good fakes though because she even sought out the opinion of another coworker while looking at them closely.
Diane Deleon and her mom were duped too, but not surprised. “My mom bought the wallet for
me at a garage sale but I just threw it in a drawer and forgot all about it. I assumed it was a fake,”
the Mesa resident says
I met Diane at her garage sale where I bought some old picnic baskets (authentically aged!)
from her and she decided to throw in the “Louis Vuitton” wallet when I asked about it. She told
me it was not the real thing. In fact, although she’d had the wallet for 15 years she only just
recently got it double checked at the store in Scottsdale where they confirmed her suspicions.
Diane is strongly against carrying any bag or wallet that’s fake. “I think it takes away from the
real stuff that’s out there. It takes away from the companies that are making the real stuff and
when you do buy a real one you pay more for it because of all the fakes out there.”
Signs it’s a fake
No matter what brand of bag you’re looking at there are some sure signs to tell if it’s authentic:
*Is it real leather? Fake leather doesn’t wear or discolor so if there’s some wearing signs it’s
probably real leather.
*Is it lightweight? Heavier bags are usually the real deal because of the detailed workmanship
that goes into them.
*Is the name of the brand spelled correctly?
*Is the name plate or logo crooked or missing a letter or two?
Remember, the only way to know for sure you’re getting the real deal is to buy from an honest
to goodness, authorized seller.
(pic provided by Lynda Hammond) This is the fake “Louis Vuitton” wallet Diane Deleon’s
mom bought for $2 at a garage sale in California 15 years ago.
Lynda Hammond is the author of the new book, The Garage Sale Gal’s Guide to Making Money
Off Your Stuff. Check out www.GarageSaleGal.com for details on where to buy the book.
Contact her at [email protected].
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