I have decided to give some insight on horsebit hobos.  They are a very popular item and I see alot of fake ones here on auction.  I also see alot of fake ones from websites. Here are some tips for use when shopping for horsebit hobos that are authentic.

• Top of horsebit at handle should always be bolted down, I have seen it not and when bag sits handle folds under at top. This is a fake bag thing.
• Leather tab on inside zipper does NOT say Gucci on it.  It is a plain tab.
• When you look on the inside of the bag, you should be able to see on the sides where the horsebit bolts down, the screws may be allen or hex or whatever, depends on the production line that season.
• The large monogram for 2006 should have brown stitching and the 2005 should have cream stitching.
• The gold rings are always 3.5 in at widest point for the med and the large., they are not round they are oblong. The lining depends on season, the large gg leather 06 should be horsebit pattern, while the brown  monogram canvas for 05 and 06 has brown lining.
• There is no such thing as plastic contro card that is black plastic and says Gucci on it, I see alot of this and it is not authentic.  There is also no La Storia booklet with these bags.  The La Storia booklet goes with some special edition bags NOT scarf totes or horsebit hobos, I recently bought scarf totes from a website to see if they were authentic and leather was pebbled and came with a La Storia bookelet.  In fact every Gucci item from this website came with a La Storia booklet, WRONG, you have to know the product.
• The brown handle canvas bags are a dark leather like dark chocolate and smooth, the tag is the same.
• The inside the leather beyond the whipstitching goes down two inches!
• The bottom of all 2005 and up med and large bags are seamed across the bottom center, the bottom is always 5 inches on the large bags.  The medium hobos are 4 in deep across bottom.
• All large bags have number 114900/213317 and med is 115867/205011
• As far as I can tell all brown handle and cream handle large and med canvas has light gold hardware, the black canvas has a dark like titanium color hardware, very cool.
• The leather bags have goldtone hardware, except for maybe some special editions that I may not be aware of.
• Now as far as I know the magnetic closure does not exist for the guccissima leather or the large monogram.  There may be some exceptions I had an authentcic chocolate guccissima laste year that was an imperfect and it had a magnetic closure, sometimes this may be an error in production.  I have never seen a black guccissima or a canvas with mangnetic closure, the scarf totes ALWAYS have magnetic closure.  That is another guide!
• 2005 and 2006 dustbags are always the gg satin, the new 2007 dustbags are yellow with a Gucci logo, I do not exactly recall, I was at Gucci about a month ago, a yellow like flannel dustbag.
• There are no variations to these dustbags.
• Contro again like in my last review should always be a care card and small rectangle contro card in dark or light grey on top saying GUCCI and the bottom has the numerals 0-9
• Email me with any questions regarding any Gucci item and I will be glad to help, thanks for reading and dont forget to always research your Gucci item for the CORRECT season before you buy.  I will be writing reviews for totes and other bags in weeks to come thanks.
• ring oblong and a whopping 3.5  in at widest part,  top of handle widest part is 2 in at very topcare card is larger from late 2006 on, smaller from 2005 to mid 2006, NO La Storia Booklet with these bags, 85th anniversary bags ALWAYS have La Storia booklet!From inside of bag you should be able to see the horsebit bolting down, this bag has rivets, some have screws, depends on production, also notice how far down the leather goes down on the inside below the whipstitching to beyond the first rivet but not half, about 1/3 the way downat least 2  inches from the very top of the bag, I have seen some authentic smooth leather go down almost four inches, should always be the case with the large horsebit hobos, canvas or leather.
• .  To the left here is a FAKE bag, note how the horsebit at the top of the handle does not attach to the rest of the top of the handle
• thank you for reading my guide and happy bidding!
• Important information added for Sping of 2008, please note Gucci has changed all the bottom row numbers for medium and large horsebit hobos.  Top number is still for large 114900 and medium 115867, most authentic items on ebay are out of season BUT we are recommending to buyers that they ask what season item is from and sellers make sure that your buyer is informed what season and that your authentic bag has the season information in your auction. 
• We have found a site stylefiles.biz that is comprehensively reviewing ebay couture sellers based on authenticity, customer service and pricing.  We found it to be a great recource as ebay has become a difficult place to shop securely, this site makes it easier.  If you are an authentic seller you can also get listed on the site which states it has nearly 10k hits a month.