Hi! It's scairy spending 400 dollars to buy a bag from someone you don't know. I know a lot about hand bags and can pretty much spot a fake very quickly. here's some of the things to do. 1. when you see one you are interested in on ebay, open a new window on your computer. Google the discription. Take a look at what comes up. There are many web sites that sell fake bags very similar to the real thing. And there will be sites you know you can trust, where you can find a discription and photo of the real deal. next.... A. compare the fakes that come up, compare the real things. One thing thats important to look at is size. Sizes are ALWAYS a little off in fakes. B. Next, compare the materials. The COLOR, MATERIAL and SHEEN are always a little off. especialy the color and texture of leathers. The balanciaga motorcycle bag is a great example of this. The fake ones and turquise ones I have seen have never been the right colors. I can tell from a block away in real life. And the TEXTURE and COLOR is always a little off. C. Make sure the bag you are researching does not come up on a million fake bag sites. This is REALLY IMPORTANT. If it does and the dimensions, fabric, texture and color are exactly the same, then I'm sorry the bag is a fake. Fakes just arent that good. They are not the same as the real thing. 2. JUST BECAUSE IT COMES WITH A PURSE BAG WITH THE DESIGNERS NAME ON IT DOES NOT MAKE IT REAL. It's easy to get those bags. Counterfit ones, from friends, I think you can even buy them online. 3. LOOK AT THE STITCHING QUALITY.This is really important. Great bags have great quality stitching. I have a few Marni bags that break on the hardware parts frequently BUT the STITCHING is amazing. As is the QUALITY OF THE LEATHER. 4. EVEN DESIGNER BAGS THAT ARE MASS PRODUCED AND NOT RARE, HAVE A SPECIAL LOOK TO THEM. It's kind of like art. When you see the good stuff it does something to you. Make sure you get that feeling when you look at it. 5.Try to email the designers company with a link to the item. They will know right away. They will also want to help because fake bags really hurt their business. 6. If you can, Bring your laptop to a store that sells the brand of purse in it. Show someone who has been working at the store a long time, a picture of the bag or a copy of the discription. A. I sold a great pair of Louis Vuitton shoes the other day. One of the bidders asked me to show a sales recipt. I no longer had it and I bought that pair in Europe. But I told her I would bring them into the Louis Vuitton store and have the store manager write a note on Lv stationary with the stores number and her name on it to authenticate them. Sellers want to sell. If the item is expensive, Let them do the leg work. I would have totally done it. After I offered to, They didn't take me up on it. B. When I first started selling on ebay a few weeks ago, i was worried noone was going to buy my stuff. It's all designer, and I didnt have much of a rating, so how could they trust it? On ebay, they have services you can buy that will authenticate your items. when I tried that route, I found those services to only be for Coins, Beenie Babies, and baseball cards. I was bummed. Luckly, people trusted me anyway and I've sold 7 pairs of shoes so far. 3 to the same buyer! The moral of both those stories is, There are ways, if you take the time, to authenticate things, as buyers and sellers. 7. If you want a fake bag then obviously, any PRADA bag without the words authentic or auth in it's discription and only going for 20 dollars and is sold by someone with no rating is a fake. A leather handbag by a great designer will never be posted with out a reserve for less then 100 dollars. At least I would never. The reason is this, great bags are an investment. Keep them in good condition because they will be collectors items in the future. Or you can resell them. Great bags have great quality with very little maintenence they will last forever. Gucci bags, Hermes bags, LV bags from the 70's are selling for much more then the were originaly. So it is an investment. Purses and shoes are important. They add a lot of flavor to an outfit. I hope this is a good guide! It's my first one. Happy Hunting Ladies and Gents!