AUTHENTIC VINTAGE GUCCI?  You have come to the right place.  Ebay is a virtual candy store for those looking for eye candy in vintage GUCCI!  Choose any Saturday night, pull up a chair to the computer and take a look!  Ebay provides a treasure trove of beautiful bags,  wallets  and collectibles from this esteemed design house who has debuted countless styles and lines since the first leather bag hand tooled by Georgio Gucci in his tiny Italian leather shop.  In my experience vintage Gucci has produced a great investment for me and one I can proudly use while knowing that my investment is secure.  Very often items can be purchased, worn and re-sold at a profit years later.  Fine design and craftsmanship never goes out of style.

But wait!  There's always a hitch and in this scenario it is the fact that for every style of vintage Gucci you can be sure to find a fake among the treasure trove.  In my handbag collections, I have included Dior, Vuitton, Chanel, Hermes and Cartier.  But, Gucci remains and always will be the most difficult to authenticate.  The reason is that the company has been through so many changes over the years with many different divisions all bearing different symbols and characteristics. 

And, unfortunately, even for honest sellers, it is difficult to determine if the bag is Gucci or "not".  For that reason, we see many replicas in the marketplace today.  In the 1970's Gucci was so hot that the Asian market flooded major US cities with flea market versions of authentic Gucci bags.  Many were similar, even identical to the authentic versions.  Others still produced styles never even considered by the House of Gucci.  Gucci was very aware of the problem of fake bags and wallets and there is even a funny story about the Gucci dumping hundreds of confiscated fake watches on railroad tracks to be destroyed. 

Begin researching your vintage Gucci purchase with reputable sellers.  I personally like to deal with sellers who know their product.  The ebay COMMUNITY BOARDS are full of sellers committed to authenticating their product before it is listed.  Ebay's listing policy requires sellers to KNOW, for a fact, that their item is authentic before they list it.  This means they either have personal knowledge of the item being purchased at GUCCI or a major Gucci retailer such as Saks or Neiman Marcus, or they have had the item verified by an expert authenticator, such as myself.

You can visit the ebay COMMUNITY boards by clicking on COMMUNITY at the top of any ebay page and going to the topic you are interested in.  There is plenty to be learned on the PURSE board if you are considering a vintage or newer designer bag purchase.

Look for sellers with high feedback and no feedback for selling fakes.  Look for auction descriptions which detail either the original purchase history of the bag or how the bag was authenticated.  Look for an explicit guarantee of authenticity.  The seller should be willing to refund all your money, including shipping, if the bag turns out NOT to be authentic.

For authentic vintage GUCCI you will really have to do your homework.  As a 30 plus year major collector, I have held thousands of vintage Gucci items in my hands and see literally hundreds of differences.  Most common early GUCCI will only be marked GUCCI made in ITALY.  This will often be in gold leaf near the interior zipper on the bag.  However, since this gold leaf often wears away with age, you will have to know the early styles if you are to spot the unmarked authentic from the unmarked fake.  Most fakes are from the mid 1970s to mid 1980s when the GUCCI ACCESSORY COLLECTION was introduced.  This was a mass produced collection marketed in department stores such as Macy's and Saks.  While previous collections were available only by mail order or from esteemed GUCCI stores, with this collection came mainstream love of Gucci and the fake market expanded.  Many fake bags are marked simply with the GUCCI mark or a black and gold tag with the GUCCI mark.  But, some are very close to early marks and one must be careful.  Stitching and styles must be examined here to determine "real" from "fake". Some of the later fake collections even had serial numbers.  Again, knowing the styles, which are fairly basic is the key.  Ebay is a great place for research.  Bookmark some of your favorite sellers known for selling great vintage Gucci and watch their auctions.  You will easily learn the styles and know what you are looking for. 

GUCCI ACCESSORY COLLECTION labels should be well stamped and not blurred at all.  Fake bags will sometimes carry this stamp but the gold leaf is blurred, often not centered on the leather patch.

Even with the abundance of newly introduced styles, GUCCI remained true to their color designs.  The red and green stripe would always be placed on brown and black bags and the red and blue stripe would only be placed on blue.  Counterfeiters sometimes placed red and blue stripes on black bags.  These will be fake, of course. 

Later 1980s collections used a gold plate which says GUCCI made in ITALY.  The serial number is present underneath this plate on bags and elsewhere stamped into the leather on wallets.  Look for properly aligned monograms, even stitching and a WOOL, not synthetic stripe for authenticity.   

When purchasing high end designer bags on ebay, always use PAYPAL and use a credit card, not a debit card, to fund your purchase.  Paypal provides you the best protection if you do not receive your bag, or receive a bag which is not authentic!