Is a Leather bag really rare?  Vintage leather?  How can it be kept in great conidtion so it might gain value in the eye of a Collector?  What safe-guards ca I use to protect me from buying a brand that has many illegal "knock offs"?  This article will help you with yhour leather savvy, and help you enjoy your leather treasures.  Compiled and edited by a leather seamstress and COACH collector, this is part 2 in a series. and provides some worthwhile facts.

Vintage Leather Handbags:  Care & Used Bag Buying Tips

Wind, weather and rain have always been a foe of leather goods.  Yet, the technology of today has set traps for the unsuspecting leather owner and has now presented new ways to help determine the era the leather item was manufactured.

1)  The most recent threat to leather beauty is when traveling.   Gentlemen have experienced their new, sealed ink/gel pens not taking the changes in cabin pressure well during flights, showing up at their destinations with blossoming pockets from massive leaks from the pens.  In a leather bag however, stowed or unstowed, one of these pressure-sensitive time-bombs can explode and not be noticed until it has begun to seep into the grain of the lether and produced a merciless stain in glove tanned leather.  Be safe, if you don't know if your pen ca survive the altitude, place them in a securely closed zipper bag and/or read the advertising of office supply vendors for pens that have uneffected by airplane cabin pressure changes.

2)  Store you leather handbag, wallet, garment, etc, in cloth.  Avoid plastic containers whether they are plastic bags or the new snap-lid stacker bins.  These have acids that over time can upset the original patina producing unevenness in colors.  Also, they can trap ambient moisture and with time, the leather can "sour"--smell more dramatically from the type of tanning process (i.e., fish tanning, chrome tanning, brain tanning, etc) and hold the moisture--overall seeming a bit rancid.  When this has been occuring, the leather has begun to decay and unevenness in the exterior of the bag may be seen, the leather can crack more easily and at times at flex point, even seem more sueded in those areas de to the dry/moister damage.  Putting a leather garment into a plastic storage garment bag seems so easy and natural--beware!  Pillow cases are an easy answer, Coach provides a sleeper-bag, use an old twin sheet, an old shirt or piece of odd fabric can help keep your item safer.

3)  Avoid having your glove tanned leather re-dyed at a show repair shop!  Often the products used there are for leather where it was processed anticipating being made into shoes and so the pores in the leather were closed during the tanning.  These products also often have heavy waxes in them.  Glove tanned leather has open pores and so a pH balanced cleaning and/or conditioner can keep the oil, moisture and gloss of the item very beautiful if done on a regular basis. 

Improperly re-dyed handbags can, with the right weather conditions, crepe off onto your clothes and ruin them.  Collectors generally will know this has occurred and a re-dyed bag handled this way will show minor fingernail scratches more readily due to the wax on the leather.  It takes a lot of buffing with a proper pH cleaner & conditioner to help lessen these problems.  Please, don't get me wrong.  A quality bag that has been re-dyed this way is still a good day-to-day work bag--many that see you with the bag won't have a clue this has been done.  However, you may want to use COACH Cleaner & Conditioner on the bag more often, or use LEXOL pH Original Leather Cleaner (Glycerin-rich-pH Balanced) & LEXOL Conditioner on the item with plenty of buffing until the most dramatic effect of an imperfect re-dye has worn off.  As a hopeless leather lover, the buffing is worth the effort to enjoy a quality piece again. [Please note, that COACH will not re-dye, re-stain or re-color any bag made by their corporation.]

4)  Verification of Autheticity by COACH:   Only 10 years of registration codes are presently in the database of COACH.  Prior to that time, either they (hopefully), were registered by the original owner and the authencity cards are with the item to help authenticate a bag.  With multiple owners of COACH bags, over time, the logo tags are lost & the leather can become so soft that the real stamped-in number, under the COACH Creed, can be practically impossible to read.  It used to be that a COACH bag, just because of the Creed & Number, could be trusted.  COACH now recommends that serious collectors send their bag in to their Florida repair plant with a $20 fee to be authenticated.  If there is a COACH store anywhere close to your location, they claim an employee can do this for you also, however, I've personally found that this is a less than optiminal way to be sure.  Confirming a Number of the phone is now longer being done by customer service.  COACH still maintains their repair offer for the useful life of a COACH handbag.  Since straps take the most abuse, COACH does make replacement straps available for $32.  More information regarding their policies can be obtained at coach.com.

With the increase of fake name brand bags being very cleaverly copied over-seas, brand names are protecting their logo/trademark/tradenames by trying to reduce and eventually end demand for 'knock-off" merchandise.  Sellers need to be very aware of who they are detailing with and where they might be getting their items.  COACH, for one, only sells through their own company owned stores.  A seller can be tempted to make fast money taking opportunities are simply way to full of risk.  Proper trademark disclosure can be requested from a market/auction site if there is suspicion of a fake, black market/parallel import or grey market item being offered.  I've heard it said that ignorance of the law is no excuse & learned of community sellers having their items confiscated since they did know have a trail proving proper trademark disclosure.  Trademark fines and suspension on eBay, with PayPal and other marketing/auction sites can happen.

Forinstance, A&F and other brand holders can send a cease and desist letter after a report of a suspected fake.  At a "best case" scenario, even with A&F making a supplier disclose the customer base they are selling those allegedly grey market goods, a wholesaler gets audited and all customers get fined for trademark infringement.  Full retail price of each item they bought and for each item that was sold (anywhere) is used for determining the company's damages.  Regretfully, this might be a trap for a newbie seller & even the more experiences marketers who just can't leave the "hot item" profits alone long enough to research their sources very thoroughly prior to wading into these waters of selling a "top ten" selling item.  You must do all you can to find authorized sources that will back you up with paperwork on new items and take all the risk out of becoming a seller of integrity.

When you buy USED leather items, search antique stores, thrift stores, take the neighbors up of their offers to have you auction their goods, etc, the risk is much, much reduced. 

Public Librarians are wonderful friends and resources to find you valuable reference sources for know the background of used items you can sell on eBay.  Scan photos for your personal use to help you double-check key design points of a certain designer (respecting copyrights) and soon you will become a reputable information source and known for your passion and intelligent marketing methods and style.  Go for it, beat me to Power Seller status!