So for all Coach knows, it could have been from their own fucking trucks and real all along but because they said they where fakes, they where fakes despite Marshall Field's getting them from Coach.

The balls of these design companies.

Its amazing to think about it though. In France, you can be fined/arrested by the police for just owning/carrying a knock off.

On another note, thats the ugliest purse I've ever seen. I should know. I have two sisters, a wife, and a mother. All of whom I have purchased a purse for...
Coach was just mad that the purses made it out of the factory after a tour group of snakes took a wrong turn to the assembly line. Those red stripes were actually blood.

It's good to know whether or not the ugly purse that you paid too much for is "fake" or not. Very important indeed.

Or rather the only important thing is whether or not the purse carries your stuff well and goes with your shoes. Or something like that. I'm not expert.

The serial number on the creed is not unique, it's simply the style number and a manufacturer code (where/what material). If the bags were liquidated they might have been marked for the Factory store, so look on the creed for a stamped circle (Coach authenticators call this the "target sign" or "bullseye" mark).
This is going to sound crazy, but should anyone who reads this think they have a fake bag, send me pictures and i'll tell them for sure, I used to do this stuff all the time and can spot a fake Coach at 300 paces.

I have often wondered why anyone would want to buy a designer purse/bag/etc. I knew a girl that paid upwards of $900 for a Louis Vitton backpack. What a horrendous waste of money and effort. Who wants to jump through hoops just to verify the authenticity of their horribly overpriced, ugly purse? This is why the terrorists hate us.

Thats the rub of it I think... I have yet to ever see a purse or bag that is worth the money they charge.

Shit I have a hard time justifying a 200 dollar notebook case unless it cradles my notebook in the hair of some dead animal while lovingly running cooling fans all over it. Those peices of shit just carry lipstick and a credit card their husbands should have taken away from them.

I heard Prada just started selling a $1200 suicide bomber vest. Tres chic!

I have a friend who had a white patent leather LV purse who would take it through airport security. Eventually it got stained and ruined. There goes $1200. Waste of money if you ask me. Then again, I'm not one of the rich bastards these women are trying to attract, so I guess you shouldn't ask me.

Do you really think that Target would knowingly sell fake product. It looks to me as if both Coach and Fendi did not have strict enough reseller vendor contracts and ended up seeing their bags sold downline.

I think that you may reporting may be off a bit...cause I would be very suprised to see a corporation the size of Target sign off on any litigation that stated "Coach dropped the suit because Target agreed to stop selling fakes".

Really this was just a PR move by Coach to try and regain any lost brand equity due to their products being associated with "le tarjay".

I'm not fashionista or trend-setter - I like my clothes with a classic style that won't look outdated in 2 years. I love my Coach bag because it fits with my 'look' very well, and has lasted me several years already, with many more left.

Much better than the cheap, $20 purse I bought at a discount shoe store that only lasted about 6 months.

Oh, I should also note that your "how to spot a fake coach" is waaaaay outdated. They don't use the same leather for their non-"classic" bags anymore and I'm not sure their Chinese factories are as perfect about stitch counts as the American one was.
The first rule of buying designer anything is that if you don't know how to spot a fake don't buy from anyone but a legitimate, bricks-and-mortar reseller.
I don't know if Target corporate knew about these bags, it sounds like it was just one store that sold them.
Oh, and of course only gold diggers buy designer bags, no woman could ever earn enough to buy one herself because she likes it. Right.

I own a few pieces from Coach myself... and I have to say, I don't know what they've been feeding their design teams over the past few years to come up with some of the hideous crap that's been foisted on the public at large.

Anyway, the cost of the average Coach purse is in the lower end of three digits, so men chucking around facile comments about $1200 purses obviously don't have even a passing familiarity with the brand.

I don't think Coach is trying to protect its cachet so much as keep other discounters from moving in on the lucrative business it does through its own outlet stores. Honestly, if they cared that much about fakes they've have an entire department devoted to hunting down the scammers infesting eBay.

Hey, now. While I'm definitely in the "I don't get it" camp, and while the ugliness of that purse also hurts my feelings, I'm going to guess that almost everyone spends money on things that other people think are silly and foolhardy every now and again.

Got a fancy pen? Planner? More watch than you need? Blingy rims, maybe? Go to Starbucks much?

"Anyway, the cost of the average Coach purse is in the lower end of three digits, so men chucking around facile comments about $1200 purses obviously don't have even a passing familiarity with the brand."

Oh, well, since they are only charging in the lower end of three digits (!!!) for five dollars' worth of parts and another five dollars' worth of labor, then you are completely correct. How dare any man say that paying 2000% markup for a designer brand is ludicrous?

me and my coach (real - bought from a coach store) bag are stayin' out of this one

If you want designer stuff for cheap, just buy it off of Ebay ... a lot of the stuff is fake (even if they say otherwise) but as long as you set a price limit on what may be a knockoff, you get the same looking thing for a good price. I would never pay $200 for designer jeans, but the Sevens and Paper, Denim, & Cloth jeans I bought on Ebay for about $35 look and fit the same. I know for sure that at least one is fake but, hey, my wife still says my ass looks great in them!

I know it's been said a few times already, but that bag is FUGLY.

I still carry a (real) Coach bag my mother got as a graduation gift 25+ years ago. It's seen a whole lot of wear and tear and still looks gorgeous and nearly new.

That's why I asked for a Coach tote bag to use as my briefcase for my graduation gift. I punish that bag - pack it too full, throw it on the floor of my car, spill soda on the insides - and it's still gorgeous too.

Some expensive things are actually worth the money.

I'm with Principia--I have a couple of lovely vintage Coach bags, which are very reasonably priced, especially considering what you get--the current stuff is as obscene to look at as to pay for. I don't get it. Coach was used as example of a company that has been successful in attracting the "trading up" market in Treasure Hunt, but IMO their merchandise is much less appealing to that target market now than it once was, and they probably sacrificed some of their core consumers with the new style, too. But whatever they're doing, it's working. I agree that this was probably a move to prevent dilution of the brand's cachet. They aren't inherently valuable items.

Me and my Blue Blood jeans are staying out of this as well.

huh, my links gone. Was saying, me and my Blue Blood Jeans are staying out of this as well.