Beware of Fakes!

My cousin was sent an email the other day from a girl (who shall remain anonymous) selling her "authentic" louis vuitton tahitienne GM bag. My cousin forwarded me the email and as soon as I saw the bag and price I wanted to immediately buy it. It was in perfect condition and was (according to the girl) only purchased 3 months ago and she was letting go of it at only 35,000Php. What made me doubt and inspect the pictures further however where 2 facts:
1. the tahitienne is limited edition and was only manufactured in 2008
2. she's selling it for such a low price at such great condition.

You see, I own a tahitienne and I should've been able to see the signs right away but I didn't. It was only those two facts that probed me to investigate further and here is what I found:

note: the green is the fake and the beige is the authentic one

REPLICA:


Observe the pattern. Louis Vuitton is very particular with patterns. The gold LV plate here is a little bit below the diamond shaped symbol showing the tip of it and the two flower like sybols on wither side are not touched.
AUTHENTIC:


In the original one, the LV gold plate is right above the diamond symbol covering its tip and hitting both petals on the left and right sides of the flower symbols
REPLICA:

The shape of the leather zipper pocket is like an oval and the stamping of the louis vuitton name is in white
AUTHENTIC:

The stamp in the inside pocket is gold and mind the shape. It is somewhat of an inverted trapezoid.
REPLICA:

The zipper is way too long
AUTHENTIC:

The zipper and pocket of the authentic one

Please be very very careful before buying pre-owned bags. Lavish Manila ALWAYS suggests that bags be inspected before purchase. Especially bags that are limited edition, like this tahitienne, because it is rare and not many are out there to compare it too. There are great sites out there that you can google that will help you authenticate all sorts of designer merchandise. In the case of this fake tahitienne bag, the person used a real LV dustbag and bag to make it look even more authentic. Be careful!


(with my tahitienne)
Feel free to leave a comment or questions