The Purse Obsession - Do You Have One or Two or Three or More?

I don't have any of those things but I do have a real Jack Spade bag for men.

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Well, I don't actually have any but I have my sights set on a pink Dooney and Bourke or one of the new ones that (*gag*) Lindsay Lohan models in the ads. Or a pink Coach.

But my sister, oy, she is bad. She has a brand name obsession. Now, she's in college and very poor... but she spends $300 on a Gucci purse. *Rolls eyes* But I get to use it, so I don't really mind

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haha Roots is THE Canadian outfitter.
Actually, they outfit our Olympic team.

I have so many it's not even funny. I have 2 LV, 1 Coach, 1 Burberry, 1 Gucci, then a bunch from places like Kohls, WalMart, and places like that.

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Since for the second time in as many weeks this subject has come up I think it's time to address the topic of the illegality of the copyright infringement and the long term ramification of purchasing these phony items. Gutting the market with these counterfeit faux designer or sports team products has become viewed by some as the "acceptable" crime. After all, it seems so victimless, doesn't it? In fact it's become so much more chic and profitable than drug dealing. Think about it. Get caught selling enough heroin to make $50,000 profit and you can land 12 to 20 years in a Federal prison. Make the same profit with faux Vuittons and you get 6 months and $5,000 fine. The consequences haven't caught up to the severity of the crime. No wonder they're popping up everywhere. And when these really authentic bags are placed in "front" stores it's such a legitimate seeming way to launder money.

So how bad can it be? Aside from the loss in profit to the designers themselves there's the loss of income/commision to their sales employees. How about the loss of tax from their income. Or the loss of state and local sales tax to the respective government.

But people will rationalize that they would never buy the real thing so to them the tax argument would not hold up. They don't care. These faux items can now be found in any major city in the USA, Europe, and Australia.

But what if you knew where the profits were going. In reality it's connected to an organized crime machine that most don't want to acknowledge. Not so much our local crime families anymore, but rather global organizations bent on the destruction of Western civilization. The profits from these bags are going into the coffers of Al Qaeda. Yes, it's true. Profits from counterfeit items are funding terrorist groups. And when you think about it, doesn't it make perfect sense? What better way to seek to fund the destruction of our culture than to utilize those traits in us that they abhor. They're using our fixation on status, our vanity, our greed and turning it all against us.

So now that you know, how can you rationalize it?

Whenever a deal seems too good to be true...it is.

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I have a real Kate Spade and a real Coach...

Two fake Kate Spade's, one fake Coach, a fake Prada, and a LV.

I think Kate Spade's my fave... she makes very girly bags and I like pink and bows... what can I say?

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No.

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I don't have any purses until I open my mouth and a big one falls out.

And I'm 100 percent with etoile on this. Buying knock-offs is not harmless bargain shopping.

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I don't get what's up with buying fake purses. I wouldn't own a fake.

Which explains why I don't have a Coach, LV, or Burberry bag. I'll wait for my real one.

I've bought a couple off of the streets in NYC...but none of them have fake labels...I have a ton of other pureses though. I love them!

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The fact that only ONE poster after Ifliti digested the enormity of what Etoile just wrote, makes me VERY sad. It's an absolute fact what Etoile just stated. And it's not just on little street corners around the country, Check for websites on the internet exclusively devoted to stop all of the (literally) hundreds of Ebay sellers that sell fake designer bags, Vuitton, et al. You'll read all about it. Meanwhile, not only are the fakes embarrassing for the person wearing them, but, by the time you accrue 10 or so fake bags, you could have bought one REAL bag. It's the quick fix and the feeling of "getting away with something" that makes people who buy fskes, so stupid. If one of my models ever does that and I catch them, I make them throw the bag away in my office and berate them mercilessly.

Just for the record I did digest Etoile's speech, and I do honestly feel bad. However I'm not going to rush to throw my fakes away. How will that make things any better? I agree I won't buy any more ... but throwing them out doesn't seem like it would make much of a difference.
I also doubt that Louis Vuitton is really suffering ... somehow I think the company is still doing just fine. Same with Gucci, Coach, Prada, etc. I doubt their execs are on the cusp of going broke!
And where does this AlQuada info come from? While I find it appalling if it is true ... where is the proof? Last I heard (from a website dedicated to eliminating fakes) they are primarily being made by former employees of the companies in question and primarily working in China and Japan. I don't see how that is benefitting terrorism at all.