Michelle’s Cheap Purses and Handbags

Maybe I spend too much time looking at completed eBay listings, but something really jumped out at me this week as I was looking at all of the designer purse auctions.  First of all, there really are a lot of designer bags and purses sold every day on eBay.  Of course, I knew that, but I had not really looked at the numbers all that closely lately.

What really jumped out at me this week was that people looking for purses on eBay, are not only looking for cheap purses, they are placing a heavy emphasis on finding authentic handbags and authentic purses.  Of course, I mean authentic designer bags and purses. I don't remember exactly how I got to the data I eventually found.  You know how it is, you start looking for something on the Internet or on eBay and before you know it you are 10 searches away and looking at something completely different!  Anyway, I think I started my search by typing in the phrase "bags wholesale" and just went on from there.  My search ended with me looking at a ton of completed listings that ended in sales for people who had included a word "authentic" in their purse and handbag auctions. Of course it seems obvious that people would be more likely to purchase something listed as an authentic designer item, but really, anyone could just throw that into their auction title if that was all there was to it.  As I clicked on the completed auction listings, I noticed that many of the sellers who used the term authentic, also had very high feedback ratings and many even guaranteed the authenticity of the merchandise they were selling.  If you can find those three things together in an auction listing on eBay, you have probably found yourself a winner.  Of course you must use your own judgment with each purchase you make, but this can make your shopping experience a lot easier and more enjoyable. I've added a new feature to the website this week.  There are now thumbnail photos of a few purses and handbags located in the sidebar and at the bottom of this post.  I've tried to set this up so that the purses shown on the front page have the word "authentic" either in the title of their auction or within their descriptions. If anything else slips through, I apologize in advance.  I thought that might be a nice starting place for my visitors.
Remember, if you start doing searches on your own within eBay, you will need to search for singular items in most cases.  By this, I mean you would search for "authentic Fendi purse", not "authentic Fendi purses" unless you were looking to purchase a wholesale lot of designer bags.  You must remember this because most people listing items for sale on eBay are only selling one designer purse at a time.  They would have no reason to include the plural "purses" in their searchable title.  Also remember that if you are specifically looking for a cheap purse or discounted handbag, you can type in a phrase such as "designer inspired handbag" and find something a little bit less pricey.  Most people won't call their own item "cheap" in the title they use. I hope that this post helps you to find the authentic purse you're looking for today.  I haven't checked, but I would imagine that using the word authentic and looking for sellers who back up what they list would work for quite a few items sold on eBay.  Good luck shopping and remember to keep your eyes open for those authentic purse listings!

Buy Cheap Designer Purses

I see this question all over the place when I read fashion related forums.  Where can I buy a cheap designer purse? Over and over again.  If you are a frequent visitor, you know the answer, as I've explained numerous times how to snag real deals on authentic designer bags on eBay. In general, looking online is always a good idea even if you end up going with a visit to a local retail shop. You really have nothing to lose by checking out what is available. It really comes down to your own personal preference I suppose.


I'm writing this post out of a little bit of frustration right now because I just heard a friend of a friend (who doesn't know I have this website) go on about how she would never buy anything on eBay because ...(fill in the blank with a popular reason).  I could tell I'd be wasting my breath explaining the whole feedback system.  This same person then began talking about a purse party she was invited to attend!  Do you know what they sell at most designer purse parties?  Yes, purses.  Do you think those are all authentic Coach and Gucci bags?  Ugh. I just want to point something out.  There are a lot of people who have found great deals on a variety of items (including designer bags) on eBay.  Obviously, some people have bought things they didn't like on eBay.  If I'm not mistaken, the same can be said about most stores in the "real world."  I definitely understand that some people are nervous about buying anything online and that there are still many people who have never even bought anything online, let alone a designer purse.  My past posts explain again and again how and why people are able to find great prices by using smart shopping strategies.  eBay actually has been pushing the "buy it now" approach a lot lately.  eBay has made numerous moves to try to improve the shopping experience for buyers.  If you are still nervous about buying something, you should:

• Ask questions of the person selling the designer purse.  A quality seller will answer quickly and with the information you requested.  If you request photos of a particular designer purse, most reputable sellers will happily oblige and send along detailed photos of the bag.  If the photos they send disappoint you, move on.
• Please look at the seller's feedback rating.  If a person has excellent feedback (you can see this in their feedback by clicking on the number next to their screen name), that means that other people have been happy with their purchases.  The feedback is even extremely detailed now and includes ratings on things like shipping prices, product being as described, communication, and more.  As I said, I don't deal with anyone who has less than around a 98% positive rating and a fair amount of transactions under their belt.  The feedback is a very good indicator of what to expect when dealing with a particular seller.
• Look to see if the seller deals mainly in purses and handbags.  There are several eBay sellers who sell only designer bags.  They obviously have some type of connection that they may mention in their listings.  Some may be retailers looking for another venue to move along their stock.  You could always just ask them about the origin of a purse or handbag!  If eBay gets a report that a seller is selling counterfeit merchandise, they will shut the seller down.  Anyone going to the expense and trouble of setting up shop would be stupid to risk everything for the sake of selling garbage.  This is certainly not to say that you should ignore people who are selling their own designer purses.  In case you didn't notice, the economy is a bit challenging right now for many people.  Finding these infrequent sellers is actually part of my strategy for getting great designer purse deals on eBay.  I've written a few posts about this in the past.
• Check for the return policy.  eBay requires sellers of designer purses and any merchandise to have a return policy and I've noticed that several of the larger eBay sellers dealing in purses guarantee that their merchandise is 100% authentic.  Sellers running auctions or ads without a return policy risk having their listings pulled.

OK.  Sorry for the rant.  Honestly, shop wherever you want to find the best deals, but it makes me a little but nuts listening to people spout off about things they don't know anything about. Hearing that woman say that she was going to a purse party after going on about fake purses just got to me a little.  Of course, feel free to not buy anything.  That is your choice. Just as dropping $70 on a purse party item that is almost certainly a "reproduction" is a choice.  I don't personally list any of the purses you will see on eBay.  I try to find and show off some low priced designer purses that many people don't know about. These are listed by a variety of people from a variety of sources. The selection is a bit better than you will find at most purse parties. I don't have anything against designer purse parties by the way. Sometimes they have some great snacks!  When I checked just now, there were over 6,500 listings for designer purses and designer handbags on eBay. That is a LOT of purses and handbags.  MANY priced for less than what will be charged at purse parties.  You be the judge.  Thanks for stopping by.  I hope this post helps a few people find some authentic, but cheap, designer bags!

Here are a few links to pages right on this site with specific designer brand listings:

Aeropostale purses

Baby Phat Purses

Balenciaga Bags

Banana Republic Purses

Bottega Veneta

Brighton Purses

Burberry

Dooney and Bourke Purses

Dooney and Bourke purses are quite a popular choice today in designer purses.  In one of my earlier posts I used Dooney and Bourke purses as example of how you can use variations of designer names in eBay searches to find hidden treasure like cheap Dooney and Bourke purses.


When I made that Cheap Purses post, I meant to come back and go into more detail on the subject.  Well, that is what I'm going to do today by considering what eBay sellers face when they post a listing for you find.  Once again we'll use Dooney & Bourke purses as an example just because it is a name so prone to misspelling and because it is such a popular, name brand designer purse. 

Go ahead and open eBay in a new window so you can play along as we look for listings! By the way, from time to time I'll talk about checking out "completed listings".  Those are the listings that have already ended.  Checking them out can help you get a feel for how great the deals can really be when you do a little research and help you to find the best times to find bargains.  eBay only lets registered users see these completed listings though.  If you haven't already signed up at eBay (it's free), you can do that here. It seems to me that for some reason, when some people list purses on eBay, they are prone to spend a lot more time on the pictures of purses and the purse descriptions than they are on making a good, search-able title for their purse auction.  People listing designer purses (or any item) on eBay only have 55 spaces to work with in the title.  It is important for them to fit as much information about their purse as they can into that little space if they want it to be seen.  eBay purse sellers must choose what they want to focus on carefully.  Think of all the variations someone searching for a Dooney and Bourke purse might use...Dooney & Bourke, D&B purse, Dooney handbag, doony burke...you get the idea.  They could also just be searching for something more general, like a designer leather bag.  An eBay seller has to remember this.


Some people do not take full advantage of the space they have when listing designer purses.  If I were listing a designer purse on eBay, I would probably start with a title something like "Dooney and Bourke Purse Authentic Designer Bag" (46 characters because spaces count).  With the remaining nine spaces, I might get specific with my descriptive words.  Some "Dooney and Bourke" words I see being used right now include "Fredricka, satchel, candy, bucket, hearts, signature, and bucket bag".  All of these would work in my example except for "bucket bag" which has too many characters.  To make room as an eBay seller, I might change my beginning to "Dooney & Bourke" to save on space.  I would also try to work in specific details.  The phrase I mentioned above, "leather handbag" gets a ton of searches done on it because a LOT of people want to find a great deal on designer leather bags. As someone looking to buy cheap Dooney and Bourke purses (or some other designer brand purses), you can try to think like the seller.  When you do searches, you can be specific by including purse styles (clutch,handbag,hobo,satchel, tote, etc.) or by including specific patterns you are looking for on the purse (hearts, candy, signature, quilted, alligator skin, etc).  You can also try to think of what sellers might be emphasizing.  There appears to be a gap between how buyers and sellers think in the eBay designer purse market.  As a buyer, I might be looking for "cheap purses for sale", type it into a search engine and find this place.   As a seller, I'm probably not going to use my 55 characters to call my purse "cheap" because it can have negative connotations.  Sellers are more likely to list their items as "discount designer purse" or "discount Dooney and Bourke" because it gives the feel of a temporary savings or discount offer that will go away.  I, myself, try to find cheap prices on authentic designer bags and then show those to people (you).  Having Cheap Purses as the name of this site is getting a few people here, so I guess some people must be using it as a search term.  Of course, shopper's eBay search term preferences may also be different than what they use on Google, Yahoo or the other large search engines where "cheap purses" is typed in many times each day (although eBay listings can be seen on general search engines as well).


OK.  Sorry about the little tangent into search engine land.  Back to how you can find the cheap Dooney and Bourke purses you want.  eBay is a huge place.  It has massive amounts of traffic flocking to it every day.  There really isn't any serious competition at this point for the model they present, even though they do seem to be moving away from their auction roots in some ways.  Regardless, there are millions of registered users buying and selling on eBay every day.  Most areas have a ton of competition, which can be good for buyers.  You just have to be specific in your searches for purses and handbags.  Right now a search on Dooney and Bourke brought back over 6,700 items.  Remember that this doesn't include other spellings.  Just the one misspelling (Dooney Burke) brought back 45 results (which most other shoppers will never see by the way).  This means if you are looking for Dooney and Bourke wallets, you should probably include "wallet" in your search phrase unless you want to do some serious browsing.  Likewise, you might want to do more specific searches and include terms like "summer pattern" or variations like Dooney and Bourke Handbag instead of Dooney and Bourke Purses.

Remember when you are searching for Dooney and Bourke purses or any other cheap designer purses is that people want to show their product in the best light possible when they sell on eBay.  If you are looking for a purse that is not by a designer but looks like one, I doubt you will find anyone listing "knockoff handbags".  Instead, if you are looking for SUPER cheap purses, try searching for your purse brand and adding phrases like "designer inspired" or "replica handbags" to bring up decent returns.  If the seller is honest, they will tell you when a purse is an off brand made to look like a designer bag.  Just as a note, eBay strictly prohibits selling "bootleg" designer purses.  If you should come across what you suspect is a fraud, you should ask for more details to be sure and consider reporting the item to eBay.  I don't look to cause people trouble, but if I refer someone to quality designer purses and someone tries to slip in garbage, it reflects poorly on me even though I had no actual part in the transaction.  I don't want that.  Fortunately, the feedback system does do a pretty good job of smoking out any fraudulent sellers in a big hurry.  I've said it many times, I won't deal with person selling designer purses, or anything else, if they have less than ten transactions and a feedback rating of at least 97 - 98%. This has turned into a rather lengthy post, so I'll wrap things up here fore for now.  In short (probably too late for that now), try different spellings of Dooney and Bourke purses.  You might consider using more details as well.  If you are looking for a Dooney and Bourke Bucket Bag, try typing that in to your search when your initial Dooney bag search brings back too much information.  If you feel up to it, you can also filter your designer purse and handbag results by using eBay's filters, but it can take little bit of practice to get the results you want.  When you are looking for something by a specific designer that isn't their main "thing", add it in to your search as well.  If you are looking for sunglasses, typing in just Dooney and Bourke will probably not be very productive.  A better starting search would be "Dooney and Bourke Sunglasses" and then get more specific from there.  This may seem obvious to some readers, but there are people reading this who have never dealt with searching for products on eBay or possibly even the internet. Of course you are always welcome to click on any link I set up for you or to use the page links on the right side of this page.  They will always to you to the more general designer purse listings.   Thanks for reading and good luck finding the best deal you can on Dooney and Bourke purses.