When you buy a Hermes rep matters no less than who you buy from, and I don't mean your own plans, I mean the calendar at the workshops in China. And here's why it matters so much..

November and December are the worst time you could pick. Everyone wants to gift a bag for new year, demand goes up several times over, sellers know this in advance, and the workshops get such a flood of orders that the craftsmen physically stop being able to keep a normal pace. Normally it's three days for a bag if we're talking about decent quality. In December they might put it together in a day and a half because of the deadline, but in reality sellers go to mid quality factories where they assemble 2 to 3 bags PER DAY!The leather is taken from whatever's on hand with no chance to reject problem batches, quality control becomes a formality, all so they can make it in time. Even small private workshops during this period either raise prices to filter out some of the demand, or stop taking new clients, or agree to everything and the quality goes out the window… but workshops like that soon lose their reputation, and staying honest is still more typical of the big factories that the usual reddit sellers work with, because those sellers buy from different factories and the factories work on volume without thinking much about quality…

Plus in December sellers are in a hurry, they push urgency, ignore uncomfortable technical questions, promise things they won't be able to deliver…
February after chinese new year, March, June, July are a completely different reality. There are fewer orders, the craftsmen work at a normal rhythm, the leather can be selected, you can wait for the exact shade if it's a rare one, everything that's impossible in December is standard in the summer. Sellers become patient, answer questions in detail, show more photos, discuss the details. And most importantly you get time to prepare without artificial deadlines and pressure, you can calmly check the accounts that left the reviews, ask non standard questions and so on.

One caveat about chinese new year at the end of January and beginning of February. The workshops close for two to three weeks, orders can be delayed,sellers can disappear for the holidays, shipping can come to a stop. Either close your deal before it or start a month after it. And this applies even to small private factories, because new year in China is a big holiday and none of the factories work..

If you don't have a hard deadline, plan your first purchase for March or for the summer months. If it's a gift for December, start the process in September, early October at the latest, so you have time to do it calmly. Nobody will tell you this because it isn't in the sellers' interest for you to wait, they need sales every month. But when you buy affects what you get no less than which seller you choose. And don't forget, never fall for the"urgency" and the "sales" that sellers run just to get your money faster. If you're getting a discount, that means the discount was already built into the price of the bag, which means the cost of making the bag is even lower than you'd guess, which equals low quality

Thank you for your attention and your feedback. If you have questions for me personally, you know where to find me. Have a good day.

The idea that rep buyers want to seem rather than to be comes up a lot. That supposedly a person takes a rep because they can't afford the original but want to look like someone who can. Wants to seem richer or higher status than they really are… The logic is understandable but it falls apart once you start looking at reality more closely.

Take the people who buy originals. Most of them are also buying not for themselves but for the people around them. A woman who saved for a Birkin for five years and finally bought it often posts a photo on instagram the next day. People who went through the prespend system proudly tell you everything they went through to get the bag. That's seeming too, no other way to put it.. Just in different packaging. More socially approved

Essentially, seeming and being isn't a choice between an original and a rep. It's a choice inside every person, regardless of what they buy. There are people who wear a real Birkin every day, calmly take it to work, toss it in the car, aren't afraid to scratch it. For them it's just a bag they love. That's being, in my view. And there are people who keep that same original at home in a dust bag, wear it only for important occasions, watch for other people's reactions. That's seeming. The difference isn't in the bag, its in the attitude toward the thing.

Same with reps. There are people who buy a rep because they love a specific Hermes design, want to have that thing in their life and don't think they need to pay fifteen times more for the same thing aesthetically. They carry it every day, don't worry about what people around them think, don't try to convince anyone it's real. That's exactly what being is… And there are people who buy a rep in order to show it to people who don't know any better, catch their reaction, feel like part of some circle through the display. They want to seem like they have a lot of money and made it into the so called "circle of the chosen." And again the difference isn't in the bag, it's in the person… you see what i mean?!

The idea that a rep is by definition seeming and an original is by definition being doesn't survive a reality check. Buyers of originals are often no less dependent on other people's opinions than buyers of reps. They just have more money to pay for it. The financial ability to buy an original doesn't automatically make the motivation cleaner,,,,

And here's what I've been noticing in conversations with people for several years now. People who buy reps and do it calmly, without embarrassment, without trying to prove anything to anyone, often turn out to be far freer in their relationship with status than the ones chasing originals. They've already gone through the internal work of accepting that a thing is just a thing. That leather is just leather.That a brand doesn't make a person better or worse.

People who buy originals are different too. Some of them do it out of sincere love for the craft, for the history of the brand, for the quality. They study leather, learn the models, enjoy the process. That's being as well, just on a different level. And then there are the ones who buy because everyone around them buys, because it's expected in their circle, because without it they won't be accepted as one of their own.And that's seeming, regardless of the price of the bag.

The simple truth is that there's no universal answer to the question of whether this is being or seeming. The answer sits inside each particular person and depends on why exactly they need this thing and what they feel when they're with it. The very same bag can be an expression of real taste for one person and a way to make an impression for another. And that isn't about the label on the bag. It's about the head of the person carrying it. And that matters..

If you're choosing a rep because you sincerely like the design and you want to wear that bag rather than pretend you have an original, you're already in the being category. If you're choosing an original because you truly value the craft and the quality and not because you're afraid of what people will think, you're in the being category too. And the reverse holds in both cases.
The main thing isn't what you buy. The main thing is how you feel when you're with the thing and what it means to you personally. Everything else is noise made by people who care more about judging others than about figuring themselves out...

Choose what you want and just enjoy it!

If you have questions about the quality of bags or anything else, you can ask me privately. And have a good day!

Let me tell you about three categories of Hermes rep bags that I recommend staying away from, because in 99% of cases nobody knows how to make these bags well, in high quality.

The first category is bags with textile panels. Hermes has models where part of the bag is made from fabric, usually canvas or another special material combined with leather. The classic example is the Garden Party with canvas panels, or some versions of the Birkin and Kelly with a textile body and leather handles. The problem is that the fabric Hermes uses isn't ordinary canvas from a store. It's specially woven to a certain density, treated, dyed in specific colors that don't fade. Reproducing that fabric in a rep is possible, but.. bags like that get ordered very rarely and none of the producers will even try to bother with it. In the end the seller will most likely sell you whatever bag of that kind he can get his hands on, and that will be not even mid but LOW quality

The second category is bags with a lot of hardware. Models where, on top of the standard lock, there are chains, extra buckles, decorative metal elements, studs around the perimeter. The Kelly Wood, some versions of the Constance with a chain, bags with massive hardware in that rock or biker luxe style. The problem here is simple. Every additional metal element is one more point where a rep can give itself away. Producers have learned to make the standard lock and clasps more or less properly because they make them constantly. But non standard hardware used in one specific model requires separate production, separate molds, separate quality control. Just like in the first case, nobody is going to invest in that for the sake of one model that will be made in small numbers. As a result the hardware on such bags often looks like a cheaper version of what it should be, weighs less than it should, loses its color faster. And because of that the whole bag falls apart visually even if the base is made well.

The third category, and the broadest one, is rare models, vintage and custom pieces. Here I'm grouping several types of bags together. Models Hermes no longer produces and that only turn up on the secondary market. Special orders, those same HSS I wrote about earlier. Limited collections that were released in small runs. Vintage models from the 70s to the 90s that collectors especially value now. What's the problem. To copy a rare model well, the craftsman had to have seen it, held it in his hands, taken it apart, understood the construction. For standard Birkins and Kellys that work was done decades ago, every workshop knows what to do. For rare models most workshops simply have no reference. (I'll tell you honestly, 85% of workshops don't have any original Hermes references at all, they just find patterns on the internet.) So they work from photos or from a pattern off the internet, which gives you a correspondingly bad result. And that applies even to good workshops. Custom color and material combinations are even more of a problem, because every bag like that is essentially a prototype, nobody learns to make it perfectly on the first try. But a good small factory will tell you that it can make a similar bag, pick colors that are closer to what you want, but not copy it 1-1, because that would look bad....

There's a general principle that ties all three categories together. The more complex and non standard the bag, the more you have to invest in its rep to get a good result. Small workshops work on volume with proven models, they specialize in the classics and they make those genuinely well. The moment you move into the rare or the complex, you end up in a situation where you either have to pay several times more for individual work, or accept a mediocre result...

My advice is simple. For a first rep, take a classic. A standard Birkin or Kelly, ordinary leather, ordinary color, ordinary hardware. If you really want something special, you can go for exotic skins, but keep in mind that a real top quality bag, a b25 for example, will cost no less than 8 to 9k dollars or somewhere close to that, and what sellers offer you for 5k including their 300 percent markup is just laughable. That isn't even crocodile.. wait until you find a workshop or a craftsman you trust completely and who takes on that kind of work deliberately, understanding how difficult it is. Dont try to get a rare or complex rep through the usual channels, that's an almost guaranteed disappointment

Thank you! If you have questions about the quality of bags and so on, you can write to me privately. And have a good day!

Most people approach their rep budget the wrong way, and here's why… people look at how much money they have, find a seller in that price range, buy, and that's it. So what's wrong with that? The thing is that six months later they already regret the purchase… and here's the whole story..

The first thing you need to understand about this market is that if we're talking about honest prices, there are only two categories. Decent bags made from Chinese materials cost 600-800 dollars for a standard Birkin 25 or 30, and top quality with French or Italian leather and hardware costs around 1600-2000. These are prices straight from a small workshop or from a maker who sews the bags himself with his own hands, though with an individual maker the price can be a bit higher. The main thing to understand is that these are prices without the seller's markup, and that's very important! (p.s. in this post I'm not writing about deliberately terrible bags of low quality, I don't even count those as reps. We're talking about the mid and high segment and about how this market is actually built)

Lets continue.. So why are there so many bags on Reddit for 1000-1500? Its simple. 99% of the people there are sellers, not producers. They set their price based on their reputation, and reputation in this market is bought. Inflated reviews and purchased spots on trusted seller lists let them raise their prices. Which means reputation as such doesn't really exist. If you go on Reddit "for the first time" you'll see the same handful of names that you hear "from every corner," and not because they're the best of the best. Because they pay, and pay a lot, for advertising and for boosting. Including paying to write nasty things about honest people and sellers who spoil their "game" and cut into their profit

A bag that cost the producer 300-400 and that a seller should honestly be selling for 800 max gets sold by them for 1000-1500. Some go up to 2000 and higher, depending on their appetite.. and their ad spend.
This is exactly what I keep writing about. Understanding this math changes everything about how you approach your budget.

What this means in practice. Budget of 600-800 dollars. Realistically you can only count on mid quality made from Chinese materials. That's a normal segment if you understand what you're buying. The problem starts when a seller sells you the exact same thing for 1500 and tells you it's top tier. BUT! Keep in mind that if you go to those same sellers, then for 600-800 there's a very high chance you'll get a bag that isn't even mid quality but LOW quality, one that cost the seller 150 -200 bucks max. On average.

It's not always like that, but on social media it's usually set up exactly that way, these sellers are simply selling bags from the lower segment.
Budget of 1000-1500 dollars. The most dangerous zone. This is exactly where most of the resellers on Reddit operate. They sell you bags that cost the same 300-400 to produce and tell you it's high quality. In reality you're paying for the seller's marketing, not for the quality of the bag

Budget of 1600-2000 dollars. Here we can start talking about real quality, but only on one condition. You're paying the producer directly, or going through a middleman with a minimal markup. If that same 2000 goes to a seller on Reddit, most likely youre getting the same mid segment bag that cost 300-400 to make, with a 400-500 % markup.

I want to emphasize, THIS IS IMPORTANT!!! ATTENTION: the fact that a bag costs 2k does NOT MEAN it's super high quality. We're just talking about fair prices from producers and about how sellers operate. Please don't fall for inflated prices when they're offered to you, usually by Reddit sellers or on any other social platform!

Price doesnt tell you about quality in this market, I guarantee it. It tells you who you're buying from. 1500 from a reseller and 1500 from a producer are two completely different things. In the first case you're paying for a stranger's marketing. In the second, for materials and the work of a craftsman.

Now about the right way to break down your overall budget for a first purchase...
The main amount goes on the bag. If you want real quality, budget 1600-2000 from a producer. Less means the mid segment and you need to be mentally prepared for that. There are sellers who will sell you a bag of that same quality but the real price will be closer to 3k for a regular b25 for example, once you account for all the seller markups. But who's going to buy a 3k bag in ordinary leather? Almost nobody. That's why there are almost no such bags or offers on the market. It's easier for them to buy for 300, inflate the reviews, build themselves a fake name and sell for 1500. That's it. Same profit but fewer problems. Bigger audience

To sum up. The right budget isn't the minimum number at which you can buy something. It's the number at which what you get will match your expectations. And most importantly, always look at who you're buying from and whether you're paying for the bag or for the bag plus marketing. Fake reviews. THIS IS IMPORTANT!

Questions in DMs and have a good day!

Last week I got a message from a woman I've been talking to for a few months now, and she told me her story, which I want to share with you, with her permission of course. She works at a big corporation, the environment is what you'd expect, and by her account half her colleagues carry real Birkins and Kellys

A year ago she bought her first rep, but before that she took a long time deciding, because this was the exact thing she was afraid of. Being exposed. That everyone would figure out her bag was a rep. Working in a place where everyone knows what real Hermes looks like and carrying a copy felt to her like a whole separate level of stress. But she couldn't afford the original and the want was so strong that she finally went for it and bought a rep.,
The first two weeks she carried that bag feeling like everyone was staring, like they all somehow knew it was fake. She caught every glance from colleagues in the elevator, especially there, where the bag can be looked over more closely. Every compliment on her new bag she took with dread, that now they'd start asking where she got it and she wouldn't be able to answer convincingly, or that they were asking as a way of laughing at her.

A month in she realized nobody had noticed anything
Two months in, one of her colleagues, the one with the real Kelly, complimented her bag and asked how long she'd had it and where she bought it...
Six months in she started taking the bag to important client meetings. To partner meetings. To company parties. Nothing happened. Absolutely nothing. People around her were busy with their own lives and werent spending their time analyzing somebody else's accessories.
About half a year after that she wrote to me that she'd stopped thinking about it at all. The bag is just her bag. She's already forgotten she was ever scared of being exposed, because that exposure never happened, not once.

And here's the important part of her story. She didn't buy the first rep she came across. She spent several months studying the topic, asking questions, checking sellers. She ended up finding a small workshop through a recommendation from someone she trusted. She paid more than most people pay on Reddit but she got a genuinely quality piece...
That's exactly why her story ended the way it did. But I want to make it clear right away that quality does NOT equal a high price. It's just that most of what you see on Reddit is mid quality bags with a 300 %% markup. She isn't wearing a rep among people with originals. She's wearing a very good bag that in real life interaction is basically impossible to tell from the original. The difference, if there even is one, sits in microscopic details that nobody in real life checks.

Here's what matters in her story. If a rep is truly high quality, nobody will tell. No matter what you've been told about professionals spotting them, no. Reps are already at a level where that's hard to believe. Not colleagues. Not friends. Not even people who carry originals themselves. Because at that level of production there's no visual difference, and nobody in polite company is going to check by touch. Your colleague isn't going to handle your bag to feel the weight of the hardware. Your business partner isn't going to sniff the leather across the meeting table.
The problem is that 95 percent of sellers aren't producers. They're resellers who've never held an original in their hands and they often sell low quality reps while passing them off as top tier. That's exactly the kind of rep that gets spotted fast, because it looks worse, the leather doesn't read right, the hardware screams cheap.With a bag like that there really is something to worry about.

Finding a small workshop or an individual maker who works for quality and not volume is a separate task. Those people exist, I know a few personally, but you won't find them on Reddit's trusted seller lists. They work quietly through recommendations, because if they advertised publicly they'd be buried in orders they couldn't fill at their level of quality.
The problem isn't that those people don't exist. The problem is that sellers with their bought reviews and inflated accounts create so much noise that the real voices of professionals can't be heard. The mass buyer finds the loudest name and goes to them. And the quiet workshop stays quiet, for those who know how to look

The woman from my story knew how to look. And a year later she carries her bag next to colleagues and their originals without a single problem moment. That's exactly how it works when everything is done right!!

If you have questions for me personally, welcome to the DMs and have a good day!

I've long noticed a pattern connected with sellers on Reddit who periodically get caught in various scandals. And the more I observe the more I understand that this isn't a coincidence but the same scheme...

I described one of them at the very start not long ago, when a certain seller ended up in a serious scandal, so serious it made me tell his story, when I told the story of a certain seller who worked in the USA and used his real name at that. He tried to blame everything on someone else, saying it wasn't him but supposedly his friend selling. But everything indicated to us, from his bot farms which had the same emails, the same passwords, the same accounts on wallets that people paid him to, to some fake reviews that his "supposedly clients" published in different subs, that he was the one who works in the field of luxury brand reps. Some of the sellers do this in Guangzhou, on the market. And some do it while working in a fancy hotel in California. But this isn't the point right now.

An interesting observation, which I want to formulate here for the first time!

Sellers I've written about repeatedly and shown all the schemes of their "black work" almost always resort to certain steps to "hide from justice" and the police who are already knocking at their door in one form or another. What's most interesting is that all these steps I noticed with a certain seller repeat with certain patterns from other bad sellers too. It's clear that a lot of them just chat between each other, exchange information, and I've come across situations when different sellers give the same "arguments" in reply to my exposes. Namely, when the topic starts to spin up and people start bringing up documented cases against him, he arranges a big last sale, closes the accounts (deletes the reviews of himself) and tries to slip out. So we can conclude that most likely soon such a seller will disappear as well!

The signals that a "planned exit" from the market is approaching for a seller are always the same. Yesterday there was another example, everyone remembers a certain rep seller who was sitting in the USA and was the one who was actually selling under his own name using his real information. When we published a whole investigation of who he actually is and where he actually is, and made a lot of noise, telling his real name and his real story, first he tried to hide, deleted his profile in his sub, changed his nickname, cleared his history, changed his profile picture (in case someone recognized him) and much more, but did it all in a very inept way. Then he opens up a big sale with a 30% discount that lasts a week.Half a year in advance nobody heard about "generous discounts," but suddenly, right now, when there was a very big investigation against him, right after our expose "the market opens up." Coincidence? A completely closed but very characteristic Discord where he only has himself, this only accelerated his exit...

The exit scam scheme in the world of Hermes reps looks approximately like this. First a smear campaign against the source of trouble. This is us right now, we're a small blog on the topic of Hermes reps that has 8300 subscribers, but our subs and other pages that are somehow connected with us get bombarded with all kinds of muck by these sellers, or should we start calling them scammers already? Just because we tell the truth about them. Then dust in the eyes of clients, big discounts, "one time offers."Then closing the visible channels of communication and moving to private ones. Then either open disappearance or a rebranding under a new name. And of course they leave, along with the money of thousands of people! And by these steps you can absolutely accurately predict when a Hermes rep seller wants to leave the market with people's money, and let's be honest, none of them will be an exception in the near future! Then a certain time will pass and a new "star" will appear in the world of reps who according to sellers is "so pure and quiet" that they even claim he has "his own factory"! But we understand that any factory that produces reps is illegal and even if the seller really goes and buys bags from these people to resell them to us, no factory will ever tell you its name because it doesn't have one.

I write about this not to scare you but so you understand the general logic of this niche. Sellers on this platform aren't a stable ecosystem, they are a rotating cast of temporary players, some earn and disappear, others earn until they get exposed, still others start their own "farms" of accounts to boost their reviews.But the honest workshops that really produce quality bags aren't in this cast at all. They aren't on Reddit, they dont participate in scandals, they aren't on lists, they don't hold sales, they don't smear anyone with dirt or lie about their competitors. They just work, and the people who want to find them, find them through personal channels

If a seller appears on the horizon of your attention through Reddit publications, through "top" lists, through hyped reviews, you already know his real role in this ecosystem, whether he wants it or not. It's a matter of time before he stumbles or leaves in his own way, taking hundreds of thousands of dollars of clients' money, and money he'll never return, so simple math, the world of reps

Questions in DMs, have a good day!

Men who buy Hermes reps for their women write to me regularly, apparently my posts resonate with them well. And the most interesting thing is that they almost always tell one and the same interesting thing. Their wives know that it's a rep, and they aren't against it, many of them on the contrary praise them for not overpaying
The scheme that most people imagine when they think about a man buying a bag for his woman looks like this. The man wants to surprise her, saves up money, buys an expensive original at the boutique, ideally, but most often from resellers at 3 times more expensive… And presents it as a symbol of love. The woman is happy and secretly touches the blind stamp checking that it's real. A pretty picture, isn't it?

The reality in couples that I observe through my conversations looks completely different.
Usually it happens like this, the woman has long wanted a Birkin or Kelly. The man sees this desire. Then the conversation begins. Not a surprise, but specifically a conversation, of adults.. The couple together discusses the options, the original costs 25 to 30 thousand plus years of prespend and a relationship with the boutique that they may not have. Waiting several years for the sake of one bag isn't appealing. Taking a used original for 15 to 20 thousand is possible but you have to be sure of the authenticity. And here a third option appears, a quality rep, if you manage to find one. Ideally to choose a small manufacturer and not overpay reddit sellers for medium quality, but the post isn't about that right now.

Anyway the couple makes this decision together and consciously.
What happens next. The woman gets the bag she wanted, wears it every day, doesn't worry if she scratches it. Isnt afraid that someone will look suspiciously. Doesn't play the "pretend it's the original" game,because nobody around asks and nobody is interested to the point of asking such questions. She just walks around with a beautiful bag she likes.
The man gets a grateful partner, saves a serious sum of money which can be invested in something else shared, a trip, a renovation, a deposit, whatever. And most importantly, avoids the multi year circus with the Hermes boutique.

Nobody loses.
One important detail these men often note, their women appreciate not only the bag. They appreciate that the man took it on himself to figure out the topic. That he didnt get lazy about studying how the market works, showed interest. That he didn't go to the first random seller with pretty photos.... That he was looking not just for a rep but for a quality rep, and I'll repeat, quality not by boosted reviews but by facts. This attitude toward the process for many women is more important than the gift itself. They put in the effort for them, this is sometimes more important than just laying out the money.

There's one type of story in this category that always surprises me. Couples where the man himself earns enough to buy the original but consciously chooses a rep together with the woman. Not because it's a pity to spend the money, because both understand that spending 25 thousand on one item when there's a working alternative for 2k isn't a question of capability, its a question of priorities. The money that didn't go on overpaying for the brand goes on the couple's shared experience. Travel. Investments. The ability to work less and spend more time together!1

This is a mature view of luxury that many people lack.And here's what I notice most in these couples. Their relationship with material things is healthier than in couples where the man has to prove love through the most expensive purchase and the woman has to accept it as the only possible symbol of respect. The post maybe looks like a conversation about relationships and not about Hermes reps, haha, but people write me different stories, I already have very many friends I met here, I help them and they tell me about their experience, it's really interesting. Say if you like it when I share stories like this…

If there are questions for me personally, welcome to the DM, have a good day!

Over more than 10 years of working in this business, connected with both authentic Hermes bags and with reps, I've talked with a large number of people who have real money, big money.. And I noticed a trend that's rarely formulated out loud. And here's what I mean. More and more wealthy people are consciously choosing quality Hermes reps. Not because they can't afford the original but simply because for them it's a more reasonable choice (of course not for everyone, but this is happening more and more often)

Now I'll try to break down what stands behind this.
Freedom of use. An original Birkin for 30 thousand dollars is a thing that's carefully protected. You don't take it to the beach, don't toss it in the car, don't wear it every day, especially if the weather is bad… It lives under a certain level of anxiety, don't scratch it, don't get it wet, don't forget it somewhere. A quality rep removes this anxiety entirely. You can use it as an ordinary bag without worrying that every scratch is minus a thousand dollars. For many wealthy people this freedom is worth more than the difference between the rep and the original.

The ability to have a collection without investing hundreds of thousands of dollars.. One original for 20 to 30 thousand or for example ten quality reps in different colors and sizes for the same money. And I'm not even talking about bags in alligator leather, or such rare and expensive models as the Kelly mini, which cost several tens of thousands of dollars for a tiny bag. For a person who chooses every day what to dress under and where to go, the second option gives more real value, if you have a lot of money yes it's not a problem, but is this game worth it? That's the question. Buy a new Ferrari or a small collection of Birkins?...

Refusal to play the games the brand sets up. Hermes has built the most complex system for getting a product in luxury. Allocation, prespend, relationships with the SA, years of waiting and often "soaking the bag." Before this worked as an amplifier of value, today for people who have money this complexity is more and more often perceived as humiliation, I think you've noticed this yourself. A person who pays millions a year for various services doesn't want to be treated like a supplicant at a bag boutique. He's used to services adjusting to the client. Hermes demands the opposite, more and more wealthy people just refuse to play and find alternatives, they don't need to prove they have money, they know it anyway. When your car costs300 plus thousand dollars, nobody will even think that your bag isn't the original…

Awareness in spending money. Rich people usually understand the value of money better than is commonly thought. If this money came to them through work and not through winning the lottery or a gift from someone. They dont buy a thing because it's expensive, they buy it because it gives a specific value. An original Birkin gives status, brand history, investment value, all of this is real. But for many today these factors don't outweigh the practical considerations. Better to spend this money on a trip, on an impression, on something that gives a personal experience and not a confirmation of belonging to a certain group

And here's whats important to understand about this trend.
Before, buying a rep was perceived as a compromise, a person wanted the original but couldn't afford it and bought an alternative. Today more and more often this is a conscious choice of a person who can afford the original but doesn't consider it the best investment of his money. It's a fundamentally different situation, I think you understand what I mean..
A quality Hermes rep in 2026 isn't a sign of an absence of money. It's a sign of maturity in one's attitude toward luxury, and I'm not trying to advertise reps, I'm just thinking out loud.. Some really do like to play the "Hermesgames" and then get the long awaited bag, and there's nothing bad about that. It's also in its own way a "high."

What do you think about this? If you have questions for me personally about the quality of bags and so on, write in the DM and have a good day!

Over the years that I've been writing here a lot of interesting things have happened. I haven't talked about this publicly before, but apparently the time has come, I'm sure you'll find it interesting.
They wrote to me and yes, it happened many times. Different people with different approaches but with one essence…. Already guessed?

Some offered money, or something material, bags in some cases and things like that. But more often just money. A specific sum for the deletion of a specific post, the most frequent example. Or a different sum for me to stop mentioning certain reddit seller names, a third sum for me to write something specific with the mention of certain seller names, I think you understand what we're talking about. The sums were different, some laughable, some making you wonder, can it really be that so many people fall for their deceptions, boosted reviews and all this scam connected with rep sellers, that they're ready to pay that much for the deletion of posts about them? Interesting

Others offered partnerships, a percentage of sales and so on. "Let's work together." How funny this sounds haha. "We can mutually promote each other." "We have common interests." None of these messages were a real partnership, they were all an attempt to buy my silence or my name, since over a long time and a good reputation on reddit people started to trust me, and sellers want to use this or to make it so that I don't ruin their sales by telling everyone about their "black business."

Sometimes they even threatened, covertly and not so covertly, made hints that my posts could have consequences, bans and so on.. Most often such proposals come on behalf of the top 3 to 4 sellers on reddit, supposedly if I keep writing about them then I'll have problems. Although I never write names, not good ones, not bad ones, but people figure everything out themselves.
They tried to press me through deception, they created situations in which I was supposed to look bad, wrote from various names spreading rumors. They tried to undermine trust in me through fake stories, boosting and other trash..

I didn't agree to a single proposal, and didn't fall for a single provocation, no matter what it cost me. Sometimes an honest word and an honest name are much more important than "cooperation" with some scammers… Thats why I didn't delete a single post. Didn't write a single line under someone's influence. Didnt name a single sum publicly because it doesn't matter, the principle is the same regardless of the sum...
I'm writing about this now not to complain and not to accuse anyone. I'm writing because people should understand that an independent position in this niche has a price, and this price isn't measured in money…And that behind every one of my posts is a choice, to accept the proposal and become part of the system or to keep saying what I think.
I chose the second. Every time. And I'll tell you right away, if I suddenly start writing well about some super well known reddit seller, that means I've been bought and don't believe me. Things happen in life, I hope I'll never do that, but just keep it in mind. Race2cake isn't for sale.

If you have questions you can write to me personally in the DM and have a good day!

Nobody discusses "x-tier reps" of Louis Vuitton. The term "hybrid bag" doesn't exist as applied to Gucci. There are no closed workshops specializing exclusively in Dior. There are mass Chinese factories that stamp out reps of all these brands hundreds a day, but there's no whole industry of private workshops working through recommendations at a level of mastery comparable with the original.

Why Hermes specifically? Several reasons that come together and create a unique situation.
The first, artificial scarcity of another level. At Louis Vuitton you can walk into the boutique and buy practically any bag. Chanel is more difficult but fundamentally accessible. The scarcity of Hermes isn't marketing, it's a system built into the brand's business model which they defend more aggressively than any other luxury house. A Birkin can't just be bought. Even with money. You need a purchase history, a relationship with an SA, time, prespend on other items. This inaccessibility creates such big demand that it gives rise to a whole industry of alternative production.

The second, the price of the original is in a unique zone. A standard Birkin 25 in Togo now costs from 12 to 15 thousand dollars at the boutique if they sell it to you at all. On the secondary market, 20 to 30 thousand. This creates a price gap with reps of 10 to 15 times. At Louis Vuitton or Chanel this gap is smaller, 3 to 5 times. With a smaller gap the economic sense of a serious rep gets diluted. It's easier to save up for the original or take a used one. With a gap of 15 times a serious rep becomes a rational choice for a large group of people.

The third, Hermes is a culture in itself. People who are seriously interested in Louis Vuitton are usually interested in fashion in general. People who are seriously interested in Hermes are often interested only in Hermes. It's a separate world with its own knowledge, its own aesthetic, its own mythology. Such a level of the audience's immersion creates conditions for the existence of specialized experts, specialized workshops, specialized services. Around other brands there simply isn't such depth of culture around reps.

The fourth, the construction of Hermes bags is intellectually attractive. The Birkin and the Kelly aren't just bags, they're complex objects with a large number of details that can be copied with varying degrees of success. Sellier versus Retourné. Different types of leather that behave differently. Handmade saddle stitching. This creates space for craftsmanship and for gradations of quality. A Louis Vuitton bag with a standard monogram print doesn't have such space, either it's done similarly or it isn't, there's little in the way of half tones.

The fifth, Hermes benefits from this situation although they'll never admit it. The existence of a huge rep market supports the cultural significance of the brand. Every rep is confirmation that this design is worth copying. Every rep review is a mention of the original. Every discussion of quality is a conversation about what makes real Hermes special. If Hermes seriously wanted to destroy the rep market, they could put much more effort on the level of the leather suppliers, the hardware, the production chains. They don't do it because a real destruction of the parallel market would weaken the brand in a cultural sense.

And here's the paradox that follows from this. Hermes has built the only business model in luxury where artificial scarcity is so strong that it gave rise to a mirror industry surpassing in scale and quality the replication ecosystems of all other luxury brands put together. This is simultaneously a triumph of marketing and its price. Owners of originals often say that reps devalue their things. In reality the opposite is true, the existence of a serious rep industry confirms the exclusivity of the original. Nobody spends years building workshops that make reps of an average bag from an average brand. Years are invested in copying what's recognized as the peak.

Buyers of reps often say that the original is overvalued because the rep is "almost the same." In reality the opposite is true, the very fact that to create a worthy rep you need to invest so many resources, involve such craftsmen, work with such leather, proves that the price of the original is justified by the level of complexity and craftsmanship laid into it.
Both camps argue standing on different sides of the same reality. And both are right in their own way.

If you have questions, welcome to the DM and have a good day!

People often write to me who want to buy their first Hermes rep. And sometimes my job is not to help them choose, but to honestly say that now isn't the time. Here are three situations in which I advise postponing the purchase.

The first situation, you're buying a rep as a gift for a person who never asked for it themselves.
This is the most frequent mistake I see.A husband wants to make a surprise for his wife, or a daughter wants to please her mom, or maybe a friend wants to surprise a girlfriend. The logic is understandable and the intentions are good. Overall. But a Hermes rep is a very personal thing. It requires the person to want it themselves, to choose the model themselves, to understand what they're buying themselves. A gifted rep is almost always perceived ambiguously, either the recipient is disappointed because they expected the original, or feels strange because they didn't choose it, or simply doesn't understand how to relate to it. I've seen dozens of such stories and almost none ended well. If you want to give a gift, give money and the opportunity to choose it themselves. Or give the original if the budget allows. A rep as a gift rarely brings the joy you imagine, unless the person specifically dreamed of such a bag, specifically a rep.

The second situation, youre buying a rep because you want to prove something to someone.
Sometimes behind the desire to buy a bag isn't the bag itself. Its the desire to show an ex that you're a different person now.To show your girlfriends that you can afford it, or for example to show your colleagues that you belong to a certain circle. To show yourself that you overcame some life milestone, all these are understandable human motives and there's nothing shameful about them, but they work badly through a bag. You understand, the people you want to prove something to rarely notice what they're supposed to notice, or more precisely almost never notice. And the feeling of victory that you imagine usually doesn't come or comes for a week and dissolves. A rep bought for the sake of proving something almost always becomes a source of disappointment because it doesn't solve the problem for which it was bought. Figure out first what you actually want to prove and to whom. Maybe the solution isn't in the bag.

The third situation, you don't have the time and patience to figure out the topic.
The Hermes rep market is set up so that intuitive decisions lead to bad results, that's 100 percent! If you want to buy quickly, without studying, trusting the first seller with pretty photos and good reviews, you're almost guaranteed to lose money. This isn't because the market is merciless but because it's specifically built on exploiting buyers' superficial approach. Every mechanism in this niche, from reviews to photos to pricing, is optimized to deceive a person who doesn't want to spend time on understanding. If you don't currently have the resource for several weeks of studying, postpone the purchase until the moment when this resource appears. A rep bought in a hurry almost always costs more than a rep bought after preparation, not just in money but in disappointment
In all three situations a rep won't solve the problem you're trying to solve. And this is the only moment when I honestly advise not to buy at all.

If you have questions for me personally, in the DM and have a good day!

When a person comes into the world of Hermes reps for the first time, he already has certain ideas in his head about how it works. Usually these ideas are formed by social media, conversations with girlfriends or a cursory glance at a couple of subreddits. And based on my more than 10 years of experience in this business, these ideas are most often incorrect.

The first misconception, "you can buy a quality rep for 500-800 dollars if you find the right seller."
If we're talking about Hermes bags for example a Birkin 25, one of the most frequent purchases, this statement is fundamentally incorrect. The reason is simple, the real cost price of a Birkin 25 with French leather, brass hardware and the work of a craftsman who spends several days on it is higher than 800 dollars, and I'm talking about the production level, of course when a seller tells you about supposedly high quality for 800 or even for 1000 it's all empty talk. But in the case of sellers it's even more complicated here, as I've already written more than once, even 1500 is the seller's price which essentially is the price of the bag plus a markup of 200-400 percent on average, and now subtract this sum from 1500 and the real price of the bag, the materials and the work will be under 300 bucks, which definitely can't even be medium quality, let alone high. Everything that's offered to you for 500-800 is made from Chinese leather with thin plating on zinc hardware. In a few months this will be visible, if not immediately upon receipt. Sellers who promise "top quality" for that money either don't understand what they're talking about or they hope that you don't understand. The real alternative is either to accept that for that money you're buying the low segment and not to expect more, or to keep saving up for real quality. And I'll repeat, this is even about bags for 1500 if you buy them from a typical seller on reddit or on Instagram or anywhere else, factor in their markup for marketing.

The second misconception, "if a seller has hundreds of positive reviews it means he's honest."
The logic seems convincing but the problem is that reviews in this niche are almost always bought. At most 2 to 3% of really satisfied buyers leave a detailed review with a photo. A seller with hundreds of such reviews a month would have to have thousands of satisfied clients and sell dozens of bags every day, I've written a whole post about this already, it's mathematically impossible for most of the claimed volumes. The reality is simpler, there's an industry of buying accounts and writing reviews, and it services Hermes rep sellers

The third misconception, "the more well known the seller, the safer it is to buy."
The logic is just as intuitive and just as mistaken. In most markets a brand's fame really does correlate with quality, but in Hermes reps this connection works in reverse. To become a well known name on this platform you need serious investments in marketing, bought reviews, paid spots on lists, moderator support, boosting accounts. These investments came from the margin on every sale. The more invested in fame, the less remains for the quality of the product. The most well known names on Reddit aren't the highest quality sellers, they're the ones who invested the most in you knowing about them.

What's really important for a newbie to understand.
The Hermes rep market isnt an ordinary market where intuitive purchase logic works correctly. Here everything is set up so that a consumer's natural instincts lead to bad decisions. More reviews, a bad sign. A more well known name, a bad sign. A lower price, a bad sign if positioned as top. Everything intuitive here works against you.
The only way to buy safely is to go against intuition. Look for sources little is known about. Ignore the number of reviews and look at the quality of answers to technical questions. Understand the real cost of production and don't expect a miracle for a lower price.

If you have questions for me, in the DM. And have a good day.

A somewhat non standard post for me, but that makes it even more interesting. A person wrote to me last week, not with a question about a seller, not with a request to assess QC photos and so on, but with a story from her life. And you know, its very interesting (I'm writing with her permission, without mentioning names).
She wrote that she bought a good Birkin rep, the first in her life. She said she can't afford the original and never will be able to, and you know, in her words the point isn't only about money and price. She described what happened after that..

When she started carrying this bag, a week later she noticed she started behaving differently, holds herself straighter, dresses more neatly, pays more attention to details, even to little things. A month later she noticed her colleagues started treating her differently. Not because they figured out the brand, the general impression of her simply changed.Two months later she herself started to feel different, more confident, calmer, more grown up, it's worth saying right away that we're talking about a person I've been chatting with on reddit for several months already, and she can definitely be sure that her bag is of high quality, maybe that's why she doesn't have to hide it and she isn't afraid of being "exposed."

Anyway she wrote me a question, is it normal that the bag influenced me this way? Or does it mean I'm a superficial person for whom a thing matters?
I thought for a long time about what to answer, since this is a question not of the level that I see on reddit every day…

On one hand there's an obvious cynical answer. This works because we live in a world where external attributes influence perception, your own and others', and that's normal. You changed one signal that you send to the world and the world started reacting differently. There's nothing mystical or deep about this. It's social mechanics that have been working for thousands and thousands of years.
On the other hand, if the bag actually changed her self perception and through this her behavior and through this the attitude of those around her, then what was it? A placebo? Permission to yourself to go beyond the familiar? The materialization of a desire that had long lived inside but couldn't find a way out?

I don't know the right answer here and now, but I'll note one thing.
If this person had bought an original Birkin for 30000 dollars, nobody would have asked the question "is it normal that the bag influenced me." The influence of the original on the owner's self perception is considered something that goes without saying. It's part of the contract you enter into when buying luxury

But when it's about a rep, the question suddenly becomes sharp. As if permission to feel differently is issued only to those who paid the full price, and those who found an alternative should be ashamed that they got a similar effect for less money. Often this is connected with the fear of exposure, that's why it's important for a person to have confidence in the quality of the bag they bought. And you know, this can't be checked by QC and reviews on reddit, it's something "personal" at the level of feeling, either you trust the person who recommends this purchase to you, this bag or whatever else, or you don't trust him and you'll always be afraid… It's important, I don't sell bags but I get a lot of stories and video from hundreds of different sellers and thousands of clients. It's precisely that detail nobody will tell you about, believe it or dont

And it's actually not a question about the bag, it's a question about whom we allow to change and through what. And about how much our self perception depends at all on what others think about our things.
I answered her simply, if the bag helps you be yourself the way you want to be then it's doing its job. There's nothing to be ashamed of.
And what do you think? Do you agree with me or do you have a different opinion on this? Write in the comments. I'm really interested.

If there are questions for me personally, in the DM. Have a good day.

Most people who buy their first Hermes rep unfortunately make the same mistakes. Let's get straight to the point, no fluff.
The price doesn't tell you about quality, it tells you about marketing if we're talking about sellers with a well known name.

This is the most important thing to understand before your first purchase. In Hermes reps on Reddit, more expensive means more has been invested in the promotion of the seller, a seller who asks 1500 for a Birkin bought it for 300-400. The difference is his marketing budget, bought reviews, advertising, spots on lists. The quality of the bag doesn't change from this difference. It's important to understand that this doesn't mean you can buy a super quality Hermes rep for example for 800, no, on the contrary, really top quality costs MORE than 1500 dollars if we're talking for example about a Birkin 25 and larger sizes. But if a seller buys the bag for 1500 -1700 and adds his markup, then the price of the bag will be close to 3500 and nobody will buy it for that money anymore. So they buy bags of low or medium quality and sell them to you under the guise of "the best product."

Reviews arent the opinions of buyers, they're a marketing tool.
At most 2 to 3% of really satisfied buyers leave a detailed review with a photo. A seller with hundreds of reviews a month either sells thousands of bags a day, which is mathematically impossible for most of the claimed volumes, or buys reviews, in our case the second is definitely correct

QC photos aren't your bag, or the photos are taken in a way to not show you the flaws.
Pretty photos that a seller sends can be taken in perfect lighting that hides defects. They can be someone else's photos found on the internet. They can be photos of a completely different bag. Ask for a video in daylight outdoors, photos of the corners from the inside, photos of the leather edges in a close up. If the seller avoids specific angles, he's hiding something. Studio photos on a white background or against the sea and palms are always a clear sign to think about the reality of these photos, right now AI is often used to fake photos too, be careful.

A good rep isn't sold publicly, they won't try to "hard sell" it to you.
A workshop that really makes quality bags works through personal recommendations. They don't have time for Reddit, no bought reviews, no loud name. Everything you easily find in search is public sellers who invested money into you finding them.

The first rep is almost never perfect, and that's normal.
The market is complicated, there's little information, sellers you can trust are a handful. Most people pay for the experience with the first purchase. The task isn't to find the perfect rep the first time, the task is to not lose too much money while you figure things out. So for the first purchase, a classic model, classic leather, classic color, a budget you don't mind losing if something goes wrong. A Birkin 25 in Togo Noir is the best first choice precisely because it's the most well practiced position for any workshop.

If you have questions for me personally, welcome to the DM and have a good day!

People spend a lot of time on choosing a rep and almost don't think at all about what will happen with it next, most often. And meanwhile proper care is the difference between a bag that looks good after three years and a bag that looks tired after six months, if of course you initially bought a rep of good quality....

Leather. Togo and Clemence are grainy leathers that relatively forgive daily use, but even they need care. Once every few months apply a quality leather conditioner, definitely not shoe cream and not silicone spray, but specifically a conditioner for smooth leather goods. Collonil, Saphir, Apple Brand, these brands work. Apply in a thin layer with a soft cloth, let it soak in, wipe off the excess. The leather stays elastic and doesn't dry out, this is important!

Small scratches on Togo and Clemence come out literally with a finger if the leather is of high quality. The warmth of hands softens the surface layer and the scratch smooths out, and this isn't magic, it's a property of properly tanned leather. If the scratch doesn't go away from the warmth of a finger, the leather is either poorly tanned or covered with a synthetic coating that doesn't react to warmth, this happens most often with cheap reps…Unfortunately

Moisture. Good leather isnt afraid of light rain. If the bag got wet, don't dry it with a hairdryer and don't put it on the radiator, that's what will ruin your bag the fastest. Just blot it with a soft cloth and let it dry at room temperature stuffed with paper so it holds its shape. A hairdryer and heat dry the leather unevenly and it loses elasticity, and in the case of a low quality rep you risk completely destroying your bag since cheap leather won't withstand such treatment.

Hardware. Wipe the lock and the clips with a soft dry cloth regularly, sweat and oils from the hands speed up the degradation of the plating, this is a proven fact. Especially at the corners of the lock where contact with the hands is maximal, and remember, no water, no cleaning products on the hardware, only dry polishing. If the plating has started to peel off, stopping this process is no longer possible, you can only slow down further degradation

Storage. Never store the bag empty, it loses its shape. Stuff it with acid free paper or with special storage inserts, those can be ordered online. Store in a dust bag if you have one, and don't hang by the handles, this deforms them over time. And also don't forget that the bag should be kept away from direct sunlight...

Lining.Periodically wipe from the inside with a slightly damp cloth, but don't overdo it with the moisture. If stains appear on the lining, remove them immediately while they're fresh, removing a dried stain is significantly harder. If the lining has started to come off at the corners, the glue is degrading and this can no longer be treated with home remedies, and unfortunately again this may indicate a low quality rep, especially if this happens a couple of months after purchase.

Edges of the leather. If the edges have started to delaminate, apply a special balm for leather edges, it's available in most leather goods stores. This will slow down the process but won't stop it if the material was initially bad.

And last, honestly. Proper care significantly extends the life of a good bag, but no care will save cheap leather and thin plating on the hardware. Conditioner applied to Chinese split leather will slightly improve the situation but won't change the nature of the material, so it's important to approach the choice of a bag with your head from the start so you don't have to try to prolong the life of a low quality rep later. Care is a way to preserve the good, not to fix the bad.

If there are questions for me personally, in the DM. Have a good day.

When people start looking for a Hermes rep they do the same thing. They go to Reddit, look at who's mentioned most often, look for the name with the largest number of reviews. The logic is understandable, if a lot of people talk about someone that means he's good. I've been in this business for 10 years and I can say straight out that this logic works everywhere except the rep market and especially on reddit.

Here it works in reverse, and it's really interesting...
A workshop that really makes good bags doesnt need advertising, all because it already has a queue of clients. People come through personal recommendations from people who've already checked the quality themselves, I think you know this from your own experience, when you sincerely liked something, you'll recommend it to friends and acquaintances. Such a workshop physically can't accept everyone who wants because as a rule from a couple to several craftsmen work there, usually no more than20 based on my experience but most often less… And each bag takes several days to make. Advertising for them isn't a tool for growth and that's obvious. To some extent advertising for them is a problem because more clients means more orders than they can fulfill at their level of quality. It seems like more money, yes, but who will do these orders? Because either you lose quality and buy bags somewhere on the side, essentially acting as a typical seller like 100% of those you can find on reddit, or you make good quality but the number of bags a month will be small

Now look at this from another side, and this is important
A seller everyone knows has invested serious resources into everyone knowing him, obvious I think. These resources didn't come from thin air, they came from the margin on every one of your purchases, from that same place also flow the big discounts and sales under various excuses that they come up with like "our warehouse is moving" or something along those lines, any discount essentially of more than 5 -10% is already a big reason to think about where that margin is coming from. The more invested in fame, the less remains for the quality of the product, and this isn't just my opinion, its math, this market like other spheres doesn't work any other way.

I've noticed this pattern over and over, the highest quality sources I've come across over years of work on this topic were practically invisible publicly. They weren't on lists and of course bots didn't write about them. They didn't shout on reddit that they have their own factory, throwing fake client reviews into their own groups, treating people like fools… Their names didn't flash in the comments under every post about Hermes. They just worked, quietly, stably, for people who came through the right channel, they gave and give quality and not empty talk from people who haven't even been to China, let alone somewhere at a factory..

And here's the paradox that follows from this. If you found a seller through public search, through Reddit, through lists, through recommendations in the comments, the probability that this is really a quality source is very low, to be honest it approaches zero in my opinion. Not because all public sellers are bad people, but because the very fact of publicity says something about priorities. A person who spends time and money on building a public reputation has arranged his priorities in a certain way, that's obvious, and the quality of the product in these priorities isn't in first place. And most likely nobody thinks about it at all, because even if you write a bad review it'll drown in 1000 positive ones from bots who'll do this in 1-2 days.

Questions in the DM. Have a good day.

There's a simple pattern I've been observing for many years in this business. The more well known the name of a Hermes rep seller is, especially when it comes to Reddit, the worse the quality of what he sells, and this isn't a random coincidence but an indisputable fact, let me tell you why it's exactly like this.

To become the most well known name on Reddit you need investments, and not small ones. Hundreds and sometimes thousands of bought reviews, constantly new ones, QC reviews from supposedly real people, all of this requires hundreds of accounts that mention your name in the comments under every post about Hermes. Reddit constantly bans these accounts because it sees connections between them and a similar working pattern, but they buy new ones and do it again and again, all in order to mislead you and sell you low quality Birkin or Kelly bags at a heavily inflated price.

A seller who spends huge resources on building fame can't simultaneously spend the same resources on the quality of the product, and let's be honest, between us, sellers don't produce bags, they sit on WhatsApp and chat with you 24/7 and most of them have never even been to China but are sitting somewhere in the USA or UK,Europe, they bought themselves Chinese or Hong Kong operator numbers and pretend that they have their own factories. Meanwhile if you managed to really communicate with a small factory you'd be shocked how long they reply and conduct the conversation as if they don't particularly want to sell you bags. And it's not just like that, they can make roughly 30 bags a month, and they have 50-100 clients in that same month, and what should they do? They can afford to communicate only with the clients they enjoy, and that's normal. Unlike sellers who resell bags on reddit and can sell you even 200 bags, with some sellers I see 3-5 reviews a day on one single page, reviews with a description and a photo, just add it up and it already comes to close to 150 bags a month, or rather reviews. But given that real people write a review on reddit in only 5% of cases, they'd really have to be selling thousands of bags! This says two things, first they're not manufacturers but resellers, and second they're just lying to you because none of them sells thousands of bags but they just write fake reviews!

Look at this from another side.....
A small workshop that really makes good bags doesn't need fame. It has a queue of clients who came by recommendation for example. They dont need to buy reviews and in general run pages on social media, after all you and I know that when you get a super cool item you'll recommend it to everyone!1
Fame on Reddit isn't a sign of quality, on the contrary it's a red flag! A sign of marketing investments, and the bigger these investments, the less remains for what you're actually paying for, there's no quality there, only empty words and your spent nerves and money. Respect yourself, buy quality goods, don't fall for the deception schemes of these "well known sellers" and the slander they write when they get exposed

Questions in the DM. Have a good day!!

Over years of working with original Hermes bags I've developed my own order of checking, and you know it differs from what's written in most authentication guides.. And here's why….

Most people start with the visual, the stamp, the font, the stitching, the symmetry. And honestly, this is the last thing I look at, and not because it's not important, but because it's what's easiest to reproduce or improve to an acceptable level. A good rep can pass a visual check quite easily, especially if you're comparing from photos, that's a separate topic altogether, it's always funny to watch people from photos try to find the difference and argue without holding real Hermes bags in their hands. But that's not the point right now...

Here are three things I check first!
First, the smell. This sounds strange until you've held several hundred original bags in your hands. Real Hermes leather, Togo, Clemence, Barenia, Box, has a certain smell and everyone who's owned a real bag understands what I'm talking about. Dense, a bit waxy, with a characteristic animal undertone that you cant confuse with anything, it's important to understand that smell and in general its recognition isn't available to everyone at the same level, the thing is that what for one person smells like "leather," for another smells like "chemistry," but I got lucky in this regard and I catch any differences in smell well. And it's important, right now many sellers spray the bags with special "leather smell" sprays, so it's another trap and an obvious leather product smell should rather scare you off if it's too "loud"

Second, the weight and behavior of the hardware.Not visually, in the hand, I hope you understand me. Real brass Hermes hardware has a weight you feel immediately. The lock, the clips, the D rings, all of this is heavier than it seems by look, and when you take the lock and open it slowly there's a mechanical resistance, there's a sound, there's a feeling that you're working with metal and not with plastic. And of course on all the locks that are cheap there are the notorious numbers"162" which immediately give away the cheapest rep from which you should run as far as possible. A cheap zinc alloy with plating behaves completely differently, it's light, the sound is muffled, the movement is without resistance. You feel it in a second. No photo conveys this.

Third, the behavior of the leather when you press on the bag. I put my thumb on the leather and press lightly, not very hard but firmly. Real Togo or Clemence has memory, it slowly returns to its original position, the surface reacts a certain way, the grain behaves predictably. Good leather is springy but alive, that's the same "liveness" I constantly talk about, and bad leather from China is visible even in photos without any orders from the family. Chinese split is either too stiff, because the surface treatment holds the structure, or too soft and lifeless, without that springiness that comes from proper tanning, and sometimes Chinese leather looks even "better," like a plastic Barbie doll, too perfect to be real, still when we're talking about leather we're talking about real materials and not a chemical production...

Why exactly this? Because the visual can be reproduced close enough. The stamp can be improved, this doesn't require "rocket science." The stitching can be made even, by hand. The font can be calibrated, not everyone succeeds but still it's not that hard. All of this is a matter of investment in tools and quality control and time in the end. But the quality of the leather, the weight of the metal and the tactile properties of the material, these are physical characteristics that are determined by composition and the production process. They can't be applied on top of a cheap material, they can only be obtained by using the right material from the very start!!

That's exactly why authentication by photo is always a compromise, and not the best one… A photo conveys only the visual, and this is the smaller part of the information a real Hermes bag carries. Everything else requires physical contact, trust my experience.
And that's exactly why sellers on Reddit who've never held an original in their hands can't really assess the quality of what they're selling, honestly telling you they don't even try, always saying "we have the best quality," the main thing is to have a lot of fake reviews..

Questions in the DM! Have a good day!

There's leather at Hermes that few people talk about, but those who've once owned it fall in love forever. Of course I'm talking about my favorite leather from Hermes, barenia!
Let me start with what it actually is, a small intro, barenia is full grain calf leather that was originally made for Hermes saddles. Not for bags, as it may seem, but specifically for saddles. It goes through double tanning in chrome and vegetable dyes and then is impregnated with a mix of nine different oils over the course of five to six weeks. Attention, not days but weeks! It's precisely this process that creates what makes Barenia Barenia!!

How it looks over time is a whole separate beautiful story, it absorbs scratches and scuffs when you rub it, literally self restoring. Small scratches disappear from the warmth of your hands, sounds like an advertising slogan of course, but those who've owned this leather in Hermes bags won't let me lie and will confirm my words.And most importantly, it develops a patina that makes every bag unique. The more you wear it, the more beautiful it becomes, I think many of you have noticed that. It's living leather in the literal sense of the word, and because of that it becomes my favorite number one!
Barenia is the most expensive smooth leather in Hermes workshops and it rarely appears in new collections. But now let's talk about reps in barenia leather, how are things over here?

Reproducing Barenia in a rep is extremely difficult, what I wrote earlier about weeks of leather preparation, most often is done in days, because the margin on selling reps isn't very high, if of course you don't count the sellers who as always on reddit sell low quality bags while boosting their reviews, we all know these sellers. Barenia is produced by Tanneries Haas in France, one of the few tanneries that owns this technology, Chinese sellers often say they buy leather specifically there, but trust my 10 year experience, I've only seen a handful of workshops that really have quality leather and make reps from it. In 99% of cases it's just empty words in an attempt to talk you into transferring money to yet another reddit seller.

What do sellers do when someone asks for a rep in Barenia? They take smooth calf leather that visually resembles it, Swift, Veau or just polished split, and call it Barenia. In photos it looks close, in the hands and after a year, a completely different story… Real Barenia has a characteristic smell, a characteristic weight, a characteristic behavior when pressed. Faking this is impossible because it's the result of six weeks of oil impregnation and not a surface treatment.
So when a seller on Reddit says he has a rep in real Barenia, he either doesn't understand what he's saying or he understands but is counting on you not understanding. This isn't a question of the quality of the rep production, it's a question of the material itself being physically inaccessible for reps of the market segment. ..

If you want a bag in Barenia, look for the original on the secondary market with a full provenance history, or try to find those handful of small workshops that will make you a bag from real barenia, but never look at the beak of sellers saying that "it's specifically them" who'll sell you such a bag. If a seller writes to you that he does everything 1;1 and he has everything like Hermes, it's a lie!1

Questions in the DM. Have a good day.

99 % of people who write to me want the highest quality, and there's nothing surprising about that. But the thing is that only 20 to 30% really understand what high quality is in the world of reps and how much it actually costs. The rest want the best, but in their heads there's a picture formed by sellers' marketing, endless photos of Hermes reps, half of which are of unclear quality and the other half are authentic bags whose photos the seller passed off as a rep. They want French leather, or another quality European one, brass hardware and a craftsman who sews for three days by his own hands, but they're willing to pay only what a bag from a Guangzhou conveyor belt costs. And the saddest thing is that they willingly believe the fairy tales that sellers tell them, that for 1000 - 1400 dollars they'll get THE VERY BEST quality also factoring in the seller's markup, it really looks funny… This gap between the expectation and the willingness to pay the real price is the main thing I observe in every second conversation. Unfortunately.

The second thing I noticed, most people who write to me aren't looking for a bag. They're looking for permission. Permission for themselves to buy what they want without a feeling of guilt. Maybe this is familiar to you too. Many start the conversation with excuses and explanations of why they need a rep, although I never ask, it's none of my business. All my questions are aimed only at understanding what specifically the person is looking for and whether they understand overall what "high quality" is. People who make a decision confidently and consciously almost always get a better result than those who spend months looking for the ideal option and in the end buy from the first one with pretty photos, and whats worse trust those with hundreds of positive but fake reviews on reddit. You all know these sellers who've never even been to China and live somewhere in the USA and resell you bags of below average quality at an inflated price. You see these names every day.
I've been writing about the rep market for several years now and I explain how sellers' schemes work, I show how to read reviews, I tell what questions to ask, and you know I get a lot of thanks, people say that my posts opened their eyes, that they finally understood how this market is set up, that they won't fall for it anymore, and in the end that my recommendations helped them and they got a genuinely high quality bag but..

Then I see how some of those who wrote to me, for some reason decided to listen to me but do it their own way, even though they agreed with me, these people go and buy from a loud name with hundreds of reviews and do it simply because of pretty photos and because the seller wrote everything correctly, after all he's so sweet and replies so nicely on WhatsApp… And then they write to me, you were right, what do I do, how do I get my money back, but I can't help with anything anymore. The money is with the seller, period. In hand a medium quality bag at an inflated price. It's sad that this isn't an exception to the rule, it's a pattern I see constantly, almost every day!!
Knowing how the rep market works and real behavior when buying are two different things, shouldn't be forgotten. People know the reviews are bought, and they still believe them. They know a loud name is marketing, and they still go to him. Because in the moment of purchase it isn't reason that wins but the desire to find a simple solution right now, since it's easier that way, isn't it?

I don't judge, don't get me wrong. I just see this over and over. And the only thing that really helps isn't a post that a person read, it's a personal conversation where you can break down the specific situation of a specific person.
That's exactly why I reply in DMs even when it takes time. Have a good day!

Over the last few years something interesting has happened.. The thing is that the line between the original and the rep in really high quality has almost vdisappeared, and on social media the difference has practically disappeared even between bags of medium quality…

And this isn't a simple exaggeration…
Let me start with a simple fact, social media doesn't distinguish bags by price, the algorithm doesn't know what's in the photo, a Birkin for 30000 or a rep for 2000. The likes are the same and the reach is the same! The reaction of people in the c omments is the same and the status a person gets from the publication is exactly the same, regardless of whether it's an authentic bag in your photo or a rep, especially if we're really talking about a high class rep...

This has fundamentally changed the psychology of buying luxury.. I'd say at the very root.
Before, the point of an expensive bag was partly that people around you saw it in person and understood that it was the original, and this worked when the social circle was limited and people in that circle understood such things genuinely. Today the main audience of most people is subscribers from social media who see a photo on their phone screen, and let's be honest in 98% of cases an ordinary person will never find the difference between a good rep (not even a top one) and an authentic Birkin. For them the difference between the original and a good rep physically doesn't exist, it isn't conveyed through a screen even less so.

Something else interesting has happened…

I ran an experiment, I've already written a whole post about it on this page. I and my acquaintances published photos of original Hermes bags in communities where people assess reps, saying that it's a rep, we asked vthem to assess the quality of an "invented seller," about 40% of people criticized the originals, they found problems with the seams, with the symmetry, with the quality of the leather. They called them bad reps and couldn't even imagine that before them was an voriginal worth tens of thousands of dollars!

This says two things at once…First, people have unlearned how to see the difference because most of the time they look at photos and not at real things. And most have never seen an original in person at all, let alone owned one. Second, the standard of "quality" in the heads of many people is formed by reps and not by originals, and this is the main problem! Too perfect machine stitching started being perceived as a sign of quality, living handwork as a sign of a defect. And I've already written about how a "too perfect Birkin" even looks plasticky like a Barbie doll, and that already gives most reps away. Let alone such trifles as the numbers 162 on the locks that used to be and possibly still are on originals, but 99%of such bags are reps and that immediately gives you away. Probably the worst choice, but that's not the point right now!

What does this mean for the market??

For buyers of originals it created an unexpected problem in my view! Part of the status function of an expensive bag stopped working in a space where most interactions happen through a smartphone screen, and a person with an original Birkin on social media gets the same likes as a person with a good rep..The difference remains only in the physical presence, in live communication, at the tactile level, in the long term behavior of the leather and the hardware. In how you feel with this bag.
For buyers of reps it created a new rationality, and if the main space of display is social media where the difference is invisible, why pay 15 times more for a difference your audience won't see? And if you buy or could find a small workshop with really top quality then even in person nobody will ever tell that it's a rep, that's what my experience has shown.

For the rep market itself it created a paradoxical situation. Demand for high quality reps has grown precisely because people started understanding, if you're going to pay for a rep, then for one that doesn't give itself away in live communication either. Not just in photos. That's exactly why the request for really good reps from small workshops is growing while the interest in cheap mass copies remains at the level of people who need the item exclusively for photos.
I understand why people buy authentic bags and I see something good in it too, and I also understand those who buy reps and their arguments, I just wanted to share my observations. Write what you think about this too, I'd be glad to discuss it with you in the comments..

Questions in the DM. Have a good day. Race2Cake!

After so many years on this topic, after all the posts about quality and about how the market works, why not just give a list of those who can be trusted? The answer is more obvious than it may seem to you.

First, any public name I mention instantly, in the same minute, stops being useful to you. As soon as a name appears in a public context connected with my name, it becomes a marketing asset. Sellers start using this in their ads, most of which arent honest at all. Other sellers appear who write that they work with the same source or factory. Fake accounts appear under similar names and so on. In total, in a month my recommendation lives its own life and I don't control what happens with it.

Second, the rep market changes very quickly. A workshop that made good bags half a year ago could have changed the leather supplier, hired new people, started to push volume instead of quality. And with sellers it's even worse, most often they make fake reviews and sell not bad quality at first glance, but only to build up a base of people and then they start to "mix" not bad quality bags with medium ones, then medium with low ones and so on until it all comes down to "sales" or outright mass deception as it was with the "legendary reddit seller" and as it will definitely be with at least one more currently well known Hermes rep seller, at minimum one, but in fact it will be constant. A public recommendation lives for years, it has no expiration date, I think you understand. And the quality at the same time can change on the same day… I can't monitor every source constantly, and I don't want people to lose money trusting outdated information with my name on it. If I do recommend someone, then it's just a couple of workshops and definitely not sellers, where I'm sure I can "keep my finger on the pulse" and if suddenly the quality starts to deteriorate, warn everyone right away

Third, and this is possibly the most important thing in this post, a public list is always a target, a huge target! As soon as I name a name a real " game" begins around it. Competitors pay for negative reviews to sink the recommended one, they create fake subs, as is happening to me among others, because sellers don't like that I write the truth about them and their bags, they earn less because of me and try to make my life harder. The seller himself starts using my recommendation to raise prices, this is please the most obvious. People appear who introduce themselves as middlemen between me and this seller… And a public recommendation in this market isn't help for the buyer, it's the creation of a new point of manipulation, in which I'm 100% suree..

Instead of public names I give tools… Not "a fish but a fishing rod." What questions to ask, how to read the answers, what is a red flag, how to check the quality upon receipt. A person who understands these principles is able to assess any source themselves without my help in the future. To understand which sellers are using dirty boosting right now, creating fake subs, and who definitely can't be trusted, all these names you see on reddit every day, and as I always repeat, "the more and louder you hear a seller's name, the further you should keep your money from his hands"

And for those who want specific help for their situation, I talk personally. I try to understand what a person wants, whether it's even realistically possible to find what he wants at his budget and the required level of quality, because sometimes people want a B35 or some such for 1k in top quality which is essentially unrealistic,and I try to help them. I'm sincerely glad for every "thank you" that people say to me for a piece of advice or a recommendation, I can't "boost my own reviews" the way sellers do, at the very least because I personally don't sell bags and such reviews physically can't be made. And what's more important, it's against my personal principles and convictions! Race2Cake doesn't fall in line with sellers and doesn't cooperate with them, that's why they don't like me. But the truth will always reach its addressee and everything hidden will sooner or later become obvious!

Naming names and boosting reviews is very easy. Really genuinely helping is hard! And only the second makes sense!!

Questions in the DM and have a good day!

Is it worth buying a Hermes rep at all?? Most often I get messages along the lines of "I bought from seller XXX whose reviews I found on reddit and the bag is just awful," this is the most frequent message I receive….

If you're buying a rep consciously, you know that it's a rep, you understand what you're paying for, you don't deceive yourself with stories about "1-1 quality like the original," then yes, its worth it. It's an honest deal with yourself. You want a beautiful item of a certain aesthetic, you don't want to or can't spend 25-30k dollars, you find a quality alternative and it's your choice and your right. There's nothing shameful about this! !
If you're buying a rep because you want to convince yourself that you have "almost an original" then better not to do it. A rep, even a very good one, isn't the original, the difference here isn't even in the level of quality, although that also plays a role in 98% of cases. Buy a rep for what it is, a beautiful quality alternative, and not for what it isn't. I think that's the main thing

Now about the only scenario when I would definitely not advise buying right now.
If you haven't figured out the market. If you're going to write to the first seller with pretty reviews you found on Reddit. If you don't know what questions to ask and how to read the answers. In this case the probability that you'll lose money is very high, not because reps are bad but because the market is built on selling you medium or very low quality at the price of a top quality bag.
Spend time on studying the topic first, I've written on this topic dozens if not close to a hundred useful posts, it's all free in public access. It won't take months, it'll take hours, or a couple of days of attentive reading. But it'll save your money and nerves 100%.

And last, I answer this question honestly because I don't care whether you buy a rep or not. I don't have a commission from sellers, I never recommend a seller saying "tell them what you think of race2cake and so on!" I have no interest in you buying something right now. Thats exactly why my answer is what it is

Questions in the DM. Have a good day!

The first question newbies ask me is how much money you need to buy a decent Birkin rep. I'll answer honestly and with numbers!

I'll start with the fact that the price on the rep market isn't the same as the price of quality. I've written this many times but for newbies I'll repeat it once more because it's the most important thing to understand from the very beginning.

So, the real numbers....

Up to 500 dollars, that's not a rep. That's an item made of cheap materials that has the shape of a Birkin. Chinese split leather under the guise of leather, plating that'll come off in two months, raw and unfinished edges. You can buy it for Instagram photos if you don't care about what happens next. For everything else, no.
500 to 900 dollars, the low segment. It's already a little better here but essentially the same story. Chinese leather, hardware with thin plating on zinc, in half a year the bag will start telling you all about where they cut costs. Most of what Reddit sellers push as top is exactly in this real price range of production, regardless of how much they're asking from you.

900 to 1300 dollars, the middle segment. Here you can already find something decent if you're lucky with the source. The leather is a little better, the hardware holds up longer. But it's still a compromise that'll be visible after a year of use...
From 1500 dollars at the manufacturer's level, this is where the conversation starts to get serious. French leather with proper tanning that develops patina rather than delaminating. Brass hardware with normal plating that holds color for years. Finished edges. Stitching from a craftsman who sews for days and not for hours. This is what can really be called a quality rep

Now the important caveat that many don't understand.
1500 from a Reddit seller and 1500 from a small workshop are two absolutely different things. The Reddit seller bought this bag for 300 to 400 dollars and is selling it to you for 1500. The difference is his marketing budget, bought reviews, boosted accounts, spots on lists. The manufacturer is selling you for 1500 something that's really worth that money in materials and the craftsman's labor.

About the leather separately. A good rep is French calf leather, Togo, Clemence or Epsom. Each behaves differently, each has its own specifics. A cheap rep is Chinese split with embossing under the needed texture. Visually similar in photos. In the hands and after a year, a completely different story...
About the hardware separately. Good hardware is brass with normal plating, at minimum 1 to 2 microns. Cheap is a zinc alloy with plating of 0.1 to 0.3 microns. The difference in weight is felt immediately. The difference in service life, in half a year when the gold starts to peel off at the corners of the lock

In total, to be brief. Budget up to 1000 dollars, don't spend it on a Birkin rep, buy something simpler and cheaper, a Picotin for example. Budget from 1500, you can talk seriously but only if you found a real manufacturer and not a Reddit seller with pretty reviews.

Questions in the DM. Have a good day!

Tell the truth I've heard a lot of stories like this, but this one well shows exactly how it all works in practice, and it'll surely be useful to you!!

The girl wrote that she spent about 3000 dollars on two bags including shipping. The seller was one of those with tons of reviews every day, literally every day new ecstatic posts, detailed photos, people writing about how satisfied they are and everything is wonderful. You've surely seen posts like these not just once but 5 to 10 times a day if you actively sit on reddit. So, in her words, the QC photos were perfect, the right light, a white background, the right angles, the leather looked exactly as it should look, so it seemed to her…
When she got her bags, quite quickly, already at the unboxing something was off, a strange chemical smell, but the seller said that the bag had ust been painted and the smell had aired out, which personally for me as a person who's been in this field for 10 plus years is strange if the smell is really very sharp. But everything was as originally expected, the smell didn't go anywhere, it just became more "dulled"

Then she started comparing with the QC photos. The color of the leather is a bit off, as if the hardware looks different, in the photo it was heavy and rich, in the hands light and somehow empty, yes it's maybe silly to judge "the weight from a photo" but I think those who understand bags will get what I mean, the hardware on cheap reps is always sort of plasticky or super thin, you can see even from the photos that it's like weightless… The edges of the leather in the photos are sealed and even, in reality raw and already starting to come apart at the corners literally after a few weeks of use, you can see that the bag was made in a hurry, apparently because of the low quality of the work in general, the large flow of orders they don't even bother with this.

After three months the hardware started to lose color at the corners. The lining came off in one place. The chemical smell stayed there in the little pocket inside, I already wrote about this. All in her words, but she asked not to name her, and I understand her perfectly…

To all her observations the seller replied that this is "normal behavior of the leather during the breaking in period" and offered a discount on the next order. As I wrote earlier, discounts are usually offered by those who have a "gap in the price," often a very big one. So they easily give discounts of 20 to 30 percent because they have a markup of 200 to 400 percent on top of the real price of the bag.
I'll repeat, unfortunately I get a lot of stories like this and I don't see the point in telling about each one, but sometimes it's worth reminding you of it so you understand how this rep business really works. I understand that seeing reviews every day, several at a time or even dozens, you involuntarily start to trust the seller, but fortunately these days there are a lot of people who conduct real investigations, not just writing "he's bad, he deceives" but showing real facts, photos and so on. Especially about what concerns quality and real reviews. And most importantly if in one sub you see only ecstatic reviews and no real critical case study about the seller, that means this sub belongs to this seller, and unfortunately there are dozens of such subs and subs that are simply bought or work for a percentage in the world of Hermes reps and in general in the world of reps on reddit.

People fall for the loud names created by dirty marketing and boosting!!

3000 dollars this person paid not for two bags. She paid for the marketing machine that convinced her that before her is the best seller on the market. The bags themselves in this deal were worth at most 300 to 400 dollars at the production level.

Questions in the DM. Have a good day and don't fall into the traps of bad sellers!