The pictures below should help you to spot the most obvious fake Marc Jacobs bags.

At any one time, there are usually more fake Marc Jacobs bags on Ebay than real ones. The main faked style is the Stam, the occasional real one is sometimes sold but often fetches the same sort of price as the fakes!

Real Marc Jacobs bags and wallets NEVER have the labels and tags attached with white string, it should ALWAYS be black string. 

Real Marc Jacobs bags NEVER have a leather sample attached and NEVER  have plastic protecting the handles.

Real Marc Jacobs Stam bags will only have the words "Marc Jacobs" stamped on one of the kiss locks at the top of the bag, it will NEVER be stamped on both.

The above things are easy to spot, and as soon as you see one or any of them you can be sure the bag is a fake. Read on if you're still not sure.

Another easy way to spot a Marc Jacobs fake is the nameplate inside the bag.

The fakes nearly always look like this         Look particularly at the leg of the "R" on these fakes, it has a curved leg.  The fake nameplates can be silver or brass colour.

Real nameplate will have a straight leg "R" like this      Nameplates will be attached directly to the bag interior and will not be mounted on a piece of leather. Real plates can be silver or brass colour.

The Stam cost around £750+ so be suspicious of anyone who is selling or has sold more than one brand new Buy it Now for £100-£400 it doesn't make sense!  Do not be fooled by 100% positive feedback, it usually indicates that other buyers do not realise they have bought a fake.  Check the sellers' feedback, have they sold lots of Stams?

Zips on nearly all Marc Jacobs bags will be Riri or Lampo. You should ask the seller for pictures of the underside of the zips so you can see the manufacturers name and the shape of the zipper. 

This is a real Riri   Look at the shape at the top, totally rounded. This is a fake riri  Notice it is pointed at the top. 

Lampo zippers should look like this      Fake Lampo zippers look like this     Note the subtle difference in shape and the word "Lampo" is higher on the real zip.  If the zippers on any Marc Jacobs bags are flat and plain on the back with no writing, the bag is a fake.  There is only one MJ bag that used YYK zips (as far as I am aware), and that is the Chevron bag.

Do your research. A quick search on the internet and you will find loads of sites in the Far East selling fake stams and other Marc Jacobs bags.  They offer a shop and drop service meaning a buyer can choose to have the bag delivered to any address. Is your seller suggesting a 10-14 day delivery time? If so, this is likely to be the way he/she is doing the business. They haven't even had to part with their money until you buy.  Look at the bags on those sites do you recognised the one you are thinking of buying? Often sellers use the same pictures from these sites!

Are the pictures of the bag too perfect often with no background? Sometimes sellers will use pictures taken from the websites of authorised Marc Jacobs retailers or the Marc Jacobs website, these pictures obviously show the real thing but are probably not exactly what the seller has.

Look at the quality of the stitching and, if the bag is quilted, look at how the quilting matches up underneath the bag.  These bags cost hundreds of pounds, real ones will be perfectly made, quilting on seams will match.

Fakes will often have serial numbers, authenticity cards, care cards and dustbags, These mean nothing and are all faked. You will even see these faked items on the Far East websites. You can even buy programmes to make fake receipts, so they not proof that the item is genuine.

Serial tags (in bags after Fall 05) will look like one of these    The most obvious fakes have serial tags like this      Notice the difference in typeface.

The other style with is heavily faked on Ebay is the Zip Clutch wallet.  This is a Marc Jacobs product but often the nameplates inside the fake purses are copied from the Marc by Marc Jacobs range! So the nameplate will have "Marc" in one colour and "Jacobs" in another. This quickly tells you it is a total fake. Those types of  nameplates only appear in Marc by Marc Jacobs products. Again, white string holding the tags tells you immediately its fake.

Both Marc Jacobs (the more expensive range) and Marc by Marc Jacobs (the lower priced range) are extremely high quality products, the stitching will be perfect, seam lines on quilted bags will match etc.. Look closely at what you are buying and ask for extra pictures if you can't see everything you want.

There are some very low priced products in the Marc by Marc Jacobs range which you can view on the Marc Jacobs website under "Special Items". These are generally only available to purchase in the US, so some sellers buy there and sell on UK Ebay which is great if you can't get there yourself. These items include things like the satin quilted bags and purses.

 This picture is taken from a Far East website selling fakes. This is the page where they show you all the fake labels!!! The easiest thing to spot here is that the tags will hang on give away white string, as I said before, real bags will have black string.  Some fakers have already realised this obvious mistake and now use black string, so black string is no guarantee that the bag is real. However, as soon as you seen white string, you can dismiss the bag as fake.

I received a picture from a seller, which on closer inspection, showed a plastic zip inside a bag above the nameplate. If that bag had been real it would have cost £600+   There is absolutely no way a Marc Jacobs bag would have a plastic zip inside! 

There is only one Marc Jacobs bag, that I am aware of, that has the words "Marc Jacobs" on the outside of the bag, and that is a Christy bag. The words "Marc Jacobs" will never usually be stamped on the leather anywhere on the outside of a real Marc Jacobs bag. This is usually a sure sign that the bag is fake and possibly never even a real style.

Beware of "Unwanted gift" or "Bought by an ex-boyfriend" or "Bought for an ex-girlfriend".  How many people do you know who buy/receive such expensive gifts and then need to sell them?!!   Look at the sellers feedback particularly their buying. Are they the sort of person who might have owned an £800 that they now don't need?

There are very few authorised Marc Jacobs dealers in the UK. Beware of anyone selling/or who has sold a large amount of BNWT bags. Ask yourself how they could buy them at a price that would enable them to sell for hundreds of Pounds less than Harrods, Selfridges, Harvey Nics etc.  

Make sure there is enough "Buyer Protection" in the listing with PayPal in case you need to open a dispute to get your money back. Many bags are listed with a starting price of £200 with only £150 Buyer Protection.

Stams are the most widely faked Marc Jacobs bags, but there are fake Blake, Venetia, Rana, Louise, Multi Pocket, Sophia, Posh Bowlers etc. etc.. in fact every popular Marc Jacobs bag and quite a few Marc by Marc Jacobs bags are available as fakes.  The information I have given here on spotting a fake Stam applies to all Marc Jacobs collection bags.  Again, search the internet for "Marc Jacobs Replica Bags", has the one you are buying been faked?  If the seller says the bag is "still available at......." check the relevant website.

This is not an exhaustive guide, I am just showing you the obvious fake traits and unfortunately I can only put 10 pictures on this guide. If you are still not sure, and the fakes are getting better and better, search the internet for Marc Jacobs and you will find forum sites where you can post the auction and experts will  tell you for sure whether the bag is real.

Ask for clear photos from the seller of things like the underneath of zip heads, serial tags and nameplates so that you can authenticate. If the seller does not reply, do not buy!

This all sounds very scary, but there are lots of real Marc Jacobs and Marc by Marc Jacobs bags on Ebay. Just make sure you are buying one or you may never know the real beauty and quality of these precious babies!

It depresses me when I see feedback like "I loved the bag etc."  when the bag is an obvious fake.  A few months down the line, when the poor quality of the bag starts showing, the buyer will realise they have been scammed, or they will think Marc Jacobs products are not worth the money! Or, worse still, they try to resell on ebay believing it is 100% authentic.

If you spot one of these obvious fakes report it to Ebay.

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