Hello everyone! ♡
Welcome back to my blog! I am very excited to write this blog post because one, I am revealing my new (well new to me) beautiful handbag baby, and two, I wanted to share with everyone how I scored this amazing handbag for a fraction of retail price and literally saved THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS! Whats my secret? Keep reading to find out!
I have long lusted after the Chanel classic flap in the jumbo size but there was just one tiny problem standing in my way... retail cost for his beauty brand new is now a whopping $6300 something after tax in the US but luckily, I was able to snag this bag for literally over $2500 dollars off! The best part is that it looks like brand new and in amazing condition!! Without stalling too much I will tell you exactly how I did it.
First, I stalked the living hell out of all the second hand websites, resellers and apps out there. For reference, the ones that I check most frequently are eBay, The Real Real, Fashionphile, Tradesy, Yoogi's Closet, and others that I check sometimes are Vestiaire Collective, What Goes Around NYC, and Opulent Habits. There are many second hand websites out there and even more small consignment shops, but believe me, I check every one I can find almost every day, looking for a great deal. About a month ago, I stumbled on a listing for this Chanel pink Jumbo classic double flap for $3600 at Opulent Habits, a small consignment store operating out of Madison, NJ.
I am not going to lie, $3600 is still a LOT of money for a bag but considering that after tax, a new one in a boutique in the US was going to cost about $6300, this was SUCH a great deal. And like I've said previously, I have been wanted to add a jumbo to my collection for a very long time. Does this sound too good to be true? Well honestly there was one little catch.
The bag was completely damaged from sun exposure and turned into a mix of light beige and baby pink.
This was why it was priced SO low under the retail price! That and the fact that this bag did not have the usual authenticity card that Chanel provides to all of their leather products. However, Opulent Habits is a credited and legitimate consignment shop whom I've previsouly purchased from, so I completely trusted that this bag was authentic. It even came with the dustbag and the tag STILL ATTACHED, along with a certificate of authenticity from Entrupy, a very well know luxury authentication service commonly used by many consignment stores.
So knowing full well that the bag's color was complete damaged, I bought it and immediately came up with a game plan. First I will show you what the bag looked like when it arrived to me. As you can see, it looks more like a beige color from the front but when you opened it the insides were all pink. (It may be a bit difficult to see from these pictures but TRUST ME the discoloration was VERY apparent).
Other than the heavy discoloration, the bag was in PERFECT condition. It is a couple years old as it is a 17-series from either 2012 or 2013 (according to this guide from Yogi's Closet), but the structure was perfect, there were no scratches and the hardware was in perfect condition. So how did I bring the color back to life in the beautiful Chanel? Through the magical work of a man named Gerry Gallagher and his two sons at Leather Surgeons.
Before I bought the bag, I did my research on a couple of places that did luxury bag restorations and found many positive reviews for Leather Surgeons, both on Youtube and forums such as the purse blog. Opulent Habits owner Darcy, also references the Leather Surgeon's work and expertise in her youtube videos many times so I was excited to give them a try. Before even purchasing the bag I emailed the Leather Surgeons and asked for their opinions on whether or not they could restore the bag to its original color. From looking at the pictures, they assured me that they would take a color sample from the inside of the bag where the color was not altered or damaged and then proceed to restore the bag to that original color. For this service they quoted $275, including free shipping to and from their shop, bringing the bag's total now to $3875, still way cheaper than the original retail price.
I sent my bag into Leather Surgeons through the prepaid UPS label that they created. The restoration process took about 2 weeks and I received my bag back very quickly. The results were AMAZING.
This is an unedited photo of the bags new color. As you can see it is now a baby pink color and there is no discoloration to be seen! I was SO happy with the results and it literally felt like I owned a brand new Chanel- again, that I only paid A FRACTION of the price for!
As this is a review of my experience as well, I did want to quickly mentioned a few things that I noticed with my bag after it was returned to me. I cannot express enough how happy I am with it, but there were a few things that I noticed along the way.
FIRST the texture of the leather completely changed when I got it back. As you may be able to tell from the before photos, the lambskin was very shiny, smooth, supple and generally soft to the touch. When I received the recolored bag this was not the case anymore. The bag felt very matte, and not as soft to the touch (I also have other lambskin bags to compare it too so I know I wasn't just remembering wrong). SECOND even though I'm totally in love with the new baby pink color my bag has turned, I know that it is NOT exactly the original color. The reason that I know this is because I have a Chanel Wallet on Chain baby pink lambskin bag from the exact same collection this jumbo was from, meaning they should be the exact same color. This is not the case as the jumbo is now a new soft, cool toned baby pink and my WOC is a more warm toned one. However, this does not really bother me as I love the new baby pink color my jumbo is now and I am very pleased with the results!
All in all I am very happy I chose to go the preloved and restoration route with my Chanel jumbo, and I am SO incredibly proud of myself for saving so much money on a timeless bag. If you are a bag lover, the price of a Chanel can be completely justified but its nice to be able to save a bit of money as well!
I hope that you enjoyed my little review and story, and a special thanks to Opulent Habits and Leather Surgeons for making my dreams come true!
Thank you all so much for reading!
Saki ♡
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