As I find this type of topic very interesting if you're doing research on a handbag that you' consider buying, I thought I'd share with you all the handbags that I have already sold and why. It's super helpful to hear why certain handbags did not work out for someone else, what features on the bag seem odd or just things you might have not thought about that could possibly bother you too.. So let's just get into it.
1. Louis Vuitton Speedy Bandouliere 30, Monogram & Damier Ebene
I picked both of these bags up within a few months from each other because I absolutely loved my Speedy B in Monogram. I got that one in the summer and when it started to rain and get colder, I didn't want to risk ruining the vachetta leather so I got the DE print as well. I adore the Speedy, it's an absolute classic in my opinion, and looking back now, I wish I did not get rid of these bags because I do still love them. There was absolutely nothing wrong with them, I only sold them for the reason of being able to fund a different bag.
2. Givenchy Mini Antigona
This bag I love the look of but there were a few things that drove me insane. First of all the bag is very stiff, the leather is really thick and it's box leather so it's hard and not really flexible, especially on the Mini Antigona this meant that the opening was very small because it's a mini bag and the opening is not flexible (for example on a canvas LV Speedy, it's easier to get in and out of because the canvas is soft and moveable). Not only was the opening super small and stiff, but the chunky zipper would also always scratch my hands when I wanted to get things in and out of the bag. I have tiny little hands and it would still happen to me all the time and it started to get annoying.
The other thing with the Antigona bags is the fact that the strap is attached with this weird clasp that you have to slide in and out. Instead of just adding a regular claw clasp that won't come off, they decided to make a slide system which obviously they did not think through very well. The crossbody strap would constantly come off on one side when you sat the bag down and went to grab it on the strap. Imagine having your bag open, you get up and grab your bag and the strap just comes off, that bag turns or falls to the floor, everything on the inside just falls out on the floor as well.. No, not for me. As much as I love the look of this bag, especially in the Mini size with the black shiny leather.. I just could not deal with these things. It seems so small but if you wear the bag a lot and it just keeps happening every single day, it starts to get annoying. And after all these years of the Antigona bag being out and all these people complaining about the strap/clasp they still don't fix it which to me seems like they do not care enough about their customers' opinion.
3. Saint Laurent Toy Loulou
I sold this bag pretty much at the same time as I sold the Mini Antigona, again, because I wanted to get /fund another bag (which oddly enough, I did end up selling later on as well). It was quite a cute bag, very casual, and with a fair price for being YSL. They're under 1000€ which is a great deal especially because the leather on the Loulou bags is so soft and nice. Saint Laurent in general has beautiful leather on their bags and the quality is a lot nicer than on the more expensive brands. But because the bag is so small, I do wish they wouldn't have separated the inside into two parts. It just takes up a lot of space inside the already tiny bag, it to me doesn't even make much sense to have that divider inside so they could've just left that out. But overall it was a good bag and I'd recommend it if you're just getting into luxury handbags or you want a small, carefree, and casual crossbody bag for every day.
4. Celine Micro Belt bag
I already had this bag, I first got it in a light beige colour with the old logo. I got the beige one the year before Phoebe Philo left Celine and I loved the Micro Belt bag so much that I really wanted to get it in another colour. Because the beige is so light I thought of getting the dark grey shade to have a more carefree option. When I got the grey one, it was right at that time where the old logo bags went off the shelves and sold out and the new logo bags came in so I ended up with a new version. I did do a blog post comparing the old vs. new version in case you are interested. Not only did I think the quality on the newer version was a tiny bit worse than on the older bags, but I also just did not use it enough. I realized that having two of the same bags in different colours doesn't work out for me too good because I mostly end up preferring one over the other so the second one doesn't get used that much. So I decided to let go of the grey Micro Belt bag.
5. Celine Micro Luggage
Another bag that I loved so much that I got it in two different colours. I bought the black one and the taupe one with white stitching as well. I have to say that the taupe Micro Luggage with the white stitching was absolutely stunning, I still remember taking it out of the box and I thought "Wow, that is the most beautiful bag I've ever seen". I did however get both colourways at the same time so again, I just preferred using the black one over the taupe. I was just starting to get really into luxury bags and didn't want to ruin the beautiful taupe leather so I almost always went to carry the black one. That's why I decided to let go of the taupe colour and keep the black one. I only just recently sold the black Micro Luggage bag as well just for the reason that I wanted to fund something else and I didn't use it enough anymore. I just really want a Hermes Birkin 30 in black with palladium hardware and the styles are just a bit too similar (black leather, palladium hardware, top handle, structured bag) to justify both so I'd rather set the money aside to fund a Birkin in the future.
6. Balenciaga City, Metallic Edge in Suede
This bag is absolutely stunning. I honestly never regret selling anything because if it doesn't work out, it just doesn't work out. I don't just sell things for fun, there are reasons for me to sell bags. But when it comes to the suede City bag, I absolutely regret selling it. This bag is just gorgeous. I loved wearing it, I loved looking at it.. literally the only reason I sold it is because of the suede leather. That suede leather with the gold hardware is what made this bag so beautiful and I sold it because of that. I love the look of suede bags but I wasn't using it very often, I was too scared to ruin the suede leather, get scratches on it or spill something on it, I wanted to keep it as good looking as I possibly could which lead to me not using it. I sold it and got the regular Metallic Edge City in black leather with silver hardware which I use a lot more but I do always still wish it was the suede whenever I wear the leather one.
7. Celine Mini Belt bag
A bag that I had a very strong love and also hate for. I loved my Micro one, I saw the Mini (their largest size, don't ask me why it is called mini because it's absolutely huge) on Instagram all the time and it looked so chic and effortless so I decided to buy it pre-loved. It arrived and I loved the look of it, I wore it the next day to work and realized I just can't deal with it. It gets super-heavy if you use it for work, the closing of the flap is impossible to close while you're wearing the bag, it looks odd when you wear it open though so you kinda have to sit the bag somewhere to close the flap properly which was just so annoying, so also you couldn't really wear it with the top handle because when I had to open the bag, it would just basically fall open and then I couldn't close it anymore.. idk it might work for some people but for me, it's a bag that is only really pretty to look at or to take outfit photos with, it was not practical at all. I literally sold that bag within a week of me owning it.
8. Chanel Rectangular Mini, patent leather
I saw this one while browsing on Vestiaire Collective and it was a decent price for a Chanel Mini, it was in amazing condition so I bought it because I just felt like it's something a little different in my collection. I heard a lot of bad stories about patent leather bags but I never really had a problem with that one. It had no color transfer at all, it didn't get sticky or melt or whatever, it stayed in great condition. I just didn't wear it as much as my other Rectangular Minis so I decided to let that one go and put the money towards something else.
9. Fendi Mini Peekaboo Selleria
A great example of listening to your heart and not your brain haha I love the Mini peekaboo, saw it all over Youtube and Instagram but usually they had the smoothy shiny leather version with gold hardware. I saw a few reviews on that and people kept saying the leather scratches very easily and is a bit harder to care for so I decided to go for the Selleria version which has the stitches on the outside, it has a bit more of a structured look to it, also it has white contrast stitching and pebbled leather, which was ultimately why I got it. While I loved the contrast stitching on the bag, I just somehow didn't end up loving the matte pebbled leather and the Selleria style. I'd have loved the regular smooth black leather a lot more so I sold the Selleria. Looking back at it, I should have just gone for the one I actually wanted, not listening to the people saying it scratches too easily. I should have gone with what made my heart sing the loudest but I didn't. Also, I'm not the biggest fan of Selleria styles anyway, even with Hermes Kelly bags, I prefer the Retourne styles over the Sellier but it is what it is.
10. Balenciaga City, Pick Stitch
Actually, another bag that I have massive sellers regret with. I found this on Vestiaire Collective for just a couple hundred Euros and thought it was quite unique so I purchased it. I did a bit of research because I had never seen Balenciaga do this edge stitching and found out it was from their A/W 2016 collection and is called "Pick Stitch" City bag. At this point, though I had this City bag and also had my regular Metallic Edge City which I didn't use very often at that time so it actually made no sense for me to keep both so I sold the Pick Stitch and kept the other. Now I regret it so much because the leather was gorgeous and it was super unique, I never see this version anywhere.. I would have actually gotten a lot more use out of the Pick Stitch but silly me, I sold it.
11. Prada Galleria Mini
This was quite the impulse purchase which I normally never really do, I like to think about the items I buy. But that day I was out with my husband at this local boutique, they sell brands like Gucci, Prada, YSL etc. so I was trying on a few bags like the Galleria Mini in this powder pink colour, I also tried this camera bag from Prada in grey and a shoulder bag in black.. I felt like the grey and black were just a bit repeating of what I already have in my collection and the Galleria was different, the silhouette was a bit different and the colour was too. I'd normally would have never bought a pinkish bag but that day it just really looked good with my outfit I was wearing and my husband liked it too so he got it for me. I only wore the bag a handful of times really, I'm not even a fan of saffiano leather, it's just so hard and stiff and I prefer soft leathers. I didn't like the colour all that much either and the layout of the Galleria bags doesn't make a lot of sense to me either. The two outside compartments with the zipper are very narrow and hard to get in and out of, they don't fit a lot and then there is this middle compartment that is open and someone could just get in your bag or things fall out.. it didn't work out for me at all and it taught me to never impulse buy anything.
12. Balenciaga Papier B4
(not my picture, credit to whoever it belongs to; got it from google.com)
A massive fail but absolutely my fault for not doing enough research on the Papier bags. I wanted a bag for work and looked at the Balenciaga Papier, the A4 looked so big on the pictures I found online and I didn't want the bag to be too big so I decided to go for the B4 instead. When it arrived from Vestiaire Collective, I immediately put it up for sale because it was too small for my liking. I should have gotten the A4 but I didn't.
13. Saint Laurent Medium Sunset
I actually really liked that bag, I do recommend it if you're looking for a classic looking, good quality but not too over-the-top expensive bag that you can wear on your shoulder or crossbody. I wore it a lot and it held up amazing, no scratches, nothing. The only reason I sold this bag is that I have my black Chanel Boy in the Medium size and had just gotten my Chanel Classic Flap in black as well so ultimately I had three bags that were the same size, were all shoulder/crossbody, they were all black leather and silver/ruthenium hardware so I saw no need to keep the YSL Sunset as well.
14. Valentino Rockstud Spike, small
The very last bag on my list is the Valentino small Rockstud Spike bag in black. When I got it, I already had second thoughts about it, I wasn't sure if the size and everything was just too similar to my Chanel Rectangular Mini in black with champagne gold hardware.. I also didn't like how long the crossbody strap was and there was no way to adjust that. For some reason I thought "Oh, I'll just find a different crossbody strap to use with it that is shorter". Well guess what, I didn't find any. They were all just really yellow gold, I couldn't find a light gold one that matched the Valentino hardware anywhere and I didn't want to spend a huge amount on a crossbody strap either. For that reason I never used that bag, I just kept on waiting to find a different strap for it someday but that day never came.
Also, I realized on the small size, I only really like it when the top handle sits on the bag and it looks a little bigger.. if you take the bag by the top handle, I thought it looked off and had a weird shape. I still love the look of the Rockstud Spike bags, I guess I should have gotten the medium size, it looks a lot more proportionate but I'm not too sure if I'd actually use it because like I said, I do have a lot of black medium-sized bags, plus I still don't have a different crossbody strap I could use with it since the strap on the medium size is just as big.
If you are looking for good websites to buy pre-loved items from, I recommend LuxuryPromise. You can also get £30 off of your entire order with the code "ME7T0YY5GY30".
Initially I didn't think I got rid of so many handbags in my collection, especially since I only really collect luxury bags for the past like 5 years.. but apparently I sold like half my collection already haha I hope this was interesting and helpful for you, if so leave me a comment below and/or let me know what you'd be interested in next 🤍
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