Would you pay $1,500 for a FAKE handbag? How hard-to-detect 'super' knockoffs are almost as expensive as the real thing
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Experts say that 'superfake' designer knock-off bags that are almost identical to the originals - including in price - are flooding the market this holiday season.
While regular 'street' fakes range from around $25 to $50, buyers are paying from $500 to $1,500 and up for the superfakes.
Though still pricey, this is only around 20 per cent of what they would shell out for the real thing.
Spot the difference: The reporter bought her Chanel superfake for $430
Though experts suggest looking at details such as the number of lines and spaces on a quilted bag, the interior heat stamp and the bag's lining to figure out authenticity, the superfakes can be challenging even for trained eyes.
'The term “superfake” was coined because essentially this fake is better than you could believe,' Bargain Fever author Mark Ellwood told ABC News reporter Bianna Golodryga.
'Hand a fake handbag to an expert in bags and say, "Is this real or not?" They might not be able to tell.'
Golodryga went undercover on New York City's Canal Street to find the most convincing bag she could.
Sizing it up: The women compare quality of normal fakes to superfakes on Canal Street
While most of the merchandise is displayed on the street, most of the superfakes are usually stored in the back of stores or behind walls. or behind walls and have to be specifically requested.
After rejecting several 'run-of-the-mill' fakes, Golodryga was offered 'something special': A black Chanel 2.55.
The unnamed vendor was asking $600, but she haggled the price down to $430. The real Chanel classic retails for around $5,000, with 'street' fakes priced at around $30 to $40.
Experts warn that the black market for fake bags can have much broader implications than simply copyright infringement - and it is not a victimless crime.
Faking it: Higher quality counterfeit bags are becoming more popular
'Certainly, there is evidence that it's gone on to form organized crime; it's gone to fund terrorism,' Fordham University professor Susan Scafidi explains.
'And that does lead to all kinds of labor abuses, including child labor.'
'"I remember walking into an assembly plant in Thailand a couple of years ago and seeing six or seven little children, all under 10 years old, sitting on the floor assembling counterfeit leather handbags," an investigator told me,' journalist Dana Thomas wrote in her book Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster.
'The owners had broken the children's legs and tied the lower leg to the thigh so the bones wouldn't mend. [They] did it because the children said they wanted to go outside and play.'
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