Attention All Shoppers - Briefcase Hunt

**mjfrombuffalo**[$] · #1 05-06-2003, 11:00 AM

My Chinatown knock-off briefcase has breathed its last. I want to get a new one in the same style, but can't find it anywhere. I don't care too much for the actual shape of the briefcase, but I want one made of this:

in PLEATHER, so I don't have to freak if it rains.

Any ideas?

**theworm**[$] · #2 05-06-2003, 11:09 AM

No idea where to get it, but I've seen totes in that material, and I LOVE it. When you find out where to get it, let me know!

magenta321 · #3 05-06-2003, 06:42 PM

It was still being sold on Canal street as recent as last summer. However, I can dig up links to prove that Canal Street shopping supported Al-Queda, those Northern Irish schmucks, and Asian Triad gangs. So... um... don't buy any of those knock-offs

I could pick out a beautiful briefcase that can get wet -- but, um... you prolly don't want my help.

Margaret, who is trying to wash the blood off her hands by educating

**mjfrombuffalo**[$] · #4 05-06-2003, 07:57 PM

Margaret, I was looking forward to your help - provided you remembered you were shopping for ME, the Queen of Cheap.

Last time I was in Chinatown (maybe two years agol) the stuff in that pattern was getting very, very hard to find, and the luggage stores on 14th don't have it so I thought it was sold out down there too. Guess I'll have to hoof it downtown.

**taurusmoon** · #5 05-06-2003, 07:59 PM

MJ,

I'll be at a flea market Memorial Day weekend. A lot of the Canal Street dealers show up there. If you haven't located it by then I'll scout around for it there.

Sara

**mjfrombuffalo**[$] · #6 05-06-2003, 08:03 PM

Yeah, but then we would have to meet again, I'd probably have to buy you a meal for going to the trouble...

But good - you gave me a deadline for checking Chinatown. I've become strictly a home-work-home person and even a few stops on the 2 train seems like such a bother lately.

**taurusmoon** · #7 05-06-2003, 08:08 PM

Damn. She saw through my evil plan.

Sara
Who does not need any excuse to shop

**taurusmoon** · #8 05-06-2003, 08:25 PM

Does it have to be a briefcase? Can it be a handbag?

Sara

**mjfrombuffalo**[$] · #9 05-06-2003, 08:30 PM

Already have the handbag and the wallet, believe it or not

But that's the stuff!

**mjfrombuffalo**[$] · #10 05-06-2003, 08:54 PM

shoot. found only one more knockoff site but only handbags there, and three sites with the real stuff - and I ain't buying the real stuff!

magenta321 · #11 05-07-2003, 01:20 AM

Quote:

MJ said in post #4 :
Margaret, I was looking forward to your help - provided you remembered you were shopping for ME, the Queen of Cheap.

Last time I was in Chinatown (maybe two years agol) the stuff in that pattern was getting very, very hard to find, and the luggage stores on 14th don't have it so I thought it was sold out down there too. Guess I'll have to hoof it downtown.

I won't help you get fake stuff

I'm feeling too guilty about my own purchases. I really hate thinking I supported terrorism. Plus, that store that smelled like death in China town still comes to mind quite often. Really upset me. No idea if it was a rotting rat, cat, or what, but... the stench!!! Yech!

Anyway... I looked at ebags and saw a few briefs in the $30 range. You can sort by price, although, it's not too accurate

Dark leather should be fine in the rain. If you're worried about it, buy "Apple Garde' " to protect leather. That's what I'm going to be using on my natural untreated leather goods I've been buying (that cannot go in the rain without ruining them otherwise). It's $7 a bottle, and available online from www.leatherstuff.com (I belive that's the right address). It's $5 to ship it. Supposedly the stuff is also available at Burlington Coat Factory, but, I didn't want to drive downtown (here, not Manhattan, LOL) to find out if it was in stock or not. Plus, Burlington is dirty, and they make you check your bags. I feel like they treat you like a criminal there -- I won't even go in any more. Get some f-ing cameras if you're worried about people stealing!

Anyway, the leather guarde' supposedly does not darken the leather, waterproofs it, and keeps it conditioned and supple.

If you can't find what you want in a brief, I can help you search for the right one, but I'm not sure I know what I'm looking for.

Does it have to be Prima Classe? Any particular size? Will it hold a laptop? Do you need any particular features?

magenta321 · #12 05-07-2003, 02:10 AM

So, out of curiosity, I looked to see who has Prima Classe... and Ebags does! LOL. I sent you to the right place

But, they have cheap briefcases too (that are not Prima Classe, lol). The colors look a lot nicer on those real ones than on the fake ones I 've seen. I haven't studied the line by any means, but, I'm willing to be that it is like LV where a real collector can tell the difference. I don't know if that matters to you or not, LOL.

I also learned that Prima Classe bags are trimmed with Vachetta -- which is the natural, untreated leather I was talking about. So, if you were to get a real one (which, in the grand scheme of things isn't that expensive compared to other briefs) you'd want to treat it with the Apple Garde' stuff I mentioned above.

**mjfrombuffalo**[$] · #13 05-07-2003, 10:34 AM

I definitely don't care if people know it's fake. The fake Prima Classe bags I've had before were obviously fake and people still stopped me on the street to compliment the bag, ask me where I got it, etc. Even in its horribly beat-up state, this last bag caught my dermatologist's eye and she asked me where I got it before she even said "Good Morning"

**theworm**[$] · #14 05-07-2003, 10:36 AM

Quote:

Sara said in post #8 :
Does it have to be a briefcase? Can it be a handbag?

Sara

The one that I want is out of stock.

soothsayer · #15 05-08-2003, 06:06 AM

if you want to buy wholesale, there are plenty of handbag wholesalers around 26-32nd st/broadway. There was a Nigerian guy selling hangbags of the same fabric on a street corner here too.

**mjfrombuffalo**[$] · #16 05-08-2003, 07:07 AM

Hmmm. I checked out the Chelsea/Broadway area a few months ago, didn't see this pattern just a lot of black leather and black laptop-case material.

**theworm**[$] · #17 05-08-2003, 09:47 AM

I'm visiting Eye this weekend.
There is usually a guy selling bags on the table around the corner from her. Now I'm REALLY hoping that he has these bags. I could use a new bag, and I want one of these!

magenta321 · #18 05-09-2003, 01:55 AM

Sigh.

DON'T BUY FAKES! Fakes = bad.

Worm -- wouldn't you rather buy something nice, something luxurious, something made in Europe, by people making livable wages, something that doesn't support terrorism, something that doesn't support drug trafficing, something legal to buy, something legal to sell, something legal to own? Something like this bargain:

http://www.designergoodsonline.com/11250448.html

MJ, you never answered my ?s about size or if it had to be Prima Classe styled, or what you planned to carry (just documents? laptop?)

**theworm**[$] · #19 05-09-2003, 10:15 AM

Quote:

Margaret said in post #18 :
Sigh.

DON'T BUY FAKES! Fakes = bad.

Worm -- wouldn't you rather buy something nice, something luxurious, something made in Europe, by people making livable wages, something that doesn't support terrorism, something that doesn't support drug trafficing, something legal to buy, something legal to sell, something legal to own? Something like this bargain:

http://www.designergoodsonline.com/11250448.html

BAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Oh - I needed a good laugh! Ok - I'm all for not supporting terrorism and owning legal things. That being said - FAKE IS FINE!
Sell? I can't imaging ever "selling" a handbag. Even more - I can't imagine EVER spending $149 on a purse!

**mjfrombuffalo**[$] · #20 05-09-2003, 10:17 AM

Margaret, I'm not paying a zillion dollars to support any company that tosses a designer name on something and then charges about 500% of what it's worth because it's got the name slapped on it. I think that is about as sinful and unethical as the fakes, honestly - its a ridiculous ripping off of gullible consumers that feel they have to have the designer's product, regardless of what it's actually worth in materials and labor. I'm not paying over $45 for a briefcase, because the one time I did invest in a $110, all-leather briefcase years ago, it lasted me just as long as a cheapie "pleather" one. Actually, this current pleather one lasted longer. And I can clean it with Windex when it needs it.

Meanwhile, the whole time I'd been buying this style, I never knew it was based on a designer style - honestly. I don't follow designers so I had no clue, I just thought it looked good. And nowhere on the bags I've bought does it have the Prima Classe label, which wouldn't have mattered a hill of beans to me anyway.

Re: supporting drug trafficking - Ok, I'm an evil person. But the fakes are available and people are buying a million of them a day, so it's not like that market is going to fold because I bought a briefcase. True, it's not a "good" or PC attitude, but I'm allowed to be un-PC in one area of my life. :P

**theworm**[$] · #21 05-09-2003, 10:23 AM

For the record - I don't shop for fakes. I just shop for reasonably priced stuff that looks nice. In all honesty, I don't want someones name or initials plastered on my "stuff" (Gucci, Louis, etc). I wouldn't even know if what I purchased was a copy of some overpriced label thing. I just want a nice looking practical bag at a practical price, and I won't spend extra for some fancy label.

**mjfrombuffalo**[$] · #22 05-09-2003, 10:35 AM

What worm said. Who said it with far fewer words than I did.