by Jan Deelstra

Created on: February 17, 2009

Coach Sweet Coach

I have only been a fan of the Coach brand for a couple of years. Not being much of a "status" bag collector, I finally took the plunge (or rather, splurge on my meager budget) and purchased my first Coach brand leather handbag late last year. It wasn't that the bag was especially gorgeous, or prestigious, or even cool' that I found myself handing over the few hundred dollars for a purse. It was the undeniable rich quality leather and superb craftsmanship that ultimately got me to join the club.

Since my initial purchase (a timeless mahogany pebbled leather satchel), I have gone deeper into obsession with the purchase of a Coach brand wristlet' in brown-pebbled leather, and then a little Coach scarf to tie around the straps (it doubles as a ponytail ribbon), and most recently, I've purchased another color of the same item number handbag. The bags are that good.

Now one must understand, up to the point of purchasing a Coach brand handbag, I owned only two other purses of so called "status" quality. One was a very nice messenger bag that proved to be authentic when I took my auction win into the nearest dealer, and one turned out to be very non-authentic and I got slammed for "selling counterfeit" trying to resell it at auction. Because I had found the first bag-win to be authentic, and the second looked so much better, I didn't bother to get it authenticated. I had no idea for over 5 years that the handbag (for which I spent several hundred dollars) was a fake. It was a great fake, but a fake none-the-less. It sits still in its dust bag and box, along with its cute little lock and key set, and will never again see the light of day. But I digress.

My initial Coach handbag purchase came at a time in life when I had made a conscious decision to stop wasting money on things of little value that are by their very nature, disposable. My cheaper (translated= non-pebbled leather) handbags have come and gone over the years. The fads change and the bags become obsolete and tossed aside to donation piles. Recently, I decided to only purchase merchandise that:

1. I LOVE (not just sort of like ~LOVE!)

2. That will still be with me in 10 or more years

Because I have recycled clothing and accessories to goodwill for so many decades, it goes to figure that I have spent wads on clothing and accessories and have little real quality merchandise to speak of. Since making the decision to invest in quality over quantity, I have managed to:

Clear a lot of clutter
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