It's All In The Price

 
So you researched the value of your bag and are about to list it. Most Facebook selling pages demand that you include all charges in your listing price. To make sure your expenses are all covered, consider:

Postage
Make sure you chose an adequate service. Royal Mail's standard insurance only covers a parcel value up to £50. Anything above that value needs to be sent by "Next Day Special Delivery". This not only guarantees delivery by 1pm for the next working day but also insures your parcel up to £500. Check Royal Mail pricefinder for details

Packaging
I have stacks of boxes sat in a cupboard (actually, usually they're stacked up next to the front door, much to Mr G's annoyance) and keep various packing materials. I buy some bubble wrap and nice tissue papers every now and then and don't tend to relay that cost to my buyer but you could calculate a contribution into your total selling price.

Paypal Fees
Most selling pages and eBay stipulate payment via Paypal Goods & Services and the fees are automatically deducted from the amount the seller receives. The fees equate to 3.4% of the total amount plus £0.20. E.g. if your buyer sends you £500, you will receive £482.80. If you'd want to receive the full £500, you'd have to ask the buyer to pay £517.81 (though you may well round to a sum nearby). TIP: use this Paypal calculator!

Calculating your "all in" selling price
So, let's assume you have a bag, for which you research a maximum value of around £350 and for which you want to receive no less than £320. It's quite heavy, so you think you'll have to spend £11 on postage. You don't have a box to hand, so you buy a nice box and bubble wrap for £5.
£320 + £11 + £5 = £336
To receive £336, your buyer has to send £348.03. Bit of an odd number, so you'd probably list at the nice round figure of £350. Or maybe £349, if you want the price to look that tad more competitive.

Tips

• Bear in mind though that the seller will only pay what they believe the bag is worth, so whilst you want to calculate in your postage costs and fees, don't over-inflate your selling price - your bag simply won't sell.
• Don't be tempted to offer payment via Paypal Friends & Family - you're likely to get chucked and blocked from the relevant selling site, as it's against the rules.
• If your prospective buyer lives nearby, you could agree to meet and cut out postage and fees. In that case: insist on cash on delivery, as a G&S Paypal payment demands a postage receipt, which you obviously wouldn't have if you handed over the bag in person. 

Hopefully you found these tips useful. More about selling your bag on a Facebook group here!

Nothing Weepy About Willow

It's taken a looong time for me to even consider this Mulberry. I never looked at the Willow and thought "ooooh" or "wanna have". It might be because I'm not big on totes. Or because the Willow can look a bit too cutesy - especially in pastel colours or pink. I finally took the plunge with this Small Willow in a navy shrunken calf and not only do I think it looks lovely...

...it also works pretty well as a small tote!

Bayswater Variety

"Just one of any style" I said. "No point in having multiple colours in the same design" I continued.

4 Bayswaters later...

Why? How?And which one is my favourite? Want to find out?

...and which one is your favourite?

Something Old, Something New

You might have seen one of my Mulberry Roxanne reviews. And maybe also my Roxette unboxing  - though I just realised, I haven't done a proper review yet, so need to do that asap! Anyway, back to the here and now: the Roxette is often described as the modern take on the Roxanne, so I thought I'd do a quick comparison video.

I need to state here that I am comparing the Small Roxette with the Roxanne, so you could argue that I should compare the Roxanne with the Regular Roxette but I don't have one of those and the Rosemary is a fair bit smaller that the Small Roxette.

Fancy having a look? Measurements for your info at the bottom!

Which one is your favourite?

Roxanne measures ca width 34 cm, depth 18 cm, height 19 cm. Handledrop is ca 22cm.

Roxette measures ca width 30 cm, depth 14 cm, height 21 cm. Handledrop is ca 10cm - but you do get a long adjustable strap.

22 Mulberry Bags

I listen to you guys. I really do. And when a couple of you said that the quality of my videos wasn't great (I never watch them back, so didn't realise how bad it was), I remembered that little camera I bought about a year ago.

So whilst I still have all my 22 Mulberry bags, I thought I'd re-shoot the collection. 

Not sure if I'm telling you the same stuff or new things but here we go: all my Mulberry bags in one video!

Late Arrival

Some bag shapes are undeniable classics. The one I'm currently thinking about is the hand held barrel style handbag. Add a long strap and you have unbeatable versatility. Think Louis Vuitton Speedy or Mulberry Small Del Rey. Or, indeed, something a bit more vintage, like this Mulberry Euston. A great size, timeless style and practical format.

But would the Euston work for you? Check out what I fit in!

Paint It Blue

I'm a sucker for the Mulberry postman's lock. Especially in brass. And Mulberry oak. Oh, give me an Oak Bayswater and I'm happy. 

This Mulberry Jagger Pouch is about as far as you could get from any of the above: blue polished buffalo leather, silver coloured hardware, no typical distinctive Mulberry features. And yet, I rather like it!

So it's a cute little pouchy bag - but what can I fit in?!

Making Me Blush

I'm not massively into pink. I'm really not. But in the course of the past few weeks I have found myself buying one and lusting over three further pink bags. Granted, they're not Barbie-pink and rather muted and flattering shades but still...

The one that I bought...

I had been after Mulberry Lily that's a bit more dressy than my PVT oak one for a while and completely fell for this one. It's plaster pink wrinkle patent leather with rose gold hardware. Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue but she is rather easy on the eye.

Those I'm swooning over...

This bag is the Maestra from SENREVE. I never even heard of SENREVE until fairly recently and this bag makes me want to justify its pricetag and customs fees I'd have to pay with "but it's also so practical!" because it actually holds a proper laptop! The texture and colour of this leather looks gorgeous and scrapes just on the right side of 'oh so pretty'. Though they are based in the US and the customs fees increase the price, they do let you prepay for everything, so ordering should be a doddle. 

Aspinal is a brand I keep coming back to. So far I have yet to buy a bag for myself though I had various small leather goods and bought my mum a rather gorgeous Brook Street bag. A few days ago I received their AW17 catalogue and this colour jumped off the page for me. I've been looking at ths tote for a few seasons now and this has got to be my favourite colour so far. (Oh, and check out their brilliant "View Size" feature. Just click at the image on the bottom of the product page and it lets you compare the bag to various items - you can even flip a Macbook and see how it would fit in.)

Last but not least: On a recent lunchbreak I flew through Mulberry in Manchester's Selfridges and stopped in my tracks when I saw this one. I know it's been around for a bit. The colour is just stunning in real life - I don't think it comes across online. 

So, what is it?! 

Are there just too many lovely 'pink' bags around at the moment or is middle agedness with muted tones catching up with me? And if I am buying one of the three above - which one???

Yay: New Work Tote!

So I'm back from my week's holiday (don't they always fly by too fast?!) and whilst my newly planted dahlias in the garden have been been decimated by snails and slugs, my newly acquired VVA Dahlia Tote looks just as lovely as she did when she arrived a few days ago.

So far so good. I packed her up for work and off we went. Want to see what fits in and how I got on?

Roxanne Gone Green

Just when you thought a bag wouldn't have any other variations - along comes another one.

Take the Roxanne: she comes in mini (Blenheim), not quite as mini (Rosemary) and huge (Romilly). Then there is the tote in a couple of sizes. And the more recently created Roxette has undoubtedly been inspired by the Roxanne. I thought that was it. And then I came across this beauty in the most gorgeous shade of green.

May I introduce: the Roxanne Satchel. Much more lightweight than the classic Roxanne, due to the choice of leather, and with a long strap, she might be much more practical as an everyday lug around bag. Check out what I fit in!

Lovely New Arrival

So I stumbled upon VVA bags a while ago. And I've been lusting after one of their Dahlias for a while. 

A search on my own blog reveals it's been at least a year!

I finally took the plunge and ordered one of these last week...

...and she arrived shortly after. See me unbox here right here:

Full review to follow!

How to Spot a Fake

So, over the past couple of years I have told you how to minimise the risk of buying a fake Mulberry and where to go to have it authenticated. What I haven't shown you is some of the detail that can give away a fake bag straight away. I obviously don't have an endless supply of fakes but I do have this Mulberry Oversized Alexa, so have a look at my video and pics and take note of the signs that give away a bag as fake! (By the way, it's not this one - different bag!)

And as promised - some pictures to accompany the video! 

The fake is the 'watermelon' colour, the black is my genuine one.

The most obvious first: the Imprint on the oval and the fob with the tree. 

 

See how the genuine Mulberry's font is a sans serif, i.e. without little lines at the end of each letter? All straight lines. It is also neatly printed and not smudged (if a bit worn on my battered Lexie).

The stitching is neat and even - though I have seen genuine bags with messier stitching!

The metal fob, which is hanging off the oval is neatly imprinted. Now, I can never remember how many leaves are in which position but the genuine tree has sharply printed leaves.

The fake bag's Mulberry imprint font is more 'frilly' looking, the letters emulate more of a serif font, i.e. little lines at the ends of the letters. It is also badly printed and not very straight.

The stitching is fairly even but has a weird kink on the left hand side.

The leaves of the tree on the metal fob are rounder and not as sharp.

Back of the fob and serial number

The font on the back of the fob is likewise a sans serif, straight numbers, neatly lasered (or etched?) on.

  The font of the numbers on the fake bag is much more frilly. Whilst some vintage bags have numbers that are actually imprinted into fonts rather than etched or lasered, I have only ever seen straight, non serif fonts.

Now, the made in label isn't as obvious.

Above the genuine...

...the fake below.

I don't have a 'Made in England' label from an Alexa on file but this is from another genuine bag and if you compare the 'g' in England, you can see how the genuine one looks more old fashioned - funnily enough a bit more frilly than the fake font. They just can't get it right, can they. ;) 

 The genuine magnetic closure...

is raised and has a distinct ridge.

 The fake bag's magnetic closure is fairly flat and has no ridge.

Closure straps

The genuine bag has straight screws on the back of the metal tabs at the end of the straps. The tree imprint is even and neat and the metal totally flat around it.

 The screws on the fake bag have Phillips heads (i.e. like a cross). The tree imprint looks fairly neat but the metal is depressed around the tree as well.

And Something else I noticed:

 See how there is only stitching to what you see above and below the tree rivet (this is to the left and right of the top handle).

The fake bag has stitching top and bottom and left and right. This isn't present on the genuine bag at all.

There are actually another few differences but these are the most obvious ones. Hopefully you will find them useful, but do bear in mind that every model can have its own markers. The new generation of Mulberry (under Coca's design) has changed significantly and many of said characteristics have disappeared altogether. Nothing beats spending £5 and getting it authenticated by professionals! And even somebody who has handled lots of bags (ahm, me), isn't safe: I would have sworn this was the real deal!

Sweet Treat

So I went to Cheshire Oaks a while ago and spent quite a bit of time at the Mulberry Outlet store. Of course. I picked up a few items for some other lucky ladies but also treated myself with a bag I had been lusting over for quite some time!

Fancy taking a little peek?

My Mulberry Collection - June 2017 Snapshot

So I was having a bit of a tidy and also thinking about how many bags I have - and how many I actually need. I'm trying to decide which ones to move on and am finding it way harder than it should be. Their bags for goodness sake! This is not Sophie's Choice! 

Anyway, I will hopefully be able to decide soon and the collection won't look like it does right now for much longer 

- so I thought I'd give a quick peek!

Which one is your favourite? And what will I let go???

Mulberry Does Summer

I'll dive right in: this gorgeous colour 'Aqua' from Mulberry is the perfect summer hue!

 I can just see this little Bayswater Satchel working with so many summer outfits - can't you?

Alas not mine, I was allowed to make quick video before packing these goodies up to go to their new home. Take a peek!

Bag Logic

Passing through these pages I would completely forgive you if you said I was bag-mad. A bit obsessed. And if you thought that I just bought handbags on a whim. Of course, if you read my back and forth with the Roxette and Cara, you'll know that I am probably more the exact opposite. That I overthink my purchases at times.

The truth is, that I do both. Sometimes I think and analyse to the nth degree. Then a bag, which I loved and would probably work very well, becomes almost unfeasible and I abandon the idea altogether. Then again I might see something that I just pounce on. Usually (and thankfully) the impulse buys tend to be comparatively affordable. Well, everything is relative...

Anyway, I thought it might be useful for me to share the reasonable levels of consideration that  give a bag purchase. I think buying your first designer handbag can be quite daunting - even if we don't consider questions around authenticity, where to buy and budget. 

When considering a bag for myself (or advising somebody else on a purchase), I would always consider the following:

1. Lifestyle
What kind of bag would you use most often? Do you want something for a night out, a special occasion or day to day? Would a bag that's suitable for work be the best investment piece?

2. Size
The above will make you think about which occasion you want your bag for. So how much would you want to carry on those occasions? Just a purse, phone and key? Or maybe even just lippy and a credit card? Or will you want to lug around snacks, a change of clothes, dummies, toys..? The bigger the bag, the more you might try to carry, whilst a smaller one might discipline you into thinking what's important and what can stay at home. Also, don't underestimate how much all your stuff weighs.

3. Use

How do you like to organise your bag's contents? Do you prefer a boxy style that retains its shape? Or something lose and casual. Do you hate rooting around your bag and want to be able to find everything quickly? How do you want to carry your bag? Do you need to be hands free? (Maybe because you're chasing after a toddler or carrying something else.) Do you have any issues with your neck or back that would make it uncomfortable to be carried a certain way? Or would a heavy bag cause any issues? Are you fine having to baby a bag or do you need something you don't mind getting wet, e.g. because you commute and might have to walk in the rain.  
And then I'd decide on what I do and don't want from the below:

Size

Self explanatory, right? How big is the bag - what does it hold?
Big - holds your kitchen sink
Medium - typical handbag size
Small - fit in your key items (purse, keys, phone, tissues...)
Mini - essentials only (key, credit card, coin purse)

Strap
How can you carry this bag?
Very Short - handheld or crook of arm only
Short - maybe just about on the shoulder
Medium - carry on the shoulder
Long - carry cross body (or usually: adjust to taste)

Weight
Closely linked to size and strap is weight. A big bag will most likely weigh more than a small one - as will its contents. A long strap can make carrying your bag much easier, if it's too heavy it might still prove a struggle for everyday use. Then there is the choice of leather, that can make a real difference. Especially important if you have issues with your shoulder(s) or arm(s). The below are all relative to yourself, of course. What's heavy for some, might be no problem for others.
Light - no problem to carry
Medium - no big issue if carried for short times
Heavy - best to sit on a chair or the car seat next to you. Not really a daily commute bag. (My Roxanne falls into this but I can make her somewhat easier to use with a wide guitar strap.)

 

Structure
How boxy or slouchy is this bag? Will it fall into a puddle if empty?
Slouchy - yep, this one puddles
Boxy - will hold its shape

Care
How sensitive is the leather/finish? Will two drops of rain have you run for cover or is it one of those bags that you can chuck in the corner without worrying?
High Maintenance - take outside at your own peril, order an extra chair at dinner
So so - treat her with respect, treat with Collonil and be a bit careful
Bomb Proof - well, maybe not quite bombs but raindrops, baby dribble or even a drop of wine 
- as long as she's been Collonil'd you don't have to worry.

Colour
I'm a sucker for Mulberry NVT Oak and think it kind of goes with everything. But then again, I also never match shoes and belt or bag. For me, function always comes first. But maybe you're looking for a specific colour, or for one that will go with an existing outfit? I If you are, you might already exclude certain styles, that simply didn't come in your desired hue. If you're not looking for a specific shade, it's still worth considering the following choices:
Neutral light - nudes or oak, I think goes with everything
Neutral dark - black or very dark blue
Pop of colour - punchy, you have to be happy for your bag to either stand out or have the wardrobe to match/harmonise

Accessibility
I like doing the "queue test": Imagine you're stood in a queue and have to fish out your purse, travel ticket or passport quickly without setting your bag down. Does it work? How quickly? I like bags I can work cross body for that reason but have found other bags that I expected fiddly to be ok - and others that I thought would be ok don't work quite as well.
Fiddly - yep, takes me a while and/or I have to worry to drop something (or maybe I look like an idiot doing it?)
With Practice - might seem fiddly at first but once you get the hang of it, no problem.
Easy - open, retrieve item, close. That simple.

Occasion

Are you looking for a bag for every day or for a (fancy) occasion? I personally don't do any matching of shoes with bags and am happy to carry something sparky with my jeans - but you might think differently.

Dressy - something very pretty, maybe sparkly, probably best for a special occasion

Everyday - goes with a day outfit, doesn't look too dressy

What I do now, is exclude all bags that contradict what I would select as a 'must have' from above. And look closer at those that tick multiple boxes - or at least those that are most important. And then I have a pretty good shopping list. (If you're new to (vintage) Mulberry, have a look at my review archive, where you can find reviews of lots of Mulberry models - and match them against your shopping list.) What's your absolute must have?

My Bag Collection: Mulberry Small Bayswater Buckle

"My Bag Collection" feature is really just about the bags that managed to stay in this whirlwind of buying, trying out and selling. So far I have only featured my Alexa (my first new and bought from Mulberry direct) and my Mini Alexa (with me on every holiday) as these were the only two I was  100% sure would be staying.

My Small Bayswater Buckle is a fairly recent addition and I only started using her a couple of weeks ago. And yet, I am pretty sure she's going to stay. How come? I absolutely love her!

Model
Mulberry Small Bayswater Buckle

Size
ca 30cm - 43cm wide, 27cm high, 15cm deep

Features
Interior zip and slip pocket, postman lock closure.

Style
Relaxed formal, i.e. not as formal as a classic Bayswater but more so than a tote. Quite boxy and therefore roomy. Works well as a workbag (though not really A4 compatible) but also as a cute weekend bag - as long as you don't need a long strap to remain hands free.

When I use her
Mainly for work. She's a perfect size to get all that stuff that I lug to and from work (excluding laptop), more lightweight than my Bayswater and surprisingly easy to carry - despite the short handles.

Fits
All the following in a Love Lolo liner: Purse, Naked Cow Fauxdori with 4 Fieldnote-sized inserts, Mulberry Multizip Pouch, 2 shopping bags, handcream, inhaler, car keys, phone (normally x 2), tissues, Boden leather pouch, work pass, Mulberry train pass holder.

Recommended Care
Use Collonil Gel for cleaning and nourishing and finish off with Collonil Waterstop spray to protect. For more info, check out my full video review here. 

So there you go - an incredibly fast acceptance into my little bag family!