Ember
<font color=blue>I've also crazy glued myself to m
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2005
- Messages
- 3,466
Just to play devil's advocate...I wonder if the designer manufacturers really do lose money from these sales. Disclaimer: I don't own any knock-off bags. I'm sure I will never have the inclination and I doubt I will ever have the means to pay $1500 for a bag. So LV, Coach, etc. will never have a sale from me. If I bought a fake bag because I liked the look of it, there would be no sale lost from me, because I'd just buy a different one I liked the look of if the knock-off wasn't available. To be honest, I wouldn't even know a LV, real or fake, if I saw one.
This is a complicated question and it doesn't have a straight answer. Yes, there is a percentage that will buy the bags in ignorance thinking they are the real thing. This is particularly true in knock-offs that make it into mainstream retail outlets. In that case, the purchase of the counterfeit is directly taking away sales from the manufacturer. I've seen estimates of up to 40% of people unintentionally have bought counterfeit goods - of course, now you're into the bigger world of counterfeiting and not dealing just with handbags.
However, the bigger problem is people who know it's a knock-off an buy it anyway. These people most likely would not have bought the real thing, but they want the prestige of the label without paying for it. The see it as a victimless crime because they can't directly observe the harm it causes. In this case, it may not be directly costing the designer a loss, but it is putting money into the black market. People who justify their actions by saying it doesn't really hurt the designer because they would never have bought the real thing anyway really irk me. This is not a good reason for supporting counterfeit goods!