Expensive handbag - what to do

[Hoppinggreen]

DD19 loves Thrift stores and was visiting friends in a posh part of surrey last week and found a real gem. She got a beautiful Jaeger jacket for £10 and she also got a Ferragamo Handbag - for £100!!!
We are pretty sure its genuine, we haven't had it properly authenticated and wouldn't bother but from online research it looks like it and the shop lady did have the paperwork. Its pre loved obviously but would have been over £1500 new and is probably worth around £600 now. Its in very good condition.
DD loves bags but we are more Kate Spade, Coach or similar than high end designer and she isn't sure what to do with it.

1. Enjoy it thoroughly, take it back to Uni with her and risk it getting stolen or wrecked
2. Try and sell it online (she doesn't really need the money but is at uni and it would fund a holiday this summer or similar)
3. Keep it but leave it at home and just get it out for special occasions (and let her Mum borrow it)

It is entirely her choice of course but what would you advise MN?

Well to be fair even if she got £200 for it she has doubled her money
She won't be selling it though.

Why are you seeking advice then?

Definitely keep and enjoy - DD has a few designer bags (my hand me downs and a couple of cheaper designers of her own).

it doesn’t seem to be unusual for her and her friends to all be wearing “mums vintage” and bags getting stolen is a risk whether it’s a £6 bag or a £6k bag, 99% of time it’s the content rather than the bag itself thieves are after so I wouldn’t particularly worry about that - use and enjoy!

Because I wanted other opinions
Selling WAS an option when I started the thread but now its not, she actually took it out with us last night
Is that ok?

I'm glad she's keeping it. May it bring her lots of joy.

Thank you

@MorrisZapp Mark one!!! I'd forgotten about that

In that case it’s even more special. Great find!

It's a lovely way to have a bit of her grandmother with her every time she uses it. 💐

If I were in her position I’d use it. But I don’t save things ‘for best’. I spent a lot on things I really want and love them hard with the knowledge that one day they’ll probably be too well loved to use but I’ll have had the enjoyment out of them.
Whats the point in having something you love and leaving it sitting in a cupboard totally unused ‘because it might be worth a lot’? You may as well not have it at all!
Use it and enjoy it, it’s what it’s there for.

Same! Beautiful things are made to be used, otherwise they lose their meaning (for me, anyway).

What would she normally do with a £100 handbag? Surely a coach or Kate spade bag costs more than that and has the same risks as you've mentioned - getting stolen or trashed at uni?

Why did she buy it in the first place? Did she know what it might have been worth?
It sounds like she bought it because she loved it, so I think you need to separate out the issue of finding out how much it's now worth.
If she doesn't need the money from selling it then just enjoy it.

She should have it and use it and learn how to look after nice things.

As I said upthread selling it is NOT on the table now, her Dad suggested it but mainly because he probably can't see why an ASDA carrier bag wouldn't be as good 😁
She thought £100 was a bit of a steal, although she told me she did get the woman to knock £25 off too. It was only later when she did some research she realised what it might be worth and what it originally cost.
She bought it because she liked it and its her current vibe. She has decided she is going to use it but carefully. She actually has a vintage Coach bag I bought her that she has for everyday. We have a brilliant pre loved Designer shop near us where we have had some bargains
Her Kate Spade/Coach/Longchamp bags were bought by me, my Mum and her lovely BF as gifts and we are most certainly not in the LV league, although when my Mums house sells who knows?
I remember in a work situation I saw a LOAD of mint condition very high end designer bags a lady owned still in dust bags that were never or rarely used and I thought it was slightly odd and even a bit sad. Unless of course they were bought as an investment but I would never do that even if I could afford to

It just depends on the individual, I think - some people are content to look at their beautiful bags and keep them pristine, similarly to how others keep jewellery in a vault instead of wearing it. And that's perfectly okay too.

I like to use my beautiful things.

its a day bag, therefore she should take it to uni and use it. An evening bag might get ruined on boozy nights out, but a day bag being used in the day is not definitely going to get ruined more than a young graduate trainee taking it on public transport to work.

Things should be used. Saving for best is probably how this bag ended up in a 2nd hand shop to start with.

But take it to uni with a couple of caveats- be clear she doesn’t lend it to anyone else, doesn’t matter what they need it for (job interview, first date etc) she doesn’t lend out the bag if she wouldn’t give it to that person to keep forever.

Also she shouldn’t tell people what it’s worth etc. if it’s not Chanel or heavily logoed, most people won’t even know, they’ll just think it looks good quality. No point making yourself a target.

Another point- you said it goes with her current style. So she definitely should use it now, in 3-4 years time when she’s a “proper grown up” and requiring a work bag, this might not fit with the style she has then. A bag that fits with a boho style probably wouldn’t work with many other styles so saving it for later might just mean it’s not really used much.

It's her bag, that she paid for with her own money. It's up to her if she lends it to somebody, not her mum!

.
What she does is entirely up to her, I haven't offered an opinion beyond
"its lovely, well done for spotting it"

Its pretty neutral so will work with a few styles, it would probably work for me as well as her but I do take your point.
She is 21 next year so she may get another more "grown up" bag then, having said that her chosen career path (if it works as planned) is not a smart bag/briefcase one.

Can we see a picture of the bag?

my daughter covets a Fendi Peekaboo but she can make do with the Kate Spade we bought her for Christmas!

Sorry no, not mine to show.
Plus I am on my laptop so would have to take a photo, send it to my laptop and faff about.