REAL Balenciaga tag, from an 07 Marine City bag:
BACK OF TAG, notice how the serial number matches on front & back.
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REAL Metal Rivets, from an 07 Marine City:
REAL Bale, from an 07 Marine City:
The bale should always have the oval shape, as shown in the picture. Alot of fake bbags have a “squared bale”, and the connection of the wire (that wraps at the end of the oval) is not formed correctly. Fakers are finding a way around this being a tell-tell sign, by hiding the bale part of the bag, or taking off the shoulder strap all-together.
In addition to the fact that extra tassels are NEVER rolled up in a circle, the hanging string from an authentic paper tag should always be BLACK… never white string.
FAKE bag:
Rolled tassels, mirror wrapped in plastic, white string on the “Balenciaga” tag… among other things.
I’m also getting my list together of bags & serial numbers/prices, etc… but its split between my upstairs computer & laptop – so its a work in progress!
Some helpful hints… now that you’ve seen some pictures!
Tags
- For Balenciaga bags with metal tags, the serial number should ALWAYS be the same on the front of the tag and on the back, leather side. For example on the City above, notice it has serial # “115748″ matching on the front metal tag, and back side.
- The back of a Balenciaga tag can always be flipped up, to be read RIGHT SIDE UP.
- The back of a Balenciaga tag will have additional numbers after the serial number that coordinates with the style of the back, so in our tag example above, the numbers “496393″. These numbers will vary from style to style and year to year (unlike the style serial number that stays constant from year to year…). HOWEVER, these tags should never end an a indicator with a series of “666″s, this is prodominantly used on fake bags.
- There is always black stitching across the top of the Balenciaga tag inside of the bag.
- The inside bag lining should be BLACK… not the same color as the bag.
Rivets
- Rivets are the flat circle areas on the underside of the handles.
- Rivets vary from the older bags to the newer generations, however an example of the new generation of rivets is shown above. For mid season 05 bags and newer, there should be a notch on either side that is proportional to the rivet. If you study the pictures closely, you can see the angle and grain of an authentic rivet – which stands apart from most faked rivets.
Bales
- Bales are the metal oval pieces that connect the shoulder strap to the metal hook that connects to the bag. If looking at a shoulder strap, you have in order “bale”, “hook”, “o-ring” to make the connection.
- Fakers often times have squared bales, which look more as a rectangle.
- Pay attention to the way the metal wraps at the end of the bale, right before the hook. This metal should wrap around approx. 1.5 times on itself and appear constant with all bbags that have shoulder straps.
Leather Texture
- Balenciaga’s unique leather is what sets their bags apart from other brands and give the bag its unique character. Seeing is believing, and this leather texture can definately be noticed in person, but if all you have to determine for authenticity are pictures, there still are Balenciaga leather characteristics to keep in mind.
- Often times, fake bags will look very waxy and plastic-y in nature. Authentic Balenciaga leather has a texture that varys from bag to bag, in general – no two bags look alike!! Bags can have alot of veins running through the surface, or a smoother surface that appears pillow soft, but in essence there should be some depth to the leather.
- Take the example of our authentic Marine City above, and the fake brown bag – if you look at the two bags, you can start to see how the Marine leather exhibits its own character, while the fake bag appears flat and lifeless.
But really?…. If you see these – RUN AWAY!!:
(Otherwise known as “clear signs we have a fake in our midst…”)
- Tassels rolled in a circle!! Balenciaga sends extra tassels in a flat clear plastic packge, that is folded up on itself, if this package has been opened for whatever reason, you may find auctions or listings that have tassels laying loose inside of a plastic package, but they NEVER come in a tightly wound circle… as shown on our fake example above.
- A WHITE string that the Balenciaga tag is hanging from… Balenciaga uses a BLACK string for the one hanging tag that USUALLY comes just laying inside a zippered pocket of the bag, but sometimes can be seen hanging from the front.
- A cutesy color name that is “supposedly” given from Balenciaga… that is just not the case. As fun as it sounds, Balenciaga does NOT give their color names cutesy names like “Perfectly Peach”… in fact, they are given French names like “Vert Gazon” that must then be translated back into English if you’re not using the actual Balenciaga given name. The names even translated tend to be serious and straight forward, Grass Green, Marine Blue, Steel Gray, etc… You get the idea.
- Balenciaga DOES NOT put a tiny metal nameplate on the FRONT of the bag??? Their entire moto line has either a metal tag or leather tag on the inside with an indictation to the style serial number, etc. There should not be a tag on the front that says anything really… but alot of times you’ll see them that say “Balenciaga Italy” or “Balenciaga Paris” on little metal tag on the front?… Run away – really.
Serial Numbers
Matching front & back of bags with metal tags. Located on the back of the tag, on bags that only have a leather tag.
First: 103208
Day: 140442
Twiggy: 128523
City: 115748
Giant City: 173084
Part-Time: 168028
Giant Part-Time: 173082
Work: 132110
Giant Work: 173080
Weekender, metal tag: 110506
Mini-Bowling:163259
Mid-Afternoon:168026
Flat Messenger: 177289
Courier:
Purse: 128522
Box: 145694
Shopping:145704
Shoulder: 138226
Giant Clutch(07):177286
Money Wallet: 163471
Le Campagnon: 130788
Le Mini Campagnon:156537
Coin Purse: 130783
Date Codes
Each of the tags that have a metal tag only, will additionally have an alpha indicator at the end of its serial number. This alpha indicator designates the season that the color/bag comes from. Balenciaga is working its way backwards through the alphabet, so its fairly easy to determine what season your bag is from, on bags with a metal tag is, based on this letter.
For example:
SS07, has the designator “V”
FW07, has the designator “U”
So you can go forwards or backwards in time, to get to the season indicator that you’re looking for. (The letter “x” is not used in the series.) It stands to reason, that next season “SS08″… the indicator should be a “T”. 
There is also a “Season code” on the paper card that comes with each Balenciaga bag, regardless of tag. This can be the easiest determinant of color, regardless of the type of tag the bag has inside.
A paper tag may read something like this: “2006 3 163259 D941T 250″
Indicating this is a 2006 bag, from the FW series, style Mini-bowling, in the color Blueberry. FUN! 
Metal vs. Leather Tags
First: Metal
Day: Leather
Twiggy: Leather
City: Metal
Giant City: Leather
Part-Time: Leather
Giant Part-Time: Leather
Work: Metal
Giant Work: Leather
Weekender: Metal or Leather, depending on if its the Women’s or Men’s version
Mini-Bowling: Leather
Mid-Afternoon:Leather
Flat Messenger: Leather
Courier: Leather
Purse:Leather
Box: Leather
Shopping:Leather
Shoulder: Leather
Giant Clutch(07):Imprinted into the leather
Money Wallet: Imprinted into the leather
Le Campagnon: Imprinted into the leather
Le Mini Campagnon:Imprinted into the leather
Coin Purse: Leather
So you can see that Balenciaga moto styles prodominantly have the leather style tag throughout the line. The most popular consumer styles seem to have the silver metal tag, with style serial number indicators on the front. Regular leather tags with say, “Balenciaga.Paris” on the front, with serial information on the back.
(Work in progress as of 7.19.07!)