T-MAN

And you're probably back to find it to be pouring PMs!! Such is the life of a rock-watch superstar!

But anyhow rain outside means more time for you and the new Mrs inside

Great great review!! The real questions are. Would you order again from diystorm and how does the quality compare to other rep dealers such as Bergies? It sounds as Ken's stuff may be more consistently higher quality. What about price?

Gonna say 1st one is real too!!

Thanks ArkoN... I look forward to your review! Just a quick update from my side... Have contacted all three bag/wallet sellers (Ken, handbagbuzz, and fabaaa) Ken has been amazing so far with very quick and patient responses (sometimes instant responses). Trying to source a few items at the moment. I will be ordering from all three as promised within the next two days and will report here my findings in detail. For the record, Sally from the handbagbuzz has been very polite and courteous although not as quick to reply (within usually around 12 hours so far) and I just sent out an email to fabaaa a couple of hours ago and still waiting for a response.

Congrats once more... Don't do anything I wouldn't do... but that's an almost non-existant list anyway!

@Ken... Thanks for your words and contribution to this thread (as both seller and mod). For the record, I too am a bit sceptical about diystorm. Anyhow I will probably be contacting you over the next couple of days to order from you a test run. I hope and expect to be very satisfied and will report on here objectively and honestly my experience.

I^m going to make a "testorder" on http://diystorm.com from diffrent brands like Lacoste, Edhardy, A&F, Ralph Lauren and will report the quality :-)

Great! Now we're talking.. Let's do this the right way round. I look forward to your report on quality and service.. Hope you have lots of pics too!

I'd say try order some and u'll see... Ive bought LV wallet from fabaaa before and after i got the same wallet from handbagbuzz, i can really see the difference. But thats just me. U gotta try for urself. If ken can also get the same products with the same quality then i assume u'll get his service as a big plus.

It looks like I may have to do that and do a test run. Maybe order from all three (handbagbuzz/fabaaa/ken) the same/similar test item and compare. Can you tell us what was the difference you saw vootzilla between the wallets from handbagbuzz and fabaaa. Do you have pics?

OK.. Please read carefully:

I do NOT want this thread to turn into something that it's not meant to be. This thread is not meant to be an attack or defense of Ken's business. So please let's not go down this route. I will be the FIRST person to say that I am sure that Ken is a stand up guy with great quality products and great service and will be a joy to order from. I will stand by this statement so no 'waking up' is needed.

What I am trying to discuss here is what everyone else is discussing about rep watches. Just as there is Andrew, Josh, Mary, Trevor, and others who will provide similar good service for watches and just as there is Armani, Louis Vuitton, Boss, etc as different quality brands, it should also be acceptable to discuss in a healthy manner good rep clothes/bag dealers without everyone getting so defensive.

thehandbagbuzz.com does have expensive prices which is on the other spectrum of fabaaa and diystorm. However if you order a minimum of any 5 items, you get their 'wholesale' price and this is about half the original price and becomes similar to Ken's prices if not cheaper in some cases. Many over on repgeek say that fabaaa are slightly less in quality than handbagbuzz although others say the opposite on some items. Some even say that Ken and fabaaa use the same supplier. I do not know the accuracy of these statement but it would be interesting to find out and this is the point of this thread. Again this is not an attack. Just like watches we have similar factories (MBW, noobfactory, etc) and different dealers use these same sources so it is not a bad thing to identify which dealers use what sources. I am here to do research on the best quality/best service at best prices and I am surprised to see a discussion like this met so defensively.

What I have learnt already from this discussion is that I may be able to source all the items on the other websites through Ken, which I didn't know about before as I thought he only offered what was in his section. So we are getting good stuff from this discussion. Please let's not turn it to something else.

Ok usually I have very little time for bargain hunters because they don't see quality only the dollars.

However since you have posted this openly on the forum I think I should make some observations which, as you did ask, you have missed.

First if you take a look at the first site you will see that they are cheap, way to cheap, in fact at least half the price of any other Chinese seller and thats without me even coming into the picture.

I had a look through their bag sections and I am willing to bet they are all gen pic's, I am also willing to bet the bags you receive will not be anywhere near the same quality.

There is a process many replica makers use call PU, this is basically a synthetic leather, cheap and nasty stuff and thats what you would get from that first site.

Now you say the second site has gen like bags, have you read my reviews?

I noticed the second site has Birkins for over $400 mine are $250 so no contest there.

Now here's the real point you need to think of, I have a customer in Belgium who had a $600 order seized, I have not only reshipped the entire order but paid an extra 60 bucks out of my pocket to try and get it there in a more costly manner, another customer had a $250 Birkin seized in another country and that was reshipped.

I truly doubt you will find a seller with my quality goods cheaper than me but if you do I can guarantee he wont offer the service I do.

Ken

Ken,

It's great to see you reply as I am interested in buying several things off you - so please do not take what I am saying here in the wrong way. I know you have great quality and equally great service

However, your reply seems to indicate that discussing other dealers on this forum means we are 'bargain hunters' and thus you have very little time for people like me. This is not really what I would have liked to read. By definition, all your customers are 'bargain hunters' otherwise they/we would have all gone out and bought gens at full price. I said in my first post that I would be willing and would like to deal with you if your prices were justifiable over other dealers of SIMILAR QUALITY. This is a perfectly reasonable topic to discuss on these forums as this is the point of them otherwise we may as well just call it a monopoly and accept it for what it is.

The fact is that some members here on RWG and many many members on repgeek have bought from the 'first website' that you refer to (thehandbagbuzz.com or referred to sometimes as highreplica on repgeek) which you claim their items are not real leather and of poor quality. Do you have proof of this? All the reviews over on repgeek and the post above seem to say otherwise and claim its of the highest quality (with photos indicating they are similar to the ones on their website) http://www.repgeek.com/showthread.php?t=105105 . They also replace free of charge items seized at customs etc (http://www.repgeek.com/showthread.php?t=121487). So please if you are going to make statements about your competition, it should have some substance.

I agree that I probably won't find better customer service than what you provide, although again most members on repgeek are happy with the other three sites I quoted. I probably will order from you (if you have time for me!) and I am not looking for the cheapest quality at the lowest dollar... I will find this in my local rep market which is very poor and I would never consider. I am looking for high quality and then the next natural consideration will be cost and service.

Again please do not take this post in the wrong way. A healthy discussion is always a good thing and is what these forums are set up for and as a moderator, I am sure you already know this and more. I have still a lot to learn and this is why I am asking. I would like to hear from other people as well if they have experiences eitherway.

Over on repgeek, they recommend thehandbagbuzz.com and fabaaa.com for rep bags and diystorm.com amongst others for clothes.

I had a look at diystorm.com and the prices are much much cheaper than Ken's (even when you add shipping at diystorm) and the items seem to be the same and much more variety. Apparently customer service is great according to members on repgeek... So what am I missing? Is the quality the same? Why is Ken so much more expensive. I will order from him if there is a justifiable reason. Have people tried the other places out? Apparently thehandbagbuzz.com is supposed to have gen-like quality.

That looks really good!! I know it's not 100% but still it's a nice watch and most people don't live on rep watch forums to know the difference.

Actually most people that own gen iwc's won't know the difference either and I know a few.

It will need a good double AR though

Wow... This thing has it all and just when you think he couldn't have done more... the TV screen pops out... lol

Amazing..

T-MAN, yes, I wrote this for a class a few years ago, I was worried about posting it online right away because the school runs everything through copyscape and some other similar tool, and they can use the paper for up to a year for education, so I didn't want them finding me on here. I totally agree about watches being one of the only acceptable pieces of jewelery for men too, unless you are married.

Thanks to everyone else too.

I was going to mention wedding rings being the other acceptable form of jewelry for men but then in some cultures/religion it is not worn. For example even though in Islam wearing a wedding ring for men is fine and is no problem, wearing gold for men is not fine and many men choose not to wear rings for this and some other reasons and in some families/regions wearing one would be looked down upon although a watch would not. Hence my statement about every culture, profession and circle of society

Great article.

Wow!! Did you stay up all night to write this or is this an article from somewhere? If you wrote this, this is publishable material. Congrats!

In addition to the reasons you give that watches are great, (eg masterpiece work of art, tell a story, etc) which I agree with all, is that a watch is one of, if not the only, acceptable pieces of jewelry for men in every culture, profession and circle of society.

back from the honeymoon I take.

glad to see that your projects havn't been forgotten now that you have a new first love.

welcome back.

D110

... And now that you have a new first love... I hope you don't forget your other love (your wife). You need to give her quality time too!

Although I don't believe he's a dealer here on RWG, but Takashi on RWI is apparently working on a DW overlay for the Ingy. He says it's 'coming soon'

How does Fransisco compare to Dominico in terms of services offered, price, and speed?

Thanks for your input everyone. I think I see the importance of luming PAM watches now. Other than that, it is just a cool feature to have if you are into that kind of thing or happen to work in the dark. Bottom line, unless it's a PAM, people won't really call you out on rep lume (even that would be a rarity but it could happen).

I mostly wear reps as I like to mix and match and not too afraid if I clumsily bump it into a wall. I do wear my gens on special occasions or similar important days... That way I take really good care of the gens and hopefully they will last with me a lifetime.

There was no need to get one serviced so far. I omit A7750s usually, the one I have will get a Swiss 7750 implant as soon as it needs servicing. This will be done by Domi as well as any services my other ETAs should need.

Sending from Lyon to Spain (Francisco) should not be a problem.

Val.

This sounds like a really good idea!! Just out of curiosity.. How much would a typical service cost and how much would a swiss 7750 swap cost? Ball park figures will be fine as I know exact numbers are not usually announced here.

wow... stunning

'Yes' to both those questions When I help my father in law host paranormal investigations, there're times when a room will be in near total darkness, and using a phone/torch to check the time, would be a disturbance for the folks attending, so I need to be able to read the time in the dark. Same goes for the fact I wear a watch 24/7, and like to be able to tell the time should I wake during the night

OK... This response is nothing personal and please do not take offense to it because it is not meant to be...

But, seriously? I asked for 'real life' applications and of all the people in the world who could have responded, I get a 'real world' application of paranormal investigations... I mean even you Teejay must smile about this... I have every respect for what you and your father do, so it's not about that... It's just that this is the explanation I get for real life applications of lume...

OK... this is getting interesting

lol

Can't be too careful on this forum.. there's some members here with spectacular cars..

"Exper" has a Lamborghini.. "Veyron" has a Bugatti and seems as though "t-man" has got a ferrari

HAD

I had to let it go when we had twins... (two years ago) Needed to get back to the real world ... My wife thought I had tears of joy when I saw my kids... Between you and me... it was tears of sorrow letting the car go...

There's no doubt they're pretty in pitch black dark... of that I'm sure. But really how often in real life does that situation arise enough to make it an 'essential mod'. I am asking genuinely because I read it everywhere here. I am not trying to stir up trouble!

Ok.. so I know that we are here to try to get reps as close as possible to their gen counterparts... but so much focus is placed on luming a watch (sometimes to make it even better than the gen), I just don't understand the attraction. What am I missing?

Do we really use the lume in real life? Do people sleep with their prized watches at night? Or do we suddenly just have the urge to walk into a dark room to see how my pretty watch glows. I am sure friends interested in your watch will never call you out on its lume... They will never say 'OK give me your watch and lets go to the dark room to check'. Yet everyone says that AR and lume mods are essential mods. I understand the AR.. I really do... But it's that %$$# lume!

So what is it? I'm sure I'm missing something...

Someone please 'illuminate' me (pardon the pun)

I dont know about the AD's explanation, but it does kinda make sense. Most watches that are not meant for diving dont have AR,those that do have one sided AR only. Congratulations on the Panerai Ferrari GT,one of the most accurate reps made,enjoy. BTW, What model of Ferrari are you getting to go with your new formula one Inspired timepiece?

While I do take your point... It is as plaifender says again, he tried to justify his story only for that model whereas it is across the board for all Panerai watches...

OK.... here's a funny one to follow this up.. and since you asked... True story... This baby below was mine until the Mrs decided to bring into the world a package deal of twins... Notice the 'not in the Ferrari spirit' colour... Ferrari are proud to call it 'Tour de France Blue'. So I guess the colour really spoiled my experience of owning the car somehow. I don't know what the permanent silly grin on my face represented though everytime I saw it or sat in it. Anyhow... This one is not a rep!!

.... Oh...and there is a road.. The car is not on the sand... It was just shot from a low angle on purpose to make the road 'disappear'. Hope you like it.