TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

UT Likely To Bag Knockoff Purses

Tribune photo by CLIFF MCBRIDE

"They don't want to pay an obscene amount for some of these bags," seller Russ Nelson says.

ADVERTISEMENT

By RUSSELL RAY

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 26, 2008

TAMPA - About 200 knockoff designer handbags were spread out on a patch of grass at the University of Tampa on Thursday, and Ashley Zernich had her eye on one.

The $65 price tag for the white Prada imitation purse was well below the price of the real thing, which sells for about $200.

It's illegal to buy and sell counterfeit merchandise. The sale of knockoff goods rings up an estimated $600 billion in global sales each year, according to the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition.

But that didn't bother Zernich, a freshman from Pittsburgh, or the other students browsing Thursday through the pile of Louis Vuitton, Coach and Prada imitations.

"I like the way it looks and it has the name on it," Zernich said. "I might as well get it for a cheaper price. No one else is going to know but me."

Russ Nelson, the man selling the handbags, said buyers know they are imitations, and he understood that it is illegal to sell them.

"Every flea market in Tampa and St. Pete have these things," Nelson said. "I tell them it's a look-alike. That's why they buy them. They don't want to pay the obscene amount for some of these bags."

Eight times a year, the University of Tampa holds what is known as a Spartan Market, allowing vendors to sell merchandise on the Vaughn Center courtyard.

Nelson has been participating in the market for years, said university spokesman Eric Cardenas.

But the university has a policy that prohibits the sale of counterfeit merchandise. Nelson's replica handbags "slipped through the cracks" at the university, Cardenas said.

"Obviously, it violates our own policy," he said.

"We're going to have a meeting early next week to review the policy and the guidelines and make sure the vendors are complying with state and federal law."

Victoria Weld, a spokeswoman for Louis Vuitton, couldn't say how much the company loses each year from the sale of imitation handbags. But the company conducted more than 7,600 anti-counterfeiting raids worldwide last year, which led to 24,000 legal actions and the closure of 750 Web sites.

Reporter Russell Ray can be reached at (813) 259-7870 or rray@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT