Authentication

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With the CSD Seal, It's Guaranteed Real

CONSIGNED SEALED DELIVERED (CSD) AUTHENTICATION PROCESS

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Authenticity is understandably the biggest anxiety of anyone looking to buy luxury from a designer consignment shop. Whether you’re searching for used Gucci bags, used designer shoes or used Hermès Birkins on the luxury consignment market, you want to be sure you’re buying authentic pre-loved luxury. At CSD (Consigned Sealed Delivered), we’re passionate about maintaining the integrity of the luxury consignment market and shutting down unethical, sweatshop-reliant counterfeiters. Counterfeit luxury goods have no place in the burgeoning designer resale market. Luxury lovers should be able to buy and sell designer clothes, pre-loved designer bags, used designer dresses and all kinds of pre-owned designer fashionwith confidence. CSD wants to enable members of our community to pursue CSD’s goal of a luxury resale revolution in a truly ethical and authentic way.  

So, let’s say you’re looking to sell designer shoes to CSD, maybe a pair of used Christian Louboutin heels you’ve never worn. We wouldn’t expect our clients to trust us if even one fake pair left our warehouse. Hence, before we take an item off a consignor’s hands, we have to ensure its authenticity. To make sure we never sell a fake, CSD employs a stringent selection process when it comes to choosing which pieces are fit for designer resale. This ensures authenticity and quality and helps set CSD apart from the countless fast fashion retailers, and even some of the luxury giants on the market. We authenticate every single item that we sell. At CSD, we certainly wouldn’t expect someone buying a vintage Gucci bag, Hermès Birkin or Chanel Maxi bag to be happy with a Camden Market counterfeit! From used Chanel shoes and vintage Gucci pieces, to used Hermès gems and pre-loved designer bags, authenticating luxury items is more complicated than you may think. With our rigorous authentication process, CSD is able to safeguard your designer resale shopping experience. 

Once items arrive atthe CSD HQ in London, they are grouped and identified according to their authenticity risk. This is based on their brand, market value, category (clothes, bags, shoes, accessories, jewellery), and consignor data. The higher the value of the item, the higher the risk of counterfeit, and the more ruthless our process becomes. ‘High risk’ items, such as used Hermès Birkin and Kelly bags, are evaluated by our team of authentication and brand compliance specialists. Each member has extensive experience working directly with luxury brands, as well as access to the most cutting edge authentication technology and largest identification databases currently in existence. With this level of prowess, you can be assured that the used designer dresses, pre-owned luxury clothing and used designer shoes you want to buy are authentic. And moreover, if you desire to sell designer clothes and accessories with CSD, you can trust that your items will be sold alongside real luxury pieces. 

By applying both technology and their accumulated expertise of the markers, materials and craftsmanship behind genuine products, CSD specialists are able to determine with certainty whether items fulfill the CSD standard. CSD’s selection of luxury consignment spans across a range of brands and styles and therefore we understand that sometimes it’s necessary to apply different authentication processes to different items. Used Gucci bags require different authentication measures than used Hermès styles and used Chanel shoes need alternate processes to used Christian Louboutin designs. ‘Lower risk’ designer consignment items, such as contemporary brands with clear authenticity markers, are delegated to our external authentication partners. 

The final step in our authentication process is done in collaboration with our partners at Real Authentication. Real Authentication is a luxury authentication service which is able to determine with certainty whether luxury items are authentic or not. Using their Smart Database Scan Technology, we are able to mitigate the possibility of human error by checking each step of our process against their data. The extra steps that CSD takes to ensure authenticity may slow us down a little, but we are never willing to sacrifice quality for quantity! If our in-house authentication team has any doubts about the status of an item, it will not leave our warehouse. 

CSD is unique in another way: we treat Quality Control as a completely separate process to authentication. We ensure that every item is in the best possible condition and matches the description given on our website. This means that there will be no nasty surprises when your order arrives. We inform CSD buyers about each item as much as we can. All the information we know is displayed in our product descriptions. CSD understands that the more our customers know about our products, the better equipped they are to make smart purchasing decisions. 

As CSD grows, we will continue to innovate and adapt our internal authentication processes to ensure that we never fall out of step with new technologies, standards and practices.

For any enquiries about authenticity please contact authentication@csd.shop