Is the Louis Vuitton Hot Stamp Worth it?
To hot stamp a Louis Vuitton bag, or not to hot stamp a Louis Vuitton Bag that is the question? There are pros and cons to hot stamping your Louis Vuitton bag. The Pros to hot stamping your LV bag include, it's a way to personalized your bag, it's free, and it makes the bag unique. The Cons to hot stamping your Louis Vuitton bag include the value goes down, poor return on investment, it's permanent, and the hot stamp can fade.
What is a Louis Vuitton Hot Stamp?
A Louis Vuitton hot stamp is a way to customize your Louis Vuitton bag with your initials or any letters, numbers and select symbols. It is sometimes referred to as a Louis Vuitton Heat Stamp. The hot stamping at Louis Vuitton takes minutes and can be performed by several people at a store.
Pros of Hot stamping a Louis Vuitton Bag?
There are 3 Pros to hot stamping your Louis Vuitton bag which include, customizing the bag making it unique, it always you to pass down a personalized piece to future generations and it's free.
Personalizing your luxury bag, makes that bag unique and more likely than not there won’t be another one out there with the same initials as you. When you hot stamp a luxury bag, you feel this sense of ownership of the bag and that it will belong to you. How cool would it be to have your initials on that Louis Vuitton Neverfull or the LV Speedy or even the LV Keepsake bag?
In addition to the bag being unique, if you pass your luxury bag down to future generations, I think it would be a unique, vintage, personalized piece. The 3rd pro of personalizing a Louis Vuitton bag with a heat stamp (hot stamp) is that at brand offers it for free (more on this below).
Cons of Hot Stamping a Louis Vuitton Bag?
There are 3 major cons when it comes to personalizing a luxury bag with your initials. The first con and the biggest negative to personalizing a LV bag with your initials is that the value goes down. I always try to purchase bags that can be resold for at least 80% of the retail value, and the moment you add any personalization that cannot be transferred easily to another person, the value drops drastically.
Take for example: I found 2 Louis Vuitton Neverfull's Size GM on TheRealReal both in “very good condition” and for sale. The Louis Vuitton Neverfull GM that is personalized with someone’s initials is selling for $1450. The LV Neverfull GM without personalization is selling for $2000. The Non-Personalized one is selling for $550 more. By personalizing the Neverfull bag, the owner decreased the value by 27.5%.
The second con for personalizing a luxury bag is that your name can change, you’ll want to change your initials on the bag. Imagine if you get married and you get a new last name? If it was me, I’d probably want to get a new bag with my new personalization. The Hot stamp is permanent, and you can’t change it.
The final con for the personalization varies from bag to bag, depending on where the Louis Vuitton hot stamps the bag the hot stamp can come off or fade. I’ve read tons of articles and seen countless videos of people complaining about their Louis Vuitton hot stamp initials fading over time.
What does it cost to Hot Stamp a Louis Vuitton Bag?
If you decide to get a Hot stamp on your Louis Vuitton bag it is free! Yes, you read that correctly, it’s free as long as you purchased the LV bag in store. This is great news considering Louis Vuitton is constantly raising their prices. Select LV Stores in Paris, France and around the world even offer hand painting on the bags.
When should I hot stamp my Louis Vuitton Bag or Accessory?
If you remember nothing else from this article, remember this! If you decide to get your Louis Vuitton bag hot stamped, go in the middle of the week. The reason being, in the middle of the week typically the Louis Vuitton store is less crowded and the person who is hot stamping your bag will be able to spend more time paying attention to detail. In addition, you should ask for the hot stamp specialist to do it. There are a few people in ever store who are the go to hot stamp specialist. If you should decide to hot stamp your LV Bag, these are the people you want doing it.
Is the Louis Vuitton Bag hot stamp worth it?
In short, I don’t think it’s worth it to personalize a Louis Vuitton bag with a hot stamp aka your initials on the bag. The reason why I don’t think it’s worth it is because if you ever go to resell the LV bag, the value is drastically lower than without the personalization. The second reason is your name could change if you get married, and finally the third reason, is depending on where the “hot stamp” is located it can wear off very quickly and then doesn’t look very good.
If you want a personalization on your bag, I recommend buying initial charms or some sort of removable accessory for the bag with your initials on it. I'm a huge fan of Louis Vuitton bags, it was the very first luxury bag I ever purchased over 10 years ago! When I first purchased my bag, I planned on getting my bag hot stamped, but the hot stamp expert wasn't working. As time passed, I realized I loved the bag without the hot stamp and never went back to get it done.
Sincerely Petite in Paris,
Diane
