If you’re regular reader of the blog, you’ve probably noticed that there’s a pretty hot secondary market for handbags right now, especially when it comes to brands with tightly controlled product supplies like Hermès, Chanel and Louis Vuitton, which don’t sell their wares through third-party retailers. Businessweek recently looked into the secondary market for luxury goods and confirmed what people in the market already knew, anecdotally–there’s money to be made.
Not only have auction houses like Heritage and Christie’s gotten into the high-end handbag game in a huge way over the past couple of years, but new businesses like The Real Real and Vestiaire Collective have found huge success while largely forgoing the collectible watches and fine jewelry that make up the lion’s share of the $19 billion global luxury resale market. Businessweek reports that leather goods and clothes makes up around $4 billion of that market, and there’s no clear leader in the space just yet.
What’s clear, though, is that you might have a gold mine stuffed in the back of your closet, unused and forgotten. If you have a bag from a major brand that was made in the past 10 years, you can probably get at least several hundred dollars out of it, even if it’s a bit dated. If you have a classic bag from Hermès or Chanel in good condition, you might be able to recoup your entire purchase cost, plus a little extra.
Do you resell your bags when you’re done or hold on to them?
