Luxury Handbag Investment – A Data-Driven Point of View

In the investment landscape, designer handbags are undoubtedly worth taking a look at. According to Art Market Research (AMR), designer handbags outperform art, classic cars, and rare whiskies in terms of investment potential. Some handbags, from Hermes, Chanel, and Louis Vuitton, have even experienced a valuation spike of an average of 83% in the last ten years. To put that into context, watches have increased by 72%.

Average Prices of different handbag models on different reseller platforms in December 2021.

When it comes to considering designer handbags as an investment it’s important to have the right expectations. A quality designer handbag can be a great wardrobe investment. Selling your designer handbags years later for a profit is only true for certain designer handbags.

Where do you get them?

Whether you are on the lookout for a classic Louis Vuitton bag, or desperately want a Hermès Birkin and don’t want to wait on their list, luxury resale websites are the new place to be. The most popular luxury resale sites are Vestiaire Collective, The Luxury Closet, and Rebelle.

Short-Term Strategy

When reselling fashion items like handbags, you have to understand the trends. A good way to understand the trends is to analyze the sales on the previously mentioned reselling platforms. They give you an overview of how certain handbag models are performing. A good performance indicator is for example the turnaround time (the duration of how long certain products are on the market). Lower turnaround times indicate that certain models are more wanted than other models.

Average turnaround times of different handbag models in December 2021. Each model sample size is larger than 20 items (so currently not the biggest one).

When setting a price, do not forget to take platform fees into account (mostly around 25% of the price). Therefore, a quite nice scenario would be to buy a handbag 25% less than its average price and sell it a bit more than the average price.

Long-Term Strategy

Designer bags go in and out of fashion, but a well-chosen designer bag can last forever. Classic brands, such as Hermes, Chanel, and Louis Vuitton, and classic handbag styles may hold their value. Taking good care of your bag is necessary—both when in use and not—to guarantee interest if you’re looking to trade it in.

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