I’m a luxury reseller, and last year, I sold the crown jewel of my personal handbag collection to raise capital for my business.
In three months, I made back nearly three times the cost and $16.5K in pure profit.
I wasn’t even the one that sold it!
Read on if you want to know how I did it and what you too should be doing to maximize your resale returns.
The bag in question.
The bag in question is a fabulous Fauve Barenia Hermès Birkin 30 with palladium hardware, gifted to me by my sweet husband in 2024 to celebrate the start of my reselling business.
Hermès nerds know how insanely rare it is to come across any Barenia Birkin, let alone one like I had—full set, flawless leather, with hardware so clean, you could do a full face of makeup in its reflection.
From a collector’s standpoint, selling a Barenia Birkin to fund your business is like selling your pet unicorn to put gas in the company car.
Did I want to sell it? Hell no.
But my business needed gas more than I needed a pet unicorn. So, I bit the bullet and did what I had to do.
I tried to sell my Barenia Birkin myself first.
Duh. I literally do this for a living?
To price it, I used Google Lens search to find other listings of this exact style.
Then, I made a simple spreadsheet to track the following info for each sold-out listing:
- The reseller (with link to their website).
- The sold price.
- The item’s condition.
- The item’s accessories, if any.
As usual, I took photos of the bag, made it look beautiful, then posted the listing on my website and eBay store.
It received a lot of interest and several offers below my reserve price, but nobody pulled the trigger at the price I listed. The best offer I got was $23,000 on eBay, which would land my net payout at just over $20K after seller fees (9% of sale price + sales tax), insured shipping, authentication, etc.
Too low. I declined.
In hindsight, I shouldn’t have been surprised. I was new to the game and still finding my place in the market. The most expensive item I’d sold to date was a small Chanel Boy for $4K, while this Barenia Birkin was valued at anywhere from $23K to $55K, based on prior sales.
The listing sat unsold for a month. I was out of my depth, I eventually had to admit.
But, if my shop didn’t have the right clientele for my Barenia Birkin, who did? 🤔
How it’s going.
I selected a few resellers who specialized in Hermès bags and submitted my Barenia Birkin to each of them for appraisal.
For benchmark, I also submitted it to resale platforms like Fashionphile, myGemma, and Luxe du Jour.
Here are some of the offers I received:
Buyout:
- Fashionphile - $8,000
- Luxe du Jour - $9,000
- Collector Square - $13,681
- REDELUXE - $14,000
- Madison Avenue Couture - $17,000
Consignment:
- myGemma - $13,000
- Luxe du Jour - $15,000
- Collector Square - $15,334
- Madison Avenue Couture - $23,600
It was clear which reseller to go with. Madison Avenue Couture came in highest for both consignment and buyout.
Madison Avenue Couture had originally priced my Barenia Birkin at $29,500. At 80% take rate, my share of the sales would be $23,600.
Before I accepted their consignment offer, I made a last ditch effort to push for a higher payout.
I asked for a higher offer and they agreed to try listing it at $32,000—a net payout of $25,600 for me.
How it ended.
My Barenia Birkin sold two months later at $32,000, and $25,600 hit my account a few days later.
Deduct the $9.1K my husband paid for it and my profit from the sale was $16.5K.
In three months, I had turned my Barenia Birkin into $25,600 cash—not too far off from my original listing price of $28,000 even though I did none of the marketing, promotion, customer service, etc.
Best part? Thanks to that much-needed capital injection, your girl’s reselling business lived to fight another day.
My business before:
The secret sauce.
Know your worth.
- Use Google Lens Search to find the exact model of your bag. Small differences can command very different prices, just like Barenia is often pricier than Barenia Faubourg.
- Go through the sold-out listings to get a feel for your item’s market price. This will help you identify any low-ball offers as well as offers that are overly optimistic (and wouldn’t sell without a price discount).
Always compare quotes.
- From my example, you can see how much money you stand to leave on the table if you just get one quote from whatever reseller you can remember first and call it a day—$9,000 to be exact, if we’re just talking about buyouts!
- Fashionphile - $8,000 (lowest)
- Madison Avenue Couture - $17,000 (highest)
- Get at least 3 quotes each from independent resellers that specialize in your item’s niche and general platforms like ReBag and Fashionphile.
Do your due diligence.
- Review the Consignment Agreement. Are there any hidden fees or terms that could have material impacts on your net payout?
- Any fees for shipping, authentication, etc.?
- How long is the minimum consignment period?
- What’s the payout/commission structure?
- How soon are payouts remitted?
- Review their Google and TrustPilot reviews. Are there any negative reviews? What about?
- Review any posts about them on Reddit and PurseForum. What are other consignors’ experiences with this reseller?
Any questions?
I don’t offer consignment or buyout at my shop, but I might be able to suggest some resellers to submit your items to for quotes.
Here are some resellers with fair commission rates who’ve given me competitive offers on my Chanel handbags:
- Redeluxe (buyout only; also great for Hermès handbags)
- Luxxedition (accept vintage Chanel)
- Ann’s Fabulous Finds
- Sign of the Times London (UK only)
- The Handbag Clinic (UK only)
Let us know what you’re trying to sell in the comments + feel free to recommend or flag resellers you’ve worked with before!
Alright that’s all. 🌞 See you guys next time!