Why great handbags can be better investments than houses

telegraph.co.uk:

Hardly Ever Worn It, a high-end resale site based in London, 15 per cent of their 200,000 registered users now make some, or part, of their living playing the bag market.The secondary (or as it used to be called, before it co-opted terminology from the auction houses, second-hand) bag market is now one of the most dynamic sections of the luxury market.At Christie’s, a diamond pavé, white crocodile Hermes Birkin (229 diamond sprinkles in all, totalling 9.3 carats) set a new record for the auction house last November when it sold for 4 million Hong Kong dollars (£379,000).

It hadn’t been worn by anyone famous and it wasn’t even vintage, merely dating from 2021. But rarity (and the right brand and model) trump all these days.“When I started in the secondary bag market 10 years ago, it definitely wasn’t taken as seriously as it is now,” Rachel Koffsky, Christie’s senior specialist, tells me from New York, where she has just landed at the start of a tour of the US visiting dealers’ and private individuals’ prized bag collections on her endless search for special and limited editions.

A consistent roll call of estimate busting sales has changed that. “As recently as five years ago it was still mainly confined to lovers of fashion.

But these days the wider world has woken up to the investment potential,”And the fashion houses have noticed.“It’s safe to say that one of the reasons brands like Gucci, Dior Louis Vuitton, Prada, Fendi and Loewe are constantly revisiting their archives nowadays is because it supports the idea that their bags stand the test of time,” says Reavley.Koffsky concurs. “The 2.55 is almost 70 years old, but still so practical.