If you’re interested in knowing how to make money selling designer handbags, you’re on the right page. I have some experience selling luxury handbags after reducing the size of my Chanel handbag collection. A collection that cost more than $100,000 of my savings.
At some point, I got preoccupied with buying these items and reduced my saving habit because my bank account was booming. I kept buying bags and never using them. But I was fortunate to call myself to order and did a serious downsizing.
I learned a lot of lessons during my experience buying handbags. These days, I’m more conservative about buying designer handbags. I have a small collection which I make good use of and I also have a few pre-owned bags (or preloved, as I prefer to call them) which I bought in excellent condition from online consignment stores.
In all this, I have gained plenty of experience in purchasing, as well as selling used luxury handbags. Whether you’re thinking about selling your designer bag collection or only one bag, you should make sure you get the best value for it. This means you need to put in some effort if you’re going to sell your preloved handbag.
There are three necessary steps:
- Set a price for the resale of your luxury handbag.
- Find the best platforms for reselling pre-owned designer handbags.
- Know the requirements for selling.
Let’s begin.
How to Set a Price for Your Luxury Handbag Resale
When you’re going to set a resale price for your handbag, you generally want to set a competitive price so that you get the money as soon as possible. Even if you’re going to use a consignor to sell, you need to understand the potential amount of money you can expect the bag to fetch.
Observe the trends
Do a little research online to find out the normal prices for bags in a similar condition as yours. Many websites (see below) can provide you with this information. This is a helpful way to decide a starting price for selling your bag. Setting a competitive price for your bag will also influence how fast you get a buyer for it.
Permanent collection styles and Classic Handbags are priced higher
Bags like the Hermes Kelly, Hermes Birkin, Louis Vuitton Speedy, and the Chanel Classic Flap are reputed to be classic investment models and belong to their permanent collections.
This means the handbags are never on sale, and the prices are constantly on the increase, the most expensive one being the Hermes Birkin.
Therefore, these luxury handbags are always highly sought-after, and they always command an exorbitant price in the pre-owned market. They are sometimes in the same price category as brand new bags and even much higher in some cases, depending on the demand and popularity of the bag.
If the handbag you’re selling is a seasonal piece, note that it may command a lower price if it is not currently in the trend and in demand. Investment bags are not the best financial investments sometimes.
Identify the unique features of your bag
Some more things to put into consideration when setting a price for your pre-owned handbag are the color and availability. Other things to take into account include any available packaging (authenticity card, dust bag, box, and so on) as well as accessories included in the bag (such as pouches, rain covers, straps, and so on).
The worth of your bag can be affected by many different things, so ensure that you do thorough research before settling for a price.
Where to sell your pre-loved luxury handbag
If you have decided to sell your designer handbag, you can get this done in two ways. You can use an online consignment store, or you can transact directly with the buyer and sell it on your own. Each of these methods has its advantages and disadvantages.
Selling your pre-loved handbag via luxury consignment stores
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
| The store takes care of everything | Less cash compared to selling it yourself |
| Fixed earning price or upfront payment | May take time in listing the bag or paying proceeds |
One reason why you should use a consignment store when selling your used luxury handbag is that it makes things easier. You are not tasked with verifying the authenticity, setting the price, transacting with buyers, or handling returns. All of this will be done on your behalf by the designer consignment store.
Usually, they’ll have your bag authenticated, send a shipping label to you, give you some payment upfront, or at least you will be given a fixed price of the amount you’ll get when they get a buyer for your bag. It is a very easy way to get your bag sold with little hassles.
The major disadvantage here is that you’ll earn much less money from your handbag than you would if you were selling it on your own instead. This is because your bag still has to be sold by the consignment store in order for them to make money.
They will consider the cost of getting the bag from you, the costs of getting it authenticated, photographing it professionally, listing it, and getting a buyer.
Other disadvantages may include the time it takes for your bag to be listed, as well as the time it takes to earn money from the sale.
Online designer consignment stores to sell pre-owned designer bags
Fashionphile
Fashionphile is a popular platform among influencers. I also love it because of the nice selections and very high online ratings. They mostly deal in handbags but other items they sell include jewelry, small leather goods, and a small collection of unused designer shoes.
They usually respond within a few business days with offers and their offers will clearly show how much a bag is sought-after. They also accept out-of-trend/seasonal handbags but you shouldn’t expect a huge sum of money.
The Real Real
The Real Real is also a popular designer fashion and accessories platform. They have tons and tons of designer products on their website.
You can consign with them by sending in your goods to be inspected and after then you will receive a quote. If you are close to their service area, they will usually have a representative go over to your home to inspect the goods and pick them up. At their offices, your items will be further inspected and authenticated.
Rebag
Rebag is also a great online consignment store where you can sell your designer handbag. They don’t have an inventory as large as the previous two and their rules are stricter regarding the condition of bags that they will accept. However, one advantage of the stricter rule is that buyers get the best experience.
Other platforms that are highly rated but have small inventories are Yoogi’s Closet and Ann’s Fabulous Finds.
Selling your luxury handbags directly to a buyer
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
| Get the highest cash value on sale | Requires more effort and responsibility |
| Can be picky about buyers | Riskier |
The obvious advantage of dealing directly with a buyer is that it allows you to get the highest cash value on selling your handbag. You won’t be bothered with the reseller or consignor fees, which basically means that the full amount paid for the bag goes straight to your purse.
If you are very selective about who gets to own your bag, having a direct deal with the buyer helps you choose exactly who you sell your bag to.
The major disadvantage of this is that you have to fully bear the risk involved in selling the bag and you have to deal with listing, shipping, and getting insurance for it.
If you don’t have experience with selling, you would need to do some findings to make sure that you get your bag listed on the right platform with as much description as possible and only deal with a reliable buyer.
Online Selling Platforms
eBay
eBay is the world’s most popular online sales website. However, the process of selling on eBay can be too tedious for someone who doesn’t know their way around it. The way to do this successfully is to provide as much detail as possible, provide as many pictures as you can take, and clearly outline your sales policy and your shipping timeline.
In addition, do not sell to buyers with negative, little, or zero feedback. Before you proceed with selling to a buyer, ensure that you go through their feedback to see what reviews they have from people.
Finally, you should also consider eBay and PayPal fees. You can easily determine this by using a final value fee calculator.
Tradesy
Tradesy is also a renowned selling platform and just like with eBay, you need to make sure you provide as many details as possible.
However, one thing that you can’t find on Tradesy is feedback or reviews from buyers, so this means you are taking a risk when you decide to sell your bag to someone. And if they eventually want to return it, you may have a hard time getting your bag back as the buyer has first sent it to Tradesy.
You can get past this hassle by checking out how many purchases a buyer has completed on Tradesy and also making inquiries about buyers on the Purse Forum and other similar forums.
Poshmark
Poshmark does not have a huge selection of designer items, but you can still sell your luxury handbag on this platform. Again, be as descriptive as possible, go through buyer reviews, and ensure that you get familiar with the way they deal with things if a buyer decides to return an item.
Pro tip: do not sell to individuals or designer consignment stores that have negative reviews or no reviews.
It is important to be careful about who you’re selling your bag in order to be on the safe side. You wouldn’t want to be scammed or get involved in a difficult deal.
On that note, I would advise you to not sell your luxury handbag to individuals or designer consignment stores that have negative reviews or zero reviews. Not all buyers are scammers and not all buyers or platforms with no reviews spell a negative experience. However, it is important that your safety comes first.
Your designer handbag must have cost you a lot of money and if you’re going to resell, you want to get yourself a smooth deal. Make your findings online and ask around about sellers and consignors on reliable forums like Purse Forum.
Best Practices When Selling Your Designer Handbag for Cash
If you’re going to sell your handbag, there are some important things you have to do in order to ensure you get the best deal on it. Unfortunately, there are tons of scammers and scams on the internet, particularly in the luxury resale market. You should aim at finding a good buyer (in order words, one who is reliable and not problematic) and making the most money out of the bag.
Whether it’s a single bag or several bags you’re selling, you need to do the following:
Find the authenticity card, receipt, box, and dust bag for your bag.
Though very beautiful, the packing that most designer handbags come with might not seem like much at face value. However, if you’re going to sell your bag, it is very important to have all these items in place.
It helps to improve your chances of getting the best cash value and also helps to prove that your handbag is authentic.
Are you missing these items? This may not be a deal-breaker, depending on the popularity of your bag. The handbag is the most important aspect of the sale. And though receipts and authenticity cards make things easier, the authenticity of your handbag can still be verified without them (professionally if required).
Be clear enough in your bag descriptions.
The next thing is to get your bag ready for sale. You have to give as many details as possible in your descriptions as this will help you present your bag properly and reduce the number of questions or eventual issues that will arise.
This means you need to thoroughly examine your handbag and take note of any tarnishing, marks, creasing, scuffs, or other forms of wear. Even if it is a barely used or brand-new bag, you should still examine it thoroughly.
All of your observations should be mentioned in the description of the bag you put out. You should also outline any features that make your bag unique: Is it a limited edition model? Is the leather or color rare? What is the production year of your bag? Where did you purchase it? Is it still in production today? And so on.
Provide several photos of your bag from several angles
After making a detailed description, the next thing is to prepare the camera for your handbag. The cameras on smartphones today are incredible, so that should be enough if it’s all you have.
The important thing is to ensure you have good natural lighting and the essential details such as signs of wear, authenticity stamps, serial numbers, and codes are displayed with clarity in the photos.
Take tons of pictures of both the interior and exterior of the bag, as well as pictures of any of the bag’s accessories. The dust bag, box, authenticity card, and receipt should also be included. Don’t forget to cover any personal information on the receipt from sight.
Pay for insurance and tracking
When you finally list your bag for sale, you must ensure that it arrives there intact, depending on how and where you’re selling it.
You will receive prepaid packing from most online luxury consignment stores to use in shipping your handbag to them. However, you should ensure that your bag has enough insurance and tracking attached to it when shipping.
Most of the time, it can be very expensive to get insurance on packages, but it’s good to get it, depending on the value of your purse. That way, you have nothing to be worried about while your handbag is being transported to its destination.
Make videos of your shipping process
This might seem like overkill to some people but I was very paranoid when I sold my handbags. I spent a lot of money purchasing them, and I was very worried about them getting lost in transit. Or worse still, a buyer saying that the content of the box is different from what they paid for.
What was responsible for my paranoia? Well, I’d come across horrible tales online about people who shipped their designer bags and the buyers claimed they got an empty package or a fake item in the package.
So every time I shipped a bag, I would go to the shipping center with the bag yet to be packed, prepare my camera, and make a video while packing and handing it over to the shipping staff. Even though it is a sort of overkill, it helped to put my mind at rest.
You can sell your designer handbags for money with confidence!
Whether you’re reducing your preloved designer collection or only letting go of one, your designer handbags can make you some money so that you recover part of the initial cost and also make room in the closet.
You may spend much time and effort if you’re going to get it right, but the hard work will be worth it when you sell your high-end bag to the right buyer and the reward is sitting in your bank account.