Too many Birkins? The Hermès bag is losing value on the resale market
Reuters spoke to resellers: an unworn black Birkin 25 now fetches around £4,000 less secondhand than in 2022. Analysts see the scarcity model coming under pressure.
Photo: Wen-Cheng Liu / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped and resized)
Video: YouTube · Reuters · youtube.com
Hermès' Birkin is seen as the epitome of the scarce luxury bag – but prices on the secondary market are falling. That is the finding of a Reuters report, which the agency has also released as a video. According to Antoinette Hunter, founder of reseller Lilac Blue, an unworn black Birkin 25 has fallen by about £4,000 since 2022 to around £24,000; in Hermès' UK store the model costs £9,390. According to Bernstein, Birkin 25 resale prices averaged about 1.7 times retail in the third quarter, down from around 2.6 times at the 2022 peak.
Six of nine resellers interviewed in the US, Europe and Asia said prices had fallen over the past year, and five reported softer demand. London dealer Cai Baochun has stopped stockpiling Birkins: “I don't want to lose money.” UBS downgraded Hermès to “sell” in early October, estimating that six to seven times as many handbags are listed for sale worldwide as before the pandemic. Fashionphile founder Sarah Davis, by contrast, reports Birkin prices holding firm or rising slightly. Hermès declined to comment.
On 22 October, Hermès reported quarterly figures: leather goods and saddlery grew 12.4 per cent to 1.9 billion euros, and total revenue rose 5.5 per cent to just under 4.1 billion euros. According to The Silent Luxury, Hermès told analysts it sells all the leather goods it produces in every region. Hermès shares have lost nearly 40 per cent of their value this year, Reuters reported. According to the company, a Birkin takes 15 hours to craft.