I've been a luxury handbag reseller since 2014. I buy and sell designer bags from Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Dior and Gucci every day. Thousands of sold (and purchased) bags allowed me to become an expert when it comes to both designer bags authentication and their earning potential.

Reselling luxury bags allowed me to earn over $500,000 in just a few years and totally changed my life. I've visited over 45 countries and was able to choose the country of residence.

Recently I've been asked a lot about how to become a luxury bag reseller. Seeing this rising interest, I drafted a few tips and tricks for anyone who's thinking about diving into the reselling business.

Are you fascinated by luxury bags and your heart jumps out at a thought that you could earn a living by doing what you love? This is must-read.

How Luxury Resale Works

Let's start with the basics.

Luxury bags resale business has two large parts, finding/buying items and selling them.

Finding designer handbags to sell can be divided into 2 categories.

Reselling New Items

First, you can choose to look for new items in the boutiques and then resell these items.

Some of them can sell over their retail price.

Why would someone pay a few hundreds or thousands on top of the retail price for 'just a bag', you might ask.

There are highly coveted items like Hermes Birkin bags or Louis Vuitton Multi-Pochette, which are also hard to get. Whenever you check the closest boutique or an official website, they're just out of stock.

If you manage to somehow get the dream purse even at retail, you'll end up reselling it for much more. Just by getting a Birkin, you can make an additional $1,000-10,000 off just one bag. Isn't that fascinating?

Depending on the brand, you can get such items at official stores or outlet malls or on private sales. Most often these people call themselves buyers and they specialize in finding items that are hard to get. They often fly to Europe as many of the top 50 luxury brands are based there, and the bags are also cheaper in Europe.

However, it would be too easy to just walk into the boutique, get a bag and resell it. Getting access to these coveted items is something that every fashionista wants, so on many occasions it involves building a trusted relationship with a sales assistant or an extensive purchase history with a brand.

In addition, you have to seriously consider the selling fees before investing in a luxury handbag to make sure that it's something you will be able to resell while making a profit, not a loss.

Reselling Preowned Items

Second option to make money as a luxury handbag reseller is to purchase pre-owned items from people and selling them to others. If you have a friend with a lot of bags - perfect, then you can also do consignment.

To succeed in this business, you need to have a deep understanding of the trends, the current demand for each designer item and the earning potential.

If you know what sells and what's not, you buy out the good deals and sell them with a margin. That means that you have to either have some trust for people to give you their valuable bags ask to sell them, or you have to have funds to buy out the good deals right away.

The second step is setting the price and finding a place to sell the item you have.

Here are some pros and cons of the reselling business compared to a traditional business.

All in all, the resale business is tricky. It's much more complicated than a traditional business. Nevertheless, doing what you love compensates for all the difficulties.

Interested In Becoming A Luxury Handbag Reseller and Earning from $2,000/month?

Check out my exclusive course on designer bag reselling below.

If you want to take advantage of the mistakes I made during my first 10 years as a luxury handbag reseller, check out the How To be a Luxury Handbag Reseller course. It contains everything you need to know, from the sweetest spots on the market that will generally make you +50% compared to the items you might be reselling now, and ending with a $0 marketing strategy that earned me over $500,000.

This on-demand course is divided into 3 parts. You are free to take the whole course or its part.

• PART 1: market overview, picking the brands and handbags that have from 25% to 100% margin.
• PART 2: where to purchase designer bags for maximum profit, learning how to avoid scams that drag your revenue down
• PART 3: a $0 marketing strategy that allowed me to earn $500,000 + where to sell for maximum profit

Choose from the options below and I'll be excited to see you there!

Steps to Becoming a Luxury Bag Reseller

At some point, you'll be ready to purchase a designer bag off the secondhand market and try selling it for more.

1. Start Reselling With Your Own Closet

The basic idea is when you're starting out, in most cases, you don't know the demand for this or that brand/item.

That's why I'd recommend starting with the handbags that you have at home.

If you have a Michael Kors bag that you're not wearing, try to sell it. Start by listing on free ad boards like Craiglist or on social networks. This way you won't have to spend money on items that will probably never sell and at the same time gain valuable experience as to where the demand is higher.

If you have a friend who is a luxury lover, you can offer her to sell some of her items with a little margin. A normal margin for a consignment store is 30% (minus the fees, taxes etc) but in the end of the day, it's up to you. You can also offer to do it for free, again, to gain some traction.

You'll learn a lot about demand and the decisions you'll take from here will be much wiser.

2. Authenticate Each Item

If you don't have a wide selection of luxury items at home, I don't blame you.

However, you'll have to find the items, purchase them and then try to resell. And here comes the most important questions: how do you make sure that the items you're purchasing are authentic?

When you're starting, your experience is limited.

In the first two years of being in the reseller business, I lost about $4,000 on counterfeit bags, without having a hint of intention to do so. First, I used to believe the sellers, but after some time I was also too sure that I can tell replicas from the real deal. I was wrong and apparently it cost me a lot.

So let me give you advice that cost me $4,000. Never believe a word of the seller and authenticate each item you buy. That's obligatory. Try to resist the feeling of the treasure hunt as much as you can.

Let someone get this amazing deal. You miss out on some good deals, but there's time for everything. The main goal of the first stage is, as with every investment, not to lose money.

You can always contact us regarding authenticating Louis Vuitton, Chanel authentication services or Gucci authentication.

3. Act Fast!

We're not alone in the resale business. Hundreds of people have the ability and resources to earn extra on reselling items. That's why if there's a person selling a brand new Neverfull for $500 (they usually go for $1,000), a lot of people will try to get this steal of a deal.

It's also true that in most cases it'll be too good to be true, which means it's a scam.

Three years ago whenever I found a good deal in my city, I drove through traffic jams to the seller to be the first on this item. It helped me to get incredible deals. I once got a Watercolor Speedy for $100. It was in poor condition but it was a Watercolor Speedy!

Bottomline, if you are constantly monitoring preloved luxury sites and have the ability to act fast, this will give you a great advantage. 

4. Ask the Seller If She Has Something Else to Sell

A trusted supplier with reasonable prices will make your life much easier. Whenever you're buying an item at a good price, ask the seller for other items that she might have.

You might discover that not only this seller has the same taste as you do, she is also willing to set a fair price on most of these items.

As in every other business, building relationships is a large part of the designer bag resale.

5. Practice Negotiating

A lot of people I know are afraid of negotiating the price. It's uncomfortable and sometimes makes you feel bad.

I never negotiated. I thought that's just rude.

However, in the resale business negotiating is normal. My potential customers always negotiated with me. Some of them asked for a $50 discount, others were offering $2,500 instead of $2,900 (over 10%).

I try asking about discounts whenever it's appropriate. I've recently bought a preloved Givenchy and the seller agreed to a price 40% lower than the original asking price.

Eventually, our society is about negotiation. We all want the best life, best conditions, best prices and it's understandable. It doesn't hurt asking. It's all about us talking to each other. Just be polite. Ask for a small discount first. $10-$50 on a designer bag is not much but you'll increase your profits. Here's what I usually ask:

'If I pay in full today, would you be able to offer a reasonable discount?'

What if the bag was a gift and the seller is willing to take an offer? What if he or she needs funds urgently? What if you buy several items?

6. If You're Buying Remotely, Protect the Transaction

Never - I'll say it again - NEVER pay directly to the seller before you have an item in your hands.

Use any kind of protected transaction that guarantees that you'll receive the item and if something goes wrong, you can always get your money back. It's much easier to use PayPal and have peace of mind as a buyer.

Steps to Take to Become a Luxury Bag Reseller: Selling

Understanding Reselling Pricing: How Do I Know What to Buy and How to Set the Price?

A valid question is how to we define if the pricing is good and it's time to buy?

What's a good discount for you? If you can buy a purse for $2,000 at the official store, will a price of $1,700 make you want to opt for secondhand? Not sure. Would you buy this very bag secondhand if it's $1,000 and in excellent condition? Definitely.

In general, good secondhand prices are less than 50% of the retail price. That depends on the item of course. However, if that's not a highly coveted item, it's usually below 50% from the original retail price and the item must be in good condition.

When you'll be setting the price, don't forget to take all the payment provider fees, taxes, shipping fees etc in the account as the price you're asking for will not be the amount of money you get. Ebay takes 10-15% depending on the category. Platforms like Poshmark, Tradesy and Vestiaire Collective take 20%-30%.

The price you want to get for your item and the listed price are two completely different options especially if you're selling overseas.

Find the payment solutions you're comfortable with and find out the rates for your country.

How Much Will You Earn as a Luxury Reseller?

As you know, there's no fixed amount. It really depends on how lucky you are, how much time and effort you put into the business.

Subscribe to my YouTube to follow authentication tips and insights from the reselling business: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkltmNVxyBlfuZc3-eOGfzA/videos

In addition, you can authenticate Chanel, Louis Vuitton and other brands as have a part of your income coming from verifying designer items.

Remember that I also have an LV authentication course that will teach you authentication basics on how to tell real Louis Vuitton bags from fakes. You can purchase it here.

What other questions do you have regarding becoming a luxury reseller?