The Birkin bag resale craze may have hit its peak, serving up a dose of reality for Gen Z aspirational luxury buffs coveting the Hermès accessory as their next big investment piece.
The luxury handbag flung across the elbow of celebrities like Cardi B and Heidi Klum has appeared to have lost some of its appeal on the secondhand market, new data shows, though it continues to sell for higher than its eye-popping five-figure retail value. Birkin bags are a particularly hot commodity on the resale market because of how difficult it is to get the product new, requiring a customer to be a loyal Hermès shopper or build a relationship with a sales associate.
According to Bernstein Research’s Secondhand Pricing Tracker, the average resale premium for Birkin and Kelly bags—a metric representing the auction price compared to its retail cost—has fallen from 2.2 times its original value in 2022 to 1.4 times as of last month. That means a Birkin originally bought for $10,000 and resold in 2022 would have fetched for $22,200, while a bag originally retailing for the same price and resold at auction today would be worth about $14,000 on the resale market today.
Birkin bags, prized by many for the exclusivity associated with buying the bag, became a pandemic resale darling as wealthy shopping unaffected by COVID-related economic woes, sought out the in-demand bag on the secondhand market, as Hermès produces a limited number of the accessory each year. However, 2025 has marked the end of a “luxury supercycle” according to Berenberg analysts, as consumers face headwinds like inflation, and retailers fail to woo aspirational shoppers. A Bain & Co. report released this summer also found the luxury market contracted 3% in early 2025, losing about 50 million customers.
