re: Oh no, tariff bros. Hermes is increasing the price of their Birkin bags. $20k to $22k.

I do love me some outfits but Birkin Bags are ridiculous.

didn't the little Chinese dude just come out and say these only take about 1500 to make?

I have to admit, I love a nice bag, Coach, Kate Spade, or Frye. But I would never pay more that $500.00 for one, much less 1000's of dollars!

I know some of you men might think $300-$400 for a bag is crazy, but I get one every few years and last for years and years. I spent many years trying to explain this to my husband, I'm not sure if he got it or he just got tired of me trying to expalin it to him!

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I think you have to go through a process before you can purchase one of the bags, you’ll be spending a lot more before you get to bag level. If you get caught selling one I think you get banned from the list for life.

Rolex is doing something similar as well.

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You have to build a spend history. Hermes can look you up by name and see everything you have ever bought from a boutique. My wife started about 17 years ago in her last year of residency. You start buying scarves, small leather goods, non-allocation bags, and their less expensive jewelry. Back then you didn't have to have a massive spend history just fairly regular purchases over 4-5 years and then you were allowed to buy "allocation bags". The allocation bags are the Constance, Kelly, and Birkin. Even then there was a strung secondary market and you could get over retail for even well used bags. Today it is crazy (the crypto boom during COVID fueled a lot of it like watches) and it takes much longer and a lot more money spent.

Hermes doesn't seem to worried about women that hold a bag for a year and sell them. They don't like immediate flippers but they are hard to catch because the bags don't have serial numbers (they do have date codes) so unless it is a very limited bag they would have a hard time tracking it unless someone sold it on the internet under their own name.

Watch companies pretend to be concerned about flippers but really don't do much as a company. Many individual dealers will cut you off if they catch you flipping watches quickly.

Brands only care so much because the crazy secondary market prices drive interest and demand. Even though I don't flip watches it is rather satifying to know when you leave the store with a new watch you could sell it for twice what you paid immediately. The people that really hate the process are the people who weren't buying when it was easy to get what you want and so they are stuck on the outside looking in because they were born to late or got into watches (or bags) too late to have a fairly simple road to becoming a preferred customer.

While I would never suggest bags or watches as a viable investment asset class the following is true:

Despite my wife's closet having enough orange in it that it looks like walking into a Home Depot she has effectively spent less money on her bags than a woman that bought a single purse from Temu, even factoring in the time value of the money.

I have a large accumulation of watches including many of the hype pieces from Patek, AP, Vacheron, and Rolex and again even adjusting for the time value of the money laid out initially I have spent less money than someone that bought a single G-shock.