Luxury goods are on to something

I was perusing one of my favorite blogs, Racked, for some sample sale happenings in NYC when I stumbled upon an interesting article. The title being:

As a self-proclaimed financier (well, not entirely because I do have a professional certification, some college degrees, and a lengthy career to substantiate this claim),  and an adorer of designer good, I have to say that this does not entirely surprise me. In fact, I don't believe that this secondary market is limited to Birkins, but could extend to other iconic brands whose handbags may be priced beyond that of the average credit card spending limited (think Chanel, Celine and *certain* LV bags).

It got me thinking about secondary markets of purses as a whole. Similar to a corporation, whose stock price to signifies people's perception of value of the company, handbags are also strategically priced to represent the value of the brand - is it hot (like Google?), the perceived quality of materials and construction (like Apple?), and cost to sell (like Everlane?).

I remember in high school I had always dreamed of buying a Chanel purse. Back between the years 2002 and 2006, I worked hard, ignored an aspirational social life, and focused on homework because I wanted an education and a career to afford me this purse. Back then, the purse was "only" approximately $2,500. When I took my trip to Paris, and walked into 31 Rue Cambon, Chanel's original store, where Gabrielle Chanel lived, I was flabbergasted by how much the price of a Chanel purse had increased! A classic Chanel purse with a chain strap was now retailing for approximately $4,750.

Simple math question, how much has the value of Chanel increased in the last 10 years? This is absolutely a rough estimate based on what I remember in high school and not backed by any valid historical pricing.

About 90% in about 10 years. This is all pending that you keep your bag in pristine condition so that someone doesn't mind purchasing it second hand as well, which probably means that you didn't get to enjoy the spoils of your riches as much as you could have.  Furthermore, you would have needed incredible foresight to predict that the designer handbag you purchased would actually still be desirable in 10 years. Not to diminish the creativity of Oscar de la Renta or Alexander McQueen, but if I had $2,000 to spend on a purse for resale value, I'd much rather try to get a Chanel versus the other two designers because there is something truly timeless about the brand's designs.

This is about how much you could actually sell your bag for had you kept it in pristine condition. Using the same math above, that's about a 40% return on your investment...not too shabby.

I guess you can tell that I found that article very interesting, but let's not get carried away here. I'm not saying you should be investing your money in purses instead of stocks, bonds, or mutual funds. Let's be real, if you were looking for a true investment, in 2005, the price of 1 share of Google was about $315 versus now at $718. In 10 years, the value of 1 share of Google increased about 130%.

Nonetheless, could designer bags be the new gold?