Luxury Resale: High-end Goods As Currency

There is nothing quite like a high-quality luxury item. A beautiful thing, crafted with thoughtfulness, care and expertise, is an almost indescribable pleasure to own. These are the things that last, holding their fascination — and their value — for generations. In a recent study from eBay in partnership with Business of Fashion, they found that 56% of surveyed luxury shoppers see luxury accessories as a form of currency with 80% considering the value of their luxury accessories to be less volatile or on par with other assets (like stocks).

Ross Povey, Revolution magazine’s resident vintage expert states, “The antiques and fine art industries, that have been around for centuries, are a result of this recycling of chattels. Over the past century, it’s been the same with watches. That has changed in the past decade, as the pre-owned watch market has bloomed. Not just a quiet growth, but a supersonic, explosive boom like we’ve never seen.”

eBay has introduced a new way to turn that value into currency with their limited time Luxury Exchange which was open to the public November 16 and 17th in the heart of NYC’s diamond district.

This concept is much like the barter system of old, allowing shoppers to bring in their own high-value luxury goods to use as merit toward items like jewelry, handbags and watches from the top brands.

Items were appraised on site and sellers were given a “closet credit” that could be used to purchase new-to-them items from the store’s inventory. There was also a convenient on-site photo studio ready to capture quality images for listing the item on the eBay site if there was nothing available that caught the shopper’s eye.