How to Sell: Vintage and Secondhand
Resale is no longer a side market for luxury, but an increasingly established part of shopping.
For years, fashion treated resale as both an opportunity and a threat — a fast-growing market that sat just outside the traditional model. That boundary is now collapsing.
Resale is no longer a separate, downstream activity. It is becoming an integrated part of how consumers discover and engage with brands, with many using resale platforms to assess value, authenticity, and desirability. Technology — particularly AI-powered discovery — is starting to accelerate this shift by making resale easier to navigate.
While resale remains smaller than traditional retail channels, it is becoming an increasingly established part of luxury shopping. Nearly one in five respondents to our consumer survey have purchased luxury items through resale platforms such as Vestiaire Collective, Poshmark or Depop in the past six months (19%), while 15% have shopped through secondhand stores, including curated vintage boutiques (rising to 23% for Gen Z). Both figures sit ahead of newer commerce formats such as social shopping (12%) and live shopping (9%), suggesting resale is already more embedded in consumer behavior.
The research shows consumers are drawn to resale for a mix of economic, emotional, and cultural factors rather than a single dominant reason. The strongest driver is uniqueness: 44% of secondhand luxury shoppers are motivated by the possibility of finding something unique or rare. Competitive pricing and sustainability follow closely behind, both at 43%, indicating that resale is now simultaneously perceived as a value proposition and a more responsible way to consume luxury.
“Resale gives consumers a way to express their personal style, try new trends with less of an investment, and participate in a broader community of buying, selling, and swapping,” says Kirsty Keoghan, general manager for European fashion and luxury at Ebay. She adds that, among Gen Z in particular, resale has taken on a new cultural meaning. “For Gen Z, pre-loved is not a compromise, but a more expressive and culturally relevant way to shop.”
Ebay’s Endless Runway show. Photo: Courtesy of Ebay
Access and perceptions of quality also play an important role. Nearly four in 10 respondents to our survey (39%) said they shop secondhand to find items that have sold out in stores, while a third (33%) opt for resale items because they are perceived to be better quality.
Vogue Business’s focus groups support this: luxury consumers reported using resale to access products from past eras or specific creative directors that they perceive as more distinct, better made, or tied to stronger moments in a brand’s history. Some pointed to the Y2K period, in particular, as a benchmark for quality and design originality, describing pieces from the time as more characterful than contemporary equivalents.
“On Vestiaire, I buy accessories and bags; but from vintage shops, a lot of ready-to-wear — especially from 2000 to 2005. The designs were just amazing,” said one Italy-based respondent. “For example, in a shop in Milan, they had a large selection of 2000 Dolce & Gabbana that was so chic, so sexy. They also had Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld. I love to shop for these types of pieces.”
“Even your highest-end luxury customers — the ones setting trends on the red carpet and at events — are wearing vintage because of the provenance, the craft, the individuality,” says Elizabeth von der Goltz, chief revenue officer at US peer-to-peer resale platform Poshmark, which counts around 165 million active users. “When I was younger and I used to thrift, it was still quite niche. Now, I think it’s truly universal.”
As resale becomes embedded in the shopping journey, it is changing how consumers define value.
While it’s not the primary driver for shopping secondhand, our survey shows investment potential matters: 34% of respondents said they shop resale because they believe certain products will appreciate in value. In one Vogue Business focus group, a UK-based participant showcased a Chanel handbag purchased 15 years ago, noting that it had “held its value”; she believes she can now sell it for more than she paid, highlighting the enduring demand for recognizable, heritage pieces.
Vestiaire Collective’s data echoes this. According to the platform’s resale buying guide, the price of an Hermès bag can appreciate by around 40% over five years, while a Chanel Timeless can increase by approximately 17%. “Unlike fast fashion or lower-quality accessories, which typically lose value as soon as they enter the market, true luxury items benefit from long-term desirability, rarity, and brand heritage,” says Klemen Drole, chief business officer at Vestiaire Collective.
The Hermès Kelly Retourne bag on the runway, Spring/Summer 1995. Photo: Getty Images
Ben Gallagher, head of UK brand and growth at luxury re-commerce platform Fashionphile, says core models like the Chanel Double Flap and Louis Vuitton Speedy are consistently among the site’s most-searched and purchased items. “These pieces hold value due to controlled supply, frequent retail price increases, strong brand equity, and everyday usability,” he says.
Consumers are increasingly evaluating purchases not just in terms of price, but in terms of longevity, quality, and resale potential. The result is a shift from trend-led consumption to more considered, knowledge-driven purchasing. Products are valued not only for how they look, but for what they represent — their provenance, their place in a brand’s history, and their perceived longevity.
Linda Evangelista wears the Chanel Double Flap on the runway, Spring/Summer 1992. Photo: Getty Images
This is beginning to extend beyond handbags, says von der Goltz. While fashion may not appreciate in value in the same way, more consumers are approaching clothing as assets. “Clothing never used to be viewed as a true commodity,” says von der Goltz. “Now, people understand that fashion has value in the secondary market. It’s big business.”
For brands, these changes have significant implications. Products are being judged on how well they retain relevance, quality, and value over time. That raises the importance of durability, repairability, and long-term brand equity — pushing brands to think beyond the initial primary market transaction to design products that retain desirability across multiple owners and lifecycles.
Against this backdrop, trust is becoming one of resale’s biggest differentiators.
Our survey shows that secondhand luxury shoppers prioritize reassurance over discovery. When shopping for secondhand luxury fashion, respondents place the greatest importance on clarity around product quality and condition, with 88% deeming this is important, followed by authentication by a trusted provider at 85%. Ease of navigation and sizing consistency also ranks highly, at 78% and 76%, respectively, while breadth of choice and curated assortments rank lower, with under 60% of secondhand luxury shoppers citing these as important.
Focus groups reinforce this. Participants consistently cited seller reviews and proof of authenticity as central to purchase decisions — particularly for higher-value luxury items.
As discovery becomes increasingly fragmented across social platforms, AI tools and peer-to-peer marketplaces, consumers are triangulating trust before making a purchase. Seller ratings, shipping histories, and community validation are becoming important signs of credibility, particularly in peer-to-peer environments, where consumers are often buying one-off products from individual sellers, rather than established brands.
Social media is also playing a growing role in how consumers navigate resale. While some focus group participants described using AI tools to analyze product images and assess authenticity, others rely on TikTok creators and online communities for guidance on spotting fakes, assessing quality, and identifying trustworthy sellers and platforms.
Even as more platforms use AI to support authentication and search, trust is becoming dependent on reputation, transparency, and community validation. Consumers are evaluating not just the product itself, but whether the seller or platform feels credible.
Von der Goltz points out that, in peer-to-peer environments in particular, trust is often built through signals that the seller, listing, or platform is reliable and authentic. “It’s the social aspect,” she says.
That means AI alone is not enough. “AI is improving product discovery and pricing intelligence, but trust is still built through transparency and expertise,” agrees Fashionphile’s Gallagher. “Customers expect clear authentication processes, detailed condition reports, and consistent pricing frameworks. Technology can support this, but it does not replace the need for human validation. Trust is ultimately driven by proof and reputation rather than automation alone.”
For all its momentum, resale remains difficult to execute at scale.
Unlike traditional retail, resale marketplaces are built around one-off inventory. Every item must be authenticated, photographed, described, priced, and matched to the right buyer — often with limited standardization and inconsistent product data. The result is a business model that is operationally intensive by nature.
Eileen Fisher is one of the most established operators in branded resale, having launched its in-house program Renew in 2009. “Resale has always been more operationally complex than it might appear from the outside,” says Lilah Horwitz, director of content and marketing for Renew. “Because every Renew garment is one of a kind, and because we take back pieces that are sometimes 40-plus years old, photography and product descriptions have historically required an enormous amount of manual labor.”
