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Last Christmas, she gave her teenage daughter a small Gucci handbag in a style she had not seen previously, purchased at a Paris secondhand store for 250 euros ($290). “It’s not something that you can go in and just find - there’s a lot of thought into finding a gift like this.”Ĭécile Caron, who lives in Wimereux, a French coastal town not far from Calais, agrees. “You have to hunt and gather to find these things,” said Christos Garkinos, a veteran luxury resale dealer in Los Angeles. “It’s kind of this badge of honor now to shop sustainably and give that way,” said Rati Sahi Levesque, the RealReal’s president.Īnd then there is the process of finding resale items, which takes a bit more digging than simply buying new pieces off the rack. Some resale retailers also promote the environmentally responsible side of buying used items, as a way to avoid the pollution and materials that go into making something new. “It gives the consumer the confidence that there is some sense of realism to some of these things.” “Being able to authenticate product, it changes the dynamic,” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry adviser for the NPD Group, a market research company. Industry observers say several factors have made consumers feel more comfortable about buying used luxury goods and receiving them as gifts, particularly the assurance that items are genuine. But clearly that has been changing, and they hope that this year will be their most successful to date. Traditionally the holiday season, retail’s strongest period, has been comparatively slow for retailers specializing in luxury resales. “The more rare pieces are definitely the ones that make it onto Santa’s wish list,” Ms. Similarly, bags from Louis Vuitton will be included in a seasonal selection that Rewind is putting together for the fashion website Farfetch. It will be inside Modes, one of a chain of luxury fashion boutiques, and is to offer a specially chosen assortment including hard-to-find handbags from brands like Chanel. On Wednesday, Rewind is planning a pop-up shop in Paris’s affluent Eighth Arrondissement. “If there was a stigma, maybe 10 years ago, and it was more difficult to gift someone something secondhand, today that is becoming completely mainstream and normal,” said Claudia Ricco Raichand, the founder and chief executive of Rewind Vintage Affairs, a London-based online retailer that specializes in pre-owned items by high-end designers. This holiday season, many high-end gifts will come with an unlikely provenance: a previous owner.įor a growing number of shoppers, the stores and websites that specialize in upscale resale goods have become a reliable source for luxury gifts like designer handbags and jewelry that may have a little wear and tear but are comparatively well priced.