Should I create a handbag trading website?

[classicgirll]

For a long time now, I have had this idea of a website to trade/swap designer handbags.
I have been buying and selling handbags as an aficionado for a few years now, but what always gets me is how low the resale value is for some bags, especially since so many people don't mind selling them for such a huge loss, and also how difficult it is to sell bags in general.

I was thinking that with trading, not only would we cut down the loss but also make it a super fun activity, where we would each get a bag we love.
I used to trade bags with my friend (unfortunately she moved away), but what if we could trade bags with anyone in the world?
It wouldn't even have to be a handbag for a handbag, if there's a huge difference, then someone could add money in addition.

Of course to prevent scams and counterfeits all bags would be authenticated before being sent out.

i thought about renting too but i really hate the thought of not truly "owning" the bag, so i thought trading would be perfect for that

Please let me know if this is a crazy idea - or just any of your thoughts!
The idea just isn't leaving me alone and I'm afraid I might just do it -- but I just wanted to know from the experts: what is your initial reaction to it?? anything you wanna add or have me consider?
really look forward to hearing from you

 

[Molly0]

I love it!
I’ve often thought that would be a great idea! I have always pictured a huge room where handbag lovers meet once a month and bring along a bag that they are ready to let go, and cruise around until they find someone to switch with. Voila! One for one would be so fun. The more the merrier!

 

[EmilyM111]

So of course great idea but as I'm friends with a person who opened such platform (Vestiare Collective-esque) and also avid seller myself lol I'll allow myself to give you a few points to think about:
- what country are you in? Is there many places like that? Eg. my friend in Warsaw has not only Vestiaire as a competitor but also like 10 small stationary boutiques
- if so, how are you going to differentiate yourself? Have you calculated costs/commissions/taxes/staff costs (if it goes bigger)
- will you have a showroom or a place where buyers can come and try things/local sellers can drop items
- are confident about the bag supply so you are not left with 5 less know designer brands
- do you have funds to set up a nice website (trust me - poorly designed/bad pictures put people off)
- do you have funds for SEO, digital marketing & influencers so your marketplace is known to people
- who will handle sending/receiving items (in case it goes big), will you have a deal with courier company
- are you sure you can authenticate many brands (this is not me being mean but I worked with a few boutiques in Warsaw and everybody there said ' I have designer bags <like 3> and I can recognise fakes'. Will you have funds for software like entrupy
- buyers are nightmare, trust me. They will not be all afficionados, many of them will be entry level clients who'll ask tonnes of questions driving you insane, will moan about prices (when I say entry level I mean for example people who want to own a chanel but haven't done any initial research, don't do Purse forum and have no idea how hard is to get eg. a mini) will not appreciate you running the business and your need to cover your cost with commission. They will have buyers remorse and try to return unwanted items saying they're used or will use them and return or what's worse do a paypal scam (unreceived items)
- do you have a career that might interfere with the business
- for rental: what's your model of ensuring the bag won't be just stolen from you, would you use credit rating or something like that? or a deposit? insurance?

Please take this as some food for thought, not criticism or discouragement - I totally agree there is still space for businesses like that, especially rental (i wish i could rent Hermes bags to figure out which one i really need - haven't found anything like that). Good luck!!!

 

[classicgirll]

I love it!
I’ve often thought that would be a great idea! I have always pictured a huge room where handbag lovers meet once a month and bring along a bag that they are ready to let go, and cruise around until they find someone to switch with. Voila! One for one would be so fun. The more the merrier!

exactly!! i do love the idea in theory, but i think a lot of it depends on how my execution is

 

[classicgirll]

So of course great idea but as I'm friends with a person who opened such platform (Vestiare Collective-esque) and also avid seller myself lol I'll allow myself to give you a few points to think about:
- what country are you in? Is there many places like that? Eg. my friend in Warsaw has not only Vestiaire as a competitor but also like 10 small stationary boutiques
- if so, how are you going to differentiate yourself? Have you calculated costs/commissions/taxes/staff costs (if it goes bigger)
- will you have a showroom or a place where buyers can come and try things/local sellers can drop items
- are confident about the bag supply so you are not left with 5 less know designer brands
- do you have funds to set up a nice website (trust me - poorly designed/bad pictures put people off)
- do you have funds for SEO, digital marketing & influencers so your marketplace is known to people
- who will handle sending/receiving items (in case it goes big), will you have a deal with courier company
- are you sure you can authenticate many brands (this is not me being mean but I worked with a few boutiques in Warsaw and everybody there said ' I have designer bags <like 3> and I can recognise fakes'. Will you have funds for software like entrupy
- buyers are nightmare, trust me. They will not be all afficionados, many of them will be entry level clients who'll ask tonnes of questions driving you insane, will moan about prices (when I say entry level I mean for example people who want to own a chanel but haven't done any initial research, don't do Purse forum and have no idea how hard is to get eg. a mini) will not appreciate you running the business and your need to cover your cost with commission. They will have buyers remorse and try to return unwanted items saying they're used or will use them and return or what's worse do a paypal scam (unreceived items)
- do you have a career that might interfere with the business
- for rental: what's your model of ensuring the bag won't be just stolen from you, would you use credit rating or something like that? or a deposit? insurance?

Please take this as some food for thought, not criticism or discouragement - I totally agree there is still space for businesses like that, especially rental (i wish i could rent Hermes bags to figure out which one i really need - haven't found anything like that). Good luck!!!

thank you so much for your super detailed answer!!
I think perhaps you thought i was talking about a buy/sell website like vestiaire collective, but i was talking about a completely novel idea: there isn't any "buying" and "selling", instead people just swap handbags with each other!
but regardless, I think you brought up many many points that I should consider that are still relevant
- because it's new, there's no competition (yet), so the differentiating factor would be the entire concept
- no showroom since i will not be hosting inventory (traders would trade with each other, and ship to me, and i would ensure it's authentic and act like the middleman)
- funds/tech development - definitely something to consider
- marketing: also a huge thing, probably the big thing that's kind of stopping me: will i be able to advertise the idea to enough people and make it "catch on", since it is something most people have never done. why would they choose to trade instead of just buying/selling as they've been doing?
- shipping: would work thru a courier company
- authentication: would have entrupy most likely
- picky buyers / buyer scams is definitely a very real pain point, but i'm confident that if other companies can handle them, i should be able too, as well (will want to do more research into how companies handle them, however)
- rental: no rental, it would be trading handbags. once they receive the item, they would own the bag, unless they decided to sell/trade again.

 

[EmilyM111]

thank you so much for your super detailed answer!!
I think perhaps you thought i was talking about a buy/sell website like vestiaire collective, but i was talking about a completely novel idea: there isn't any "buying" and "selling", instead people just swap handbags with each other!
but regardless, I think you brought up many many points that I should consider that are still relevant
- because it's new, there's no competition (yet), so the differentiating factor would be the entire concept
- no showroom since i will not be hosting inventory (traders would trade with each other, and ship to me, and i would ensure it's authentic and act like the middleman)
- funds/tech development - definitely something to consider
- marketing: also a huge thing, probably the big thing that's kind of stopping me: will i be able to advertise the idea to enough people and make it "catch on", since it is something most people have never done. why would they choose to trade instead of just buying/selling as they've been doing?
- shipping: would work thru a courier company
- authentication: would have entrupy most likely
- picky buyers / buyer scams is definitely a very real pain point, but i'm confident that if other companies can handle them, i should be able too, as well (will want to do more research into how companies handle them, however)
- rental: no rental, it would be trading handbags. once they receive the item, they would own the bag, unless they decided to sell/trade again.

Yeah I thought it was a mix of all(sorry read it at 6 am lol). Seems like you have it thought through and most of the pain would come from ensuring you have enough supply for customers to pick bags for swap. Fingers crossed!

 

[classicgirll]

Any other thoughts?

 

[ArmCandyLuvr]

I guess the biggest question you need to asking yourself is how do you vet potential traders in order to weed out scammers, and how much liability do you want to assume if something ends up going awry? There are some really, really good fakes out there. How will you ensure you don't get fooled by a fake and send it to someone, and then that person will be coming after you when the scammer who sent the fake disappears? I am not trying to insult your knowledge of fakes. I am just trying to protect you here. Dealing with a product where counterfeiting is common opens you up to a lot of shady crap. Even the big league resellers such as The Real Real have had problems with fakes.

 

[Rouge H]

Agree with ArmCandyLuvr’s post and would also add that people’s description and perception of condition vary immensely.
That could be problematic.

 

[classicgirll]

I guess the biggest question you need to asking yourself is how do you vet potential traders in order to weed out scammers, and how much liability do you want to assume if something ends up going awry? There are some really, really good fakes out there. How will you ensure you don't get fooled by a fake and send it to someone, and then that person will be coming after you when the scammer who sent the fake disappears? I am not trying to insult your knowledge of fakes. I am just trying to protect you here. Dealing with a product where counterfeiting is common opens you up to a lot of shady crap. Even the big league resellers such as The Real Real have had problems with fakes.

thank you for your comments!! and definitely important points to consider
for superfakes i would most likely employ an authentication software such as entrupy - and i believe therealreal has a problem just because of the huge volume it deals with, not necessarily because of skill (or so i hope)

basically there couldn't be any scammers because i would be the middleman - so if someone tried to trade a fake/fool someone i would catch them - so essentially i would ensure it's authentic and also ensure the item is as described

but these are just my thoughts - if you have other things i should consider, i would love to hear them

 

[classicgirll]

Agree with ArmCandyLuvr’s post and would also add that people’s description and perception of condition vary immensely.
That could be problematic.

totally agree! that's why both bags would be shipped to me and i would make sure the bag was as described, so no one can get away with saying a clearly used bag looks new, for example.

 

[acrowcounted]

I think it’s going to be a difficult puzzle to find people who want to trade reciprocally. It’s often hard enough to find a buyer interested in your preowned bag, and then to find the perfect one who wants your bag and also has a bag up for grabs that you yourself want? That’s why we use money as the barter. Sell for a price you think is fair (enough) and then use that money wherever you want for whatever you want. Sometimes ideas aren’t reality not because they are new ideas but because other people have tried and been unsuccessful. Best of luck!

 

[RT1]

Some really great answers here and definitely worth thinking very long and hard on the solutions to potential problems.

 

[classicgirll]

I think it’s going to be a difficult puzzle to find people who want to trade reciprocally. It’s often hard enough to find a buyer interested in your preowned bag, and then to find the perfect one who wants your bag and also has a bag up for grabs that you yourself want? That’s why we use money as the barter. Sell for a price you think is fair (enough) and then use that money wherever you want for whatever you want. Sometimes ideas aren’t reality not because they are new ideas but because other people have tried and been unsuccessful. Best of luck!

a really good point and something that does keep me up at night... but on the other hand, i do think that when it comes to trading bags (that you would trade rather than sell), you aren't super worried about getting your DREAM bag, just any bag that you like better and will find more functional

of course the eventual goal is to have so many bags on the website that anyone can find their dream bag, but i do think that there is a value to finding something you like that much more than what you currently have

in addition i do see a lot of people get really annoyed with lowball offers on their bags and buyout prices, and would be ok with getting rid of their bag quick for something that they liked better, instead of selling it for such a huge loss
since there would be the option to add $, and not only have it be a strictly even trade, it's almost the best of both worlds - you're getting a bag you like better + $$ to spend towards something else. but that's how i justify it in my head

i have seen trading websites attempted for fast fashion/clothing but not really for designer handbags, so i do think that in some senses it's a "novel" or at least not as tested idea as others (Feel free to correct me if i'm wrong though)

 

[muchstuff]

thank you for your comments!! and definitely important points to consider
for superfakes i would most likely employ an authentication software such as entrupy - and i believe therealreal has a problem just because of the huge volume it deals with, not necessarily because of skill (or so i hope)

basically there couldn't be any scammers because i would be the middleman - so if someone tried to trade a fake/fool someone i would catch them - so essentially i would ensure it's authentic and also ensure the item is as described

but these are just my thoughts - if you have other things i should consider, i would love to hear them

TRR was all over the news awhile ago with the admission that most of their authentications are done by the overworked staff who do the inputting of the listings. Since that story was broken they've been in damage control.

I recall reading something about Entrupy quite a long time ago. That they take some sort of scan of an authentic bag and judge others by that bag's DNA so to speak? It's to do with algorithms...If so, how do they know they're not scanning a fake to begin with? And how would they be able to do that with older bags?

I think taking responsibility for authentication of ALL brands over ALL seasons is an almost impossible task. I authenticate for Balenciaga and the changes with that brand alone since the moto bag was created in 2001 is enough for me to try to keep up with. I can't imagine trying to be an authority on all brands.