What's your rational in keeping a bag (not lose any money) vs selling it and lose lots of money

[Mcandy]

I agree with selling the seldom-used bag rather than let it sit on the shelf for years. It is a struggle, especially if it still sparks joy when I occasionally take out these bags to use. But on the other hand, there is a fear in me that “What if I take out this bag and the leather has come apart due to prolonged storage? Or maybe the metal components have tarnished?”.. by that time, the value of the bag will drop tremendously.

I know a certain celebrity on my country that has her maids rotate her chanels every 2 hrs. Leather has to be used or its gonna get damaged if it stays in one place.

 

[nuf]

I sell a lot. Once I find out the bag doesn't bring me the right comfort I need I don't want to own it anymore. The older I am the more comfort I demand. I don't care that everyone rave about classic double flaps. I found them all to be too heavy and small inside comparing to them size and weight. I don't need to own something just for the fame so I sold them all to buy another models. I am not a collector and see no reason to have anything if I don't want to use it often and with ease.

 

[Sparkletastic]

Sunk costs. What you paid is gone. Wipe your mental record clean.

Now go from here.

• Do you want $0 (don’t sell) or $2500 (sell).

Another way to look at it

• Do you want to spend money to have a purse you can love and use or spend nothing and not have a purse you can use.

And what motivates me:

• Who am I making happy? My closet or me? My closet gets no happy from having a bag sitting in it. I, however, will get happy from carrying a great bag. So, no bag should ever just sit in my closet - worthless. If it is, it needs to go and be replaced by something that I can joyfully use.
• Why am I burning daylight on whether to sell??? So, I made a buying mistake. I need to get over it, move on and get the right bag. Let the pain of money lost motivate me to by better next time.

 

[Sparkletastic]

Duplicate

 

[EmilyM111]

100% sell it. The money has already been spent. The item just takes up space while collecting dust. You won't magically reap the money back by letting it go unused. Might as well get what you can from it.

I clean out my belongings 2x a year and get rid of anything I don't want or need anymore. Ever since I started doing that, it's helped curb my spending habits. When I see how much I'm getting rid of, it puts me in a perspective of just how much money I've wasted because I only used something a handful of times, or I bought it out of impulse. Now, I purchase things with purpose and longevity in mind. I am by no means a minimalist, but I scrutinize my purchases to minimize waste on my end. Even if I donate clothes, donation centers can be overwhelmed, and with some countries banning imports of secondhand goods, clothes just end up in a landfill..

That was one of the reasons that pushed me to Chanel and Hermes. I realised how much money I've wasted buying a lot of 'affordable', (almost) one-off things. Not to mention it's super not ecological. I've donated them but no clue whether anyone would actually use them or they would be dumped somewhere in third-world countries. Eye opener.

 

[AmyM]

Ok, so there are lots of discussions about whether someone should sell a bag to fund a new bag, and usually the advice is usually if you don't like it then sell it.... From my experience in getting quotes from various resellers (Rebag, Fashionphile, etc), I would lose a lot of money (around 50% of purchase price and that's a lot of money for high ticket items). For example, I have the mini iridescent vanity, it's so tiny doesn't fit anything and I hate to unzip all the way around to get things out. It's brand new, never used.... Got a quote from Fashionphile and they would only pay 2500... I paid 4500 plus tax for it!
So here's the question: how do you justify losing all that money just to pay more money for a new bag? Or would you just keep it so at least you still have a $4500 bag in your closet? In a perfect world I never should have bought it too begin with, but hindsight is always 20/20

I'm up there in age and it sucks but with it comes acceptance that some things (big and small) just don't work-out as we'd hope, and there may be pain in adjusting the situation to make it work better but I've found it's mostly the way to go regardless of the situation. What good is a $4500 bag if you're unhappy with it and it's never used? An expensive and painful lesson but I'd recommend selling and moving-on.

 

[FromtheBay2DTLA]

Try selling it yourself?

I sell the majority of my bags myself. FASHIONPHILE offered me $185 for a keyboard flap. I sold it for $995. Yeah, it takes more work, but that offer was stupid.

That aside, I bought most of my bags some time ago, so I’m rarely in a position of losing money. At worst, I break even.

To add, what’s the point in keeping a bag you don’t like or use? I do look at my classics as ‘investment’ pieces in the sense that I’ll have them for years. I don’t mean it in a true financial investment sense. IMHO, it needs to be seen as any other used item. You’ll likely get a good amount out of it & $2500 isn’t a bad amount of money. You shouldn’t buy anything expecting to get full price/more if you sell. That only works for vintage in my experience.