What customers do to get an exclusive Hermès Birkin handbag

They endure yearslong waitlists and a hefty prespend for the coveted status symbol

Today's expression: Deal with
Explore more: Lesson #714
September 30, 2024:

The Birkin might be one of the coveted handbags in the world. Part of its appeal is its exclusivity: you can't just buy one in online or in a store. You have to build a relationship with a sales associate and spend thousands of dollars on other goods just to get one. So is it worth it?

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How to get a Birkin handbag

For $10,000, you could buy a used car . For $200,000, a starter home in some places. Or, with that same money, you could own a single handbag —the Birkin by Hermès.

Even if you’re not a fashionista , you may recognize the Birkin from pop culture. It was a major plotline in an episode of “Sex and the City,” where Samantha was placed on a five-year waiting list for a bag. It’s also been on “Gossip Girl,” “How I Met Your Mother,” and “Will & Grace” (Will is on a two-year waiting list). Rappers like Jay-Z, Drake, and Cardi B reference the bag in their songs. Celebrities are photographed with their Birkins all the time.

What is the Birkin? The Birkin is, possibly , the world’s most coveted handbag. And part of its appeal is its origin story .

The Birkin has been around since the 1980s. It’s named after Jane Birkin, a British actress. She found herself sitting next to an executive from Hermès on a flight and she told him about a problem she was having.

She said she wanted a stylish , designer handbag that was also practical and well-made . But she had a hard time finding one that she liked. So on the flight, Birkin and the Hermès executive sketched out a design together. And Hermès made the bag. It became a hit . (Today, the bag, ironically , is far more popular than the actress it’s named after.)

Birkin bags come in a variety of sizes —from 25 to 40 centimeters—and a variety of materials . The exterior might be leather , lizard , ostrich , or even crocodile skin . The interior is made of goat skin . The hardware —the metal pieces —are often plated in gold or palladium . Some bags come with hardware encrusted with diamonds . The silhouette is always the same. But each season, Hermès releases a version with new colors, patterns, or materials.

Each bag is made by a single craftsperson . Any employee who wants to work on a Birkin has to train at Hermès for five years to learn the skills needed to construct one. Every stitch is done by hand , and the level of attention to detail ensures that each bag is unique.

Demand far outstrips supply: Hermès could never make enough to satisfy everyone (and probably wouldn’t want to). So that means two things. First, Hermès can charge a lot of money for the bag. And second, the brand has enormous power to decide who even has the right to purchase one.

How to get a Birkin bag

So let’s talk about how you can get your hands on a Birkin bag. First of all, an entry-level Birkin bag costs about $12,000. That’s the smallest size , and without the truly exotic materials . $12,000. So let’s say you’re ready to spend that money and get yourself a Birkin.

If you think you can just log onto the Hermès website, or walk into a store and buy one, think again . Hermès doesn’t sell these bags online, and they don’t keep them on the shelves . If you go into a store and ask to see one, they probably won’t show it to you.

If you want a Birkin bag, you have to “play the Hermès game,” as customers say. And the game can take years.

The Hermès game starts with building a relationship with a sales assistant —a worker in the store. Here’s what it means to “build a relationship.” You have to visit the store frequently , often with an appointment . You have to get to know one sales assistant on a personal level . You have to educate yourself about the brand: the history, the craftsmanship , the product lines.

You have to establish a buying history with your sales assistant. This is called “prespend” in the industry. It’s like obtaining a credit history , just with this one store.

How much do you need to spend at Hermès before you get offered a Birkin bag? There’s no way to know for sure; the company would never say publicly . But some customers say the minimum spend is $10,000. That’s $10,000 you have to spend on other items like scarves , watches , shoes, and jewelry , just to be invited to buy a standard Birkin. If you want one of the rare designs , you might need to spend $200,000 with your sales assistant.

The sales assistants are key because they are the gatekeepers to new bags. When Hermès releases new bags, it sends them to the stores. And when a store gets a shipment , the store manager gives the sales assistants a quota of bags. And the sales assistants look at their list of clients and decide who gets the chance to buy a Birkin.

When offered, customers don’t often turn down the opportunity to buy one—especially not their first one. If the bag they’re offered isn’t their preferred style , they buy it anyway, for fear of appearing ungrateful . They want to continue to be top-of-mind in case their preferred design is available in the future.

The secondary market

So the true cost of a Birkin bag is much higher than the price Hermès charges: all those other purchases add up, and then there’s the wait.

If all this sounds like too much effort , you do have another option. And that is the secondary market . In the secondary market, customers buy bags from people other than Hermès itself . The main players are auction houses like Sotheby’s or independent dealers like Madison Avenue Couture.

But be prepared to pay up . The bags in the best condition can cost multiple times the retail price. A pristine , never-used Birkin with original packaging can fetch well above retail, sometimes over $100,000.

You might be tempted to save money and buy it from someone on Instagram. But buyer beware : there are a lot of well-made counterfeits out there. That’s why the safest option is to buy from reputable dealers who authenticate their inventory .

But getting a Birkin, many customers say, is worth it. If you have the money, and you can do it, it’s worth it. The Birkin is a stylish , well-made bag. It turns heads. It draws attention . It’s a status symbol . It puts you in the company of celebrities, athletes, musicians, artists, and government leaders.

For some people, though, just one Birkin isn’t enough. Victoria Beckham, for example, owns around 100 Birkins, while a socialite in Singapore reportedly has as many as 200.

Jeff’s take

Talk about a world I know nothing about. A couple facts for you here. The entry-level Birkin bags cost about $12,000 in the store, as I mentioned. The cost to make the bag? Wait until you hear this. The cost to make the bag is about $1,000. So Hermès sells it at a markup of over 1,000 percent.

If you buy a bag—maybe you’re one of those people who were offered a bag you didn’t really want, but you bought it anyway—you can sell it the same day to a reseller. So you can pay $12,000 in the store, and the same day sell it to a dealer for $23,000 in cash. Just don’t take it out of the plastic! The dealer can then sell it—if it’s box-fresh , with the receipt —for $32,000.

Yikes. All that for one handbag!

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Expression: Deal with