How To Sell Hermès Birkin Bags Online

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When you first got your hands on an honest-to-goodness Birkin bag, you probably expected that you’d wear it – and treasure it – forever.

Circumstances have a funny way of changing things, though. Financial necessities coupled with the enormous payouts that can be had for pre-owned Birkins in good condition entice many owners to part with the purse they swore would always be on their arm. Lifestyle or attitude changes lead some to decide they no longer need their ultimate status symbol, and for others the “glow” wears off and they focus on other high-end possessions instead. Many become collectors and regularly “churn” their older Birkins in order to update their collections. And some fortunate Hermès regulars get the opportunity to special order the Birkin of their dreams, deciding to sell an older bag to fund their purchase.

Selling a previously-owned Birkin bag isn’t difficult – they are the most sought-after luxury purse in the world. But if you want to receive the highest payout, you’ll need to learn how to sell Hermès Birkin bags online. Here’s why.

As you’re probably aware, you can’t just walk into a Hermès outlet and buy a Birkin off the shelf. The company places a strict limit on the number of Birkins that can be sold each year, partly because it takes so long to hand-stitch each one, and partly to maintain the scarcity and value of the purses. In order to get your hands on one of these coveted handbags, you have to put your name on a waiting list – and then be very, very patient.

It’s almost as difficult to purchase a pre-owned Birkin. Not many come onto the resale market each year, and the ones that do are snapped up by eager consumers and avid collectors, often at prices as high or higher than the purses’ original value. That means a previously-worn Birkin is a highly-desirable product that resale shops and consignment stores scramble to keep in stock. Many shops sell the Birkins they acquire to their best customers without putting them on the shelves at all.

The outlets which need them the most are online vendors. That’s because the lifeblood of an online reseller is visitors – and sites known to carry pre-owned Birkins are going to receive a constant stream of traffic hoping to score one of these precious bags. For that reason the highest prices you’ll get for your Birkin is from an online buyer, who will usually either turn it around and resell it, or sell it to an established clientele of resale vendors and collectors. If you don’t know how to sell Hermès Birkin bags online, you’re missing out on the most lucrative offers available.

There are literally thousands of online buyers trying to get their hands on used Birkins. When venturing into their world, the most important thing a seller must know is that there are many scammers on both sides. For everyone trying to get away with selling a fake Birkin as the real thing, there’s someone else trying to get their hands on an authentic Hermès and disappear without paying for it. People operating in this marketplace are very “suspicious” of everyone, and for good reason. But the financial rewards for successfully selling a Birkin online are worth taking the time to learn the landscape.

The bottom line: you have to be able to fully trust an online buyer when selling a Hermès Birkin bag. We’ll humbly use ourselves as an example of what you should be looking for. Dimorras has been purchasing pre-owned Birkins for years, as the nation’s largest buyer of luxury goods. Our staff of appraisers has decades of experience in the field; they’re able to distinguish counterfeits from the real thing in seconds, and to determine the value of every type of Birkin bag ever produced (including limited editions and special orders). We have a large group of resellers and collectors eager to purchase any Birkins we acquire.

We’re attentive to clients’ requests and needs, extraordinarily careful with their valuable purses, fully discreet with their transactions and personal details, pay all shipping, insurance and other costs involved in the process, and only require a few days to appraise handbags and offer more than any other buyer is willing to pay.

That’s the checklist you should be using when considering any online buyer – with honesty and reputation the top requirements. A reputable buyer will also go the extra mile to earn your trust, as we do by offering preliminary evaluations for all pre-worn Birkin bags with no cost and no obligation. If you’re interested in exploring that option, all you have to do is tell us the details of your bags on our simple online form, and the report will be on its way in two days or less.

All online buyers of luxury goods work a bit differently. But here’s how we do it with the many clients who sell their Hermès Birkin or Kelly bags to us, to give you an idea of what you should expect from an honest buyer.

We deliver our preliminary evaluations, often within hours, by phone or email, along with details of the shipping, formal appraisal and offer process. The purses are then shipped directly to Dimorras, and we pay all shipping costs as well as the price of full insurance. Our appraisers (with more than five decades of combined experience valuing Hermès purses), perform detailed inspections and produce full appraisal reports, and we get right back to the seller with a firm offer to purchase for more cash than any other buyer can match.

If the offer is accepted the payout is deposited directly to the seller’s bank account or delivered by certified check within two days; otherwise the bags are sent right back to the seller, fully insured.

The entire process, from shipping to payout, usually takes less than a week – with full communication and availability of our representatives throughout. As we say, every buyer does it a bit differently, but that’s the type of professional, expert and personal service you should demand when selling Birkin bags online. We’d be delighted to provide you with the first-hand experience, if you’re ready to sell and searching for a reputable partner.

Let’s take a look at some of the do’s and don’ts in more detail, to give you a firmer grasp of how to sell Hermès Birkin bags online. We’ll do it in reverse order and look at the “don’ts” first, since the perceived complexity of selling on the Internet, and the large number of scammers you may encounter, can make it difficult to sell your Birkin for the price you deserve.

The Don’ts of How to Sell Hermès Birkin Bags Online

Don’t Look On eBay and Craigslist For Online Buyers

A pre-worn Birkin bag will ordinarily be worth thousands or tens of thousands of dollars. You could get lucky and find an honest buyer on eBay or a similar site who will pay you a lot of money for your purse, but that’s way too much money to gamble by using sites known for being frequented by scammers and thieves.

Any smart and knowledgeable buyer will want to personally inspect a high-value item like a Birkin, particularly when offered on a site where lots of counterfeit items are sold. That can result in frustrating rounds of negotiations over procedures, escrow and overall trust. Making the process just as difficult is the fact that many serious buyers won’t even look for high-ticket items on eBay because of the danger of being bilked by a fraudster; the people with real money to spend on Birkins usually aren’t spending it on auction or classified sites.

That fact leads to another problem: credit card companies and PayPal are very willing to block payments when someone claims they’ve been defrauded, especially for items like Hermès purses which are frequently counterfeited at a very high level. You could sell your legitimate Birkin to someone who then complains that the bag is fake, and has their payment stopped before you receive it – they’d end up with the money and the purse. Sadly, that’s a fairly regular occurrence.

Finally, there can be more than just financial danger when selling expensive goods on free personal sites like Craigslist. The best-case scenario is that you’ll get lots of tire-kickers trying to find Birkins for pennies on the dollar. The worst-case scenario is that you can find yourself in a hairy situation when meeting an unknown buyer in an unfamiliar location for a person-to-person transaction. The risk simply isn’t worth it.

Don’t Throw Away Money By Using Online Consignment Sites

You definitely have a feeling of security working with well-known online consignment sites to sell Hermès Birkin bags. You can be confident that you won’t be ripped-off (unless the site goes belly-up, which is unlikely), that many qualified buyers will see your purse, and that it will probably sell pretty quickly.

You can also be confident that you won’t receive anything close to what your Birkin is worth. It’s true that most consignment sites charge smaller commissions for an Hermès bag than for most other items they sell, but you’ll still end up losing about 15% of the purchase price when you sell on consignment. For a purse that sells for $10,000, that’s $1500 you won’t be receiving.

Don’t Be Fooled By Flashy Online Advertising

Once you start poking around online looking for luxury goods buyers, today’s “smart” Internet advertising systems will notice your interest and display lots of colorful “SELL YOUR LUXURY PURSE FOR HIGHEST PRICES!” banners in your browser. The same type of thing will happen as you do Google searches on Birkin resale values or similar phrases; you’ll be shown lists of paid ads, most making all sorts of inflated promises.

There’s nothing wrong with online advertising, of course. It’s a legitimate way to find customers. However, at first glance there’s no way to tell whether ads are from solid, honest buyers or fly-by-night operators. Quite honestly, a rule-of-thumb we believe is that the flashier the ad, the more questionable the advertiser – in the same way we’re more wary of a fast-talking used car salesman wearing a loud, off-the-rack suit than a quiet, well-dressed Mercedes dealer.

We aren’t advising you to ignore online ads. We’re simply warning you not to fall for the glitz and promises. Instead, follow the “do’s” of selling your Birkin bag.

The Do’s of How to Sell Hermès Birkin Bags Online

Do Your Homework, Part I

It doesn’t matter whether you find an online buyer through Internet ads, search engine listings, recommendations on a reputable used handbag site, or somewhere else. You’ll need to do some detective work to learn who you’ll potentially be dealing with.

Ensure the buyer has a real Internet site that’s been around for a while (a quick whois search on their domain name or peek into the Internet Wayback Machine will show if they’ve been online and doing business for years, or have just set up shop recently). Call the phone number on their website, take a look at their address to determine if it’s a real one, do a search on their company name to make sure they’re registered with state authorities and that they don’t show up on any “scammer” lists.

You can usually tell pretty easily if you’re going to be comfortable dealing with a brick-and-mortar business. Learning about an online buyer requires more work.

Do Your Homework, Part II

Before speaking with (or emailing with) any online buyer, make sure you know exactly what you’re trying to sell and have a general idea of its value. Otherwise, the buyer will be holding all of the cards.

In the best-case scenario, you’ll have the original receipt and packaging (which make a Birkin bag more valuable at resale) and you’ll be able to list of all the purse’s important features. Otherwise, you’ll want to sit down and take inventory of all of the handbag’s attributes, including its age (a letter stamped on the right side of the strap is the “age code” you’ll need to look up online), its color and size in cm, the type of leather and hardware material used to craft it, its style (retourne or sellier), and of course any details on condition which might affect its value.

That information will let you do some Internet homework to determine the Birkin’s approximate value, and will be what the buyer needs to intelligently discuss purchasing the bag.

Do Remember That You’re In Charge

Salesmen and women are trained to take control of discussions and negotiations in order to strike the best deal for their company. That often puts someone trying to get the best price for their purse at a disadvantage right from the start.

For that reason, this is the most important thing to remember as you learn how to sell Hermès Birkin bags online: you’re in charge, because you have a valuable item that the buyer desperately wants to purchase.

Ask all the questions you want until you feel completely comfortable with the buyer, the company’s background and procedures, and the expertise of the appraisers who will be valuing your items.

Feel free to frankly discuss the positives and negatives of the Birkins you’re selling and to question anything you’re told by the buyer or see on the appraisal.

In short, you’re really the one with the upper hand. If you don’t like something about the buyer’s approach, if they duck your honest questions, if they don’t treat you with courtesy and honesty, if something smells fishy – just move on.

Your Hermès Birkins are in high demand. There are reputable, experienced companies like Dimorras willing to pay the highest value for your Birkins, while still treating you as a longtime, valued client. Take your time to find those buyers – it will be worth it.

How To Sell Hermès Birkin Bags Online – 3 Easy Steps