For luxury addicts, it is hard to tell when to buy your dream bag. It's even more difficult if you are trying to save up money for that one item that might be out of season or sold out in the next year.
Should you splurge and get it now?
Should you wait?
Is the end tail economy change from the corona virus positively or negatively affecting the luxury market?
Will the price be better in the future?
These are all important factors to consider. Now is the time to buy secondhand luxury products but not brand new ones. And here is the reasoning: Secondhand and brand new luxury are both seeing opposite effects.
The Secondhand Market
Right now, online boutiques selling pre-loved goods like Fashionphile, The RealReal, and Tradesy have a variety of products at discounted prices. Since summer is here and people have a lot of time to spring clean and get rid of all of their luxury goods they haven't been using, I would say it is a good time to buy because there is less of a Christmas rush and stuff is moving out slower.
But for brick-and-mortar locations, this isn't the same case. Recently, I wanted to get a Louis Vuitton key pouch, so I went looking at local resale stores. But after looking up the original price and comparing it to the resale store, the resale location was actually $50 dollars more than it would be brand new because many of these businesses are trying to recoup losses from being closed for two months.
Brand New Luxury
Right now is a bad time to buy new. You need to wait a few months and let the market and businesses settle down. The reasoning for this is that some luxury brands, particularly one of the most talked about one's - Chanel, have been implementing a new price increase amid the pandemic. Also, since many luxury stores are still closed, there no options to buy online unless in contact with a sales assistant and some prices not even available. If you're buying something expensive, waiting to see it in person is important and since the price increase is implemented, you know the price isn't going to be changing in the near future.
So buy secondhand with your own judgement and compare it to brand new prices. And for brand new goods, just don't buy them right now. It's not worth it.