Birkin bags hit record prices even as the world ground to a halt.
New York (CNN)The desirability of an Hermès Birkin handbag — a symbol of rarefied wealth — is such that not even a global pandemic can dull demand for it. Instead, it has helped fire it up even more.
The bags are getting scooped up at record premiums in the pandemic era, according to Birkin resellers. Auction house Christie’s says that one of its two highest selling handbags in history is a Birkin made of crocodile skin that went for nearly $390,000 in November (The other was a Kelly bag, also from Hermès, that sold for close to $450,000).
At reseller Privé Porter, premiums are currently 50 to 100% of the retail price, said the company’s managing director Jeffrey Berk, “except for some collector versions, which can go as high as 10 times the retail price.”
