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Planet Money

Seven allegedly fake Chanel bags vs The RealReal

7/10/202626 min

Once upon a time, if you wanted to buy a luxury brand item secondhand (say, a Chanel handbag) you had to have an in. There was no easy way to find one. But over the past decade, the market for secondhand luxury goods has exploded. There are now many online resellers where you can shop for used and discounted luxury items. One big problem — how can you be sure if it’s real and authentic?

Some online resellers claim to have solved this problem. They say they’ve developed a process of authentication, and so buyers can trust that the bag is really Gucci or Cartier or Hermès or whatever. But according to some luxury brands, authenticity is something that is often imitated but never replicated.

In today’s episode of Planet Money, the fight between Chanel and The RealReal. And how luxury brands are reacting to the enormous and growing secondhand market for luxury goods.

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This episode of Planet Money was hosted by Amanda Aronczyk and Jeff Guo. It was produced by James Sneed with help from Charlotte Isidore, who also fact checked this episode. Jess Jiang edited the show and it was engineered by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money*'s executive producer.*

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Clips

Sticker Shock: $6,600 Chanel
Chanel Trademark Is Everything
Sniff Test Authentication
Immediate Luxury Buyer Remorse
RealReal’s Double Name Gag

Transcript preview

First 90 seconds

  1. Speaker 10:01

    This is Planet Money from NPR.

  2. Amanda Aronczyk· Host0:03

    If you are looking for luxury, there is no better place than Soho in Lower Manhattan. On a recent Tuesday morning, I headed there to meet up with Chana Chop. She is a self-described shopping enthusiast. Thank you so much for meeting me to go shopping.

  3. Chana Chop· Guest0:22

    Yes. An honor.

  4. Amanda Aronczyk· Host0:23

    Is it?

  5. Chana Chop· Guest0:24

    Any excuse to go shopping.

  6. Amanda Aronczyk· Host0:25

    [laughs] Chana is the perfect person for this task. She recently finished her MBA at Columbia, and while there she was one of the VPs of the Retail and Luxury Goods Club. Everyone, of course, is a VP of something at business school. Point is, Chana knows shopping and she knows retail. We walk around and Chana points out the shops. There's Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada.

  7. Chana Chop· Guest0:50

    We're passing Tiffany & Co. We're passing Mulberry, Canada Goose.

  8. Amanda Aronczyk· Host0:57

    Chana has spent so much time shopping here that she's even developed some tactics.

  9. Chana Chop· Guest1:02

    One of my favorite games to play, well, it's not a game, but it's like can you get the sales associate to give you a sparkling water? [laughs] And it's a sign of how seriously they're taking you as a shopper.

  10. Amanda Aronczyk· Host1:13

    Chana's problem, though, and maybe one of the reasons why she can't get that sparkling water, is that while she has a taste for luxury, it doesn't match her financial reality.

  11. Chana Chop· Guest1:23

    I bought my first luxury bag in 2019, and I paid $1,200 for it,

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