As fur coats and Swiss watches fall out of vogue among China’s elites facing a corruption crackdown, another luxury sector is quietly thriving. The second-hand luxury market has seen a jump this year, according to a survey of stores by Fortune Character Institute, FCI, a Chinese luxury lifestyle publication.
China’s second-hand luxury stores range from independent boutiques selling, renting, or repairing designer wares to chains like Hong Kong’s Milan Station or Japan’s Brand Off, both of which have stores on the mainland. (They’re not to be confused with the stalls full of fake Vuitton in Beijing’s famous Silk Street Market.) Online operations have sprung up too, such as Secoo.com, which has around 600,000 registered users .
Second-hand designer goods can cost as little as a third of their original price.On Secco, a Louis Vuitton bag sells for 2,750 yuan or $450 (link in Chinese), compared to a retail price of 8,350 renminbi. Rare or limited-edition items can even fetch more second-hand than the original price.
According to the FCI survey of about 200 second-hand luxury shops in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, sales totaled about 3 billion yuan ($490 million) in the first half of 2013. That’s pretty small compared to China’s overall luxury market, worth about $18 billion in 2012 (paywall) according to Bain & Company. But it’s a 30% jump from the year before. FCI posits that the second-hand luxury market could grow 20% this year, which is about how much sales in China’s traditional luxury sector grew in 2012. (Analysts are expecting the traditional luxe sector to grow a measly 5% to 7% (paywall) this year.)
The number of second-hand stores has grown too, to a little over 800, from just over 500 last year. Stores have been setting up in smaller cities like Changsha, Hangzhou and Chengdu as well as in larger, wealthier urban centers, the publication said.
While China’s austerity campaign and the increasing scrutiny of officials’ behavior by Chinese bloggers are likely helping, second-hand stores have been around for a while, as a way for wealthy Chinese to sell off unwanted goods. Pawn shops began appearing in the country in the 1990s and copycat stores of Milan Station, the second-hand luxury chain from Hong Kong, were all over the country by 2011. Today, second-hand stores always see extra business after the holidays when the most “gifting” occurs. Another explanation is that as more Chinese travel abroad—especially in Asia where second-hand luxury stores have been popular for years in Japan and South Korea—they’ve become more accepting of the idea of wearing someone else’s expensive hand-me-downs.
反腐让皮草和瑞士表等奢侈品在中国的精英中逐渐失宠，但与此同时，奢侈品行业的另一个市场正在悄然兴起。根据中国富豪生活方式研究机构财富品质研究院的一项调查，今年的二手奢侈品市场人气大涨。
中国的二手奢侈品店既有独立的精品销售店、租赁店、修理店，又有大牌连锁店，如香港的米兰站和日本的二手名牌店Brand Off等（北京的秀水卖的是名牌仿货，而这些店是真材实料的名品）。此外网上店铺也非常火，secoo.com的注册用户已达60万人。
某些二手品牌货的价格可低至原价的三分之一。在secoo上，原价8350元的LV的包，售价仅为2750元，合450美元（还有中文链接）。珍藏版或限量版的二手奢侈品价格则可能会高于原价。
财富品质研究院对北京、上海和广州的约200家二手奢饰品店进行了调查，结果显示，2013年上半年的总销售额高达30亿元（或4.9亿美元）。相对于整 个中国的奢侈品市场，这仅是一小部分。根据美国贝恩咨询公司的调查，2012年中国的奢侈品市场价值180亿美元，较前一年增加了30%。财富品质研究院 预计，今年二手奢侈品市场的增长率将为20%，与中国传统奢侈品行业在2012年的销售增长保持一致（分析家们认为，今年中国的传统奢侈品行业的增长将仅 为5%-7%左右）。
二手店的数量也从去年的500多家猛增到800多家。根据报道，在长沙、杭州、成都等中型城市，和一些较大的富裕的城市中心，也纷纷出现了二手奢侈品店。
随着中国政府倡行节约，中国网民对贪腐行为的不断曝光，作为国内富人处置奢侈品的渠道，二手商店的生意一时间风生水起。从上世纪90年代起，国内开始出现 典当行；到2011年，各种效仿香港的米兰站的二手奢侈品商店在大陆遍地开花。如今，每次送礼频发的假日结束后，二手商店都会迎来红火的生意。另外一种解 说是，随着越来越多的国人出境旅游，尤其是去日本和韩国这些二手奢侈品店已盛行多年的亚洲国家，越来越多的人们接受了使用二手的贵重物品的观念