Hello, it’s Angel 👋and welcome to our premium member-only edition of our collection guide.
This is Part 2 of Ban Island’sHermès Collection Report: Kelly Edition where we gather and analyze ALL of the available Kelly resale listings and sold prices from around the world. We examine the sold %, and the rarity and availability of each of the styles, sizes, colors and hardware options.
With only 2.9% of Mini Kelly 20s and about 6% of both the Kelly Sellier and Retourne 25 available, this definitely contributes to the higher collection value!
Note: less than 0.5% of Kelly Selliers are in size 40 and this is unlabeled in the chart above.
2. Gold, Palladium or Rose Gold? Which hardware?
As I’ve mentioned in the Birkin Collection Value Report, hardware color may come down to personal style and preference, rather than the data. I personally love to match warm tone colors with Gold (Rose Gold if I’m lucky) and cool tone colors with Palladium.
With that being said, Gold is more common in the preloved market with 53.6%, closely followed by Palladium with about 46%. Notice how these two hardware colors are almost evenly split?
A big trend in all of our research: Rose Gold Hardware is super rare! With less than 1% of Kelly bags with Rose Gold hardware, you guessed it, these bags will fetch for way more in the preloved world.
3. What about colors? Which Hermès colors are most common?
Similar to the Birkin preloved market, neutral colors are the most common and very popular with Noir in the lead for both. (Birkin Noir was only around 9% though!) Did not expect to see Lime, this pop of color, to be so common for both the Sellier and Retourne styles.
4. Now let’s get to the best part, what are the actual collection value prices?
In order to answer this question, we excluded the lowest and highest price outliers, and averaged out all the actual listing prices for each style, size and color. Keep in mind that we only took into account bags in new or excellent condition.
No crazy expensive or dirt cheap listings reported here. (All currencies are in USD).
We included the collection value prices of the most common colors here, but feel free to send us a question if there is a specific style, size, color and hardware you would like to see. Or, if there is public demand, we may just show you the full table of all colors!
NOTE: For this and the next few tables, HSS/SO and Exotic bags were excluded from these calculations.
5. So then, which Hermès Kelly size has the highest profit margin?
Mini bags are on the rise, but you already knew that. 😉
What’s interesting is Size 35 and 40 actually are selling below retail price, so watch out for that. Rumor has it that big bags are coming back strong in 2022, so let’s see what happens in the next edition of the collection value report.
These price listings were gathered from December 2020 or older. K20 and K25 collection value prices in 2021 have already risen to $19-21K USD.
6. Which hardware has the highest collection value price?
Hermès Kelly handbags with Rose Gold hardware are extremely rare, and are typically found on HSS/SO bags only. Because of that, they did not make for good comparisons for this analysis.
While Gold hardware has the highest collection value for most of the sizes, it is interesting to see that bags like the Kelly Sellier 32 and Kelly Retourne 40 have a higher collection value with Palladium hardware.
7. How common are the different Hermès leather types?
Majority of the Kelly Sellier bags on the preloved market are made from Epsom leather (over 70%). Epsom leather is a stamped-grain leather that is stiff to the touch, but is very durable and lightweight - perfect for people on the go like me.
Followed by Epsom is Box leather with 17.4%. This calfskin is the oldest type of leather Hermes uses and is used to make many vintage Kelly bags.
Note: Tadelakt makes up for less than 2% of Kelly bags and is unlabelled in the chart above.
Togo leather seems to be the Hermès brand fan favourite, and the large availability (over 50%) of this leather reflects this. Togo leather is lighter than Taurillon Clemence (the second most popular leather), but both are slouchier leathers that are known for their durability.
Note: Evercalf makes up 0.7% of Kelly bags and is unlabelled in the chart above.
8. How common are Hermès Special Order/Horseshoe Stamp bags in the market?
The answer: not common at all! Only 4.2% of listings (~160) were Horseshoe Stamp/Special Order bags.
About 100 SO bags are available and released per flagship store around April and October each year.
👋Hey, if you are planning your SO bag, play around with our visualizer (over 100+ colors and hardware options) here - it’s included with your premium membership - get the perfect bag absolutely right, the first time.
