Selling second-hand luxury: Empowerment and enactment of social roles

Abstract

Consumption of luxury goods is morphing into a diverse proposition where consumers are actively adopting new roles: besides buyers and users, they are sometimes becoming sellers of luxury branded products. This paper examines meanings and values attached to the process of selling luxury goods. To investigate this issue, eighteen women who had previously sold luxury branded items were interviewed. The findings demonstrated that the act of selling luxury goods challenges and shapes conventional meanings attached to luxury: Firstly, there is an alteration to the symbolic value of the item. The process around selling strips luxury items down to the object of a financial transaction hereby empowering the consumer. Secondly, consumers who sell luxury items engender change in their social role. For some, the act of selling used luxury items enabled a perceived higher social status, and for others it contributed to the boosting of their role as a sustainable consumer.