The RealReal Just Got Realer to Me

MyLittleBird photoillustration.

AND SO SHE WENT. I reported last week that I had consigned my 1998-vintage Hermès Kelly bag to the “luxury consignment” site The RealReal. Here’s the update, sooner than I would have predicted.

After being collected by the Luxury Manager in Washington DC, my Kelly must have spent about a week being authenticated and assessed. Then she appeared on my private “My Sales” list, joining a Bottega Veneta tote, a sturdy Kate Spade shoulder bag in a classic shape and a couple of Hermès scarves.

But still, Kelly didn’t pop up on the public site. There were three or four other Kelly “Sellier” bags in smooth black box calf already for sale; I assumed the savvy merchants behind The RealReal were waiting for the rest to sell before adding to the Kelly inventory. Still I checked each day to see if mine would be made public. A day or two  went by.

Then one day I didn’t check. The next day—two? three?—days after my Kelly went public, the image on the “My Sales” list had a bold SOLD sign stamped across it.

Why was my black Kelly snapped up before the others already listed? Well, I assume the price tag was one factor: $5,200 instead of $5,600 for the others. My inner Kelly girl wanted to protest the inequity, but then mine sold—reaping me an 80 percent commission—and theirs haven’t yet.

I’m happy someone else now gets to inhale the heady scent of Kelly’s Hermès leather and hope she has found a home on someone’s arm, not her closet. And I can use the $4,000-plus. And yet . . . I noticed maybe a dozen mini Amazon Evelyne crossbody bags in delicious colors, perfect for walking a pup in the spring—$2,300 to $2,600. Yes, it’s a fortune, but if the renovations to my new apartment turn out to be way out of sight, maybe I’ll console myself with Evelyne.

—Nancy McKeon