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Three Hermès icons, three completely different resale stories. The Birkin Sellier retains 183% of retail, the Mini Kelly II hits 282%, and the Constance trails at 137% — but the right choice depends on more than just the numbers. Here's the data, the strategy, and the honest answer for first-time buyers in 2026.
If you've decided your first Hermès bag is going to be a Birkin, a Kelly, or a Constance, the right pick in 2026 is the one that maps to how you actually live — not just the one with the highest resale multiple. But the resale data matters, and the gap between these three icons is wider than most buying guides will tell you. The Rebag Clair Report gives the Birkin Sellier a 183% value-retention score and the Mini Kelly II a stunning 282%, while the Constance trails at 137% and the standard Kelly at 130%. Translation: at retail and on the secondary market, you are not buying the same asset.
We pulled the actual numbers — 2026 boutique prices, current Fashionphile, TheRealReal, and Sotheby's comps, and the broader Hermès listings tracked on The Back Catalog — and broke down which of these three is the smarter buy for collectors, daily-wear users, and first-time Hermès clients. The honest answer might not be the one Instagram is selling you.
The 60-Second Verdict
Want the bag with the strongest resale ceiling and highest collector cachet? Birkin 25 in Togo or Epsom. Want the most wearable, day-to-night icon with proven 40-year track record? Kelly 25 or 28 in Sellier construction. Want a true crossbody you'll wear five days a week without thinking about it? Constance 18 in a neutral with palladium hardware. The Mini Kelly 20 is the highest-performing single SKU in the entire Hermès catalog right now — if you can find one near retail, buy it.
Birkin Sellier Retention
183%
Mini Kelly II Retention
282%
Constance Retention
137%
Birkin 25 Retail (2026)
$13,500
Kelly 25 Retail (2026)
$13,700
Constance 18 Retail (2026)
$9,800
Sellier Auction Premium
+70% over Retourne
Kelly/Birkin YoY Growth
+44% (Sotheby's 2025)
Born in 1984 from a famous in-flight conversation between Jane Birkin and then-Hermès CEO Jean-Louis Dumas, the Birkin is the most over-explained bag in luxury — and still the one with the most distorted secondary market. In July 2025, Jane Birkin's own prototype sold at Sotheby's Paris for $10.1 million, a world record for any handbag and a useful reminder that the ceiling on this category remains nominally infinite.
The Birkin is a structured top-handle tote with two rolled handles, an open-top design with a turn-lock flap, and the iconic dual front straps. It comes in four mainstream sizes — 25, 30, 35, and 40 — with the Birkin 25 now the most coveted size on the secondary market, frequently trading at 2.4x retail or higher for store-fresh Togo examples, per Sotheby's 2026 market commentary. The 30 is the everyday workhorse, the 35 has cooled significantly since 2020, and the 40 is now niche. As of May 2026, The Back Catalog tracks the Birkin 25 between $22,549 and $40,596 across resale platforms, the Birkin 30 at $14,187–$27,002, and the Birkin 35 at $17,185–$49,500 — a useful real-money sense-check on the size hierarchy.
Most Birkins are Retourne — stitched and turned inside out for the soft, slouchy silhouette you see in every street-style photo. The Sellier Birkin, reintroduced in 2010, is constructed with the seams on the outside, producing a crisp, architectural shape that holds its form. Sellier makes up roughly 5% of Birkins sold at auction, per Sotheby's data, and in 2022 the average auction Sellier hammered at nearly $28K — a 70% premium over Retourne's $16.5K average. If you're buying for collector appreciation, Sellier is the format to chase.
Buy a Birkin if…
You want maximum brand recognition, you carry the bag as a statement piece more than a daily tool, and you're prepared to pay a 2x+ premium over retail to skip the quota system. The Birkin's silhouette photographs better than the Kelly's, and the resale ceiling is higher — but the floor is also more exposed to fashion cycles.
The Kelly is the older sister — designed in the 1930s, renamed in 1956 after Grace Kelly used it to shield her pregnancy from photographers. It is, in 2026, the bag the in-the-know Hermès client buys first. The standard Kelly retains 130% of retail per Rebag, but the Mini Kelly II — the 20cm version — holds the highest value-retention number in the entire luxury handbag market at 282%. A current date stamp Mini Kelly 20 in neutral Epsom now trades around $30,000+ on the secondary market, against a January 2026 retail of $11,400. That's roughly 2.6x boutique, all day, every day. For sizing context, our catalog shows the Kelly 28 in etoupe trading between $11,255 and $32,492 across resale platforms.
The Kelly comes in the same two constructions, but the buying logic flips. Kelly Sellier — the structured, formal version — is the iconic shape (think Grace, think the Princess Diana 1990s archive). Kelly Retourne is softer, more casual, and easier to use one-handed. As of January 2026, Hermès unified Kelly 25 pricing at $13,700 regardless of construction — but on resale, Fashionphile's data continues to show Sellier commanding 15-30% premiums. Pick Sellier for collection, Retourne for daily wear.
Worth its own paragraph: the Kelly Pochette — a tiny evening clutch shaped like a Kelly — retails around $7,900 in Swift leather, and a store-fresh pastel example in pristine condition is now trading at $30,000+ on the secondary market. That's a 4.5x+ retail premium, per Sotheby's. It's borderline unbuyable at retail without a serious pre-spend history, and the resale market reflects that scarcity ruthlessly.
Buy a Kelly if…
You want the bag that goes from a Tuesday lunch to a Saturday wedding without changing anything. The Kelly is the most versatile of the three — single rolled handle plus detachable shoulder strap means it functions as a top-handle, crossbody, or clutch depending on the moment. It's also the one Hermès SAs tend to offer to first-time quota clients before a Birkin.
Designed in 1969 by Catherine Chaillet and named after her newborn daughter, the Constance is the shoulder bag of the Hermès icon set — a flap bag with the unmistakable enamel-and-metal H clasp on the front. Unlike Birkin and Kelly, the Constance is not a quota bag in most regions, which makes it easier to acquire at retail — but harder to flip at a premium.
The Constance comes in many sizes, but two dominate the secondary market: the Constance 18 (Mini) and the Constance 24. The Mini 18 is the strongest investment performer in the family — combining limited production, a practical crossbody size, and broad appeal — particularly in classic neutrals (black, etoupe, gold) with palladium or gold hardware. The Constance 24 is the original size and the more practical day bag. The newer Constance Slim and Constance To Go — Hermès's wallet-on-chain answer — have softened in 2025, with PurseBop reporting that the Kelly To Go has pulled ahead in collector demand.
The Constance's 137% retention is still excellent — better than most luxury handbags in absolute terms — but the gap to Birkin and Kelly has actually widened in 2025. Unit volume for the Constance declined approximately 15–20% year-over-year, with total transaction value down 30% versus 2023–2024 levels as collectors rotated into Mini Kellys and Sellier Birkins. The 2026 retail of $9,800 for the Constance 18 is the cheapest entry point to the Hermès icon trinity, but it's also the one most exposed to the smaller-format hype cycle.
Buy a Constance if…
You want a true hands-free Hermès you'll actually carry. The Constance 18 fits a phone, keys, lipstick, and a card holder — that's it — but the long adjustable strap, light weight, and instantly recognizable H clasp make it the most practical Hermès for urban daily wear. It's also the easiest to acquire at retail if you have any relationship with an SA.
Here's the full hierarchy by value retention, sourced from the Rebag Clair Report and cross-checked against current Fashionphile, TheRealReal, and Sotheby's comps:
A separate market data point worth weighing: Sotheby's reported that handbag sales for Birkin and Kelly grew 44% in 2025 over 2024 and 55% over 2023. The category is accelerating, not cooling — but the gains are concentrating in smaller sizes and rarer constructions.
| Platform | Avg Price | Seller Fee | Auth | Buyer Protection | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hermès Boutique (retail) | $13,500 | — | Direct from Hermès — but you cannot buy a Birkin or Kelly online. Boutique-only, by offer from your SA. The Birkin 25 in Togo Retourne retails at $13,500 as of January 2026 (a 6.3% increase over 2025). | ||
| The Back Catalog (live range) | $31,573 | — | Live cross-platform aggregator. Tracks the Birkin 25 between $22,549 and $40,596 across resale venues — useful as a sanity-check before you commit on any one platform. | ||
| Fashionphile | $30,000 | — |
Birkin and Kelly are quota bags, which in most regions caps a single client at two per calendar year and requires either a wishlist (Europe) or a relationship-based offer (North America, Asia). The Constance is not a quota bag in most markets, which is why it's a common first Hermès purchase. None of the three is sold on hermes.com — every quota bag transaction happens face-to-face inside a boutique.
The unwritten rule, per multiple insider sources including Privé Porter's client-vetting guide and The Big Bag Blog's 2026 pre-spend guide: expect a 2x–3x pre-spend on scarves, jewelry, shoes, and home before being offered a Birkin or Kelly. That's not a rule. It's a tendency. Your SA, your store, your patience, and your willingness to take whatever color the boutique offers will matter more than the dollar figure.
The Resale Math vs. The Pre-Spend Math
If a Birkin 25 retails at $13,500 and a 2.5x pre-spend ratio gets you offered one, you've spent ~$47,000 of capital ($33,500 in side purchases + the bag) to own a $32,000 resale-value asset. Including the bag's appreciation, you may be roughly even after a year — but you also own three years of scarves, a watch, and a piece of homeware. Buying the same Birkin 25 from a reputable reseller costs $28,000–$32,000 today, no waiting, no side spend. The pre-spend route only wins if you actually wanted the side items.
If you're going the resale route — and for most first-time Hermès buyers in 2026, this is the rational path — the choice of platform matters as much as the choice of bag. Here's how the major venues actually compare, based on our broader platform reviews on Fashionphile, TheRealReal, and Vestiaire Collective:
What about the Hermès waitlist?
European boutiques use a structured wishlist — one style, one leather, one hardware, three colors. North America runs on relationship. If you walk into Madison Avenue cold and ask for a Birkin 25 in black Togo, the answer is no. If you walk in three times over six months, buy scarves and a belt, and leave a wishlist, the answer is maybe. For Constance, the relationship bar is materially lower.
If we strip the romance out and let the catalog data make the call, the 2026 decision tree looks like this:
The Birkin will always be the most famous of the three. The Kelly will always be the most versatile. The Constance will always be the most wearable. The honest truth — backed by the resale data — is that none of these three has ever delivered a negative-real-return decade. They are, collectively, the only handbag category that has consistently outperformed the S&P 500 over rolling 10-year windows, per Awisee's 2026 Birkin statistics report. The wrong answer in 2026 is not picking one.
Browse current Hermès listings on The Back Catalog to see live cross-platform pricing on Birkin, Kelly, Constance, and the rest of the Hermès icon set — including our broader luxury handbag market coverage. For more on how to spot a fake or evaluate condition before you commit, see our luxury resale authentication programs comparison.
| Neiman Marcus-backed. Owns inventory directly. Highest condition consistency on Birkins. 15-day return window plus lifetime authenticity guarantee. Expect a Birkin 25 in Togo with gold hardware between $28,000 and $32,000. |
| Sotheby's Marketplace | $29,000 | — | White-glove curated marketplace. Best for collector-grade Sellier Birkins, exotic leathers, and rare colorways. Rigorous authentication. Birkin 25 Togo typically $28,000–$30,000. |
| TheRealReal | $27,000 | 20% | Widest selection, fastest turnover, lowest floor prices. But has had documented Hermès authentication failures — inspect the photos and ask questions before committing. Range: $24,000–$30,000. |
| Madison Avenue Couture | $33,000 | — | Dealer-style consignor with deep Hermès inventory and full provenance. Highest prices but the right venue if you want a specific color/hardware/year combo. $30,000–$36,000 range. |