Shopping for your next handbag. It’s a practice we all know and love. But what if this celestial experience was set to change? What if you could instantly know a bag’s value on the luxury resale market just by looking at it? No scrolling through endless resale platforms, asking on forums or just plain guessing.
Clair stands for Comprehensive Luxury Appraisal Index for Resale. The AI (artificial intelligence) factor refers to how the image recognition technology can recognize around 15,000 bags across 50 brands. The tool boasts a 90% success rate.
The new Clair AI can be used to scan and work out the resale value of any bag you see, whether it be on the street, in the back of your closet, or on Netflix! Just think of all the shows you’re dying to use this on now!
Rebag originally launched Clair back in late 2019 however without the AI feature it worked differently. It required you filling in information about a specific handbag manually instead of simply taking a picture.
Rebag is certainly not the only luxury resale company to develop processes which aim to make it easier for consumers to find out what their designer items are worth. Vestiaire Collective launched its “resale calculator” back in 2016 and last year Fashionphile began offering a virtual appointment service with buyers. However, Rebag’s Clair AI is the first ever image recognition technology for luxury resale. The new technology signals that the market will begin to utilize the tools of the modern digital age.
How It Works
- Download the Rebag app
- Take a photo of the bag (must be decent quality and front-facing)
- Clair AI will generate between 1 and 5 predictions, ranked by highest likelihood
- Choose the result which matches your bag
- The price Rebag will pay you is generated (alternatively you can opt for Rebag credit which is a higher figure)
- If you agree to either one of these then print off the shipping label and send off to Rebag
It will ask you to select the color of the bag and its condition from a choice of four options, ranging from excellent to good. In some cases, it will ask you if the bag’s serial number is visible.
Clair AI can also be used on other accessories, including jewelry and watches.
Speaking to Vogue Runway, Rebag’s CEO, Charles Gorra, explains how Clair AI is set to influence which bags shoppers buy firsthand. The tool allows shoppers to easily find out how much a bag is worth on the resale market. Hence, they are more likely to purchase bags at retail which retain a higher percentage of their original price when being sold secondhand. “We’re trying to have people buy more firsthand bags so we can have more secondhand bags,” Gorra told Vogue Runway.
However, it is important to note that Clair AI cannot give you predictions about the future resale value of a bag, just its resale value currently. Additionally, the price given is how much Rebag will pay to buy your bag from you, whether in financial compensation or Rebag credit. It is not necessarily an accurate depiction of the average price the bag will go for on the resale market if sold through consignment, independently, or simply to another luxury resale platform.
When selling on the luxury resale market, you can typically get more money by selling your item through consignment, whereby a resale platform sells the item on your behalf and then takes a percentage of the sale price. It often takes longer but many opt to consign their luxury items with companies such as Vestiaire Collective and Fashionphile, for example.
To find out more about selling on the luxury resale market, click here.
Here at PurseBop, we’ve given Clair AI a go ourselves. We used the tool on some of our favorite designer bags. Check out the results below!
What do you think of Rebag‘s new Clair AI feature? Will you use it to make a more informed decision the next time you purchase a luxury handbag brand new? Will it change the way you buy pre-loved luxury? Let us know.
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Updated: February 27th, 2021
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