The Market-Size Number Depends on Who You Ask

Ask five research firms what the global secondhand luxury market was worth in 2024, and the answers won't agree. One report valued the global secondhand luxury goods market at USD 37.2 billion in 2024. Another put the same year's figure at US$40.8 billion, projecting growth to $73.8 billion by 2030. A third estimated the global luxury resale market at USD 32.47 billion in 2024. A fourth put it at just USD 25.78 billion. Same year, same industry, a spread of $15 billion depending on which paywalled report you buy.

Then there's the number platforms cite about themselves. A Boston Consulting Group report commissioned with Vestiaire Collective projected secondhand fashion and luxury could reach up to $360 billion by 2030, growing three times faster than the firsthand market. That figure comes from the platform's own PR channel, not an independent audit — a useful reminder that a market-size claim tied to a company press release deserves more scrutiny than one buried in a market-research subscription. The more reliable evidence sits one level down, in what each platform's own financials say about itself.

Vinted Found the Formula — Twice

In 2024, Vinted Group delivered consolidated revenue of €813.4 million, a 36% increase over 2023's €596.3 million. The Group reported a net profit of €76.7 million, up 330% from €17.8 million in 2023, with adjusted EBITDA of €158.9 million. Vinted also closed a major secondary share sale in October 2024, valuing the business at €5 billion.

The follow-through matters more than the headline. In 2025, Vinted grew gross merchandise value by 47% year-over-year to €10.8 billion, generating €1.1 billion in annual revenue and €62 million in net profit. Adjusted EBITDA came in at €151 million, down 5% year-on-year, and net profit fell 19%, as the company invested to grow the German market and expand into new categories. A profitable platform choosing to spend some of that profit on expansion is a different story than an unprofitable one hoping growth eventually pays for itself — but it's worth watching whether the 2025 dip is a one-year reinvestment or the start of a trend.

The RealReal's First Real Profit

The RealReal, Inc. (Nasdaq: REAL), the online marketplace for authenticated resale luxury goods, closed 2024 with a net loss of $134 million, an improvement of $34 million year-over-year, alongside positive $9 million of adjusted EBITDA. Full-year GMV reached $1.83 billion, up 6%, and revenue hit $600 million, up 9% versus 2023 — the company's first full year of positive adjusted EBITDA. Full-year operating cash flow was positive $27 million.

That milestone lands after years of red ink. The company cut its losses from $196 million in 2022 to $168 million in 2023 on revenues of $549 million. A still-sizable net loss and a newly positive EBITDA can coexist — depreciation, stock compensation and one-off charges sit between the two lines. The distinction is worth tracking through 2025's filings, since one profitable year on a non-GAAP metric is not the same as a durable turnaround.

Vestiaire Collective's Valuation Went the Other Way

Vestiaire's headline number has moved in the opposite direction. A 2021 funding round including SoftBank Group Corp and Generation Investment Management raised the Paris-headquartered company's valuation to $1.7 billion. A subsequent round led by private equity firm Eurazeo, its largest shareholder, valued the firm at 1.4 billion euros — about $1.5 billion — in mid-2022. By February 2024, CB Insights pegged the company's post-money valuation at roughly $1.17 to $1.18 billion. That's a decline of close to a third from the 2021 peak, even with Kering — Gucci's parent — remaining a backer.

The financials help explain the discount. Vestiaire's 2023 figures showed revenue of $164 million on gross merchandise value of $888 million, alongside negative EBITDA of $33.4 million. While Vinted was already profitable and The RealReal was closing in on breakeven, Vestiaire was still losing roughly a third of its revenue in EBITDA terms — a materially different cost structure for a company competing in the same category.

What Authentication Actually Costs

The economics of secondhand luxury run through verification, and that infrastructure isn't free. Vestiaire Collective verifies and quality-checks items at one of four regional authentication centers, located in Tourcoing, Crawley, Hong Kong and Brooklyn. The company provides automatic physical inspection for all purchases over €1,000, with an optional €15 charge for items below that threshold. Its own verification training program, established in 2017, requires 750 hours of instruction and specialization in a specific category. In 2024, roughly 10% of listed items were rejected during digital verification alone, for reasons including poor image quality and item condition. That's a lot of paid staff time spent rejecting inventory before it ever generates a commission.

Rebag has tried to shrink that cost with software rather than headcount. Its Clair AI tool recognizes and delivers a resale value estimate for handbags across more than 50 brands and 15,000 Clair Codes, built on six years of accumulated image data. The company said the tool tripled its sourcing capacity after launch, growing its marketplace to more than 30,000 items. An algorithmic first pass doesn't eliminate physical authentication for higher-value pieces, but it does change where the labor cost sits in the funnel — worth noting for readers modeling platform margins.

What to Check Next

None of this is a call to buy into, or bet against, any of these companies. What's observable and worth tracking: whether Vestiaire's next funding round or secondary sale confirms a valuation stabilizing near $1.2 billion or falling further; whether The RealReal's positive adjusted EBITDA holds through its next several quarterly filings rather than reverting; whether Vinted's 2025 profit dip reverses in its next annual report or marks a shift toward reinvestment as the norm; and whether the platform-commissioned $360 billion 2030 projection gets echoed or contradicted by the next round of independent market-sizing reports. The gap between those two kinds of numbers — audited company filings versus market-size estimates — is where the real signal in this sector currently lives.