People Don’t Care If Their Clothes Are New Anymore

Remember when “secondhand” meant a trip to the Salvation Army for ugly sweater day? Or when “thrifting” (á la Macklemore) was picking up a wacky, sort-of-dirty fur thing from Goodwill that you’d probably never wear? The advent of the luxury resale market—or “re-commerce” or consignment or whatever you want to call it—has changed what secondhand means. In today’s economy, pre-owned goods are a booming business, and they’re on the cusp of even more explosive growth. The resale industry hit a milestone today as shares of the RealReal, a secondhand luxury retailer, started trading on Nasdaq after a blockbuster IPO. Priced at $20 a share, it jumped almost 50% in the first few minutes of trading after raising $300 million in the IPO. Read more at Quartz.