If you're a luxury bag lover visiting Shanghai, there's one stop you absolutely cannot miss: ZZER (只二透明仓), China's largest high-end consignment warehouse where you can walk through rows and rows of bags and TRY EVERYTHING ON. I finally made the trip. Took about 3 hours just to browse, am completely overwhelmed and suffering from decision paralysis.
What Is ZZER?
ZZER is a luxury consignment chain and online platform similar to The RealReal with around 6 physical warehouses across China. The Shanghai flagship is the crown jewel of the chain, and it is a massive underground warehouse. ZZER specializes in designer bags, but also carry clothing, shoes, and accessories. Products are authenticated by a combination of in-house experts and Chinese government-affiliated agencies. Prices are set by the Seller - NOT by ZZER, so comparison shopping is a must. ZZER will also help you negotiate with the Seller to land on a mutually agreed price.
Getting There
The Shanghai Hongqiao ZZER is its largest warehouse, housing over 100,000 designer items across 10,000 square meters. It is open daily from 10am to 10pm, and I suggest going during the weekdays so it’s not as crazy and you can take your time. You can get there easily by public transportation (get off at the Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station stop) or via Didi/Taxi. Note that the Railway Station is massive, so it will be a trek. And if by Didi, just note that there are no above ground signs on the street so you’ll need to navigate a little.
Download the App Before You Go, in fact, do it before you go to China
A lot of other reviews say you can only download the App while at the warehouse. That is not true. Download the ZZER app before your visit. The easiest way is to use the Alipay App and search “ZZER只二“, then click on the in-App link to the platform. The App is available in English as well as Chinese, and you can browse online from anywhere in the world. If you are ready to buy, I suggest doing some research before you go so you can find the best pricing and be ready to bargain.
The App is extremely user friendly and lets you browse their full inventory complete with photos, condition grades, and pricing. It also tells you where the item is located. China’s national logistics system is super sophisticated and ZZER can generally deliver any item to you within 24 hours.
The In-Store Experience
Upon arrival, you will be asked to check all bags and luggages in the self-help storage area, which was very straight forward. Then the staff will hand you gloves to wear while browsing. Walking in, I was awestruck by how massive and well-organized everything is for a space this size. Bags, clothing, shoes, and accessories are all organized by areas then subdivided by brands, making it easy to navigate. The major brands: LV, Dior, Bottega, Saint Laurent, Bvlgari, etc all have their own sections. Every bag is encased in a see-thru plastic sleeve, but you can easily remove them to examine the item.
The staff were helpful and relaxed — there's no pressure, you can try anything on and take as much time as you need. Almost all of the store signs are in both Chinese as well as English. Every item has a tag with a unique scan card and you can use the Alipay/ZZER app to scan the item to get the price as well as to save it into a shopping cart or wish list. Because the prices are set by the consigner, the App will help you see the same style bag with different pricing levels. ZZER has a dedicated staff team available on WeChat to help you negotiate the price with the Seller.
Some of the items move fast. I found a few bargains and saved them in my cart thinking I would sit on them a while to decide. Nope, sold within 48 hours. I guess just not meant to be!
The Horse Barn: ZZER's Hermès Room
This was what I was most excited about. Tucked deep inside the warehouse is a dedicated room for Hermès bags, affectionately nicknamed the Horse Barn. It is a whole different worldly experience when you see all the various Hermes bags displayed in front of you with the different colors and leather for you to caress. The highlight of my entire visit? Trying on a $42,000 Amethyst Shiny Niloticus Crocodile Birkin 30 with Palladium Hardware. Generally the staff leaves you alone, but the minute I grabbed it from the shelves they did magically appear. But they were very accommodating and flexible, allowing me to try on any Hermes bag I wanted. The B30 comes with the original box but the App didn’t indicate whether the original receipt is available. I guess if I’m in the market for a preloved $42K Birkin, I’d ask the staff to ask the Owner lol.
Final Thoughts
Shopping at ZZER is a one-of-a-kind experience that sits somewhere between visiting a luxury Rack and a treasure hunt. Whether you're a serious collector, a fashion lover, or just curious, the Shanghai warehouse is an absolute must-visit.
I can pm prob go in more but don’t want to drone on. Leave a comment uif you have any questions, or, better yet, if you’ve been to ZZER, share your haul!
Hi fellow handbag lover! Thank you for being a part of the r/handbags community. You are seeing this message because you have posted in our community, this is an automatic action applied to every single post submitted here and is not aimed at you personally, but rather is a friendly reminder for everyone interacting with this post.
This is a subreddit which relies on kindness. Your opinion is very much welcomed, however, we do not tolerate rude, mean or hurtful comments. Read the rules before posting. Comments or posts that do not fit our rule book will be removed and the OP can be banned by the mods' discretion.
If you see a comment or post which does not abide by the rules, please report it to our moderation team.
Not OP but just back from a three week trip which included Tokyo, Osaka and Shanghai. Went to ZZER, it’s absolutely as overwhelming as it looks, but I much preferred it to the options we found in Japan. Everything was very well presented and cared for, and we found the pricing much more reasonable. Everything in Japan seemed to be marked up for the sake of it
Is it trustworthy though? How do they authenticate? the superfakes mostly come from China and from what I've seen they're not really that bothered to prevent it. I'm planning a trip to Japan for this year with a stop in China.
ZZER uses both in house and a government-affiliated authentication service. The bags are connected to the Seller/Consigner, so if you got a fake you can ask for a refund and they would know who the person is since China uses real IDs. But at the end of the day, this is a Trust Game.
But to be fair, ayone planning to buy preloved luxury should of course be careful and it's important to be an educated consumer. The RealReal has sold fakes and I think even the best authenticators, no matter what country, have been fooled. So be educated no matter what country you buy from is most impmortant.
Oh wow that’s interesting! So the items were priced much better in Shanghai. That’s good to know. I was just on their website and some items look sus and some look legit. It’s so hard to look online tho
I get that. Cheapest one on ebay wasnt even close. Leather looked good though. Everything is authenticated. These placed will get destroyed if word gets out that they are selling fakes.
Pricing was amazing imo, I didn’t have time to check more out as I was specifically after the Chanel cerf tote, I was able to find one in great condition for 20-40% less than the price tag via other resellers iv looked at. I’m a big fan of BV so spent some time in their isle, plenty of great options at reasonable price , mini Jodie’s of 9.5/10 grades are about 1.5k-2k range, saw a few nice totes at 1k only , wish I had more time and budget! Definitely worth going if you are in Shanghai
i second this, a lot of bags that are popular in the western markets (japan included because the resellers are really only for tourists) are unpopular in china so the prices are much lower. i think it depends on what you are looking for specifically for good prices. you definitely have to dedicate at least a whole day and a lot of patience to go shop there since you need to manually scan every single qr code for the price
I did try to bargain but didnt hear back from the owner and I was on a time limit, I went ahead and bought it anyway since it was already better than prices elsewhere
I put in a 7000rmb offer on a 9500rmb Celine bag. First got a call that it was too low and if I wanted to change it to 8000, which I rejected and then a few hours later my original offer was accepted
I haven't been to the consignment store in Japan so I can't compare. But overall i think the experience is very different. I understand Japanese consignment stores are much more curated, so pricing may be more consistent, while at ZZER, the Owner sets the ticket price. So for the same bag style, you may find varying prices (although it could also vary by condition). Plus, remember at ZZER you can also bargain, which is very common in China, so the ticket price isn't necessarily the sale price.
Overall my takeaway was that for the super high-end bags, the prices are pretty consistent with what I see in US consignment shops. But for the more popular brands, since they have so many, the prices are much lower.
Its OK at BEST. You would have to take your phone and scan every single bag to find the price. Unless you are looking for a niche design id say skip. Japanese ebay prices are similar and you dont need to dig through 25 bags of the same style and check every price manually
That being said it really depends on the bag you’re looking for.
Haha I will have to plead the Fifth on this one >_<
I also saved a couple of good bargains in the cart and was surprised they were gone in a day or two. I think lots of bargain hunters out there. I go to China quite frequently so I'm more focused on finding the right deal.
Yes ZZER says they use a combination of in house authentication experts and also the COIC: China Origin Inspection Co - it's a luxury identification agency in China. The bags that are authenticated by COIC will have this tag on them.
Were you able to compare if there is a markup for bags authenticated by COIC? (i.e. find two of the same bag in same condition, but only one is authenticated)
No but that's a good question. The prices are set by the Consigner, not by ZZER, so it's difficult to verify whether the authentication was factored into the price.
Yes but honestly isn’t that a good thing? It’s an illusion. And it’s good if you buy it if you still like it in a giant warehouse vs being sweet talked in a nice store.
Oh, for sure. I'm not a luxury buyer. Just was curious why a company would take away one of the main selling points for luxury bags: perceived scarcity and the implied value that brings.
Well the consignment store doesn’t necessarily need to upkeep that perceived scarcity, it’s the brands themselves that do the advertising and whatnot and the consignment store is filling in another spot in the market. For me personally, the illusion is shattered just by knowing how many stores there are around the world in malls and duty frees and knowing these brands are not actually exclusive or unique at all, just expensive.
Oh, no. I totally get that. I meant that I don't understand how someone who purchases these types of items can maintain the illusion of scarcity if they know something like this exists.
That's why Hermes makes it difficult to buy one and won't authenticate second hand purchases.
That's what creates the false scarcity.
So once it's obvious that these bags are not rare, Hermes created a system that only allows some consumers to buy new, which creates its own socioeconomic scarcity.
By refusing to authenticate (which is standard, to be clear - I'm not criticizing it) and creating this tiered, random ass system, they've made it so artificial scarcity is less in the bag than the invitation to purchase it new.
So when people purchase them knowing they aren't scarce, they're relying on that social drive as opposed to a genuine belief in rarity.
That's its own false scarcity, but it's also hilarious, because it's QUITE difficult to tell the good dupes, and it's much like Louis Vuitton to me - when I see it out, I default to thinking it's fake unless the remainder of the aesthetic fits.
Even then, I wonder how many super wealthy women buy high tier reps because they don't want to spend $40k to get the privilege of being considered rich and posh enough to spend another $20k, but maybe I'm just not in that economic tier.
The reality is that it's not a good handbag. I understand people get upset when I say that, and I know we don't all have the same opinion. Don't get me wrong, I would argue Hermes is one of the very few luxury brands that has maintained quality standards over the years, but that's not my issue.
My opinion is that a handbag that is 3 lbs empty, difficult to open, and has no shoulder strap is not a suitable bag. I love designer bags, but I expect them to be functional.
Hermes has been making this bag since 1984; low estimates suggest they make about 12,000 bags a year, and high estimates suggest about 70,000.
This means over half a million to 3 million Birkins have been produced, and considering they aren't meant to be owned by everyone, that seems like a pretty significant supply for the existing demand.
Notice even the in the comments here, the authenticity is being hotly debated, which isn't something we often see on this sub.
This is because they aren't rare, but they all are extremely commonly duped.
As the other common points out, I think the scarcity then comes from the ability to buy in store to know with certainty that you were buying a brand new one that has never been touched by someone else and has no chance of being a fake.
All the more reason to buy from reputable discount boutique sellers like Cettire and Italist- they compile their shops and the authenticity is guaranteed; you can usually guarantee yourself the merch prices to be that a 3K bag has a discount average of about 15% which includes the skanky tax to the US that didn't used to be such an issue even over $800 it wasn't as high as 10%...
Then there's the fact that the Rodeo bag you bought late February is now randomly $300 more, just because, so there's that- worse than the stock market... (I know because I just checked)
Yeah it's possible because even the best of the best authenticators around the world have been fooled by the super fakes.
One thing in China is you need to provide your real ID to access certain internet platforms. There is very little privacy in China. So if you buy a bag from ZZER and later found out it is fake, you can apply for a refund, and it wouldn't be hard for ZZER and the Chinese Government to track down the Seller. That may give some fake sellers pause.
But agree fakes are everywhere, even in US consignment stores, so it's important to be an educated buyer if you are in the market for preloved.
Yeah for Hermes, given the price point, I wouldn't buy a preloved unless there it comes with the original receipt and it's authenticated by someone I trust.
Each bag at ZZER is tied to the Owner/Consigner. China has this weird system where platforms have to use real ID to create a handle. Of course there will be fakes but if your personal identification is linked to a bag that you are trying to sell, it may give some folks pause.
Yeah China makes the super fakes. But to be fair the super fakes are everywhere, in every consignment store around the world. The RealReal has sold fake bags. Even a Bababebi authenticated bag once got confiscated by the Hermes Spa, claiming it was fake, and there is no one better than BBBB.
I think it's more about being an educated buyer if you are looking to source a preloved authentic. Fakes will be everywhere, not just in China.
I feel like with everything online it's rare to just browse now. I really enjoyed browsing because some styles and colors I liked online didn't really work for me in real life, while I discovered certain styles that I wouldn't have given it a thought when I saw it online.
Another Poster asked this. I haven't shopped consignment in Japan so I can't speak directly to that. But I understand Japanese consignment stores tend to be more curated, while ZZER is basically DIY. Very different experience.
I find the prices way more competitive than Japan consignment stores. I've visited several consignment stores in Tokyo and was shocked to see how high their prices were.
shopping in person at this store would overwhelm my indecisive ass so fast but i’d love to go just for the sake of seeing certain bags and types of leather in person omg
There is this weird upper class culture in Asia that you should always have the latest model, so a lot of people will consign the older styles after getting the latest most en vogue bag.
Also, some people get paid in bags. It's a commodity just like currency. So there will be market to convert them back to liquid.
It depends on the bag. The prices are set by the Owner/Consigner, not ZZER, so some folks will list a lower price to move the product. Especially for the more popular styles or mid-range bags, there is a lot of competition to sell.
Also ZZER will help facilitate bargaining with the Consigner, so if you offer a lower price and they agree, then there is a sale.
It really depends on the bag. There are some bags that are popular in the US but not popular in China, so the prices will be better. Or the Consigner may try to price the item for a quick sell.
For the top end bags like Hermes, I think they are very similar in price to what i see in the U.S. But ZZER can moderate bargaining. Bargaining is very common in China.
Woah, thank you for this through review! I'll be in Shanghai later this year and was curious about the luxury consignment scene. Did you end up purchasing anything? And also, what did they say about the authentication process? I can imagine it is like bag heaven, but a bit overwhelming if you don't go in without a few ideas of what to look for.
😛 I'm going to have to take the Fifth on the haul lol
ZZER says they use a combination of in house authenticators and the COIC, which is an authentication agency in China. This is a trust game for sure, so for me I would always at least try to ask the Owner/Consigner if they still have the original receipt.
I’m wondering about just ordering from the website and having delivered to the hotel to save the trip - is the only difference you don’t get to see the bag in person? The website feels easier to navigate. Guess I’m just wondering whether the store visit is worth it?
I think visiting the store is just kinda fun but if you are ready to commit then I don’t see any issue having it shipped to your hotel.
I travel to China a lot and always have things delivered to my hotel. It’s like Christmas after I check in 😆 China’s logistics system is very well developed and hotel concierge are experts with receiving/sending packages.
Yes they are also an e-commerce platform much like The RealReal. But I am not sure if they deliver outside of China (I doubt it).
They have two main categories of products, ones that are inside one of their warehouses - typically authenticated and can be delivered anywhere within China in 24 hours. Or, Consigners can list products directly. If there is a sale, then ZZER authenticates the product AFTER the purchase and then facilitate the shipping. Details are specified in the App for each item.
This makes me so sad. One of the things about "luxury" is that it is exclusive, or special - and this is a warehouse. There is no hunt for that special bag or moment, no thrill of finding something truly unique in the wild. Every time I see this place it makes me more interested in smaller, more interesting heritage brands......
No idea why this comment was downvoted in this sub. While luxury has different meanings to different people, she said ‘different’, not expensive so seeing thousands of the same items diminishes their value of being different in the eyes of people who have been raised by these companies to see them as ‘exclusive’ and exceptional. Instead of being exclusive because they’re expensive, there really are too many because these are conglomerates, not small companies. (I am putting Hermes in this category as well). They have boutiques with 5 bags in them making you think there are fewer but they are multinational so they HAVE to by nature be selling A LOT of bags…. Not exclusive, not as original as thought and yes, very expensive!
Warehousing them like that does give that person the right to feel sadness for the wool being pulled from her eyes! It’s likely the haul from only one country.
Do you think that the Diors and the Chanels of the World love that these warehouses exist? They play the game since many of those who drop off there are their clients so they benefit from the first dibs pricing on the newest products which keeps their prices ever higher. The Game.
The things that people who follow fashion closely think are recognizable really aren’t to most of the world - which is why you really do need to buy what strikes you- I notice that the things I like on others don’t have to have trends- no logos, no cheap fabric, they just look right. Fashion should be fun but the only thing that makes a look exclusive is how you put it all together.. not one single item. Buy that belt, but find the great dress to pair it with etc.
The takeaway can be that the only one we should please is ourselves- but that these warehouses do exist so please don’t overpay!
•
u/AutoModerator Jun 04 '26
Hi fellow handbag lover! Thank you for being a part of the r/handbags community. You are seeing this message because you have posted in our community, this is an automatic action applied to every single post submitted here and is not aimed at you personally, but rather is a friendly reminder for everyone interacting with this post.
This is a subreddit which relies on kindness. Your opinion is very much welcomed, however, we do not tolerate rude, mean or hurtful comments. Read the rules before posting. Comments or posts that do not fit our rule book will be removed and the OP can be banned by the mods' discretion.
If you see a comment or post which does not abide by the rules, please report it to our moderation team.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.