Hermes is known for their colors. With a palette spanning hundreds of hues, it is hard not to fall in love with one or another. But not everyone’s preferences align, and not every shade produced is a winner. Some colors are produced for just one season, in just one material, or even in just one batch of leather, like Gris Paris. Some reappear after a hiatus, or are produced in multiple materials, like Menthe. Some are perennially ‘available,’ if you can say any specific color bag at Hermes is ever really ‘available,’ like Black. The auction market reflects this in it’s own way. Some colors almost never show up, like Parme, some seem to come and go, like Bamboo, and some seem to always be available, like Orange H. With a decade of auction results to draw from, we can parse out which colors average more than others, and start to form a map of this boundless field.
As a standard-bearer, Black Birkins and Kellys average just under $13,250 at auction. This excludes any Kellys produced prior to 2000 as well as any HSS, Limited Edition, or Exotic skin bags that could skew the average values unduly towards one color or the other. Currently the average retail price for leather Birkins and Kellys of any size at Hermes is around $11,150 in the US, meaning in theory a Birkin or Kelly should be worth around 19% more than retail on the secondary market, though the reality is far more complex, as smaller bags which retail for the least tend to bring the most at auction, and the reverse is true as well. Also, these averages includes the whole spectrum of conditions, so while a pristine example would sell for higher than average, a well used bag would almost certainly bring less.
Using Black as a baseline, the only color categories that regularly top it are Pink and Gray. The first chart show the colors that have sold at auction the most. Unsurprisingly brown shades average the lowest, with Noisette taking the bottom spot with an average value of just $6,428. Surprisingly, purple has not fared well on the auction market, with all of the most common shades averaging less than black. This is surprising because purple’s cousin, pink, is by far the most highly valued color. Not only do more than 50% of the most common pink shades top black on average, two top $20,000: Rose Confetti ($22,186) and 5P Bubblegum ($21,210).
Hermes has produced more shades of Blue than any other color, with more than 50 unique hues to date. Of the most common shades, the highest selling do not adhere to one side of the spectrum. Dark shades like Blue Encre and Nuit take top spots along with intense blues like Blue Electric and Sapphir, and light shades like Blue Atoll and Paradis. Unsurprisingly, Blue Jean is the lowest valued of all the most common shades, averaging just over $8,650, but two less-common shades slip below with Blue de Prusse averaging $8,340 and Blue Abysse $8,585. This again demonstrates thats the public’s taste in Blues cannot be quantified as a preference for ‘dark’ or ‘light.’
A clear correlation can be seen in newer shades, which invariably bring the highest averages in their respective categories. Within the most common shades, around 1/3 average more than Black, but among the unusual colors, the proportion approaches 50%. Among the common shades that average above Black, about 1/3 were released within the last 5 years, whereas again with rare shades, 50% of the top-valued hues are ‘new.’ This denotes the general journey most new colors and limited editions take as their initially high secondary market values upon release diminished in subsequent years before stabilizing and ultimately rebounding in time. In short: newness correlates directly with value. Identifying which shades will have staying power is the trick.
These charts do not show every color of Hermes bag sold at auction, as some have yet to cross the block, and others may only have once or twice. Some shades are produced exclusively in exotic skins, which are not included in this data either. When selecting a bag based on color, the most important factor should always be your personal preference, but with so many similar shades to come across, evaluating them this way can be helpful in expanding or narrowing the possibilities, as well as understanding better the bags you currently own.