Gold or Palladium?
Does your preference match the market's?
When it comes to hardware, there are two finishes that dominate across all Hermes bags: Gold and Palladium. The hardware on most Hermes bags is Nickel based, with platings of either 24K Gold or Palladium, a valuable metal with a silver color. Through the years Hermes has produced other hardware finishes such as Ruthenium which has a dark gunmetal appearance, or Permabrass which is like a dark gold, as well as Rose Gold, a new addition that has many fans already. One of the most notable finishes was the matte black PVD coating used on the famous ‘So Black’ bags, which is known to scratch off and not be repairable. Texture has come into play in two types of Hermes hardware: brushed and Guilloche, which both can be found in either Gold or Palladium finishes, the first giving a matte appearance and the latter a crosshatched diamond pattern. Speaking of diamonds, we can’t forget the solid 18K gold hardware (usually white gold though sometimes yellow) studded with pave diamonds (though sometimes colored sapphires). This doesn’t even begin to touch on the multitudes of finishes developed for Constance hardware. Here we are comparing just the two heavyweights in an attempt to answer a question that every Hermes collectors considers: Gold or Palladium?
Most collectors have a preference for either Gold or Palladium hardware, typically in line with their preference for white or yellow gold jewelry, though most collectors do own examples of both, as a choice between otherwise identical bags is rare. Using data stretching back to 2007, we can see how bags with these two hardware finishes compare to one another. To keep the data clear from other influences that could skew results unduly towards one finish or the other (consider how all Himas have Palladium hardware), this data only includes auction results for regular, single color leather Birkins and Kellys, excluding vintage Kellys, as Palladium hardware was not introduced on these bags until 1996, and a large volume of results for vintage box Kellys would skew the Gold results downward.
The trends for both Gold and Palladium hardware are clearly both upward, with Gold ascending at a slightly faster rate. We can see here, the volume of results starts to fill out around 2015, when both finishes saw over 100 examples sold for the first time. From 2015 onward this mass of results provides us with a very clear picture of how Hardware can affect a bag’s value. The following year Gold overtook Palladium, averaging almost $11,000 as the latter dipped to under $10,000 on average. It has maintained it’s dominance ever since and appears to be outpacing Palladium in it’s annual average gains as well. The volume of each finish sold may indicate a change to come. Historically there have always been more bags with Palladium hardware than Gold, but 2020 saw the two come closer together than ever, as the number of Palladium bags dropped, and the number of Gold bags increased again for the fourth year running. So far in 2021 the results indicate Gold will continue to dominate, maybe even more dramatically than before, with prices averaging over $2,500 more for bags with Gold hardware over Palladium this year. But if Palladium bags continue to become more scarce, as 2021 indicates they are, we may see these results switch places in years to come.
