Second hand, the second-hand market worth over 500 billion dollars

Until a few years ago, the idea of ​​buying used made people wrinkle their noses. For a long time, the social stigma around second hand didn't allow us to go beyond the used-low quality association. And although skeptics remain, today the second hand market boasts strong solidity at a global level, both from an economic and image point of view. Just think of the success of applications like the Lithuanian Vinted and sites like the French Vestiaire Collective. But also to the crowds at the markets.

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The data leaves no doubt: the second-hand market is worth more than 500 billion dollars - according to the 2026 estimates of the consultancy and research company "The Business research company" -, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.6% compared to 2025. Projecting the numbers towards 2030, the turnover generated by second hand could reach 854 billion dollars. If we consider only the clothing sector - referring to the 2026 sales report of the online resale platform "ThredUp" -, this year's figures are around 289 billion dollars, with a growth margin expected for 2030 of 100 billion. The most striking data concerns the evolution of the last six years: since 2021 the second-hand clothing market has doubled its value.

Our country is also part of this purchasing trend: second hand is worth 27.2 billion euros and has an impact on GDP of 1.2% - found the "Second Hand Economy 2025" observatory conducted by Ipsos Doxa for Subito -. 71% of sales take place online and mostly involve clothing and accessories. Another interesting fact, which reflects the change in the purchasing habits of Italians, is that second hand has become the starting point for more than half of those interviewed. Before even looking for new, therefore, we look at used. This trend is also confirmed in the luxury sector: according to the monitor created by Bain and Altagamma on the world markets of personal luxury goods, around half of luxury consumers consult the second-hand market before purchasing a new product.

Second hand is a very broad world, which is not limited to the mere definition of "used". It can incorporate the subsets of vintage and luxury, which, in turn, can intersect with each other. You have to be careful: vintage and second hand do not have the same meaning. An item is defined as vintage when it is at least 20 years old and can be traced back to a specific period of time based on its aesthetics and/or its historical-cultural value. Instead, a piece is second-hand if it has already had an owner. It is also true that purchasing a vintage garment or object generally means purchasing a used item - precisely because being dated, there is a high probability that it has already belonged to someone -.

Vintage, within the second hand market, has a considerable weight. First of all, Generation Z has brought back the aesthetics of the Nineties and the first decades of the 2000s, driven by a feeling that could be defined as collective nostalgia: we are inspired by the style of the then twenty-year-olds Leonardo di Caprio, Jonny Deep and Brad Pitt, we look for pieces of furniture that evoke the living room of Friends, we return to appreciating Polaroid photos. In Italy - taking data from Ipsos Doxa for Subito - vintage recorded an exploit in 2025, coming to the top of the preferences of both sellers and buyers of second-hand clothing. Yet, it is difficult to isolate the vintage second hand numbers because global reports and national surveys place them in the cauldron of general data on the second hand market. And also because a large slice of the vintage market still passes through physical shops and neighborhood markets, making it complex to make a joint calculation.