V2, Beijing's first second-hand luxury commodity shop, has just celebrated its first birthday in October. This 30-square-meter shop is full of name-brand handbags with tags on them indicating their former owners, original and current prices.
The mid-day break and the time after work always witness the shop's busiest moment as many white collars nearby flock there.
Tao Xin, a university teacher in Beijing, loves second-hand home-made goods most although he years of experience living in Europe. He normally rushes to second-hand bazaars in faded clothes every weekend. One of his proud trophies is a pair of Ming dynasty bookshelves which he got for 3,500 yuan. As a regular customer, now he has become creditable customer with those antique sellers. He is even permitted to buy and take home what he likes on credit.
Maybe only few intellectuals favor antiques, while the main second-hand goods lovers are surging in the second-hand digital forums in the Internet.
In European and American countries, second-hand trade is regarded as an economy concept to make what you do not need any more maintain its value. In China, however, except in the second-hand market of houses and cars, most of the second-hand goods pursuers still cast eyes on valuable articles for collection, such as antiques, luxury goods, and digital products. They pursue them for interest rather than for direct consumption.
