The eight Chanel pieces here start at $675 for an embossed calfskin clutch and run to $9,900 for a quilted caviar hobo, and the shape of that range matters more than the endpoints. There is very little Chanel in the resale market under $1,000, and what exists is almost always a small leather good, a card holder or a clutch rather than a bag with a strap. That floor is not an accident. Chanel has raised retail prices repeatedly and stopped discounting, so the secondhand market prices against a replacement cost that keeps moving up. The practical consequence is that condition matters less to a Chanel price than it does almost anywhere else, because supply is the binding constraint. A vintage quilted lambskin jumbo at $4,300 in this grid is competing with a new equivalent that costs several times that. Buy the shape you actually want rather than the best condition you can find, since you will be waiting a long time for both at once.

The Louis Vuitton grid opens at $225 for a monogram toiletry pouch and tops out at $2,650, and every price in between buys a bag you can carry in the rain. That is the practical case for the house in resale. Because the canvas is coated, a bag that has been used for years still photographs well, and because Louis Vuitton produced these patterns in volume for decades, there is no scarcity premium to pay. The Neverfull, the Speedy and the Saint Placide in this grid are all styles with deep supply, which means you can be picky. Wait for clean corners and a handle patina you like rather than settling. The leather pieces here, the Empreinte and Vernis bags, behave more like a conventional leather bag and take marks accordingly. The one thing to check on any monogram canvas piece is the vachetta trim, since untreated cowhide darkens permanently and cannot be returned to pale.

These are not competing purchases, they are different products. Louis Vuitton in coated canvas is the better buy if you want a bag that works every day, survives weather and costs a few hundred dollars, and the deep supply means you can hold out for good condition. Chanel is the better buy if you want quilted leather and a chain, and you should expect to pay a four figure sum for anything with a strap and to compromise on condition rather than on shape. If you take one thing away, let it be that the Louis Vuitton decision is about condition and the Chanel decision is about availability, and treating either one like the other is how people end up disappointed.