Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to James Firestein. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

James, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

My background is in luxury authentication, spanning a decade of hands-on and behind-the-scenes experience ranging from cataloguing handbag auctions at one of the worlds largest auction houses to my role directing and scaling the authentication department at a large luxury resale startup.

I’ve seen the luxury resale industry expand and evolve from before the e-commerce boom to today, and with that I had identified some growing pains and disconnects with the resale consumer that were destined to hinder the industry’s growth. My co-founder, Erik, and I saw that the major industry players seemed to be resisting the consumers increasing need for transparency, efficiency, and safety when shopping on the resale market, particularly online.

One issue we saw (because we are luxury resale shoppers too) was the oblique nature of both the options you have when you go to sell your items on the resale market, but also when you go to buy. The number of resale companies as well as the different buying models and pricing rates made it hard for the average resale consumer to make the best decision for them.

This is where our “Sell” and “Find” services seek to solve this problem. Our Find service is like a concierge service, without the pretentiousness or the exclusive price-point. We help customers find a luxury bag they are looking for at a low, flat rate. Our Sell service (launching in 2023) lets anyone compare quotes from multiple resale companies, so they know how much they will get for their items, and can make informed consumer decisions. Both of these services aim to democratize luxury resale, and make the process transparent and efficient for luxury resale consumers.

The second issue is more personal to me. As the luxury resale industry has grown, unfortunately so has the black market for counterfeit luxury goods and their proliferation at resale companies. This new threat has posed an ever increasing problem for those who buy and sell luxury goods on the secondary market. In short, there are too many goods and not nearly enough trained and experienced (both are necessary) authenticators to help the public wrestle with this problem. Many resale companies have created their own internal training for their authentication teams which is a good step, but the public had only a few options at their disposal when it came to knowing their purchases were authentic and not a counterfeit.

At OpenLuxury, I am bringing my authentication knowledge and experience to help luxury resale shoppers and businesses alike have an authentication resource they could trust, and wouldn’t be inaccessible. With our “Authenticate” service, anyone is able to upload photos of their item, and get an answer in 24 hours or less.

I’ve been passionate about luxury resale for a long time, and I think the industry is the key to sustainability and accessibility in fashion more broadly for the decades to come. My hope is that OpenLuxury can be a force for good, and solve problems in that process.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

A luxury handbag and accessories service provider, OpenLuxury offers three main services that are designed to make luxury resale more accessible:

SELL (launching in 2023)
Get the most money for your items by reviewing quotes from various resale companies. You pick the quote, and we finalize the sale.

FIND
Tell us what you want and we’ll access our network of resale sites, consignment shops, auction houses, and private dealers to help find exactly what you’re looking for.

AUTHENTICATE
Be sure your items are authentic, with the option to easily add on reports and documentation for each item. We even work with businesses, verifying your inventory so you can focus on growth.

We aim to make luxury resale safe, accessible, and convenient.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I’m a very self-aware and honest person, and have always been drawn to visual pursuits as far as I can remember, which led naturally to the authentication field. Being transparent and objective about where my knowledge and experience started or ended was key to continuous self-education, but also to gaining and maintaining the trust of the people and companies that relied on my consultation. For myself, it was also key to achieving the results that kept my clients and the resale market safer to shop.

Over the years people have come to know my experience, and I have come to gain their trust. The essential ingredient for the resale market to work, is trust.

Any advice for managing a team?

Even though OpenLuxury is currently a team of two, I have learned a lot from direct experience in previous director roles, managing and growing teams of managers in both corporate and start-up environments.

Managing a team is a challenge, but I’ve found that the foundations of effectively managing a team for the long term, comes down to ensuring each member knows why they’re doing something, not just what to do. It’s simple, but it serves two purposes, one being you actually have to have a good reason, (ha!) forcing you to make your processes efficient and your plans practical. The other purpose is that your teammates will get a better understanding of the big picture and encourage them to think critically about the process. Both of these purposes increase the quality and agency of each team member, but they also foster personal and professional growth for theirs’ and the teams’ futures.

To maintain the high morale of your team, learn each of your team members’ unique strengths, blind spots, and personal interests. Think of ways you can tailor projects to certain teammates specifically, and break some projects up so that smaller groups can work on common aspects together and build a sense of collective ownership. The goal as an effective manager is to balance the needs of the project with the needs of the team, so you need to support their sense of purpose, collective ownership, and individual responsibility to each project and to the team overall.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://openluxury.io/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/opnlxry/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/opnlxry
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/openluxury/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/OpenLuxury