From Bags to Riches

You're a U.S. hairdresser and you arrive in Spain without a work permit. So what do you do? Of course, you go online and start selling things.

That's the story within the pages of one of the few books I saw and became enthusiastic about without having read anything about it before hand.

The author is Michael Tonello and the long title of his book is "Bringing Home the Birkin: My life in hot pursuit of the world's most coveted handbag."

After finding it at Page One inside the world's tallest building, I first returned home to read reviews as well as take a look at the author's web site, www.bringinghomethebirkin.com. Unlike him, I know what a Birkin is: an outrageously expensive handbag from French fashion house Hermes.

There's supposed to be a waiting list to buy the things. Not so, says Michael Tonello. With big charm and big spending, he managed to unearth Birkin bags in stores all over the place. In fact, what makes the book so exciting is that he turned this shopping habit into a fulltime profitable job. When a customer on eBay requested a Birkin bag, he would go all over the place to find one, bring it back, and make a nice profit. That's what I don't understand: if he managed to buy a bag and then sell it at a markup, how come his clients couldn't?

To know that, I guess you have to read the book, which I will be doing over the next few days. By the way, when I returned to Page One today, there was only one copy of the book left. And I bought it. So maybe I can start a business reselling Michael Tonello books for profit on the Internet!