Resale
Resale
Also called Reselling, Secondary market, Aftermarket
Resale is the secondary market for sneakers after they release: pairs bought at retail and sold on at whatever demand will pay. Resale prices are set by buyers rather than by Nike, so they move constantly. The gap between retail and resale is the reason limited releases are contested in the first place.
In use: A release that costs 180 dollars at retail and trades at 450 within a week carries a 270 dollar premium. That premium is what makes the same pair worth entering for and worth selling on.
What the secondary market is, and the part people skip
Resale is what happens after a release sells out. Pairs move from whoever got them to whoever still wants them, at a price set by that second group. Nike takes no part in it and receives none of it, which is worth remembering whenever somebody explains a Nike decision by pointing at resale prices.
The honest version of resale has three costs that get left out of the arithmetic. Platform fees take a share of every sale, usually a meaningful one. Sizes do not sell evenly, so a pair in an unpopular size can sit for months at a price nobody quoted you. And prices decay. Most hyped releases peak early and drift down from there, sometimes a long way down.
Resale is also where the word retail gets its meaning. A pair is described as three times retail because retail is fixed and resale is not.
None of this is a recommendation. Laced exists to help you enter Nike’s own Draws for pairs you actually want. If you are buying to sell on, the thing to understand before you start is that the premium you are counting on is the most volatile number in the transaction, and it is the one you have least control over.