Hermès quota bags

“Quota bag” is how collectors describe the way the most requested Hermès bags are sold: a Sales Associate offers one to a client instead of placing it on a shelf. Each client is reported to receive only a limited number. The Hermès US website says the Kelly, Birkin and Constance handbags are sold only in Hermès stores and invites clients to visit a store to discuss availability (official, checked September 30, 2026).

Sources disagree on the Constance and the Kelly Danse. Is the Constance a quota bag? shows both sides from the reports MyQuotaBag holds.

Hermès makes its leather goods in its own workshops in France and adds capacity gradually: its 25th leather goods workshop opened in Loupes, in the Gironde, in April 2026 and three more are planned for 2027, 2028 and by 2030 (official, half-year results, July 29, 2026). Collectors describe more requests than bags, so each boutique decides who is offered what.

The figure repeated most often is two quota bags per calendar year. In October 2025 PurseBop wrote that a client's profile is checked for quota bags received between January 1 and December 31 before a new one is offered. In August 2022 it had reported that client profiles in Paris and the United States were linked, so a purchase in one country could be seen in the other.

No source reviewed describes a rolling 12-month count or a limit per household. The reports describe a calendar year and a single client profile. PurseBop names “Asia” among the regions linked to Paris but does not name a country.

Sources do not all give the same number. In July 2023 PurseBop wrote that Hermès had always had a two-bag rule in every boutique. In August 2024 it wrote that some locations may offer only one quota bag a year because demand is so high. In February 2025, answering a rumor of a one-bag rule, it wrote that it knew of no such rule.

No yearly limit appears in the Hermès materials MyQuotaBag reviewed. The Hermès US website says only that the Kelly, Birkin and Constance handbags are sold in its stores and invites clients to discuss availability there (checked September 30, 2026).

A number Hermès has not published is best read as a pattern collectors describe, not as a rule. It can change without notice and it can differ from one boutique to another.

• Which bags count. The Constance, the Kelly Pochette, the Kelly Elan and the Kelly Danse are reported to count in some boutiques and not in others, so one client's “two” may not cover the same bags as another's. See What are Hermès quota bags?
• Where you buy. Collectors report that purchase history follows the client across countries, so buying in another city is not described as a way around the limit.
• A ceiling, not an allowance. In these reports two is a maximum, not a number clients can expect. Waits of a year or more are reported in competitive cities: see How long collectors wait.

Outdated. The practice of one quota bag per six-month semester (January to June, then July to December) is outdated in PurseBop's later reports. Its reports differ on when it ended: February 2020 describes two bags at any time in the year, while January 2021 still describes the semester rule.

No list of quota and non-quota bags appears in the Hermès materials MyQuotaBag reviewed. The Hermès US website says its leather goods are sold in its stores and on its website. It adds that the Kelly, Birkin and Constance are sold only in stores (checked September 30, 2026).

The non-quota label therefore comes from collectors and specialist publishers, not from Hermès.

• Constance. Counted as a quota bag in some locations and not in others. PurseBop wrote in February 2025 that it was not considered a quota bag “at the present time”. See Is the Constance a quota bag?
• Kelly Pochette and Kelly Elan. Counted as quota bags in some US locations and not in others (PurseBop, February 2025).
• Kelly Danse. PurseBop listed the Kelly Danse II among non-quota bags in November 2024, after writing in May 2024 that it had been treated as a quota bag in some locations. The two statements disagree and MyQuotaBag cannot settle them.
• Your own store. For a given boutique, the answer that counts is the one its Sales Associate gives.

PurseBop's July 2026 list of non-quota bags notes that they are “by no means easily accessible or inexpensive”. It described the mini Lindy as quite difficult to acquire in November 2024.

Collectors also disagree on whether buying bags counts toward pre-spend: some describe purchases heavy in leather goods as weighing less. See Which purchase categories do collectors mention most often?