Last winter my friend Eva fell in love with a Celine handbag in a luxury department store. After mulling it over for a day, she came back only to find the exclusive item had been sold. She regrets the indecision to this day.

The rarity of luxury handbags, and particularly limited editions or "one-offs", has already attracted the attention of leading auction houses which have now created a new business category around them.

Items that used to be viewed as just luxury, maybe excessive, spending have turned into very attractive investment targets in some cases.