NEED fast cash at zero interest?

That could very well be a sign on the windows of luxury handbag resellers.

In these hard times, bag addicts are finding out?if they don?t already know?that their retail ?transgressions? in the past may just be their?pardon the pun?Speedy ticket out of a financial rut.

At the Makati outpost of a designer-handbag reseller, there have been longer queues lately of women wanting to either sell or pawn their beloved purses, observed a frequent client who declined to be named.

?Can you believe you have to get a number to be served?? he said, recounting a visit this week. ?You would also notice that the store has more stocks on display because it seems more women are coming in to sell.? (The shop?s owner is out of the country and could not be interviewed for this article.)

Indeed, handbags have become a form of modern-day currency. Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Fendi, Gucci?these names have replaced Grandma?s heirloom jewelry in helping tide one over a cash emergency with a quick trip to the pawnshop, in the same manner cell phones became pawn-able a few years ago.

The intrinsic value of the handbag has somehow been elevated, not just as a pricey, trendy item to satisfy a whim, but as a lifeline out of that cash hole. Now women have a better justification for choosing that lambskin tote over those shiny diamond studs.

Mary Grace Pangilinan, owner of a designer-bag buy-and-sell shop at Metrowalk in Pasig City called Jewelry Box, said she has also noticed more women coming in to sell their ?mostly new? purses. If they?re doing so for a quick buck, she can?t tell for sure ?because these are mostly rich women. They sell bags given to them as gifts. Maybe they don?t like the style or the size is too small.?

However, she admitted her clients walk away with the cash and hardly ever buy off her shelves, as some bag addicts are wont to do.

Pawned handbags typically get the same terms as a gold necklace at, say, Lhuillier, according to Pangilinan. The 30-day term, for instance, is renewable.

The client may get about 30 percent of the total assessed value of the purse. Say, a ?Class A? or 85-percent new Louis Vuitton Speedy 30 Monogram could fetch P5,000. She would resell a secondhand of the same condition at about P28,000.

In a Makati pawnshop, an ?old? Louis Vuitton Papillon 26 could be pawned for P5,000, depending on its condition, according to its staff. A slightly used piece could be valued from P8,000-P12,000.

However, Pangilinan said it?s more favorable for her that clients sell outright, as pawning ?takes a long time,? ergo very little or no profit for her business.

She said girls as young as 15 come in to sell, as well as privileged young women who are either gifted with fancy pochettes not to their liking, or heiresses of five to six-figure hand-me-downs.

Hardly cash-strapped, you would think. But in these times, everyone seems in dire need of that extra moolah.