Korean fashion platform Musinsa (무신사) will terminate its limited-edition resale platform Soldout (솔드아웃) on December 31, 2026. After Soldout closes, Cream (크림), which has long split the Korean resale market with it, will in effect monopolize the track—but with the resale market as a whole shrinking, the outlook for a monopoly dividend is hardly rosy.

Key Points

  • Musinsa announced that Soldout's service will end on December 31, 2026, and the company will shift to operating its general secondhand trading service Musinsa Used.
  • From January to August 2025, Cream's cumulative estimated payment amount was about 992.7 billion won, down 12.8% from about 1.1389 trillion won in the same period of 2024, a decrease of about 146.2 billion won.
  • South Korea's domestic secondhand trading market is projected to grow from about 20 trillion won in 2020 to 43 trillion won in 2025, while the global secondhand fashion and luxury market is expected to reach $360 billion by 2030.

Dedicated resale platforms differ from general secondhand trading intermediaries such as Daangn Market, Bunjang, and Joonggonara in that they mainly match the resale of unused new items and limited editions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the "resale investing" craze of flipping scarce limited-edition sneakers at a markup fueled the rapid expansion of this market. The most typical example was the limited-edition sneakers jointly released by singer G-Dragon and sportswear brand Nike, whose retail price of 219,000 won was at one point resold for millions of won.

During this period, resale platforms sprang up one after another: in 2020, Naver subsidiary Snow launched Cream, Musinsa followed with Soldout, and KT Group's KT M Mobile launched "Replay" the same year; in 2021, global resale platform StockX entered Korea, and the following year Hanwha Solutions' NXEF launched "AirStack." But after the pandemic, profitability continued to deteriorate, and these platforms eventually shut down one after another. A distribution industry official pointed out that in an environment where consumers' attention has shifted to "value for money," the C2C intermediary model of matching transactions at marked-up prices has clear limitations in maintaining transaction volume and commission revenue and achieving economies of scale.

In fact, Cream, which has effectively monopolized the market, is not in an easy financial position either. Last year, Cream's standalone revenue was about 202.5 billion won, up 14.2% year on year, but from the end of 2021 through 2025 it has remained in a state of complete capital erosion; and compared with last year, its payment volume is still contracting this year. According to WiseApp·Retail, a real-time app and payment data analysis company, Cream's cumulative estimated payment amount from January to August this year was about 992.7 billion won, down 12.8%, or about 146.2 billion won, from about 1.1389 trillion won in the same period last year.

The general secondhand trading (recommerce) market has followed a different curve. Boston Consulting Group (BCG) expects the global secondhand fashion and luxury market to grow from $210 billion–$220 billion last year at an average annual rate of 10%, reaching $360 billion (about 483.7 trillion won) by 2030. Shinhan Investment & Securities also expects South Korea's secondhand trading market to grow from about 20 trillion won in 2020 to 43 trillion won in 2025; price competitiveness and scarcity are seen as factors driving the growth of secondhand trading.

South Korea's fashion and distribution industries are rushing into secondhand trading services: in addition to fashion secondhand trading platforms such as Charan and Fruits Family, Kolon FnC and LF are also operating platforms that intermediate secondhand trading of their own-brand clothing. After terminating Soldout, Musinsa plans to concentrate resources on its secondhand trading service Musinsa Used.

For the old-clothing and secondhand apparel industry, this trend shows that the focus of the Korean market is shifting from resale speculation that "flips limited editions at a markup" to regular secondhand distribution that emphasizes value for money and price competitiveness, and whether platform operations can cover matching costs has become a key variable determining the survival of the track.

Source: 한정판 웃돈 거래 시들…줄줄이 문 닫는 리셀 플랫폼 · Originally published on 2026-10-06