It took her almost a year of trying, but she finally bagged one. After Hermes banished her to the waiting list, she wanted a Birkin even more. And staying just out of reach, even for the super-rich, that is exactly why the Birkin has been at the top of the handbag food chain for 30 years. Weltman says we all want to be part of some club and that is just out of reach. SMITH: The long line outside of a nightclub, elite colleges publishing the enormous number of applicants they reject - that is the same thing. Once you're in, it makes you feel worthy.

Telling people they can't have one, turning people away - that is part of the marketing. SMITH: Weltman says the reason for the extreme scarcity of the Birkin bag has nothing to do with how it's made. It takes 12 hours to make one, people have to apprentice for years. I ran this by former advertising executive Josh Weltman. SMITH: Hermes says the reason for this is that each Birkin bag takes a long time to make, and they just can't keep up with demand. At one point, they were saying that there was a waiting list to get on the waiting list. Or they'll tell you that there's a waiting list anywhere from two years to four years.

MICHAEL TONELLO: They tell you that they don't have any Birkins in the store. He wrote an entire book on the Birkin bag. SMITH: Hermes actually tries not to sell Birkin bags to people - that is, according to Michael Tonello. MARTIN: This lovely saleswoman said, I hope you'll understand, we'll have to wait. To claim a place in her new neighborhood, Martin thought, I need one of those bags. They've graced the shoulders of Elizabeth Taylor, Beyonce, Kim Kardashian. SMITH: Birkins have been the luxury it-bag for 30 years. MARTIN: That was a dominance display and that woman used her handbag to do it. They're large, boxy purses made of leather. SMITH: Martin is pretty sure that handbag was a Birkin. Then she brushed right by me with her handbag.

WEDNESDAY MARTIN: She was walking sort of at me so that I had to move further and further to the right until finally, I found myself stopping right up against this garbage can. She was walking down the sidewalk, and she saw very well-dressed woman coming towards her. She had just moved to the very posh Upper East Side of Manhattan. STACEY VANEK SMITH, BYLINE: Wednesday Martin can remember the exact moment she started wanting a Birkin bag. Stacey Vanek Smith from our Planet Money podcast explains. Birkins are almost always mysteriously out of stock. It's a bag - a purse made by the French luxury brand Hermes.

Michael tonello birkin