Vintage should not cost a lot, but it should compete. In order to develop a sustainable economy one needs to take an action — to compete in terms of prices with retailers who are less green and more trend oriented. The fashion market is capitalising on new collections, leaving a big amount of stock unsold. Some rare parts of it are available via outlets, but other remainings are just kept in the warehouses.
An idea of upcycling is simple — to give a new life to already used (in other words bought) but left useless item, because of time or other obstacles, which might be a natural willingness of an individuum to upgrade, get new emotions, have a feeling of newness, a necessity to get rid of old things. There are a lot of psychological factors, which influence the shopping activity of people. So upcycling is nothing new but the process of reinvention, using already made pieces.
The pricing model which could be applied here is based on the following considerations. There are several factors, which should be accounted for: raw materials, which might cost nothing, designer time spent on creation of new objects, delivery expenses, marketing expenses. At least one cost might be eliminated sometimes here — the expenses on raw materials, which in some cases might be quite high. However, the upcycling has a scarcity trait, since there is no developed scaled system for people to get rid of useless things. Therefore, on one hand there is an idea that the price on upcycled pieces should be less compared to similar pieces made from the scratch using factory facilities etc. But on the other side the scarcity and uniqueness of spare parts make the upcycled items more expensive.
If you make a choice what to purchase, choose the “green way” when possible, supporting a circular economy by your purchase.