Ask HN: Review my business idea/model

I got rejected by my college’s summer incubator program and I have a chip on my shoulder to succeed this summer. If I can prove a viable minimum product by mid-summer I’ll be allowed to join and I was hoping the intelligent people on HN could throw me their two cents.

I was playing around with the idea of creating a “Netflix for purses” startup. Basically buying mass quantities of designer bags and having a subscription service for women who couldn’t originally afford these bags. It turns out this idea has already been implemented, which isn’t a huge issue but I couldn’t determine how to differentiate myself from the competition (thus me not being accepted into the program).

Then last week I was in NYC in the East Village and I went into a store called Buffalo Exchange. It’s a consignment shop with “mildly used” designer clothing brands for extremely cheap prices. Basically people sell clothing to Buffalo Exchange they bought from retail stores and never really wore. The company filters what they buy on what they believe are fashionable and reputable brands (you won’t find vintage clothing like in a typical consignment shop). Then Buffalo Exchange marks it up and puts it on the rack. The store was absolutely packed and I went home and found that they had zero online presence. I found that at one point they had an ebay account that’s no longer active.

I feel like taking a similar business model and putting it online would be a successful startup. The majority of online consignment shops are vintage which is the opposite of direction I would be going in. My largest setback is automation. I would have to handle all of the buying/packaging/selling in the beginning. And if this were to scale it would rely heavily on human resources which is sometimes risky for a startup. Furthermore, I’m not trying to create an ebay store selling used clothing which I really hope this doesn’t become. I’m trying to build a brand as the online Buffalo Exchange.

I realize this idea has little to do with programming other than setting up an online store presence. But I find the people at HN to be some of the most intelligent entrepreneurs I’ve conversed with online and this is the place I’d like to get some advice from. What do you think?