Making a product exclusive- or creating a waiting list that could last for several months - is one of the oldest, and most effective marketing tools. Birkin bags, Ferraris and the Maybach all have ridiculously long waiting lists… or do they? Fashion writer Michael Tonello has just written Bringing Home the Birkin, which chronicles how he spent five years globe-trotting and purchasing the elusive Hermes Birkin bag- without putting his name on a waiting list – and selling them at a tidy profit. In one year, he spent $1.6 million on the bags. His secret? He’d walk into a store, buy thousands of dollars worth of scarves, shawls and bracelets, and innocently ask for a Birkin. Nine times out of ten, it was produced from a back room. His book, which is out this month, also highlights his adventures in fashion, which we imagine will no longer include Hermes in the future.