WHEN THE WEEKND’S fourth album, After Hours, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in March, merchandise was at the heart of the biggest first sales week of 2020 to date. Over half of the total 444,000 album equivalent units — 275,000 — were album sales, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data, likely at least partly spurred on by merch and ticket bundles. The Weeknd packaged After Hours with over 80 different items — hoodies, T-shirts, masks, flasks, playing cards and ashtrays. Many were only available for just 24 hours.
Within a day, however, many of the items were available for sale on secondary merch and apparel reseller StockX, an online platform that allows users to bid on streetwear and accessories to create a sort of stock market appraisal…
