The Open Road Guild

[jlee562]

My 100 is quite roomy for a size 7, so much so that I've considered looking for a 6 7/8 just to see if it would fit better. So no, I also do not think shrinkage is a widespread issue.

 

[moontheloon]

No. Ask for length x width measurements if you are concerned. Some of you seem to have run across many vintage hats that have shrunken but that’s not been my experience.

Same
A tell is always the wavy sweatband.
If it's flat it'll fit.
Hat sizing was far more consistent and accurate back then than it is today

 

[EL-Jimenez74]

Thanks gents, as always I appreciate the info and knowledge!

 

[EL-Jimenez74]

Wow!! Looks like they’re trying to start bidding on one for $700:
https://ebay.io/m/vkKQO8

 

[blewnote]

T

Wow!! Looks like they’re trying to start bidding on one for $700:
https://ebay.io/m/vkKQO8

That dude is as bad as Davenbre and Shadow Self. He recently sold a 7X clear beaver 7 1/8 Open Road I'm guessing was from the late 60s that he kept listing with a starting bid of $300 (or maybe it was more, I can't remember). Finally relisted it with a starting bid of $1 and it sold for $201.

I mean, I guess if you can get someone to pay it more power to you. But a Stetson Twenty for $1000 BIN? Crazy. Especially some of the ones that are all moth eaten and stained.

 

[RossRYoung]

If we started a thread of crazy inflated starting or BIN prices, it would never fall from the top posted thread on this forum. And I’m just speaking of hat listings.

 

[Hurricane Jack]

If we started a thread of crazy inflated starting or BIN prices, it would never fall from the top posted thread on this forum. And I’m just speaking of hat listings.

And if you can’t pay, don’t play. It’s as simple as that.

 

[RossRYoung]

True. I haven’t regretted any of my high priced hats, which there have been a few. But, I’ve wondered if I’d ever be able to get the same amount back for them in the future. I think that’s the mentality with a lot of the sellers, that their hats are viewed as an investment grade piece.

 

[Who me?]

And if you can’t pay, don’t play. It’s as simple as that.

The more I look around at modern materials, craftsmanship and prices, seems like a lot of the vintage hats are a bargain.
If I could just find my size!

 

[moontheloon]

Wow!! Looks like they’re trying to start bidding on one for $700:
https://ebay.io/m/vkKQO8

I've bought from this dude.
He is open to offers and negotiations.
I can't help but feel like I have played a part in this a little bit.
Not in sellers in general being delusional about their asking prices... but this guy in particular and the recent higher prices of Open Road hats.
After I released that "Stetson One Hundred... Is the hype warranted?" video I had many people reaching out to me about Open Road hats.
What to look for ... what era... what price... etc etc...
Honestly like 15 to 20 people.

The guy selling this hat hit me up and told me he was getting a high increase in offers and that people were mentioning my video to him in messages.
Within that conversation I asked him if he had a Sovereign Twenty ... he replied that he did not.
About a week later he contacted me saying that he found one... and showed me the pictures that eventually became that eBay listing.
I told him the hat was later than what I was looking for but asked what he would take for the hat anyway.
He told me what he wanted and it was far higher than what I would pay for a hat of that era.
Then it shows up on eBay for even higher.
With full transparency ... that is sort of what is going on right now with a few sellers.

Also... a former member here who I won't mention his name... now has a very popular vintage hat Facebook page where he posts literally every eBay, Etsy, Mercari, Poshmark, Goodwill , Marketplace etc etc listing for every decent hat out there every single day for 9000 sets of eyes to see... I'm confident in saying that 8950 sets of those eyes would never see those hats.
Especially the ones that are not on eBay.
No disrespect to anyone ... but folks who are not serious crate diggers and hat pickers are not up on those other sites and don't even search regularly on eBay.

There have been quite a few situations where I'll be watching a hat for a few days that has 1 watcher.
Then he posts the link on his page and within a few hours it has 200 watchers.
I watched a hat sell for $2500.00 That would have sold for less than half that for sure if he had not posted it.

I hate to be the "get off my lawn" guy but we used to have to seek out our own hats.
Sometimes we got a deal and sometimes we paid up.
But they weren't spoon fed to thousands of people who would have otherwise never even seen them.

Sorry to go off on a rant but the game has changed... I'm not proud of playing a small role in the first part that I spoke about.
That was never my intention.

I feel torn sometimes because I want these vintage hats and their market to be thriving.... and at the same time I want it to be fair.

It's kind of like watching 2 people outbidding each other while there is 6 days left on an auction... like, wtf are you doing ?!

I think these are just two of the reasons we are seeing things like this recently.

 

[jeffgarf]

I've bought from this dude.
He is open to offers and negotiations.
I can't help but feel like I have played a part in this a little bit.
Not in sellers in general being delusional about their asking prices... but this guy in particular and the recent higher prices of Open Road hats.
After I released that "Stetson One Hundred... Is the hype warranted?" video I had many people reaching out to me about Open Road hats.
What to look for ... what era... what price... etc etc...
Honestly like 15 to 20 people.

The guy selling this hat hit me up and told me he was getting a high increase in offers and that people were mentioning my video to him in messages.
Within that conversation I asked him if he had a Sovereign Twenty ... he replied that he did not.
About a week later he contacted me saying that he found one... and showed me the pictures that eventually became that eBay listing.
I told him the hat was later than what I was looking for but asked what he would take for the hat anyway.
He told me what he wanted and it was far higher than what I would pay for a hat of that era.
Then it shows up on eBay for even higher.
With full transparency ... that is sort of what is going on right now with a few sellers.

Also... a former member here who I won't mention his name... now has a very popular vintage hat Facebook page where he posts literally every eBay, Etsy, Mercari, Poshmark, Goodwill , Marketplace etc etc listing for every decent hat out there every single day for 9000 sets of eyes to see... I'm confident in saying that 8950 sets of those eyes would never see those hats.
Especially the ones that are not on eBay.
No disrespect to anyone ... but folks who are not serious crate diggers and hat pickers are not up on those other sites and don't even search regularly on eBay.

There have been quite a few situations where I'll be watching a hat for a few days that has 1 watcher.
Then he posts the link on his page and within a few hours it has 200 watchers.
I watched a hat sell for $2500.00 That would have sold for less than half that for sure if he had not posted it.

I hate to be the "get off my lawn" guy but we used to have to seek out our own hats.
Sometimes we got a deal and sometimes we paid up.
But they weren't spoon fed to thousands of people who would have otherwise never even seen them.

Sorry to go off on a rant but the game has changed... I'm not proud of playing a small role in the first part that I spoke about.
That was never my intention.

I feel torn sometimes because I want these vintage hats and their market to be thriving.... and at the same time I want it to be fair.

It's kind of like watching 2 people outbidding each other while there is 6 days left on an auction... like, wtf are you doing ?!

I think these are just two of the reasons we are seeing things like this recently.

I see both sides. The Facebook site does point out quality to people who may not know it and he is fairly transparent about what he thinks, whether the hat is worth what's being asked. These things (and most definitely your videos) are what will keep folks (or get new folks) interested.

 

[moontheloon]

I see both sides. The Facebook site does point out quality to people who may not know it and he is fairly transparent about what he thinks, whether the hat is worth what's being asked. These things (and most definitely your videos) are what will keep folks (or get new folks) interested.

There are ways to contribute to keeping people interested without posting literally every link of every available hat.
That's just one man's opinion.
I'm old school I guess.

I always enjoyed digging for my own hats.
That's a huge part of the game.

 

[blewnote]

There have been quite a few situations where I'll be watching a hat for a few days that has 1 watcher.
Then he posts the link on his page and within a few hours it has 200 watchers.

There's been a few times that a hat that's not particularly valuable (at least in my estimation, typically it's 60s or later) I've seen with 50-70ish watchers which is what usually happens with the rare ones that you have to be in the know to know about their worth and I've always scratched my head because I've thought surely the people looking for the same things I am also don't care about this one... I wonder if this explains it.

 

[Bamaboots]

@moontheloon, the one who remains nameless left here bu t t hurt and created a private space where his expertise won’t be questioned and he can control the narrative. I doubt there’s anything he would enjoy more than hearing that his postings are affecting the serious collectors that still remain here.

In regards to the Sovereign Tweny OR; if you’re looking to fill a hole in an OR collection, it might be worth pursuing but it remains a hole in my pile because the only one I ever had was not a quality hat, at least relative to the others I have and I moved it on.

 

[moontheloon]

@moontheloon, the one who remains nameless left here **** hurt and created a private space where his expertise won’t be questioned and he can control the narrative. I doubt there’s anything he would enjoy more than hearing that his postings are affecting the serious collectors that still remain here.

In regards to the Sovereign Tweny OR; if you’re looking to fill a hole in an OR collection, it might be worth pursuing but it remains a hole in my pile because the only one I ever had was not a quality hat, at least relative to the others I have and I moved it on.

Conveniently he never posts links of hats that he plans to bid on.

 

[Bamaboots]

Conveniently he never posts links of hats that he plans to bid on.

No, and no real deals will be posted either because if he can make a nickel, the hat’s his.

 

[RossRYoung]

Conveniently he never posts links of hats that he plans to bid on.

A promptly left the group after confronting this exact practice. Since we overlapped on sizes, I felt compelled to understand why those listing aren’t shared and how that’s fair compared to other listings shared. His response was, my group my rules. Nuff said, but I certainly think the level of handsomeness dropped a bit from being ‘deadly’… oops!

 

[Bamaboots]

Post of the day!

 

[moontheloon]

A promptly left the group after confronting this exact practice. Since we overlapped on sizes, I felt compelled to understand why those listing aren’t shared and how that’s fair compared to other listings shared. His response was, my group my rules. Nuff said, but I certainly think the level of handsomeness dropped a bit from being ‘deadly’… oops!

I got the same response.
Gald to hear I'm not the only one not seeing the reasoning behind posting literally every hat auction.
I asked that very question to him...
What is the reason?
Do you just like people knowing you look for hats?
Is it a way to keep the group active?
What?
His answer was basically .. I like to help people find hats and this is my group I do what I want.

 

[moontheloon]

My intention was not to derail the thread... apologies.
Here's a picture of an early 50s One Hundred