do you have lots of competition while searching flea markets / thrift shops, etc?

[Daisy Buchanan]

i just noticed in my last two visits, that my best vintage shop is conscious of it all... their prices have jumped by at least a third. it's depressing. those were my last geat deals. now i'll just pay going-rate. too bad. the deals in this town were dead brilliant for the last year.

That does stink! I'm gonna have to take a trip to some of the local vintage shoppes to see what pricing is like. I haven't been in about a month which is like a miracle!! The last time I went, I didn't really notice the pricing because the person I was with was scooping up everything for herself, and their was barely anything left for the rest of us[huh]

 

[Flivver]

I've been shopping at flea markets and antique shows since I was a teenager. Until recently, I saw very little competition except from a handfull of friends with similar interests. I mainly look for magazines, records, radios and auto related items...not the more mainstream antiques.

But since the advent of e-bay, the situation has changed quite noticably. The e-bay dealers are out there in force, buying up everything they can make a profit on. And prices have risen accordingly.

Old items always tended to be plentiful in this area (I guess we New Englanders tend to be savers), but with e-bay, they are now being marketed to the world. Prices are up, the supply is down and flea marketing just isn't as much fun as it used to be.

But now, with e-bay, you can quickly find anything you might want...if you're willing to pay for it. And e-bay can be great for selling items too. So I guess it's all about trade offs.

 

[Twitch]

Every other jamoke and stumble bum pictures themselves an Ebay entrepeneur of large scale compelling them to jump around in an effort to try to obtain and sell crapola with the all empowering "vintage" in their description. A fair portion is broken junk. All anybody who peruses thrift store and garage sale has in mind anymore is freakin Ebay.:rage:

 

[RedPop4]

It's a real problem. Reading the eBay sellers boards - over the Baroness's shoulder - gives me the impression that eBay sellers feel a sense of entitlement. They think that because they are in business they should have first dibs on anything nice. And they get really angry when they don't get a good price for their stuff - even if they do market it lying on the floor. The buyers, apparently, are at fault for wanting a low price for the goods.

bk

Hey, BK, I'm not quoting you, you didn't say all this. I'm quoting, with the following sentences, what I've read and seen over and over on the Hat Board the last year and a half I've been here. This is NOT a shot at you, but I wanted to make that crystal clear. I happen to agree with your post, in fact, it's very well stated.

Unless of course those sellers are Loungers, then, more power to them!!!
"Congratulations on getting a good price for that...." and all that.

Forget the rest of us who don't have much and can't find bargains,because so many have money to burn.Then they get lambasted on the Hats board when they post their new purchases because they buy "crappy wool" hats as well as being told to look on OFAS for "bargains" on good vintage lids.
Which is the right course?

 

[Feraud]

Then they get lambasted on the Hats board when they post their new purchases because they buy "crappy wool" hats as well as being told to look on OFAS for "bargains" on good vintage lids.
Which is the right course?

Lambasted? I do not recall this happening within recent memory.

What exactly is wrong with telling someone that for the same 40 dollars one spends on a wool hat you can get a fur felt on Ebay? If you can get a better hat for the same money, why the objection?

I would not call wool crappy but quality does exist and fur exceeds wool by at the very least a narrow margin.

The right course is for someone to buy what they like and can afford. Honest suggestions in quality, price, and shopping locations are merely suggestions and not meant as insults.

 

[warbird]

Lambasted? I do not recall this happening within recent memory.

What exactly is wrong with telling someone that for the same 40 dollars one spends on a wool hat you can get a fur felt on Ebay? If you can get a better hat for the same money, why the objection?

I would not call wool crappy but quality does exist and fur exceeds wool by at the very least a narrow margin.

The right course is for someone to buy what they like and can afford. Honest suggestions in quality, price, and shopping locations are merely suggestions and not meant as insults.

Oh I do. His point is in trying to get nice felts for inexpensive money is nearly impossible due to people stepping all over one another to drive the prices up and almost always they are FL members stepping over one another. Only the worst hats go for cheap, unless they sneak though because they are mislabeled. So somebody with a lot of money and 50 or more hats can get just one more, while a FL member with not a lot of money because it goes into his family, who just wants 2 or 3 nice hats, has to keep sitting there with nothing but ..... nothing but a cheap hat in his hands. Golden era generosity and ideals for their fellow brothers indeed.

 

[RedPop4]

Maybe we read things differently, Feraud, we're all human, and we see or receive information in our own manner, I guess. It saddens me to say, that my memory is such that I couldn't point you to specific posts or threads. But I HAVE seen it written. We have strongly opinionated types over on the cigar board, too, who will trash cigars they don't like or consider cheap. I've seen guys on this board, who've said, straight out that "wool hats are crap" without any qualification being made. Same as the guys who say "xxxxxx cigars are total dog rockets!!!!!" without any type of perspective offered as to why.

I understand, quite well in fact, that certain hat materials are better than others. I agree with you on that assessment. $40, though, is slowly becoming an below-average price on a fur felt on OFAS, though. Just a year ago, I got a nice Borsalino San Remo for $23. That will never happen again. My disposable income and spousal negativity to hats, don't allow me to try and win hats that will go where hats are selling these days.

We can't all be collectors, buying stuff that doesn't even fit, like so many here do, and drive prices out of others reach. So we do what we can with the resources (time included) that we have.

 

[Feraud]

I see your points RedPop and think we agree with more than we disagree.

Golden era generosity and ideals for their fellow brothers indeed.

Are we talkin' charity or auction? Such is the nature of the auction economy. Do you really think competition did not exist in the "good old days"? We have plenty of generous members here. I have been the recipient of such gestures.

The last time I mentioned perhaps not posting direct links to one's Ebay "receipts" I felt lambasted. Stuff happens. The bargains are out there. You have to work for them.

 

[Miss_Bella_Hell]

Golden era generosity and ideals for their fellow brothers indeed.

I don't see why someone should lower their maximum bid just because someone else who also wants a hat might have a shot. Why? It's contrary to the very nature of ecomonics, and of ebay for that matter.

 

[Senator Jack]

Golden era generosity and ideals for their fellow brothers indeed.

What would Ayn Rand do?

 

[Miss_Bella_Hell]

What would Ayn Rand do?

She'd call Warbird a leech! lol

 

[RedPop4]

Write a book, most likely.

Ask no quarter and give no quarter. I'm good with that. Let's see if the rest of you are.

 

[RedPop4]

She'd call Warbird a leech! lol

Oh my, you don't know WarBird at all, then. He's just making a point, and so am I.

 

[Miss_Bella_Hell]

Oh my, you don't know WarBird at all, then. He's just making a point, and so am I.

And you don't know *me*... *I* am just making a joke.

 

[RedPop4]

I don't know you, you're correct in that regard.

Just sayin'

 

[Senator Jack]

So capitalism's good for everyone as long as it doesn't include hats?

 

[Miss_Bella_Hell]

I don't know you, you're correct in that regard.

Just sayin'

Oh I assure you, I'm correct in both regards.

 

[warbird]

I don't see why someone should lower their maximum bid just because someone else who also wants a hat might have a shot. Why? It's contrary to the very nature of ecomonics, and of ebay for that matter.

When a hat is on the open market for sale by some schmo out there in internet space, it's free game. I'm not really talking about that. But obviously the point of the my post and RedPops went right over everyone's heads.

 

[Miss_Bella_Hell]

When a hat is on the open market for sale by some schmo out there in internet space, it's free game. I'm not really talking about that. But obviously the point of the my post and RedPops went right over everyone's threads.

No, I think we caught the jist and just latched onto the easy target.

 

[RedPop4]

Yeah, whatever.
You're right.





Oh,