How patient/disciplined should you be when waiting for a dream jacket to show up for sale?

[zacharge]

I have been feeling the original sentiment quite a bit recently. I think I already own the best fitting leather jacket I’ve ever owned, but have been searching for others in different cuts (in particular, 30s style shawl collar) for the past few months. Passing on anything that I even had a shadow of a doubt about as I worry that it won’t be “perfect”. The wife even tells me that I shouldn’t get anything that i “have to force [myself] to buy” ha!

But how else would one expand a collection and have multiple outfits? Haha!

My personal “dream jacket” in question. If it ain’t broke, why fix it? Haha but man, I really want the perfect leather in brown/tan/ or oxblood now!

 

[Tom71]

In my experience, buying another jacket to distract you from your dream jacket never works, you just end up with two jackets that way.
Over time I have learned that the quest for a jacket is usually more fun than actually owning the jacket, therefore be as patient as you can and enjoy the hunt.

This is sound advice. I totally second the point of not settling for “almost”.

 

[Tom71]

I am less disillusioned about “dream jackets” than the majority here.
For me there always has been one or two “dream jackets”, and when I finally got them they didn’t disappoint.

The thing I did experience, though is that sooner or later the sense of honeymooning fades away and other daughters, err, jackets start to appear (more) attractive. That doesn’t mean that the original dream wasn’t “worth it” or that I wouldn’t have a good use going forward. It just means that by its very nature a dream coming true is also a dream ending.

It’s still worth the quest. If you make it about the journey and not the destination, it’s worth pursuing the dream and living it for as long as possible.
I guess this applies both to searching for a budget jacket and/or for saving up to a new one.

 

[Eagledog]

I hope I’m not alone with this problem.

I know exactly what jacket I want, but it’s not the widely and commonly for sale model that show up in Classified or eBay almost weekly.

I even posted a WTB ad!

But - what I discovered is - while waiting for that dream jacket to show up for sale (2nd hand, as can’t afford brand new) - I often get distracted to some for sale jackets that closely resembles my dream jacket, but I have to ask myself really hard ‘is this really what you want?!’ ‘Will you really be happy and settle with it after you got it - or will you still want that dream jacket?’

I have to be quite detached and patient and disciplined in this search. Otherwise I think I’d end up wasting lots of money buying and reselling what is something I ultimately didn’t want.

Your thoughts?

Post a picture of the dream jacket you are looking for. Make, model, size, color....
Someone may stumble across it and let you know.
Better than looking for a needle in a haystack by yourself.
How patient should you be? As long as it takes!
Seriously, I can think of no reason to wear yourself out over something trivial like a jacket.
Just think about all the things you just had to have in the past 20 years ( cars, clothes, shoes, watches, toys, games, hats, phones, bicycle) I imagine a whole bunch of these things are no longer on the list of stuff you treasure.

 

[Zoro]

In general, not jackets (as I'm yet to get any leather ones), I aim to get my "dreams", "grails", "endgames" or whatever term you prefer. Not everyone is the same, there's people who are constantly going for a new endgame, but after several "hobbies", that's simply not me.

Reaching an endgame may not mean not getting any other pieces, but it does mean having reached satisfaction. And while the more niche something is, the harder it is to try it beforehand, I've been mostly successful in getting to my endgames.

Jackets (hopefully) won't be that different. I know what I want and I'm working to get them. I've set money aside for these endgames. They may still show up one day and not be what I wanted but at worse I think I might sell them at a low loss as long as I'm not in a hurry to get rid of them (which should not happen).

There's still pieces I like (or find out they exist and then like) that I might buy, but always to complement the main ones I want, for a right price and/or after having had the main ones for a while, simply because I don't want to spend a lot of money in a very short time as you never know what can happen in life. Otherwise, I might had bought already some items that showed up in the Classifieds, but those would had only been temporary distractions before getting what I do want.

 

[ton312]

I bought this jacket in 2020 and sold it.
Regretted it instantly. It took almost 5 years but I finally found and purchased another this morning!

 

[Eagledog]

Nice! Hang on to it this time!

 

[NamoAmituofo]

So now I’m 3 months older and hopefully wiser than when I first posted this thread - and I would reframe my thinking from ‘dream jacket’ to ‘bonding with a jacket’

I allow myself 3 jackets only. And 1 of them which is a Vanson Enfield HH has been with a jacket maker for making a mouton collar for a couple of months. So I’ve been wearing my remaining 2 jackets - a summer weight (if you can call a 7lb CXL HH jacket summer weight) aero king of the road which I just wear for about any occasion when temp is 10d or higher; and a 7.5lb JL barneveld remix in heavy goat and lined with quilt which I got from fellow lounger Panda for anything under 10d as I’m able to layer thick jumpers underneath thanks to the side adjusters.

What I realized is - I don’t even need that 3rd jacket that I’m waiting for the mouton collar to be made for!! And to be honest I’d happily sell it had I not spent close to £300 on materials for the mouton collar and labor cost! (Yes it will be a helluva mouton collar).

I find myself perfectly happy wearing just 2 jackets - and I have bonded with them - to the extent that I no longer check classified section or eBay for my previously dream jacket which is a LW 5oz+ CHP or Ryder.

 

[Eagledog]

So now I’m 3 months older and hopefully wiser than when I first posted this thread - and I would reframe my thinking from ‘dream jacket’ to ‘bonding with a jacket’

I allow myself 3 jackets only. And 1 of them which is a Vanson Enfield HH has been with a jacket maker for making a mouton collar for a couple of months. So I’ve been wearing my remaining 2 jackets - a summer weight (if you can call a 7lb CXL HH jacket summer weight) aero king of the road which I just wear for about any occasion when temp is 10d or higher; and a 7.5lb JL barneveld remix in heavy goat and lined with quilt which I got from fellow lounger Panda for anything under 10d as I’m able to layer thick jumpers underneath thanks to the side adjusters.

What I realized is - I don’t even need that 3rd jacket that I’m waiting for the mouton collar to be made for!! And to be honest I’d happily sell it had I not spent close to £300 on materials for the mouton collar and labor cost! (Yes it will be a helluva mouton collar).

I find myself perfectly happy wearing just 2 jackets - and I have bonded with them - to the extent that I no longer check classified section or eBay for my previously dream jacket which is a LW 5oz+ CHP or Ryder.

The jackets you bonded with are spectacular. Looks like you have all your jacket needs covered in style.