Is it me or has it become harder to sell things on Classifieds or anywhere else?

[MattieXMoto]

Just a hunch or observation. For ME whether here or ebay, it has become harder to find a good home for our pre loved threads and hides.

 

[deadlyhandsome]

I don’t often sell here…I tend to get better prices on eBay even after their fees.

I’m focused on hats. It’s easy to sell good vintage hats, but it’s harder to find good vintage hats to sell.

 

[MattieXMoto]

I don’t often sell here…I tend to get better prices on eBay even after their fees.

I’m focused on hats. It’s easy to sell good vintage hats, but it’s harder to find good vintage hats to sell.

Interesting

 

[AHP91]

I also find it difficult to sell on TFL. Most of the things I'm passing on sell on eBay (sooner or later). However, I've looked back quite a bit in the classified to see what sort of vintage items were for sale, and when they were sold.

Seems that some quite rare pieces for reasonable prices tended to just sit unsold in the classified here for way longer than I would've imagined, or perhaps sell elsewhere. So I don't really think much of it. I think a lot of people just like to window shop and tell themselves that a jacket that has shoulders that are .25" too big for them means they can't spend that money.

 

[Brandrea33]

I’ve had really good success here, granted I’ve only sold three jackets total. They all sold within a week of listing.

I think a lot depends on what it is and how you price it.

I don’t like to barter, so I like to think I price things fairly. I’ve seen some “aspirational“ selling prices here from time to time lol.

 

[MattieXMoto]

Thx for all the replies. I am finding even ebay is taking longer than past few yrs. Maybe the buyer is getting maxed out.

 

[tonyb]

Pure speculation on my part, so with that in mind …

Might it be that stuff of “Golden Era” vintage has had its moment?

Even among this bunch, it seems I see more and more references to artifacts of much more recent vintage. All sorts of stuff from the 1960s and ’70s and later (into the 1990s, even) is much sought after by people who weren’t necessarily alive then.

Still, though, good style is good style, no matter its era. The trade sites and publications I read report that the market for antique and vintage stuff in general has made a marked recovery of late. It’s attributable to a few factors, in the opinions of the writers, not least of which is the value placed on “sustainability” by the younger segments of the buying public. And I gotta tip my hat to them. Yes, it is a world of finite resources, for one thing, and, for another, a set of table and chairs that has already survived in a perfectly serviceable condition longer than their parents have been alive is a far better use of their money than what might be had at IKEA or any one of several other low-end furniture retailers.

Few of us wish to live in a museum, though. Our living spaces are not sets for period pieces, although you wouldn’t know that by seeing some of the interiors featured in Atomic Ranch and other publications devoted to mid-century modern style. It seems MCM‘s moment had reached its apex and is on the decline, too. Which is not to say that artifacts of that era are no longer sought-after, but only that it no longer dominates.

 

[Woodtroll]

It wouldn't surprise me if most folks have given up trying to find hats in the Classifieds here. Sometimes there's not even a hat for sale to be found on the first two pages, but there's a blue million jackets and even plenty of shoes to choose from.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Pure speculation on my part, so with that in mind …

Might it be that stuff of “Golden Era” vintage has had its moment?

Even among this bunch, it seems I see more and more references to artifacts of much more recent vintage. All sorts of stuff from the 1960s and ’70s and later (into the 1990s, even) is much sought after by people who weren’t necessarily alive then.

Still, though, good style is good style, no matter its era. The trade sites and publications I read report that the market for antique and vintage stuff in general has made a marked recovery of late. It’s attributable to a few factors, in the opinions of the writers, not least of which is the value placed on “sustainability” by the younger segments of the buying public. And I gotta tip my hat to them. Yes, it is a world of finite resources, for one thing, and, for another, a set of table and chairs that has already survived in a perfectly serviceable condition longer than their parents have been alive is a far better use of one’s money than what might be had at IKEA or any one of several other low-end furniture retailers.

Few of us wish to live in a museum, though. Our living spaces are not sets for period pieces, although you wouldn’t know that by seeing some of the interiors featured in Atomic Ranch and other publications devoted to mid-century modern style. It seems MCM‘s moment had reached its apex and is on the decline, too. Which is not to say that artifacts of that era are no longer sought-after, but only that it no longer dominates.

I think there's a lot to this. When I first walked in the door here, the emphasis was very strongly on the artifacts and general culture of 1930s-40s, with a secondary spread into the 1950s. Most of the people here seemed to have come to that interest via the "swing revival" of the late 1990s. Most of that initial cadre has long since left -- some moved on because they lost interest in that period, and some moved on because of the general drift of the forum away from that initial focus. And the forum itself has become a much more generalized venue. There are still a few of us around who remain interested in, for want of a better term, pre-boomer culture and artifacts, and we tend to keep to ourselves. Most of us in that group are less interested in cosplaying that era than in discussing its various aspects, and do relatively little buying or selling.

On the other hand, we also have maybe a majority of newer members who've come here in the last ten years or so who think of the Lounge as exclusively a hat/leather jacket exchange, and have no interest in the historical aspect of it. I have no idea what the market for those items is, but at least where I live the market for luxury goods for all kinds has just about collapsed.. Most of the people in my own circle are paying over half their income just to keep a leaky roof over their heads, thanks to rampaging out of control pandemic-era real estate speculators buying up all the local housing, and the thought of spending hundreds of dollars on a single item of clothing, no matter what it is or how collectible it is, is completely off the table. I know this is true in other parts of the country as well.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^^
And then there are the Golden Era enthusiasts who once participated here who aren’t participating in anything anymore, what with that ultimate fact of life and all. I know of a few who have shuffled off over the 18-plus years I’ve been here, and a few others I suspect have joined them.

As you and I and others have observed, there was and is a tendency to romanticize the fairly recent past. Even the phrase “Golden Era” itself might betray that very thing. Such sentiment was considerably more prevalent when I signed on, although it seemed at times to be less an affinity for the culture of the 1930s and ’40s than an overall disapproval of present times, a harkening to a better time that never truly was.

Thing is, though, the ’30s and ’40s are becoming less and less “recent past.” The MCM boom of the past couple decades was fueled largely by us born in the post-war period (I never did care for the “baby boomer” designation) and our children and grandchildren.

Remember when “old-fashioned” meant Victorian era stuff? My folks did. “Golden Era“ artifacts were, for them, everyday objects that they’d get around to replacing once they stopped being of utility to them.

EDIT: I wrote “the 18-plus years I’ve been here.” It’s actually been right at 18 years today. (I looked into it.) I signed on December 8, 2005. A lot has changed since then.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There was a huge nostalgia fad in the mid 1930s for the "Gay Nineties," complete with cutesy moustache-cup and picture-hat merchandise, nostalgia "beer gardens" with singing waiters, movies set in the period, pastiche songs in an 1890s style, and all the rest. In the early 1950s, the "Good Old Days" were the years surrounding WWI, about 1915 to 1920, and there was a pretty good chance you had a gas station calendar hanging in your kitchen full of pictures of high-shouldered Model T's driven by men in straw boaters and surrounded by kids in middy blouses and knickers. In the late fifties, the focus shifted again, this time to the flapper era, bathtub gin, and vo-do-de-o-do. And by the end of the sixties, as the Swing Generation was nearing the end of its pudgy middle age, the thirties were back in style. Eighties and nineties nostalgia? People collecting Members Only jackets and Nintendo tapes? Right on schedule.

 

[tonyb]

Part of what keeps this place going is the multiple sub-forums. There are some I visit regularly, some infrequently, and some not at all. If the Fedora Lounge limited itself exclusively to 1930s and ’40s material goods it would be signing its own death warrant. Or so I would think.

As I’ve noted in other threads, much of what we’ve come to think of as post-war modernist stuff — furniture, architecture, etc. — actually predates the “Golden Era.” It may not have become the dominant style in the 1930s and ’40s, but its origins were in the decades prior.

 

[belfastboy]

Pure speculation on my part, so with that in mind …

Might it be that stuff of “Golden Era” vintage has had its moment?

Even among this bunch, it seems I see more and more references to artifacts of much more recent vintage. All sorts of stuff from the 1960s and ’70s and later (into the 1990s, even) is much sought after by people who weren’t necessarily alive then.

Still, though, good style is good style, no matter its era. The trade sites and publications I read report that the market for antique and vintage stuff in general has made a marked recovery of late. It’s attributable to a few factors, in the opinions of the writers, not least of which is the value placed on “sustainability” by the younger segments of the buying public. And I gotta tip my hat to them. Yes, it is a world of finite resources, for one thing, and, for another, a set of table and chairs that has already survived in a perfectly serviceable condition longer than their parents have been alive is a far better use of one’s money than what might be had at IKEA or any one of several other low-end furniture retailers.

Few of us wish to live in a museum, though. Our living spaces are not sets for period pieces, although you wouldn’t know that by seeing some of the interiors featured in Atomic Ranch and other publications devoted to mid-century modern style. It seems MCM‘s moment had reached its apex and is on the decline, too. Which is not to say that artifacts of that era are no longer sought-after, but only that it no longer dominates.

I read reports from custom hat makers that this year's Black Friday was their slowest on record. Just not the traffic yet folks seem to still be spending. Perhaps inflation is taking a toll on discretionary spending.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^^
It could be that Black Friday has had its moment, too. And just about every day is “Cyber Monday” these days.

A nephew in the car selling business tells me that consumers have gotten hip to “sales” associated with holidays such that traffic through the doors on such days isn’t extraordinary anymore.

There’s an outfit here locally that sells kitchen cabinets and granite countertops. They do lots of advertising. There’s ALWAYS a sale (associated with one holiday or another) featuring their “LOWEST PRICES!” and “WIDEST SELECTION!” “EVER!!!!”

Perhaps it’s a symptom of advancing years, but advertising (and marketing gimmicks like Black Friday) is likelier to turn me away than draw me in.

 

[belfastboy]

^^^^^^
It could be that Black Friday has had its moment, too. And just about every day is “Cyber Monday” these days.

A nephew in the car selling business tells me that consumers have gotten hip to “sales” associated with holidays such that traffic through the doors on such days isn’t extraordinary anymore.

There’s an outfit here locally that sells kitchen cabinets and granite countertops. They do lots of advertising. There’s ALWAYS a sale (associated with one holiday or another) featuring their “LOWEST PRICES!” and “WIDEST SELECTION!” “EVER!!!!”

Perhaps it’s a symptom of advancing years, but advertising is likelier to turn me away than draw me in.

I can attest to discounts being habituating. There are certain products at Costco and my local supermart that go on discount regularly. I now never ever pay full price for them as I just wait for the sale/coupon and stock up. It gets tricky when they stop discounting a product I am habituated to buying. I still refuse to pay full ticket and have to find an alternative. Vexing but doable.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There are people here with thousands of posts I've never heard of. The historical stuff keeps me coming around, but there are few things in the world that interest me less than leather jackets. Unless John Garfield's wearing one in 1939.

 

[tonyb]

I think there's a lot to this. When I first walked in the door here, the emphasis was very strongly on the artifacts and general culture of 1930s-40s, with a secondary spread into the 1950s. … There are still a few of us around who remain interested in, for want of a better term, pre-boomer culture and artifacts, and we tend to keep to ourselves. Most of us in that group are less interested in cosplaying that era than in discussing its various aspects, and do relatively little buying or selling.

When does an affinity for a bygone style become cosplaying?

I do believe that in many cases a Venn diagram showing “Eyes of the Beholder” and “Intent of the Person so Attired” would show a whole lotta overlap.

And conversely? I often wear a goatskin A2 jacket and rarely leave home without a fedora atop my head. I doubt that many would think me cosplaying. I’ve yet to hear myself likened to Indiana Jones. But then, Indiana Jones doesn’t wear Converse All Stars. (Or does he? I’m hardly the final authority on such matters.)

It gets down to whether the person wears his attire or if it wears him. It becomes a costume when the person himself becomes subordinate to it.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'd suggest going to events to mingle with other people so dressed and pretend it's 1939, except you don't work in a factory, would qualify as cosplay the same as dressing up as a member of Starfleet or the Sixth Doctor or Mary Marvel and hanging around a hotel lobby would so qualify. But putting on your everyday clothes and going to work and not thinking about them for the rest of the day is just -- wearing clothes.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^^
I occasionally field questions from customers asking what hat I’d recommend they wear to a job interview. I typically respond “none at all,” unless the job is in entertainment or the arts or maybe advertising. You want the interviewer to remember what you said, I tell them, not that you wore a hat to the interview. “Proper” hats haven’t been the norm outside certain specific contexts in more than half a century, and it’s probably best not to come across as an eccentric, nor as a person who pays an inordinate level of attention to his appearance.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

There are people here with thousands of posts I've never heard of. The historical stuff keeps me coming around, but there are few things in the world that interest me less than leather jackets. Unless John Garfield's wearing one in 1939.

I do love hats but it was primarily the history and music from the period that brought me here all those years ago.