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Messages
12,018
Location
East of Los Angeles
Just a data point ... three bidders pushed a fairly modern 4X "Open Road" Stetson in what may be a '100' case to $164. No pic of the innards of the case.

https://www.ebay.com/bfl/viewbids/133398363479
Whenever I see this I wonder if it's one or more bidders working with the seller to make an item appear to be more valuable/desired than it actually is by participating in a fake bidding war just to drive the final sale price up. What do they call that, "shill bidding"?
 
Messages
19,001
Location
Central California
Whenever I see this I wonder if it's one or more bidders working with the seller to make an item appear to be more valuable/desired than it actually is by participating in a fake bidding war just to drive the final sale price up. What do they call that, "shill bidding"?


I don’t know, $164 for an OR and a One-Hundred case? Doesn’t sound like it was bid up to me.
 
I have an empty '100' case coming that I gave $30 for at auction. No hat, no plastic inserts. Probably gonna get killed on shipping though.

img.axd


img.axd


I probably did better on the case with a hat in it (at $110 + shipping).

147-1.jpg


147-3.jpg
 
Messages
10,858
Location
vancouver, canada
Were you referring to Nick Fouquet's hats? They are a hiss and a byword around here :)
Most are distressed in a heavy handed and unrealistic manner. On top of it, you are not getting a quality made hat while paying a premium price….at least that’s my personal opinion.
I have a friend with one of NF's hats. It cost him close to $2000 about 6 years ago. What a terrible hat. Glued in liner, the felt has been flamed and is cardboard stiff. Overall I would not have paid $200 let alone 10times that amount.
 
Messages
19,001
Location
Central California
I have a friend with one of NF's hats. It cost him close to $2000 about 6 years ago. What a terrible hat. Glued in liner, the felt has been flamed and is cardboard stiff. Overall I would not have paid $200 let alone 10times that amount.


I could sort of understand if it was just not a styling (distressed hats) that I didn’t like but others do. The thing is, they are poorly made hats too. I can also see the approx a well-used and naturally distressed hat. The cartoonishly distressed hats with scorch marks, crude contrasting stitching to sew up nonexistent or intentional holes, and patched in ribbon segments of different colors…this is just don’t get. Those hats look nothing like a hard-used real hat and look like a vaudeville prop depicting a hobo by the tracks parcel on the end of a stick slung over his shoulder.

With the less distressed Fouquet hats you’re still left with a poorly made hat that costs way too much. I do admirer his business acumen.
 
Messages
10,858
Location
vancouver, canada
I could sort of understand if it was just not a styling (distressed hats) that I didn’t like but others do. The thing is, they are poorly made hats too. I can also see the approx a well-used and naturally distressed hat. The cartoonishly distressed hats with scorch marks, crude contrasting stitching to sew up nonexistent or intentional holes, and patched in ribbon segments of different colors…this is just don’t get. Those hats look nothing like a hard-used real hat and look like a vaudeville prop depicting a hobo by the tracks parcel on the end of a stick slung over his shoulder.

With the less distressed Fouquet hats you’re still left with a poorly made hat that costs way too much. I do admirer his business acumen.
It is interesting as 4 more custom hatters have opened up here since I hung out my shingle. All of them are of the BoHo/distressed styles to varying degree. Interestingly, I have never actually seen one on the street, on a real human head. Folks are buying them but damn they don't seem to be wearing them.
 

Mighty44

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,011
Burning Man…;)
It is interesting as 4 more custom hatters have opened up here since I hung out my shingle. All of them are of the BoHo/distressed styles to varying degree. Interestingly, I have never actually seen one on the street, on a real human head. Folks are buying them but damn they don't seem to be wearing them.
 

jlee562

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,104
Location
San Francisco, CA
Whatever happened to the NF thread, does anyone know? Thx

IIRC I was linking to a post from Gregory Westbrook, whom Fouquet apprenticed under as a hatmaker. There were critiques made of his techniques shown online and I believe a TV segment. And I think I recall something about Fouquet plagiarizing designs.

Oh and then there was the whole matchstick thing.
 

Terminator

One of the Regulars
Messages
101
No, there was a dedicated NF thread, but when you click on it, it says you need to have admin rights to view it. I know the hats are not high quality, I’ll stick to Cody and vintage for the time being, I was just wondering if he was such a DB that he somehow made a thread disappear (similar to the match stick thing)
 
Messages
19,430
Location
Funkytown, USA
No, there was a dedicated NF thread, but when you click on it, it says you need to have admin rights to view it. I know the hats are not high quality, I’ll stick to Cody and vintage for the time being, I was just wondering if he was such a DB that he somehow made a thread disappear (similar to the match stick thing)

That happened to a bunch of threads when the FL made a (server or platform) switch a few months ago. Rusty has been restoring the hat stickies - all of those got locked as well.

Perhaps a bartender can take a look at it and resuscitate it.
 

Terminator

One of the Regulars
Messages
101
Aha, thanks for the background info. No biggie, I don’t desperately need to view it, but I was going to like him even less if he’d somehow managed to take a thread down
 

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