Selling vintage American to the Japanese market?

[Gamma68]

I posted elsewhere about a 1940s Windward jacket that's much too short for me at 21". At the same time, I recognize the relative scarcity of this piece.

I have the option to return it to the seller for a refund. It was not an expensive purchase. But I'm wondering if it would be profitable to flip it to Japan, since its short length might be more appealing to those buyers?

Are Japanese collectors still drooling over vintage American jackets, or not so much? I did sell my smaller-sized Taubers CR to a Japanese buyer a few months ago but one sale can't indicate any sort of trend.

Anyone have any success selling this route or tips for selling to Japan?

 

[Guppy]

It might be worth a try, but I don't know anything about selling internationally. It seems to me that with the language barrier, international shipping, and currency conversion, there's a lot of things that you'd need to take into account, which could make things complicated. You can always try it, and if it doesn't work out, write it off as a misadventure, I suppose.

 

[tmitchell59]

I always indicate international shipping when I sell on ebay. Pretty simple to use. I've not sold any jackets to Japan. I had one inquiry about a jacket that had already sold.

I was surprised to hear you sold that Taubers to Japan.

Get on yahoo Japan auction and you see what is being offered there. I have been off yahoo after buying one jacket. It was a easy transaction. Most of the jackets are too small. I just didn't see many jackets moving there. I see some of the same jackets being offered there and on ebay. They are priced higher on ebay.

I think the Japanese now have many/most of the best in vintage leather jackets. I think they trade there, but it doesn't look much different than the market here. The prices on vintage gear is similar, but they have more interesting jackets.

I do not believe the Japanese are looking very closely at ebay. I don't think they need to, they already have the stuff. I never looked at selling from USA on yahoo. I would not think it would be worth the effort.

 

[Gamma68]

Yeah, probably too complicated to try selling to an already saturated marketplace. I’ll likely return this jacket.

 

[tmitchell59]

I do think your Windward is historically interesting, but that doesn't make the leather better or the jacket longer.

The MC jacket industry really took off after WWII. I like to know who made all these jackets. I know that Appalachian made some Hercules/Sears jackets. Some of the Montgomery Wards-Made in California-jackets look like Ralphs-Pugh labels.

 

[Gamma68]

I do think your Windward is historically interesting, but that doesn't make the leather better or the jacket longer.

The MC jacket industry really took off after WWII. I like to know who made all these jackets. I know that Appalachian made some Hercules/Sears jackets. Some of the Montgomery Wards-Made in California-jackets look like Ralphs-Pugh labels.

Agree. Fit is king no matter the style or quality of the leather. On closer inspection, I think the leather would benefit tremendously from a cleaning and dressing. But that won’t make it longer.

 

[Big J]

Just my 2¥, but as someone else pointed out, ebay is virtually unknown in Japan, as is paypal.
Yahoo auctions Japan is the way to go.
Put it up with with classy clear photos (extra points if you can find a good vintage photo of someone wearing this jacket back in the day. Bonus points if it's someone famous). Provide an excellent Japanese language explanation of the condition and why this jacket is important in American clothing culture, along with a diagram showing where the measurements relate to.
Put a price on it that equates to the best possible price for this jacket in this condition that you could dream of back home. Then double it.

 

[regius]

I work in a Japanese company here in New York and I have had a very otherworldly experience selling to a Japanese gentleman my B3. It was via ebay. This guy was so genuine and sincere that he loved the jacket but didn’t have money. So he bid and won it, then he mailed me in small envelopes of CASH in installments, before he let me ship the jacket. I waited for three months before first payment, then another like three until he collected enough money. It was a $800 sale


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Doctor Damage]

I work in a Japanese company here in New York and I have had a very otherworldly experience selling to a Japanese gentleman my B3. It was via ebay. This guy was so genuine and sincere that he loved the jacket but didn’t have money. So he bid and won it, then he mailed me in small envelopes of CASH in installments, before he let me ship the jacket. I waited for three months before first payment, then another like three until he collected enough money. It was a $800 sale.

That's a heartwarming story for this modern age...