Stetson Auction Review

[jpdesign]

I went to the Auction today, Just Got back home to Fort Worth. You didn't miss much. All of the hats from the 20's through the fifties were westerns. There was one stetson playboy sold, aside from that all of the dress hats were from the early 90's, late 80's at the oldest.

I picked up about thirty bodies, two heated stretchers, a formillion, and a few other hand tools.

I did get two bodies that will be auctioned off to this community only. One is a stetson 1000x, yes 1000 and not 100, it ia a chinchila and beaver body. Retail on it as a western hat is $5000. The other is a Stetson 500x, a beaver and sable blend. Retail on that one is about $2500.

The big kicker is that I believe these have not been stiffened. I need to do a test to find out. When they get auctioned it will be for a body to be made into whatever style of hat the person wants.

I got several other pure bever bodies, some sterling and snow white. As I go through and make up a final list of what I ended up with I will get info to you on what I have for sale.

 

[tonyb]

It almost pains me to ask, but were those oak-and-glass cases mentioned in the auctioneer's flier large enough to hold, say, 40 or 50 hats? And did you happen to note how much they sold for?

 

[besdor]

JP , were there any hat catalogs or other memrobilia that were in the auction . I had heard that there was a lot or paper items in the sale . How much did the formillion sell for ?
I'm glad that someone went that can give us a little update . I didn't sleep at all last night just thinking about what was there .:cool2:

 

[besdor]

Scotrace , I was in a place that did have hundreds of old Stetson hats from the 1940's and up about four years ago . There was a store called Modern Hatters in NJ that closed up shop after being in business for 100 years . The problem is that the owner wanted to sell everything in one shot .There were over 25,000 hats in the store and 24,500 were all mottled or stripped of their linings and leathers as this place did a lot of renovating . The machinery ended up in a factory in NJ and the hats went to a vintage clothing store in NY called Cheap Jacks .
Just to move out everything would have been a nightmare for me let alone storage . I guess some things weren't meantto be .:cry:

 

[jpdesign]

it was five glass and oak cases that each held one hat. There was one large hat case, retail style, that hels maybe a dozen. The single hat cases went for a couple hundred. Nost of the hats had moth damage or marks of some sort, some tom mix, some riverboat, one top hat that the brim hat started taring on. I gave $400 for the Formillion.

Jimmy

 

[tonyb]

Well, now I don't feel so bad. It looks like airfare and car rental would have been wasted. Thanks for the report, jp.

 

[besdor]

Thanks JP. Now at least , I can sleep tonight . From the ad, it looked like the find of the century . I hope that you didn't have to travel too far. Was there a big turnout?

Steven:cool2:

 

[D. Hats]

Sigh of Relief, ahhhh

Feel much better now that I know I wasn't in the wrong place at the wrong time... was sure hopin' and wishin' though... would've been awesome to have a vintage fedora from the factory... as long as it would have been in mint condition. Sounds like lots of the lids auctioned were maybe not originally good enough to make it to the showroom....

 

[jamespowers]

They still haven't gotten back to me with a report on what I got or lost. Geez, I hope I got those ads. Just the John Wayne one with the negatives would have been worth it for me. That would get blown up to poster size for my bar.

Regards to all,

J

 

[D. Hats]

Fingers crossed XXXXX

Hopefully they took the time after the auction yesterday to complete all the face to face transactions, i.e., paperwork and all. Seeings how they were working late Friday, once the auction and post auction administration tasks were completed they probably called it a day. Monday when they get back to work...hopefully they'll be contacting the "Phone-in" bidders... hat gods willin' !!

 

[jpdesign]

I talked to the auctioneer afterwards, if it was something in the auction, and you weren't there in person, you didn't get it. He said he wasn't set up for phone in, and didn't know enough about the stuff to give peopole what they wanted sight unseen.

Jimmy

 

[jamespowers]

Huh. That's funny because he took my bids on several things as he was walking around the warehouse. He knew enough to describe and measure the stuff for me.
I suppose he just got tired of answering his phone. If I didn't get a thing I am not going to lose sleep over it though. Wheee! I'll just prod Art more about getting a Palomino made.

Regards to all,

J

 

[ITG]

Dude what auction was this? In Fort Worth? Is Stetson closing up or something or just a bunch of dead stock being auctioned off?

 

[Solomon Kane]

St. Joseph MO. Not Garland. The Outlet Center.

 

[besdor]

From what I've heard , some people that were there made out pretty good . It all depended on what you were looking for . I hope that some of the FL people got some good stuff.:cool2:

 

[Aaron Hats]

OK, spill it. What did you hear? Who scored some good buys?

 

[besdor]

That's the place . They took out the hats in garbage bags and threw out all of the original boxes . I managed to save some of them but unfortunately , I didn't have the room to keep more . It truly was an unbelievable sight !
As for the suction ,I spoke to someone who was there who manged to get some blocks and a few small hand irons . Nothing major . Most of the good stuff was sent to Garland . I'm more curious about any old paper items that were there . :cool2: