A "Picker" just called...

[m0nk]

False Alarm...

There were hats, and a lot of them. The only problem is they were ugly as all get out. Some were furry, some were plaid, and some were just, well, ugly.

On the bright side - he said he comes across fedora hats from the 30s -50s all the time. He throws them out, "because nobody would ever want them". He'll call me from now on...lol!

B/R,
Tom

Nice, at least there's the advantage of gaining a contact out of the whole thing. Funny that they were all ugly though.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

False Alarm...

There were hats, and a lot of them. The only problem is they were ugly as all get out. Some were furry, some were plaid, and some were just, well, ugly.

On the bright side - he said he comes across fedora hats from the 30s -50s all the time. He throws them out, "because nobody would ever want them". He'll call me from now on...lol!

B/R,
Tom

Welcome to my world, Tom. I can't even remember how many times this sort of thing has happened to me ... with vintage clothing, hats, and other stuff.


Want to hear a nightmare? I once met an elderly lady in North Hollywood whose late father had an unbelievable collection of vintage 1930s-'50s fedoras and homburgs, each in its original box. The lady was selling off most of her stuff, including --she said-- those hats. I went to her home and she showed the lids to me: size 7 1/4, my size, and in beautiful condition! But when it came time to part with them, she changed her mind...


I told her to call me if she rued her decision. She did call: but when I arrived at her house, she changed her mind again. Later, she called me yet again ... ready to sell. I rushed over, and ... well, no sale.


I finally gave up.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

He throws them out? In this country you can pay up to $50 for a beater in thrift shops due to the re-appearance of hats in rap videos, don't they have television round there?
I think he's pulling your leg.....

Agreed. Pickers tell a lot of tall tales and 'fish stories'. It goes along with the profession. They also have a very hard time admitting that they are wrong or ignorant about something.

 

[Tomasso]

Pickers tell a lot of tall tales and 'fish stories'. It goes along with the profession. They also have a very hard time admitting that they are wrong or ignorant about something.

Yes but they get found out rather quickly. But as a collector you still have to deal with them as on occasion they actually have the goods.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

Agreed. Pickers tell a lot of tall tales and 'fish stories'. It goes along with the profession. They also have a very hard time admitting that they are wrong or ignorant about something.

Absolutely true. A "picker" would never throw or give something away for a pittance unless they had explored all possible avenues, and one of them is the playing naive to make you think they have a valuable possession. I know because I have many picker friends and have been suckered in before.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

Yes but they get found out rather quickly. But as a collector you still have to deal with them as on occasion they actually have the goods.

That's right. If you are serious about collecting, you "have" to seriously swallow your pride sometimes and buy from the people you swore you'd never do business with again (and swear at quietly as you hand them the money). This used to bother me a lot but I don't take it too seriously so that I can seriously continue to collect....

 

[Dan Cav]

Aww I had my hopes up for a plethora of furfelt goodness ...........

Just in case, count me in for any "Sable Finish" lids of 7 1/4 size please

 

[Sam Craig]

Collecting seriously since 1974.

I have no idea how many times I've heard someone who is supposedly in the antiques, collectibles, vintage clothing line suggest they just usually have floods of fine fedoras, homburgs and derbies coming through their shops ... just don't happen to have any now.

When I first began collecting ... Yesterday I wore my satin finish, ivory colored Knox 25 I bought in 1974 ... I suppose there were a few more to chose from, but I'm not sure there were ever just plenty of them lying around.

I do know I didn't take as much advantage in the hunt 30 years ago as I should have, but having expressed that, I really do remember ... even back then ... hearing the old suggestion that this dealer or that one just had floods of hats coming through their shops. The funny thing is, when you went back, there were never any hats and the stock hadn't changed a bit.

What has changed, so much for the better, is that now there are resources for us all. This year I had half a dozen vintage hats ... a Strat, a couple of Knoxes and Dobbs ... brought back to life with work done at Wichita Hat Works. We can find and rescue these great old hats and then have them dolled up so we can get the best out of them, and that is what keeps me in the hunt.

"The game's afoot!"

Sam

 

[dr greg]

OK can someone actually define what a 'picker' is, are they some sort of middleman between the junkyard and the antique shop?
Over here most hunting is done by antique dealers themselves for their shops, or people like me who actually sell the stuff to the public at markets, and we pretty much all know each-other for a 50 mile radius.
There are of course 'collectors' but they are usually after their own specialty, and of course the occasional loony hoarder who grabs any and everything, and then just takes it out of circulation again...bastards, there's one in my town, up at 7am EVERY day going through all the junkyards and shops garage sales, estate sales, etc, hard to beat the guy to anything, and then he just takes it home...if he was selling the stuff I wouldn't mind, it's called competition, but to just shove decent hats, old books, militaria etc back in a mouldy trunk again just annoys me... anyway enough ranting...

 

[tonyb]

Agreed. Pickers tell a lot of tall tales and 'fish stories'. It goes along with the profession. They also have a very hard time admitting that they are wrong or ignorant about something.

Ain't that the truth. I can't count all the hat "experts" I've come across in the vintage/antique/secondhand world. And of course they see no reason to defer to superior knowledge, because, from their perspective, there's no way anyone else might know more than they do.

Not to paint with too broad a brush, though. I've also met many a fine, humble and genuinely helpful person in the old-junk biz, the sort of people whose sleep would be bothered if they misrepresented anything they had for sale. I like to think that these are the type who survive over the long term. Wishful? Maybe, but at least I do my part by going back to them.

 

[tonyb]

To answer dr greg's question ...

Whatever "picker" may have meant at one time (think "ragpicker," for instance), it has come to mean a person who scouts out and buys used stuff of almost any description for resale, either in the picker's own business or to another party who sells it to the "end user" (if there really is such a thing with this sort of swag, which may well be around after that "end user" reaches his earthly end).

By broad definition, many of us here are pickers, at least on an ad hoc basis. In my thrift shop/garage sale/etc. prowlings I buy items I have no intention of using myself -- clothes that would never fit me, say, or furniture for which I have no space -- because I am on friendly terms with retail vintage clothing and home-furnishings dealers who want that kind of stuff. Indeed, such businesses are often dependent on these sorts of relationships.


As to your observation about hoarders, greg ... I have some measure of sympathy for such people, not because their habits aren't irritating (they are, often), but because their "collecting" or "dealing" or whatever it is they tell themselves they're doing is a rationalization for what might reasonably be called a mental health problem. I'm friends with more than one such person, and I see the damage their obsession to acquire more stuff does to their relationships and their finances and their lives in general. Sure, a lot of the stuff they have is really cool, and worth something (quite a lot of something, in some cases), but it's mostly a ball and chain for them. They pay to acquire it and to store it, they have the hassle of moving it, and they can't even enjoy using it because they don't use it. And even the cool stuff they keep in their homes doesn't really do them much good, because it can't be seen under all the other stuff they have piled atop it. It's just sad.

 

[Dan Cav]

OK can someone actually define what a 'picker' is, are they some sort of middleman between the junkyard and the antique shop?

Hey Dr Greg,
Haven't you seen the TV show "American Pickers" ?? ( I think it is on channel 7Mate or 7Prime)
Those guys find some amazing stuff in sheds and barns that has not seen the light of day for literally 30 years

PS G'day from Qld ( Aussie Florida hahaha good one ....I assume your somewhere near Nimbin due to your Hippy reference )

 

[dr greg]

Heard about it, haven't seen it, no I'm over between Murbah and the coast, although i'm playing a gig near Nimbin on NYE

 

[PistolPete1969]

Keep me in mind....7 1/2 here!!!

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Hey Dr Greg,
Haven't you seen the TV show "American Pickers" ?? ( I think it is on channel 7Mate or 7Prime)
Those guys find some amazing stuff in sheds and barns that has not seen the light of day for literally 30 years

Hate to burst anyone's balloon, but that TV show (among others like it) is largely staged. I know this because I'm friends with someone whose close relative is the "star" of one of these shows.

 

[tonyb]

Hate to burst anyone's balloon, but that TV show (among others like it) is largely staged. I know this because I'm friends with someone whose close relative is the "star" of one of these shows.

Are you suggesting that "reality" TV isn't an accurate reflection of reality?

Geez, Marc, remember the children in the audience. Next thing we know, you'll be intimating that Santa doesn't really live at the North Pole.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Are you suggesting that "reality" TV isn't an accurate reflection of reality?

Geez, Marc, remember the children in the audience. Next thing we know, you'll be intimating that Santa doesn't really live at the North Pole.

Yeah. I just made Dan Cav grow up.

 

[tonyb]

The show itself is kinda fun, even if anyone with critical thinking skills would know that those encounters couldn't possibly be as spontaneous as the narratives would suggest. I'm confident that the average viewer plays along with it, though, knowing that it's largely fictional.

Oh, by the way, I have it on good authority that Santa is back safe at home, at that storage place outside of Elko.

Oh, and as long as we've drifted into this territory ... There's a Canadian program that's quite similar http://www.canadianpickers.com/. I'm guessing there's something along these lines in other parts of the world as well. (After all, there are three versions of the Antiques Roadshow, called exactly that in all three cases, in Great Britain and the United States and Canada.) I'm relying on our antipodean brethren to keep us posted on such matters down their way.

 

[EggHead]

I happen to be a good friend of a guy who is a distant relative of Santa. He has shown me pictures of him and Santa together at N.P., so Santa does exists.

Are you suggesting that "reality" TV isn't an accurate reflection of reality?

Geez, Marc, remember the children in the audience. Next thing we know, you'll be intimating that Santa doesn't really live at the North Pole.

 

[tonyb]

I happen to be a good friend of a guy who is a distant relative of Santa. He has shown me pictures of him and Santa together at N.P., so Santa does exists.

Well, OK then. You are obviously better connected than I. But those pictures had to be taken before Santa packed up the entire works and moved to Nevada. The way I heard it told, melting polar ice had him concerned about the longterm viability of the N.P. base of operations, and the real estate crash in Nevada brought prices there down to where it was really a no-brainer.