In the year or so that I've been a member of the Fedora Lounge I've noticed that it has frequently of late become a kind of Ebay fan forum. A "Look what I bought on Ebay!" party.
Now, I can admire someone's taste, their eye or aesthetic, even their connoiseurship and of course their knowledge and opinion, I even appreciate reviews of new items as they present something for the group to consider. But I've never been one to find pleasure in sitting around admiring someone's latest acquisitions if they are not put into one of contexts above. That's just a little bit too much like trying to admire all the little zeros on someone's bank statement.
Since most of these "look what I bought!" or worse "what did I buy?" threads have ebay as their common link, I'm throwing this in the ring.
I come not to praise Ebay but to bury it.
Time was Ebay was a fun place to shop, now it's a sellers' market and prices and listings are giving me pains.
Look at this lisiting:
Borsalino Mens Hat
Here's a hat from an old (deceased) relative with a "musty smell" being sold by someone too dopey to include pictures of the inside of the hat and who admits he/she has "no idea about this hat," except of course that he/she knows that they want more than $102 for it.
Two bidders (both I think FLoungers) were willing to go over $100 but that didn't crack the reserve.
My problem is simply (?) this:
1) Seller: If you want a primo price for your stanky old hat then list it properly with all the relevant information including photos in the listing. Also try to be realistic about the item and the price.
2) Buyer: (Generic buyers, not the two bidders on this hat in particualr) There are smart ways to shop even on ebay. People who bid on every hat they see and who bid days in advance of the sale bid prices up for everyone and create expectations for the sellers so that they set higher reserves, some of which are just plain daffy. If you have deep pockets this works as an advantage to you, pricing a lot of competition out of the market, but hats in your collection are not worn on heads in the street (and come armegeddon they still can't be eaten).
3) Myself: Ebay has become a virtually monopolistic supplier of old stuff and although ebay does not set the prices, the prices are set by the increased competition for the item (people all over the world bidding on one more freaking Open Road!!!!). It is its own little, microcosmic scarce resource economy. But hats are not bread, and hats are not one of a kind works of art (with apologies to hatmakers who do produce one of a kind works of art - yet another Open Road, for example, is not a a OoaKWoA), so the clamour for them is - to my mind, positioned as it is beneath a hat for most days in the week - out of all proportion and reason.
There is no way that I would pay more than a hundred dollars for a hat that I haven't seen the inside of and I don't care if it is a borsalino. There's no indication of what period it is except the say so of the seller that it belonged to some 100 year old relative. So what! They might have bought it when they were 83 and it's not worth a hundred bucks, especially not if it smells like their musty 83 year old scalp!
I say ebay is the absolute worst place to buy a hat now (and a few other things too, but this is a hat forum) so for that reason, the good news is that your competition has been reduced by one. Deal me out. No more ebay. I'm swearing it off. I'm not even looking anymore.
The bad news is that I haven't bought anything on ebay for more than a year anyway (my brother's bought me a few things), so I wasn't giving you much competition anyway.
The other bad news is I'll be selling a lot of my hats to you suckers, and setting great big juicy reserves on them, so warm up your paypal accounts.
Now, I can admire someone's taste, their eye or aesthetic, even their connoiseurship and of course their knowledge and opinion, I even appreciate reviews of new items as they present something for the group to consider. But I've never been one to find pleasure in sitting around admiring someone's latest acquisitions if they are not put into one of contexts above. That's just a little bit too much like trying to admire all the little zeros on someone's bank statement.
Since most of these "look what I bought!" or worse "what did I buy?" threads have ebay as their common link, I'm throwing this in the ring.
I come not to praise Ebay but to bury it.
Time was Ebay was a fun place to shop, now it's a sellers' market and prices and listings are giving me pains.
Look at this lisiting:
Borsalino Mens Hat
Here's a hat from an old (deceased) relative with a "musty smell" being sold by someone too dopey to include pictures of the inside of the hat and who admits he/she has "no idea about this hat," except of course that he/she knows that they want more than $102 for it.
Two bidders (both I think FLoungers) were willing to go over $100 but that didn't crack the reserve.
My problem is simply (?) this:
1) Seller: If you want a primo price for your stanky old hat then list it properly with all the relevant information including photos in the listing. Also try to be realistic about the item and the price.
2) Buyer: (Generic buyers, not the two bidders on this hat in particualr) There are smart ways to shop even on ebay. People who bid on every hat they see and who bid days in advance of the sale bid prices up for everyone and create expectations for the sellers so that they set higher reserves, some of which are just plain daffy. If you have deep pockets this works as an advantage to you, pricing a lot of competition out of the market, but hats in your collection are not worn on heads in the street (and come armegeddon they still can't be eaten).
3) Myself: Ebay has become a virtually monopolistic supplier of old stuff and although ebay does not set the prices, the prices are set by the increased competition for the item (people all over the world bidding on one more freaking Open Road!!!!). It is its own little, microcosmic scarce resource economy. But hats are not bread, and hats are not one of a kind works of art (with apologies to hatmakers who do produce one of a kind works of art - yet another Open Road, for example, is not a a OoaKWoA), so the clamour for them is - to my mind, positioned as it is beneath a hat for most days in the week - out of all proportion and reason.
There is no way that I would pay more than a hundred dollars for a hat that I haven't seen the inside of and I don't care if it is a borsalino. There's no indication of what period it is except the say so of the seller that it belonged to some 100 year old relative. So what! They might have bought it when they were 83 and it's not worth a hundred bucks, especially not if it smells like their musty 83 year old scalp!
I say ebay is the absolute worst place to buy a hat now (and a few other things too, but this is a hat forum) so for that reason, the good news is that your competition has been reduced by one. Deal me out. No more ebay. I'm swearing it off. I'm not even looking anymore.
The bad news is that I haven't bought anything on ebay for more than a year anyway (my brother's bought me a few things), so I wasn't giving you much competition anyway.
The other bad news is I'll be selling a lot of my hats to you suckers, and setting great big juicy reserves on them, so warm up your paypal accounts.
