Ebay Glossary

[Tony in Tarzana]

"Top Hat" = Fedora
"Durby" = Fedora
"Fedora" = Homburg

 

[Lefty]

A bump in honor (or shame) of gtdean's recent and ongoing experience.

 

[John in Covina]

A good post is worth repeating.

E-Bay and Searches

This is an interesting topic because it exposes the weak link in E-Bay, the seller. It is not uncommon for a seller to have absolutely no idea what they are selling and I am not talking hats here. Recently In a search for some item I come across East German “Come-A-Long” a chain with holders that operates similar to a handcuff. It was described as a tie holder! The inability of a percentage of sellers to correctly or adequately list the item they are selling makes the search harder but can provide opportunities for the diligent searcher.

Now the thing is you have to break your search down to certain elements and then look at each element. Many people don’t know what a fedora is and the proof is to search for “fedora” and look at the hats that come up, Homburgs, Straw Boaters, and the occasional cowboy hat. If you punch in “fedora” and have the search for “all categories” all sorts of stuff will come up from computer programs to perfumes and all sorts in between. E-bay provides secondary filters that will winnow it down to only “clothing” or only “men’s” or only “vintage.” You may select these but if you’re in a hairy pursuit of a specific item it is good to search each category even though there will be stuff you’re not looking for in the resulting list.

Terminology matters, say you are looking for a Dobbs Hat Box, searching those three words together will invariably result in a list of Dobbs hat Boxes. However, some people will not know or remember that a hat box is a hat box and may call it a container of some sort. If you can come up with common alternate descriptions you should try those. Also you could try putting in Dobbs or Dobbs Hat and weeding thru the list. Also some people are selling the hat and box together, if the hat is total crap, the price may remain low and you could buy the combo simply for the box you needed. So there are filters to help you, but you have to do the due diligence for an intelligent search. Sometimes you need to go thru a big selection like Hat, because you never know when someone has tied selling a great hat they know nothing about to some other bizarre item.

When ever something is made idiot proof, we seem to rise to the challenge and find better idiots and the E-bay listings are proof. So now we all know that good clear pictures with as much detail is a good thing and a good description is a boon to searches, but when these two are not quite up to snuff, it can provide opportunity for the astute. Let’s say you on a hunt for something and you find a listing, poorly worded with a fuzzy picture. You’ve poured over the picture like a bomb run expect back at HQ. You realize that what the seller has is a legendary Manicotti Brand Fedora in that Burnt Sienna color with Burnt Umber ribbon. Now comes the challenge, is the listing poor because the seller doesn’t know what he has, or has the seller cleverly disguised his poor condition hat in an attempt to portray the listing as the work of an incompetent or inexperience seller? If incompetent you may have an opportunity since the regular crew of buyers may not realize the items potential and pass it up. So now comes the gamble, but in a situation like this calls for a lowball price, not to get too high without better information.

These days a caged monkey can use a digital camera to take a good picture and we are not asking for Ansel Adams to pose the shot but at least get it in focus. please!

Happy Hunting!

 

[Lefty]

because I still love this thread

 

[Mr. Paladin]

E-Bay and Searches

These days a caged monkey can use a digital camera to take a good picture and we are not asking for Ansel Adams to pose the shot but at least get it in focus. please!

One of the best post lines ever! lol lol lol

 

[Sam Craig]

My job used to take me into a lot of little farming communities and there was time to stop off at the little mom and pop ... mostly mom ... antique stores that people built to sell off all the junk they bought for the rest of their lives.

Some were fascinating, but it was amazing how many people knew NOTHING about hats

Derbies with no sweat band and the binding ribbon chewed through by rats would be claimed to be hundreds of years old and worth a fortune

A trilby that was worn in 1989 by someone who still used bearfat to grease their hair would be suggested to have originated in the 1920s

Perhaps the most aggravating was ... and remains ... the number of people who proudly exhibit an old silk tophat that has been used on frosty more than once and they proclaim it as an ancient BEAVER hat

Don't even try to explain the difference to them They aren't listening

Ebay is fine, but it's got the same failings ... the only difference is, you'd better know even more about what you are buying than you used to have to know in person ... photos can lie ... and so can sellers.

Sam

 

[Stan]

Hi,

Oh, yeah! I'd missed this thread, and it's a corker, all right!

I like the way most ebay hat sellers call out everything as wool. I guess we could add to the list:

wool = not straw!

I once asked about the brim width and got a response back from: a pair of digital calipers! They'd measured the brim thickness! Now, how does someone have a digital caliper - a machine shop measuring instrument - and know how to use it - yet misunderstand *width* for *thickness*??? lol

One hat i won was originally spec'd in Punti by the tag, so the seller just figured that it was an error and guesstimated the size and used that in the listing. I mean: 'a 4 1/2 has to be a child's size, yet this looks like an adult 7, so I'll use that.'

Unfortunately, I needed a size 5 Punti to start with. Fortunately, once I got a hot block, I was able to upsize it to fit. it was only $30, shipping incl'd, so I didn't get all bent out of shape about it.

That same hat, I'd asked about odors, and was told 'none'. Well, it stunk of mildew. When I complained about the misleading answer, I was informed that they thought I meant cigarette or moth balls. I guess mildew isn't a smell....

To be fair, they offered to take it back, which is all one could expect them to do. But, I decided to keep it as it was one of those (truly) vintage Borsalinos that are so wonderfully soft. I decided that I'd figure out a way to kill the mildew, clear out the odor, upsize the hat, replace the stained ribbon and keep the thing and wear it.

It took me a series of passes of spraying methanol (alcohol) inside the crown and then setting the hat on top of a slow running fan to force the alky fumes thru the felt to get rid of the smell, but it worked out in the end.

I've had a couple other bad hats off of eBay, but none as bad as that one.

later!

Stan

 

[Al Niente]

Ebay

I have gotten some very nice hats off Ebay. Only one was misrepresented and that only if you think needing a new sweatband and a few slight bites is not mint. I have been very careful to ask a lot of questions and study the pics.

I do know one quy who got a used guitar off Ebay that came with three different kind of screws: Rusted, Stripped and Missing. fftopic:

 

[jeffconnors]

Put a some ribbon trim on the brim add 100$
Put a "guild edge" on a brim -100$
style over quality seems to be the way things go on ebay...
Ribbon trim does look nice and all but "guild edge" hats should always go higher..me thinks[huh]

 

[AlanD]

Another word I saw on Ebay concerning fedoras was "Importated", I hadn't seen this word in your posts yet. Just sayin......