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Ebay Hats: Victories, Defeats, Gripes & Items of Interest

g.durand

One Too Many
Messages
1,896
Location
Down on the Bayou
This is the third time that hat has been posted. The first two postings had it listed for a buy-it-now price of $849. Now the BIN price is lower and it has an opening bid price. Some time later this year it may finally fall into a price range closer to the going rate for Stratoliners of that era and in that condition.
 

Rogera

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,365
Location
West Texas
It's a higher price because it is a highly treasured and rare fadora. I have to stay with the common fedora if I want a hat.
 

fedoracentric

Banned
Messages
1,362
Location
Streamwood, IL
True tale. The Whippet was a $10 hat back in the day. It was Stetson's lower quality price point. In fact, all the "named" hats in the 40s were the lower end hats (except, I think, for the Flagship which was usually a De Luxe, the next step up). Anyway, I think what stores did was get men in for the $10 model named hat (Bantam, Whippet, Stratoliner, etc.) and then try to upsell them to the more expensive ones if they could. The higher price points rarely had model names--at least by the 40s, anyway. The more expensive ones were De Luxe or Imperials, or 25s, 35s, and 100s, etc.

Anyway, the point is everyone goes crazy for the Whippet and some will pay over $300 for a vintage one and here it was Stetson's cheaper hat back in the day. Meanwhile, no one wants to bid on the De Luxes or the Imperials, at least not at the high dollars they'll lay out for a Whippet.

It all gets back to my note that the market sets the rules. Even though the Whippet was a hat of lesser quality back in the old days, everyone wants one now so the prices go up accordingly.
 

Joao Encarnado

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,776
Location
Portugal
I thought the Stratoliner was a better quality hat...
So if the market demands, a Whippet will go higher than a De Luxe. Insane...
Well I saw the same on westerns... No. 1's going higher than 3x...
 

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