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

[RickP]

New hats today part 2... Time for a basic black dress hat . This one is a Stetson Key Club Dexter. Really nice Imperial felt and Ultimate finish. 2-1/2" raw edge brim. Moderately firm felt like my other Imperial Ultimate finish hat, stiffer than the Three Forks, but definately way softer than a western hat. Center dent crown. Really nice clean hat... really doesnt need any work other than some dusting. Oh...And it needs a new feather... this one looks like a fighting chicken pecked at it.... Somewhere Ive got a ziplock bag with a few hat feathers waiting to get used

No such thing as too many black hats lol

 

[RickP]

New hats part 3.... Another black hat. This one a cute little Royal Stetson Downs. 2-1/4" brim with raw edge. Teardrop crown. Moderately light weight and fairly soft felt. This hat looks almost new. nothing but dusting off and just a hair of steam on part of the brim. needed for this one. Its going to be a nice "knock around town" hat when I dont want to risk a nicer hat.

Ill say todays Ebay haul was thumbs up on all three hats! Even the packaging was better than it had to be.

If it wasnt raining, Id take one out for a run somewhere, but I think theyll just stay inside today

 

[RickP]

Another ebay package today. Yesterdays deliveries were all a scale of 9 out of 10.... this one has some challenges. Another great packing job. Almost like it was vaccum packed and slipped snugly in a shipping envelope. A little bent up but fortunately its in decent shape and should shape up well. A little 2-1/4" brim basic black Royal Stetson lid with no model/ build tag. Im guessing 70's- early 80's. Shape of hat looks very much like the Downs I got in yesterday, but this one has a wider 1-3/4" ribbon. I wanted it because it was from Henry the Hatter in Detroit where Fred Bear bought all his Borsalinos. ( Fred was my childhood hero) Sweat and liner are clean and in good condition. brim snaps up and down nicely in front and back... Just need to do a bit of shaping to flatten the brim a bit and get rid of the side brim curls. ( I suspect from a tight shipping envelope) Only real issue is that its marked 7-1/4 and measures a TIGHT 7-1/8.. had a few little surface spots that brushed off, so suspect it got wet once and shrank as it dried Oh well I have the gear so safely steam and stretch to where I need it. guess Ive got a half dozen black hats of various styles now

 

[RickP]

A few minutes of steaming and stretching and Ill say theres hope! lol. Havent done anything to brim beyond steaming and hand manipulation... already looks way better. Mild stretch seems to be holding size after 45 min. Fits great. Not my highest end hat, but it will be a great casual leather or jean jacket hat this fall ( I like black hats)