Goodwill buys

[laotou]

When I was a kid, I got a job to extend my Goodwill and St. Vinnie's, and antique store budget!

Me too!

 

[Dinerman]

$10

 

[Dinerman]

1952 dated. At $60, a bit much.

 

[davestlouis]

Dinerman, I agree...$60 is a lot of money. I try to spend no more than $12 for a suit. It would have to be something really noteworthy for me to spend more than that. I'll go $3 on shirts, and haven't spent more than $25 on shoes in a long time.

 

[jamespowers]

$60 isn't that bad if you consider the size. A suit like that in a size 44-46 would bring that easily. The same suit in 36-40 is a lot more common and I wouldn't pay much for it.
I suppose it depends on your size and how much you want it too.
Maybe they also have half price days and then it might be even better.

 

[Dinerman]

It was a 40 short.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

$60 isn't crazy expensive, though. Imagine it fit you just right, independent of size. I'd snap your hands off to take it for $60.

Even at 36S/35R, $60 is cheap from a store. The suit is from 1952. It is better quality by a long, long way than anything you can get off the peg at a department store. Or to be honest, better than anything you can get off the peg from any menswear store, outside bespoke.

bk

 

[Dinerman]

I agree $60 isn't bad if it fit. Unfortunately it was much too short in the sleeves and legs (I take about a 35" inseam, this was about a 28") Even with the cuffs let all the way down, the pants would be about three or four inches short. And the lower button placement on '50s double breasted suits doesn't fit me very well, even if the sleeves and legs did come anywhere close to fitting. I suppose I could have bought it for that and resold it. All the other suits in the shop were in the $10-$20 range. $60 seemed inordinately high for a value village, especially with the earlier 3 pc. double breasted I got earlier in the week only running me $10.

 

[jamespowers]

It was a 40 short.

That is an odd size but as Baron said---if it fit you right then it would be a great deal better than anything you could find new off the rack.
Thanks for that steer to the two suits, by the way, Baron. I'll have to post me wearing them in another thread.

 

[repeatclicks]

Unbelievable. Its 2010 and $60 is expensive for a vintage suit. You can't walk into a department store and get a crap suit for $60.

I'm sorry, thats just unreal to me. People spend that in gasoline for their car in a week, literally, burning money.
:eusa_doh:

 

[Dinerman]

Unbelievable. Its 2010 and $60 is expensive for a vintage suit. You can't walk into a department store and get a crap suit for $60.

I'm sorry, thats just unreal to me. People spend that in gasoline for their car in a week, literally, burning money.
:eusa_doh:

I'm a student. I don't need to waste a weeks worth of grocery money on something I can't use. If it was anywhere near my size or if it could be tailored to fit, trust me, I'd probably pick it up.
As far as buying it to resell goes, if it were half that, maybe I would, but as an unremarkable suit in an unremarkable size, with the $5 bus fare to pick it up and shipping as it is from Halifax, it just doesn't make much sense.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

They ended up fitting you, then? I saw some measurements she gave and got a little worried that they wouldn't fit you. And, the $60,000 question: What era is the ambiguous era one from, and how fantastic is the fabric?

Thanks for that steer to the two suits, by the way, Baron. I'll have to post me wearing them in another thread.

bk

 

[tonyb]

... $60 seemed inordinately high for a value village, especially with the earlier 3 pc. double breasted I got earlier in the week only running me $10.

Got a similar situation at the Value Village less than a mile from my place. Pricing is just all over the map. Sometimes whichever person decides on the price apparently determines that something is worth big bucks just because it's old, seemingly regardless of condition or size. And then he or she or another person will fail to recognize that another vintage item is indeed a vintage item and let it go cheap.

I don't know what to attribute this to, but in recent months I routinely (and I mean like every other time I walk in the place) find '50s-vintage sports jackets and suits there for as little as $4.99. Got a 1955-dated brown flannel suit there, a size 43 in great condition, for $19.99. And then I'll see something like a wool cowboy hat priced at $29.99. I just shake my head and figure it goes with the territory.

 

[jamespowers]

They ended up fitting you, then? I saw some measurements she gave and got a little worried that they wouldn't fit you. And, the $60,000 question: What era is the ambiguous era one from, and how fantastic is the fabric?



bk

The pants are a little long but the rest is fine. I wore the 59 one yesterday. The other one definitely needs the pants shortened.
The seller just saw the tag in the 1959 labeled one and assumed the other one was from the same era. Not! It is probably from the 40s at least. There are no tags union or otherwise so that I can be sure though. No pleats ont he pants but they do have cuffs. Still likely a war era suit in decent shape.
The material is a fantastic tweed.
I sent them off to the dry cleaners this morning so I'll get pictures when they come back.
Thanks again. :eusa_clap

 

[tonyb]

Back story ...

Once a month I find myself with a couple of hours to kill in Lakewood, Wash., a nondescript suburb of beautiful Tacoma, while my dewy-eyed bride attends the meeting of the board of directors of a nonprofit on which she serves. I usually bring along a book or magazine and pass most of that time in a coffeehouse, and I usually spend at least a few minutes searching the inventory at the Lakewood Goodwill store.

The month before last I found a nice pair of Allen Edmonds kicks, black, in my size, etc. (see page 10 in this thread, post 195). Tonight I found another pair of shoes, which I initially thought were AE's, but are actually Florsheim Imperials, with cushioned leather inserts that clearly read "Allen Edmonds," hence the confusion. They're in even better shape than April's find. They're brown, size 11. These guys here ...

As you can see, they didn't set me back much ...

 

[tonyb]

$10

...

No guns involved in this transaction, eh?

 

[davestlouis]

Great looking shoes tonyb...

 

[davestlouis]

I finally found a suit at GW today...2 button center vented jacket, pleated trousers with cuffs, "rafael, rome-new york" on the label, made in USA/union label but no other tags visible. It's a dark gray, casting a smidge more blue than most of my other suits, but gray nonetheless, sort of a nailhead fabric, can't tell if it's 100% wool or not, but it feels good and drapes well. The pants need to be taken in at the waist, but my cleaners does a nice job for $10. I paid $11, I think I did OK. They also had several Jos A Bank suits, but none fit my corpulent frame.

 

[jamespowers]

I finally found a suit at GW today...2 button center vented jacket, pleated trousers with cuffs, "rafael, rome-new york" on the label, made in USA/union label but no other tags visible. It's a dark gray, casting a smidge more blue than most of my other suits, but gray nonetheless, sort of a nailhead fabric, can't tell if it's 100% wool or not, but it feels good and drapes well. The pants need to be taken in at the waist, but my cleaners does a nice job for $10. I paid $11, I think I did OK. They also had several Jos A Bank suits, but none fit my corpulent frame.

I think you did fine as well. Where else are you going to get a $21 suit?
Corpulent?! lol lol lol That is definitely a vintage term. My catalog from 1916 uses that term for larger sized suits.

 

[davestlouis]

I do have a question about the cuffs...how tall are normal cuffs on trousers? I had a pair of pants with really tall cuffs, that are long gone now, but I think they were close to 2 inches tall, but most of my suit pants have cuffs that are shorter than that.