Price of vintage on the up!

[Paul]

Price of vintage on the up!
Reading several comments about Ebay prices especially older decades rising I was just thinking if vintage fashions come more main stream this will fuel the price rises.
I could have a knock on effect with reproduction also.
Will you just grim and bear it an pay or bite your lip and move into a another decade which might not be as popular yet.
Or option #3 invest in a sawing machine!

 

[Naama]

I'd never switch into another decade! But I don't think that the 20's and early 30's so popular so far....... I'm pretty happy that I'm not a 40's girl! But then again, you can get a lot of vintage inspired stuff, what's pretty cool. Everything bad brings something good as well

Naama

 

[BonnieJean]

I was speaking to a local antiques mall owner the other day. This gentleman is in his early 60s, I would say. He told me that he was wondering if his "collection" that he's been saving for his retirement (I'm not sure what decade he collects, maybe 30s-40s) will be worth much in 10-20 years. He says the "hot" thing right now is 50s-80s stuff. I'll have to tell him that there still are people that want stuff older than 1950. The Fedora Lounge proves it! The 1930s is my favorite decade followed by 1940 and I can never have enough of the stuff!

 

[Rosie]

Prices are going up in bigger stores and definitely on line. I've noticed sellers pricing their items at the price they would like for them to sell rather than what they are worth. I sew a lot anyway and being a bigger lady, finding vintage at a price I'd willingly allow leave my wallet often proves to be a problem but, it depends on the item. If it's something easily whipped up at home, eh, let it go. If it's divine, gorgeous, gotta have it, then I'll grin and bear it. Truthfully, since visiting the FL for all of these months, I'm beginning to appreciate clothing from the '30s and even '20s something that I've not done in the past. I don't think I'll switch eras, though.

 

[Lady Day]

As something becomes popular, some one will always wanna make the quicker buck. They aint sellin just for the love of the clothes.
There can be a few outcomes to this trend.

1) It floods the market with okay repo items.

2) Discount stores will start to (and Ive seen them already, ie Target) repo 'isnpired' items at super cheap prices.

3) get a sewing machine (as someone listed earlier) and make them yourself. Sadly that aint always the cheapest route. So so sadly....

4) Bare the 8 to12 months you will be 'in stlye' with the rest of the world.

5) Wait a year and then dive into all that cool repo that will be dumped in your local goodwill when the next 'trend' is decided. Yay!

LD

 

[LizzieMaine]

What disturbs me the most is as much the drying up of the supply as the rising of the prices. Ten years ago we had several vintage shops here in town (pretty impressive when you consider it's a total population of only about 9000), but now there are none -- and the vintage that used to show up in the Goodwill and Salvation Army from time to time almost never shows up anymore. If you see a "vintage" rack around here nowadays, it's usually tacky polyester stuff from the '70s or '80s. The prime '30s-'50s stuff evidently goes straight to eBay most of the time, where the prices get run up terribly, and the few prime items I see in the local marketplace are all in upscale antique malls and shops with price tags to match.

I was lucky in that I got most of my genuine vintage back in the days when it was both common and inexpensive -- my favorite shop downtown featured lovely '40s suits and dresses for less than $10, blouses for less than $5, and accessories like hats and bags for a dollar or so -- and there was always fresh stock being added in. Unfortunately, I'm a bit bigger than I was ten years ago, and can fit into very few of the outfits I bought back then (sigh). So nowadays, I cope by sewing my own, which I'll continue to do as long as the supply of affordable patterns holds out...

 

[Paul]

What disturbs me the most is as much the drying up of the supply as the rising of the prices.

Supply and demand is responsible for the prices, But Ebay also has it's effect especially on the small stores like Lizzie had in here town,
Where those shops would have a area to their own which would set the prices as if they were to high no one local would buy so the prices are set by the local economy, but been able to sell world wide then that opens the market up and exchange rates come into play.
It does not look like any one is going to change era here at any rate just because of the price.

 

[Rosie]

Lizzie and Paul are very right. Ebay has a lot to do with the rising prices as we all know. In the past, people would just dump their unwanted items at the good will or sell them in a garage sale or give them away. Now, the first thing many people think is, how much can I get for this on ebay. My mom has boxes of accessories from the '60s, costume jewelry, old glasses, etc. In the past, when she came across something like this, she would just throw it away. This past week, my mom, 60+ years old tells me, I have a box of stuff over here, come see if you can put any of it on ebay. It was just funny to me, considering she's never been on ebay. (but of course hears me talking about it)

 

[Miss Dottie]

I also agree with Lizzie Maine and Paul re: the supply and demand (as well as eBay.) A decade ago it was much easier to find dresses from the 30s and 40s and loads from the 50s. Now these items are seen as antiques and rarely go for less than $50 a dress.

But remember the big swing dancing trend in the nineties that has for the most part faded? I remember finding a whole slew of vintage dresses in 2000/2001 in the local Salvation Army store--obviously some one time swinger was sick of it and decided to ditch their clothes. Their loss--my find!

 

[whaleomelette]

price of vintage, being popular

moaning:

iv *always* bought vintage or antique items in some form or other,
when i was 7 i bought a victorian mourning parasole- not the usual choice for a child.
i collect vintage:
hats
smoking items
bags
shoes
coats
gloves
clothes in general.

you name it i collect it however,

over the past. hmm. 6 years (bit longer) vintage has gone from being 3 quid for a hat, 10 for a dress, 50p for gloves to 50 quid and the rest on ebay, with 'vintage' shops 10 a penny

charity shops such as oxfam (i used to work there) are milking the vintage (most of which is crap)and charging an arm and a leg, treating their selves like boutiques, even for none vintage they have set minimum prices for clothing items- which are far too much if you need to shop there because you cant afford to shop else where, they send all the best stuff to the main shops and youre left with the crap in the local stores- even though that stuff was brought into that shop.
you can get clothes for far less in primark and shops of that ilk - yet when you say that to them they give you a massive ranty self important preachy speech about how they are evil fat cats.
on another note- there was an article about how oxfam where doing local independant book sellers out of bussiness and when questioned about it their responce was basically 'tough'

dita von teese has something to do with this im sure as iv noticed vast amounts of people trying to look 'vintage' and failing, iv never seen anyone dress like that where i live prior to the past few years- infact i used to get spat on, alot. now i get told i look like her on a daily basis practically.

it annoys me because i hate trends and people who cant think for them selves, and what annoys me more is these people LIE and say 'oh yeah iv been into vintage for a long time' no you havent, so why lie about it its pathetic- it doesnt get you any kudos with me- im just sad the vintage you have bought will prob go in the bin when vintage finally falls out of favour

. end moan.

 

[December]

charity shops such as oxfam (i used to work there) are milking the vintage (most of which is crap)and charging an arm and a leg, treating their selves like boutiques, even for none vintage they have set minimum prices for clothing items- which are far too much if you need to shop there because you cant afford to shop else where, they send all the best stuff to the main shops and youre left with the crap in the local stores- even though that stuff was brought into that shop.
you can get clothes for far less in primark and shops of that ilk - yet when you say that to them they give you a massive ranty self important preachy speech about how they are evil fat cats.
on another note- there was an article about how oxfam where doing local independant book sellers out of bussiness and when questioned about it their responce was basically 'tough'

Yep, those evil evil charity shops! You'd think they were trying to help people or something. How dare they be so selfish and scam us out of our cash

 

[whaleomelette]

Yep, those evil evil charity shops! You'd think they were trying to help people or something. How dare they be so selfish and scam us out of our cash

they are- i worked there, they have set price lists and they are too much for people who need to buy there
they are trying to help them selves, if they were helping people- clothes would be cheap
think closer to home not feeding africans- what about the people who shopped there because they have no choice

have you not noticed the sky rocking prices- you clearly have! i have just looked at your webpage

 

[Paisley]

I don't know anything about Oxfam, but the purpose of charitable thrift stores around here (like Goodwill or ARC) is to help the poor and disabled with jobs, skills, etc. Supporting vintage collectors isn't part of their mission. If a rare, valuable antique were donated, it would make more sense for them to sell it to a shop specializing in such things instead of selling it for $2 with the rest of their everyday bric-a-brac.

I don't think I've ever seen pants or shirts cost more than $5 at Goodwill or ARC, and even good quality clothing is less than $10. A lot of the clothes go for less than 1/10 the price of retail. As for a lot of the clothes being junk, that's what clothing makers have been making and almost everyone has been buying for over ten years now. It's not their fault.

 

[whaleomelette]

I don't know anything about Oxfam, but the purpose of charitable thrift stores around hereGoodwill or ARC is to help the poor and disabled with jobs

that sounds really good- however where i live the people who work in those shops are under 25s who are suddenly into vintage, i know one shop where those kids steal the vintage clothes, i went into a shop the other day and the staff where about 15 and were chatting about how 'cool' vintage is, not helping customers[/B],

I don't think I've ever seen pants or shirts cost more than $5 at Goodwill or ARC, and even good quality clothing is less than $10.

inthe oxfam where i worked tops have a minimum sale of £6 and they usually price up at *alot* more, they didnt even cost that new half the time

 

[Paisley]

Have you told management about their embezzlement problem? If the management is the problem, have you alerted those in charge of this organization?

If the clothing is overpriced, people will shop elsewhere--especially if they can get the same thing new for less money.

***

Next.

 

[whaleomelette]

Have you told management about their embezzlement problem? If the management is the problem, have you alerted those in charge of this organization?

thats why i left, they really dont care, itd a huge organisation and some snotty kid theiving isnt the top of their list unfortunately

 

[GrrlFriday]

Of course it's frustrating to have to pay more for what you want when it suddenly becomes en vogue. But that's the nature of the beast -- things go in and out of fashion and supply and demand governs the price.

Moreover, those things that we consider vintage (from the 20s-60s in my estimation) aren't getting any younger. In the 10 years since you started collecting, the collectible things have gotten 10 years older and therefore 10 years more valuable by dint of standing up to another 10 years of life.

Where I am, there's three kinds of thrift shops. There's Goodwill/Salvation Army that sells utilitarian stuff, mostly non-vintage for cheapie prices. In addition to the proceeds going to the needy, the items are priced so that working poor, working class, and kids can afford them. There are also charity second-hand stores that sell more interesting /valuable things at higher prices. Their target shopper has more money to spend on less necessary collectibles and curiosities but the proceeds still go to help the homeless or battered women or what have you. And there's straight vintage shops that are in it for a profit. But those people (often mom and pops) have a right to make a living too.

 

[FAYEZY123]

Hi, I am new! Can't believe there are people into vintage as much as me

I agree with the popularity statement. There was a time when people said things such as where's the time machine? why do you want to wear old mouldy clothes? I've even had a manager at work say that my clothes look 'f*cking ridiculous'. But now people mostly compliment me. I get the odd stare or group of teenagers laughing, but I've put up with this for so long that I rarely notice.

The downside to the popularity of vintage is THE PRICE!! I used to get dresses for under £15, now I get excited if I get a dress under £30!

Also, has anyone else in the UK noticed a certain snobbery with vintage? None of my friends are into vintage, so if a see a fellow vintage wearer I will smile, or acknowledge them in some way...I am usually greeted with a blank stare or get 'the evil eye look' that women are so good at doing!

 

[whaleomelette]

I agree with the popularity statement. There was a time when people said things such as where's the time machine? why do you want to wear old mouldy clothes?
thank you! exactly, i used to get the **** ripped out of me somthing rotten- they used to say 'eee why are you buying from there are you poor' and now those people look liked they coverd them selves in glue and rolled around in POP/oxfam! all i get is compliments now

I've even had a manager at work say that my clothes look 'f*cking ridiculous'. But now people mostly compliment me. I get the odd stare or group of teenagers laughing, but I've put up with this for so long that I rarely notice.

its no where near bad as it used to be though is it thankfully? thats the one good thing that has come of its popularity, i dont get spat on any more, yay!

Also, has anyone else in the UK noticed a certain snobbery with vintage? I am usually greeted with a blank stare or get 'the evil eye look' that women are so good at doing

ooooh yes, thats what i mean about the new wearers, most are just trendy topshop types- i went to a vintage fair when i wasnt very well so i didnt have my usual atire on and i looked somwhat scruffy even if i say so my self
but EVERYONE who saw me sneerd or made a snotty comment to their friends.
i had the last laugh though because i either knew the dealers who keep the best for me or the stalls were over priced any way. ha!

 

[Lady Day]

Wow, two ranting threads in one day. Lets not have this place turn into the Observation Bar, okay

(I merged this thread with an older on this topic).

Bluntly put, complaining isnt going to make the price go down or turn back the clock. 1930s stuff is 80 years old. !940s stuff is 70 years old, 1950s stuff is 60 years old, etc.

Its getting pricier because its becoming more rare, and because of that, people *can* make more from it.

Its not what it sells for, it what someone is willing to pay for it, and if someone can sell it at that higher price then they have every right to sell it at that higher price.

LD