Recently Acquired Borsalino Hats

[cbidwellsmith]

I'm new to Fedora Lounge and am seeking some advice on a collection of Borsalinos I recently inherited from my father.

There are 11 of them altogether, all in pristine condition. They are all 6-6 1/2 sized. There are two beaver hats, four mink and several others. They are in varying shades of greens, blacks, browns and grays. My father purchased them all between the years of 1960 and 1980. The labels are clearly readable and I even visited a Borsalino shop once with him Italy to purchase some of them.

I'm wondering if someone could tell me the best place I might sell them. I know these hats are valuable. Is ebay as the premiere place to list Borsalinos?

Any advice would be much appreciated!

 

[Marc Chevalier]

First question re. their value:

-- When you say they're sized 6 -6 1/2, are you talking about American size or Italian size? In other words, did your father have a small head or a big one? If he had a big head, then the sizes you quoted are Italian and you're in luck: bigger sized vintage hats fetch a lot more money than do small ones. If his head was small, then you might have a tough time selling those hats for a good price, even though they're Borsalinos. 6-6 1/2 is a tiny U.S. size which would hardly attract most buyers.


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[cbidwellsmith]

size

He definitely had a big head. He was 6 foot 5! They must be Italian sizes. Any advice on what to do with the hats?

 

[zetwal]

Ebay is an excellent place to sell hats. My opinion is that you will do best if you set the opening price very very low and without reserve. If the hats are desireable and valuable the hammer price will surely reflect it. Good luck!

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Congratulations! You're in luck! You'll probably get a lot of money for them.


The best place to sell vintage fedoras is eBay, the online auction website: www.ebay.com


True, eBay will charge you a small fee to list the hats and photos, and will take a small percentage of the final sale (if any). Nonetheless, you'll have an audience of many, many potential buyers who are willing to bid high for Borsalinos.


Please do let us know if and when you sell these hats on eBay. Post the news in the Fedora Lounge's "Classifieds" section.

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[zetwal]

By the way, if you do sell on ebay, be sure to accept Paypal. You will attract more buyers if you do.

 

[Jauntyone]

You should also be willing to ship overseas. Or at least just to France

 

[cbidwellsmith]

photos

Would any of you guys be willing to take a look at some photos of the hats and tell me what you think?

I've been in touch with a couple of costume companies in Hollywood and they're interested.

I'm just trying to figure out what they're really worth though.

 

[carouselvic]

I'd like to look.

 

[zetwal]

I don't think you will have a problem getting opinions here! Put up your email address and we will write to you. That, or just post photos. Either way, I would be surprised if open bidding on ebay didn't bring in the best prices.

 

[HarpPlayerGene]

Sight unseen, but relying on experience gained here at the Lounge (mostly viewing closed out auctions in the Ebay Victories, etc. thread), would I be way off to say they would likely average $200 per hat?

 

[carouselvic]

If they were purchased 1960-1980, they run the risk of being in the stingy brim category.

 

[cbidwellsmith]

borsalino photos

So, I tried to upload the photos to this message but it wanted a url instead of letting me attach the photos. If anyone wants to email me directly, I can be reached at emailclairesmith@gmail.com and can send photos.

You guys are all such experts! Love it!

 

[avedwards]

To upload photos get an account on a site like photobucket and copy the URL of the uploaded image with

at the end.

Also, would you consider offering them for sale here first before putting them on ebay? If they are good head sizes and pristine condition I am sure people here will buy them for a price which you will be satisfied with. Should no one want to buy for the price you want then you can always put them on ebay anyway.

I don't know what US or metric size that equates to, but I'd be interested in something grey with 59cm circumference.

 

[cbidwellsmith]

So here are the pictures I took this morning. If anyone wants a close up of a specific one, please let me know.

Thanks again!

 

[kaosharper1]

Size matters

You should really find out the size. This chart will give you an idea of whether the 6 - 6.5 is Punti (the italian version) or US. It's probably Punti, but its good to be sure since that's a big determinant of the price:

http://www.hatsuk.com/hatsuk/hatsukhtml/bible/hatsize.htm

Then to calculate the circumference you can either use a tape measure or measure the length and width and use an ellipse circumference calculator:

The calculator is in theory less precise since our heads are egg shaped and not ellipses, but give how most people don't want to go through the real trouble of measuring properly (which would involve taking a tape measure and clipping it to the inside) it gives a pretty good estimation:

http://www.csgnetwork.com/circumellipse.html

To give you and idea on size and price, I bought my daughter a vintage Borsalino for $25 that was a 6 7/8. The same hat in 7 3/8 went for well over $200 so the size is a big part of the value.

 

[kaosharper1]

Size matters

You should really find out the size. This chart will give you an idea of whether the 6 - 6.5 is Punti (the italian version) or US. It's probably Punti, but its good to be sure since that's a big determinant of the price:

http://www.hatsuk.com/hatsuk/hatsukhtml/bible/hatsize.htm

Then to calculate the circumference you can either use a tape measure or measure the length and width and use an ellipse circumference calculator. The calculator is in theory less precise since our heads are egg shaped and not ellipses, but given how most people don't want to go through the real trouble of measuring properly (which would involve taking a tape measure and clipping it to the inside) it gives a pretty good estimation:

http://www.csgnetwork.com/circumellipse.html

To give you and idea on how size affects price, I bought my daughter a vintage Borsalino for $25 that was a 6 7/8. The same hat in 7 3/8 went for well over $200 so the size is a big part of the value.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

You should really find out the size. This chart will give you an idea of whether the 6 - 6.5 is Punti (the italian version) or US. It's probably Punti, ...

It must be Punti, because in an earlier post here, cbidwellsmith said that his father was a big man with a big noggin.

.

 

[randooch]

Values

From what I can see in the group shot, all but 3 of the hats are stingy, and a few are fuzzy to boot. Only the open market can determine demand. These days, with all the hip movies, maybe even the longhair stingies would fetch a high price. Fascinating. I hope for follow-up.

 

[m000m000]

I like to measure hats by taking a roll of masking tape, have it run a round around the sweatband, then rip the tape out and measure it - much easier to do than trying to get the tape measure itself to stick on the sweat in my opinion, with or without tape aid.