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WTT or FS; The Blue Hat Blues! '40's Champ Deluxe 7 1/4 (from sticker under liner)

jskeen

One of the Regulars
Messages
120
Location
Houston
I got the Blue Hat Blues, and want to trade them to somebody else. This hat looked grey on feebay, but looks can be deceiving. Beautiful, immaculately preserved example of a vintage Champ dress fedora. Consensus when I posted it to the 'bay thread was '40's vintage, which is good enough for me. I took it outside and managed one good picture in the sunlight before my lens fogged up and then the clouds closed back in that shows it's true colors. It's BLUE!
DSCN2418.JPG

and here are the original auction pics (which were pretty good too, just wishful thinking on my part)
champ1.JPG

champ2.jpg

The spotless 1 3/8 vintage ribbon has that trick of really high quality old ribbon of looking one color indoors and a different shade entirely outside. indoors, it's black, but outdoors it's navy verging on royal in the right light. The felt is a steel grey inside, but pretty darn blue in the right light. And the clincher... The wife said it's too blue to wear with anything but a blue suit, and if I wanted to wear a suit, I wouldn't work from home in my jammies. So......

I would like to swap it to somebody who can give it the head time it deserves. The brim is a full 2 1/2 inches, the crown is 4 3/4 as bashed, about 5 1/2 open, (as it will be shipped)

Ok so here's the pinch. I am relatively new to selling to this audience, and I'm not sure that my idea of flawless is the same as some of yours, but I don't see anything at all wrong with this hat. There is a small storage fold in the ribbon, but no holes, pits, nibbles or any problems at all in the felt I can see. the liner is very clean with no sign of a tip liner, and the unreeded leather sweat is soft, supple and completely without any splits, popped stitches or tears, although it does have a few wrinkles and one place where it looks like somebody pinned a label in with a straight pin.

SO, what am I looking for in trade? The exact same hat, except in true gray? Well, that would work, but it's a little unlikely. I'm looking for something in the same size, and about the same vintage. Late 40's to early 50's. 2 1/2 or wider brim, but no less. I would prefer something a little nicer than just your basic entry level felt, and a true grey with a darker ribbon, maybe a little narrower but not much wider. I would also consider a silverbelly OR type if it was nice enough, or a playboy/strat/whatever.

If you need a lid to go with that vintage navy pinstripe three piecer, and wear a 7 1/4, look around in the hat room and see what you have not worn in a while that could use a new home, then drop me a note. If you really need this and just can't bear to part with one you already have, I might be convinced to let it go by a nice large stack of bills too, but would rather trade. Anybody in the Houston, TX area, I would be happy to do a f2f as well.

Thanks
James
 

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