Going crazy on eBay

[Tango Yankee]

Greetings, All!

After reading quite a few threads here in the Lounge (but by no means done more than scratched the surface!) I really wanted to check out some vintage hats in person. My one fedora is an official Indiana Jones hat I purchased in the early '80s. Still in excellent shape, but it is a "modern" hat. Unfortunately there is a shortage of vintage clothing stores in my part of Ohio and the few times I wandered through the antique shops in Portsmouth I didn't recall seeing any vintage hats or clothing. So, naturally, I turned to eBay.

At first I was just keeping an eye on a number of hats and suits to get an idea of what they were going for but then I decided that if I wanted to get my hands on a vintage hat in the near future I would have to start bidding... so I did, and won the bidding on three hats!

The first one was listed as a Vintage 1940's Emerson Peerless Quality Felt Fedora, though it's more like a Homburg.

The second one is also a fedora, listed as a Vintage Men's Fedora Hat by Piccione.

The third was listed as a Vintage Alexander Fedora Hat and comes with the box. The text says the hat is in jet black with a black wide band, but the color in the photos is more of a brownish color. It has a rather narrow brim and reminds me of hats you might see police detectives wearing in old movies. This one I got at a very good price.

So, here's hoping they all fit OK. If not, at least they'll give me my first close look at vintage hats and provide some education that way. I'll post photos when I get them.

There was a great double-breasted suit that I was hoping would go unnoticed, but that was (as expected) in vain. It was about the size I wear when I'm in shape so thought to buy it as incentive but today the price quickly became more than I can go right now. Ah, well... there's always tomorrow!

Cheers,
Tom

[John in Covina]

Hi Tom!

Talk about jumping in the deep end! Some awesome and interesting acquisitions there, hope they work out well for you. Be sure to peruse the hat care threads and check out the stickies at the top of the hat section threads for some cool info.

Welcome to the Party!

[Duck]

I was eying that second one on ebay too. Looks like a nice hat.
Congrats

[RBH]

looks like you did well, be sure to let us know about them when they arrive!

[feltfan]

The Emerson certainly is a homburg.
Looks like a nice old one, too.

[funneman]

I was watching the Alexander myself. I'll be interested to see how it measures up to the description. Please let us know hen they arrive.

[Dinerman]

and I was watching the first two.
You have to love old hats made by obscure makers.

[Tango Yankee]

I'll take photos and write more on them this weekend. The homburg is a little small for me. It's a 7 1/8, which is the size I've always worn. Of course, the fact that I don't cut my hair as short as I did in the USAF may have something to do with that. I may have to put my stretcher to use.

The fedora is a 7 1/4 and it's a touch large. Can't win, eh?

They're both a bit of an education as I've never looked closely at a vintage hat before, or I suppose a good quality felt hat of any age. As I said, a bit more on them this weekend.

Oh, yes... I got a little carried away today and bought "4 Vintage Cavanagh Hats 2 w/price tags from estate" again on eBay. Not sure how I'm going to explain it to my wife... maybe if I told her I'd decided not to bid on the German military overcoat we were looking at? But she's right... I've gotta quite browsing eBay for a while!

Cheers,
Tom

[Pilgrim]

If you're going to play the hat game, pick up a good wood stretcher on Ebay and you'll be able to ease thta 7 1/8 open. You can get a good fit if you give it a week or more to stretch.

The 7 1/4 can be made to fit by inserting a bit of tissue or a thin foam strip behind the sweatband. It doesn't take much

And welcome to you - hope you have a great time here.

[Tango Yankee]

Thanks, Pilgrim (and everyone else) for your comments and suggestions.

I do have a 4-way hat stretcher. In fact, I found the Lounge while doing a Google search for hat stretchers! As someone else remarked on another thread, it's amazing the jewels you stumble across while looking for something else amongst the rocks. Or something like that.

I've learned a lot in a short time here. I'd also added quite a few new sites to my favorites file from the various threads but alas, lost them last weekend when my operating system drive failed before did another backup. Fortunately, I know I just have to peruse the threads again to find them.

Cheers,
Tom