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The Sale of NOS Johnnyphi hats begins.

scotrace

Head Bartender
Staff member
Messages
14,376
Location
Small Town Ohio, USA
You'll remember Johnyyphi's extraordinary thread "Newbie. Lucky or Sucker? You Decide?"
In this thread and others, we learned that our new member Johnnyphi had quite accidentally happened upon something we've discussed here often as a fantasy: A large stock of unsold NOS vintage clothing and hats. LARGE being the operative word. It seemed too good to be true, and many of us may have been skeptical early on.
We want to reassure you that we have spent a great deal of time getting to know Johnnyphi, have spoken with him via phone, and some of us have sat down face to face over dinner with him. Our first concern was to make sure the whole story was on the level. Johnnyphi, we who have come to know him a bit are all agreed, is a responsible, true gentleman with an honest desire to A. offer Loungers a quite rare opportunity to be the first owners of hats made decades ago, and B., give back to the Lounge in sharing what he has discovered in the exhaustive processes of identifying, sorting and preparing these hats for new homes. The hats you will have the chance to buy in the coming weeks may be purchased in full confidence in the seller and the process. We would not be bending the rules a bit if we did not feel this was a one-of-a-kind opportunity for our members.
The hats will be sold via auction in a series of threads in the MERCHANTS section. You may post your BID in the thread. The minimum bid increment is $5. Each hat will be well identified and photographed. If you have questions about a particular hat, please FIRST search the Fedora Lounge for information about that hat brand and style before asking your questions in thread. Bartenders will be helping to handle the load of answering questions as well. Condition of each hat is NOS - New Old Stock. As Marc Chevalier once pointed out, NOS does NOT necessarily equal PERFECT. Any storage, fading or insect damage will be honestly noted in the description.
Each sale period/thread will be up for one week.
This first run is a trial and the process will get tweaked along the way.
The final winning bidder at auction close (which Johnnyphi will note), will be responsible for sending Johnnyphi a PM with their PayPal address (PayPal ONLY), and the winner will then receive an invoice for the winning amount, $15 shipping, and $5 handling ($20).
You may also PM questions about hats or the process to me, Zohar or AlanC.

Good Luck. We think this will be fun. It is a Fedora Lounge exclusive.


UPDATE:



Effective immediately, we're going to institute a "Soft" ending time for the auctions.

For example, an auction ends at 6 PM or 5 minutes following the last bid. If someone bids at 5:59 PM then the auction is extended to 6:04 PM unless someone else bids to push it back again. Whenever five minutes pass (based on timestamps of the posts) without a bid the auction is closed.
 

Nathan Flowers

Head Bartender
Staff member
Messages
3,652
Also, we're going to use the Lounge's Server Time to note when auctions end. If Johnnyphi states that they end at 10PM, that's 10PM according to the time at the bottom of the Lounge pages. At that time, the threads will be locked, and winner determined.
 

johnnyphi

Sponsoring Affiliate
Messages
899
Location
God Bless Texas!
The Hats

Thank you all for your patience and your assistance during this lengthy process.

Before we get started with the auction, I would like to thank MK, the Bartenders and the regular members of the Lounge for your interest in my project.

As I said in my original post, I wasn't expecting to stumble into this treasure trove, and I've learned a great deal from all of you over the past 6+ months.

Many of you have seen the photos I posted on my Photobucket page, and I encourage you to visit that album to browse through the collection by brand and by size.

The 149 hats posted in this link are the cream of the crop from my inventory.

I plan to post these hats for auction, so I will not accept any private offers for individual hats.

Finally, please feel free to ask any questions about individual hats in the auction thread for that particular hat. I do not have detailed measurements of sweatbands, crown heights, etc., but I do have the basic specs for each hat, along with high resolution photos of any details that might be of interest.

This is a new process for all of us, so please continue to be patient.

Regards,
Johnyphi
 

jimmy the lid

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,647
Location
USA
I'm afraid I'm not understanding this process already. So, the person who wins an auction is the person who happens to have bid the last 5$ increment before the auction ends? Yikes. I had imagined that, for any particular hat, there would be a system where someone might give a maximum bid -- either to johnnyphi or a bartender -- and that things might work somewhat the same as they do on eBay. If we are limited to simply bidding in 5$ increments, then the winning bidder will be selected by virtue of who has the last bid in by the time of the auction close.;

I think the system is in need of a revamp, pronto...

Cheers,
JtL
 

Nathan Flowers

Head Bartender
Staff member
Messages
3,652
I believe I'm correct in saying that the minimum increment is $5. You can bid more than that if you want to.

Example:
Lounger 1 bids $109 on hat #C1. Lounger 2 must bid at least $114 to become the next highest bidder.
 

jimmy the lid

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,647
Location
USA
So -- on eBay, if I decide that I am willing to pay $200 for a hat, and the next highest bid is $100, then I am only on the hook for $102.50.

Under the current system, it appears that if I bid $200, then I am on the hook for $200, period. Hmmm...

Under the current system, the winner of any given auction is not necessarily the person who is willing to spend the most amount of money for any particular lid. Doesn't seem to make sense for johnnyphi, or for Lounge members, either.

Is there something I am missing here?

Cheers,
JtL
 

Nathan Flowers

Head Bartender
Staff member
Messages
3,652
jimmy the lid said:
Under the current system, it appears that if I bid $200, then I am on the hook for $200, period. Hmmm...

This is correct. Bid what you're willing to pay. We have no easy way of bumping to just over your maximum.

jimmy the lid said:
Under the current system, the winner of any given auction is not necessarily the person who is willing to spend the most amount of money for any particular lid. Doesn't seem to make sense for johnnyphi, or for Lounge members, either.

Is there something I am missing here?

Cheers,
JtL


I believe that under the current system, the auction winner will definitely be he that bids most at the end of the auction. If you bid $200, and I bid $195 within the last 5 seconds of the auction, then you're the winner, because you bid highest. If somebody else comes in and bids $1000 for a hat today, and nobody else bids at least $1005 by the end of the auction, then the hat is theirs.

I'm not really understanding where you're coming from on this last question, so feel free to elaborate.
 

EVEN-STEVEN

One of the Regulars
Messages
254
Location
SoCal
Questions Abound....

So who begins the auction thread for any given hat?
The first bidder?
Or will 100+ threads be created by the bartenders or Johnnyphi for each auction?
"The first run" is a trial? What is meant by "first run"?
More questions to come....
 

Nathan Flowers

Head Bartender
Staff member
Messages
3,652
EVEN-STEVEN said:
So who begins the auction thread for any given hat?
The first bidder?
Or will 100+ threads be created by the bartenders or Johnnyphi for each auction?
"The first run" is a trial? What is meant by "first run"?
More questions to come....

Johnnyphi has already started the "first run" of auction threads. Six hats are currently being offered in the Merchants forum below this thread.

Yes, 100+ threads will probably eventually be created for all of the auctions, if all goes as planned.

This is a "first run" in that we've never done a deal like this for you folks before, and are expecting kinks that we'll have to iron out. We're not putting all 150 hats up for auction in the first week. This is going to take some time to do. Months, even. Soon, there will probably be a listing of what hats will be offered on what dates so you can be prepared for the hats that you want. Expect a new set of auctions to begin each Sunday (if all goes as planned.)
 

jimmy the lid

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,647
Location
USA
Zohar said:
This is correct. Bid what you're willing to pay. We have no easy way of bumping to just over your maximum.

I believe that under the current system, the auction winner will definitely be whomever bids most at the end of the auction. If you bid $200, and I bid $195 within the last 5 seconds of the auction, then you're the winner, because you bid highest. If somebody else comes in and bids $1000 for a hat today, and nobody else bids at least $1005 by the end of the auction, then the hat is theirs.

I'm not really understanding where you're coming from on this last question, so feel free to elaborate.

Thanks, Zohar. Taking both of your responses together, here is my concern. If someone is willing to pay up to $200 for a particular hat, they may not want to bid that amount immediately, since they are on the hook for the full amount -- regardless of whether or not there are any other bidders out there. Given this particular system, a bidder may want to proceed one step at a time. Indeed, this is how a real auction works.

The problem is that, in a real auction, the auction isn't over until the auctioneer determines that no one is willing to bid any higher amount. Under the FL system, the auction ends arbitrarily at a particular time -- whether the highest amount has yet been bid or not.

To say that, at the outset, you must simply bid the maximum amount you are willing to spend is contrary to any kind of auction I am familiar with. And, I might add, this doesn't seem to be a particulary fair way to proceed.

Let me also just say that I completely appreciate the efforts of all those who have worked on this process up til now. The tone of my posts is meant to be positive -- I am simply hoping that we will all continue to work on a system that is both fair and that makes sense, ultimately. :)

Cheers,
JtL
 

EVEN-STEVEN

One of the Regulars
Messages
254
Location
SoCal
Auction End Time Confusion

Auction end times are described as "Eastern Daylight Time" yet the official FL time at the bottom of each page is described as "GMT -7" which is 10 minutes ahead of west coast time. (What's THAT all about?)

Anyhoo... I'm a bit confused about auction end time. Could someone please clarify? Thanks!
 

Nathan Flowers

Head Bartender
Staff member
Messages
3,652
jimmy the lid said:
Thanks, Zohar. Taking both of your responses together, here is my concern. If someone is willing to pay up to $200 for a particular hat, they may not want to bid that amount immediately, since they are on the hook for the full amount -- regardless of whether or not there are any other bidders out there. Given this particular system, a bidder may want to proceed one step at a time. Indeed, this is how a real auction works.

The problem is that, in a real auction, the auction isn't over until the auctioneer determines that no one is willing to bid any higher amount. Under the FL system, the auction ends arbitrarily at a particular time -- whether the highest amount has yet been bid or not.

To say that, at the outset, you must simply bid the maximum amount you are willing to spend is contrary to any kind of auction I am familiar with. And, I might add, this doesn't seem to be a particulary fair way to proceed.

Let me also just say that I completely appreciate the efforts of all those who have worked on this process up til now. The tone of my posts is meant to be positive -- I am simply hoping that we will all continue to work on a system that is both fair and that makes sense, ultimately. :)

Cheers,
JtL

We don't have an easy way of keeping up with your maximum bid and letting others bid against it before hitting it, which is why I mentioned bidding your maximum.

I should have been more specific: You don't have to bid your maximum right away. Bidders are welcome to bid what they want (in $5 minimum increments) up till the end of the auction. However, like an in-person auction, it will require some attention from bidders if they want to pay the lowest price for their items.

I see it as sort of a hybrid between eBay and an in-person auction:

There's a deadline for bids, like eBay.

Like an in-person auction, you must be present and attentive to what's going on. If you and another bidder want to go back and forth with your bids until the last minute, then you may.
 

Nathan Flowers

Head Bartender
Staff member
Messages
3,652
EVEN-STEVEN said:
Auction end times are described as "Eastern Daylight Time" yet the official FL time at the bottom of each page is described as "GMT -7" which is 10 minutes ahead of west coast time. (What's THAT all about?)

Anyhoo... I'm a bit confused about auction end time. Could someone please clarify? Thanks!

The lounge time zone (GMT) reads differently for everybody, based on what time zone you have in your profile. Mine reads GMT -4, because I'm set for Eastern Daylight Time. I have edited the postings to reflect that.

Yes, the server appears to be 10 minutes ahead of time right now. I'm not sure if we can fix that, at least in this first set of auctions, but I'll do what I can to correct it.
 

scotrace

Head Bartender
Staff member
Messages
14,376
Location
Small Town Ohio, USA
As we said at the outset, this is the first run. There are kinks to work out and wrinkles to smooth over, for sure. We thought up a dozen ways to approach this over the past months, and this seemed the best route to start off. We aren't eBay or Sotheby's, but we are a good group of friends who can surely make this work for everyone's benefit.
 

jimmy the lid

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,647
Location
USA
A proposal...

How about this...

For any given auction, a PM Box is set up (each auction represents a "new member", if you will, to whom PMs can be sent). Lounge members can then submit maximum bids confidentially via PM. At the end of the auction, johnnyphi takes a look at the bids, determines the highest and second-highest bids, and sells the hat to the high bidder for $5 over the second highest bid.

This system involves a certain amount of trust -- but, as Scotrace puts it, we are a group of friends here, and I am certain that the process would be administered with integrity. Johnnyphi has certainly approached things that way from the get-go.

Under this system, everbody benefits. Everyone has a true shot at submitting a maximum bid without the risk of being on the hook for the full amount of that bid in the event that the bidding does not go that high. This is good for all Lounge members, who can then hold on to their resources for purposes of bidding on more hats. This is also good for Johnnyphi, since, I would imagine, the best outcome is to have the most people bidding on the most hats possible. It also eliminates the frustrations of having a live bidding format where it is possible that one's best bid may not be considered due to time constraints.

It would seem to me that this system could easily be set up and administered, it would be fair to all concerned, and it would benefit the Lounge as a whole.

Sumitted for you consideration...:)

Cheers,
JtL
 

jimmy the lid

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,647
Location
USA
OK, that last line should read, "Submitted for your consideration..."

(No way to edit that post...:) )

Cheers,
JtL
 

MK

Founder
Staff member
Bartender
.

PM were considered. It is too messy and complicated. We didn't pull this idea out of our hat last night. A lot of time has been spent considerating every option. It may not be the perfect situation for every member but it is the best system given the variables we have.

These is a very special opportunity provided exclusively for The Fedora Lounge. The public will never have the chance at getting these hats. I suggest you fellas spend this time deciding which hats in the collection.
 

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