New/old "Barrister" fedora

[thunderw21]

Beautiful. Goes to show that there are still deals out there.

 

[HarpPlayerGene]

I have my own rather pristine Barrister as well, and I saw another one of identical make show up here too. Makes me wonder more about the brand. Barristers don't seem to be all that common around here.

Yeah, I'm the other guy with a Barrister who posted here. Mine is NOWHERENEAR as good of condition as the one on this post, but I love it nonetheless. I like the oddball brand and also wish to know more about the maker but have not found any info.

Fantastic hat, man. You really pulled off a great deal on a great old, yet as new, item. Congrats!

 

[tonyb]

True, if you have selective amnesia about all the duds you buy before you get lucky, and if you value your time at $0.

Please don't pretend to know my experience. Why assume that a person inevitably buy "duds" before he (or she) gets "lucky"? I, for one, am in no way suffering amnesia, selective or otherwise. And my time is precious to me. How I choose to spend it is my concern and not subject to your value assessments.

 

[AlanC]

True, if you have selective amnesia about all the duds you buy before you get lucky, and if you value your time at $0.

Ah, a little ray of sunshine as always, kabuto. Perhaps some people actually enjoy the thrill of the hunt. I understand some people even enjoy participating on Internet message boards.

 

[Marcus Brody]

True, if you have selective amnesia about all the duds you buy before you get lucky, and if you value your time at $0.

I've never bought a dud, and I've never paid over about $30 (with shipping) for any of my hats. It can happen. You just need to have the right search parameters, and largely the size of your head makes things easier (smaller the cheaper).

 

[DanielJones]

Great Find!

Fantastic looking lid!! Wow! Dig on what you did with it. :eusa_clap

My first time out buying a vintage hat has yielded me a pristine Adam Premier. No duds in my collection. [huh]

Cheers!

Dan

 

[HarpPlayerGene]

I too am dudless.

Poor, poor Kabuto.

 

[Woodfluter]

Wonderful looking hat! My congratulations. I wonder if Barrister was made for someone by some larger, well-known concern, or if it is a smaller local maker.

I think Kabuto has a point in some cases, but as in any endeavor, the more questions you ask and the more judgment you bring, the fewer duds. I mean bomb-type duds. Not clothes duds, dudes!

I also doubt that Kabuto was making this a personal thing, just commenting from his perspective, which is bound to be different for each of us. The thrill of the hunt goes on!

- Bill

 

[J.T.Marcus]

It's a game, and like other games, we play it for fun. :eusa_clap

 

[tonyb]

I also doubt that Kabuto was making this a personal thing, just commenting from his perspective, which is bound to be different for each of us. The thrill of the hunt goes on!

- Bill

I can appreciate how a person can be misunderstood. I also understand how people sometimes make themselves easy to misunderstand.

Perhaps a way to avoid that is NOT to quote someone and then offer commentary using the second person pronoun, which is precisely what happened in this case.

 

[ideaguy]

all the sniping aside, what a great hat!:eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

I was looking at that offering, and of course, like everyone else ('cept one)
didn't think it was worth a look; I forgot-the thrill of the hunt is the real juice
for me; after a lotta years of doing this, I got jaded & dumbly forgot. Hence, I end up spending too much for too little, and don't enjoy the process as I used to ... wait until we're offered 150+ hats at a time, all precious & our size-
at that point-what's the point-other than trying to get a particular coveted hat? Puts things into a perspective I understand, and hope to share openly-this is a fun chase after arcane "stuff", and it's a kick to get excited over a plain 'ol hat, duke it out at auction, wait & wait for it to come home-

I forgot... and thanks for the reminder!

 

[tonyb]

Yes, it is indeed a fine old lid Wesne scored for himself there. Even I, a person pathologically disposed toward bragging about how cheap he is, would have happily paid twice the price.

 

[Wesne]

Thanks for all the kind words and encouragement, everyone. As I said at the start of this thread, this was indeed a gamble that paid off. As others have mentioned here, it's all about the hunt. For those of us who are more "cranially endowed," the hunt can be long and frustrating sometimes, but when it pays off - like this time - it is all the more rewarding. I've spent a lot of time browsing eBay listings, looking for something like this that might be overlooked by others. I've had a couple of modest successes, but nothing like this.

I understand what Kabuto was saying. My own personal "duds" have resulted from sellers who don't understand hat sizing. (But dealing with such sellers can also reap great rewards, if you're willing to roll the dice.) My scorecard since I started playing this game about two years ago shows five properly sized hats, four that were blatantly the wrong size (7 1/8 or 7 1/4, and with tags or stamps to show it) and one that was questionable (not marked but fits like a 7 3/8). I recently sold a gorgeous Resistol Milan, which would have been a perfect complement to the "kitten finish" Resistol I'm wearing in my avatar (heretofore my biggest eBay "score") to a fellow lounger via the classifieds here after it arrived in near pristine condition, including the "7 1/4" size tag. It was such a nice hat I wanted to find a good home for it here, as long as I could break even, and I was able to do that. Even as we speak I'm in the process of returning another hat, bought in an auction ending the very same day as the Barrister, that was also a clearly marked 7 1/4 and not the 7 1/2 that was advertised. After some delicate diplomacy, the seller agreed to do the right thing and provide a full refund.

It's in my nature that I can't be really satisfied with something unless I feel like I got a good deal on it. I would have been happy with this hat at twice the price, though I wouldn't have bid that high considering the nebulous listing. If it had been listed better, with quality photos and a more detailed description, it probably would have gone for three times what I paid for it. Add a little hype and make that four times, maybe more.

I've been wearing this hat the past couple of days, and I have to say, it feels absolutely new. Although the felt is soft to the touch, the body has the taught stiffness of a new Akubra. It's going to take a while to break in.

As far as the brand, I did some searching here for "Barrister" prior to receiving this hat, and found a thread here where Brad Bowers offers the following, in reference to another member's hat: "Barrister was a brand of the LaSalle Hat Company. The brand dates to 1935, but your hat looks later '40s to me. LaSalle was the Saleskys' (Champ Hats) company, started in 1911."

 

[Vintage Betty]

I think you look incredibly handsome in your new hat.

Congratulations on a great find.

Vintage Betty

 

[Wesne]

Thanks Betty, you made my day.

 

[fabiovenhorst]

Wonderfull hat.:eusa_clap :eusa_clap