Exactly. To be fair Weejuns were never meant to be high quality shoes and I imagine their price back in the day reflected their disposable (by the standards of the time) nature. Although it's possible that in the 1930s when they first appeared they were better made and more expensive - no idea. I also don't know how long it took someone to come up with a more expensive, higher quality alternative.
You'll have to save it for the forum upgrade.
Sadly means you'll never get to see the brown herringbone with multi-colour fleck sack I recently got hold of
Sounds excellent! I do like multi colour fleck on tweed.
'Lord Jeff' Argyle 'vest' (sleeveless jumper to us Brits, I suppose): Shetland wool, Scots-Irish heritage.
Another example of thrifting, which some on here deplore.
AFS- I don't deplore your thrifting but you must spend a lot of time looking in charity shops to be able to find what you do. The charity shops I have been in rarely have anything of quality
Ebay, Robbie, in this particular instance. I rarely go into charity shops unaccompanied. My wife is an inveterate bargain-hunter (comes of being brought up poor, I suppose), so I go with her. It's a cooler weather occupation. The warmer months see us visiting churches, houses, gardens, market towns etc.
Even Mr. Simons used to find his way into charity shops. He may still do so.
Even Mr. Simons used to find his way into charity shops. He may still do so.
John Lally & Kevin Kavanagh of The Ivy Shop used to.
I remember them telling me they picked up some VCG BB Makers from various charity shops in Richmond for next to nothing. Sadly those days are gone.
I picked up a Makers for about a fiver back in, oh, around 2008. It's the only Makers - indeed, the only Brooks Brothers item - I've ever found in a charity shop. It was a half-sleeve, in that beautiful blue. I was really taken aback. This was Derby. What was it doing there?
The following site has popped up a couple of times, just wondered if anyone had bought or sold anything through this site,
https://www.marrkt.com ,Buy or sell pre-owned and deadstock menswear from the world's best brands,
I've had a look and as an example they got MIE Baracuta G9 & G4 around £120 - 140,
Don't think there is any connection to meerkats,
I like a charity shop. To be honest, along with my beloved TKMaxx, they’re the only places round here that have a healthy turnover of stock. Walk round any other high street store in April and you can guarantee it’ll be pretty much the same until September.
Just today I picked up a clearly unworn Lands End madras for £7.50. Passed on some Lee beige cords. Looked over some Gant shirts but a bit pricey at £13.50. If they’re still there next week they’ll be six quid of so. Doesn’t matter if they’ve gone. I don’t go for shoes unless they’re unworn, but have picked up unworn Clarks brown leather db’s for a tenner a while ago.
The odd thing about charity shops is they usually have racks of manky looking Primark, or supermarket brand stuff that can’t be far off the price when it was new. But stuff we like is often practically unworn. Never seen Brooks but picked up a couple of BD Baggies a while ago. RL and Gant are practically always on the racks round here.
Stax - I’d never heard of that site, but just had a good nose around it. Some very nice stuff on there. Will be a regular ‘check in’ for me.
Patience is usually rewarded. It's acquiring that patience in the first place that is often so difficult. It's exactly as Spendthrift says it is, rack upon rack of woeful rubbish - then something will present itself. Fifteen or so years ago, from a single shop, I had USA-made Levis chinos, a rather nice canvas Ralph Lauren jacket, a Crombie overcoat, John Smedley knitwear etc. There were other things that I passed over, including Sebago loafers. Either too big or too small. I'd have bought them otherwise.
Actually there is one big drawback of charity (and TKmaxx), I guess ebay too? If you rely on it too much it can devalue the items somewhat. Both in £ worth and general satisfaction in owning and wearing it. For example, in my head a shirt in the same league as RL, Gant, Baggies etc. is worth somewhere in between four and twenty-five quid.
It somehow feels nicer to bring home a ‘full price’ (okay, maybe a cheeky 20% off sale price) item.
I appreciate that there’s a sizeable difference in detail and quality between a Gant or RL shirt and say, Jakes or JS, but for me there’s a big psychological leap to get from £10 to £175.
I should really quit the frighteningly regular ‘bargain bin’ shopping and try and recalibrate my mind to less, better quality stuff.
www.marrkt.com - I've taken a closer look at their website, quite interesting and some tempting items on there, there's a pair of Weejuns ( around £80), don't look like the new plastic versions, been soled & heeled but look in good condition, Paraboot (college ?) US style loafers, very light wear £150, neither of these are in my size, I think Runninggeez mentioned recently he liked Gant Rugger, there's a couple of NWT GR's on there around £50, for me plenty of Gitman's around 40% of the original RRP, they all look in excellent condition, Vetra, O'Connell's, Jamiesons, Smedley on there as well, some items are close to the original RRP, Buzz Rickson flight jacket £895, did a quick check and that's only around 20% less than the full RRP, on the selling front they take 35% , It'll be on my regular sites to check,
I had a look at the marrkt site after your tip off Stax and first impressions were that various items were a bit overpriced for second hand. Lots of good names but they would have to be in near mint condition to tempt me.
I'm with you Spendthrift in that I need to hold back on my bargain bin shopping. For years I had to be careful on spending beyond my means and now I can't quite break the habit when I'm a bit better off.
Yes I'd agree Robbie, I get the impression the sellers are often people who move on from one brand or style to another pretty quickly,
investigated further and if the items have been on the site for 6 months or more they take 25% off at checkout,
Using the Buzz Rickson flight jacket @ £895 as an example that would take it down to £671 which is about 50% of the RRP, if I was in the market (which I'm not) for this type of jacket I'd certainly consider it,
It just goes to show there's still an interest (though whether growing or declining I wouldn't like to speculate) in what can still, I suppose, broadly be called 'Ivy League clothing' (even when it often isn't). There seem to be plenty of USA-made jackets on offer from sellers in Poland and Lithuania as well as within the UK. I'd searched for the longest time for another soft-shouldered Madras jacket and, lo and behold, one popped up in Manchester instead of Memphis or Maine.
More 'Lord Jeff': Scottish-spun Shetland made in the USA. How does that work? I don't know but much Boom Years knitwear is pretty unremarkable at best, often being of highly unnatural fibres.