I’ve written in the past about how what a great deal vintage hats often are at your local antique mall. They are usually well priced, usually under $15 or so, and you can pretty much guarantee that any antique mall will have a nice selection of hats scattered throughout the booths.
I always make a point of looking at hats, even though they are a very small part of what I’m interested in. It’s just that the chance of finding a real treasure among the drek is actually pretty good. I’ve found everything from 1920s sun hats to 1950s couture hats in antique malls.
The other day the above hat caught my eye, I liked the black and white, and I’m not sure if you can see it, but the white rim kind of “floats” below the body of the hat. unattached except in the front and the back. I picked it up to see it it was labeled. It was not. Still, I was curious about the final deciding factor – the price.
$69.99!
I’m not going to get into a long drawn out monologue about how vintage has gotten too expensive, because honestly, for the most part I find that things I find locally are usually very well priced. But I see this seller’s chance of selling that hat at that price as virtually zero.
The Vintage Traveler 
Whoa! You have got to be kidding! I’ve seen them upwards of $30 at a few malls, but never that much! Especially for a 50s or 60s hat.
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Interesting hat – and price! Yikes!
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Yes, it is a cute hat, but not $70 cute!
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Oh you lucky overseas ladies – hats from the 50s here start at about $80 and can go into the hundreds, and they are not even that amazing. I need to do a vintage shopping tour of America I can see!
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Yes, I believe you do need to do that!
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Prices are so darn reasonable in the States ($15 at an antique shop or mall for a hat in good condition would be super bargain up here north of the 49th), but I agree that $69.99 is far, far too steep for relatively plain 1950s hat. It’s totally cute and would go with scads of outfits, but there’s no way I’d fork over $70.00 for it either.
Thank you very much for your lovely comment on my garage sale finds post. I always enjoy seeing the treasures that others unearth while out second hand shopping, too.
Wishing you a gorgeous weekend!
♥ Jessica
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I reckon the vendor might still sell it – perhaps the pricing is a psych-out thing where people go, “Well, it must be really valuable if she’s selling it for $70!”
Honestly, here in Australia vintage prices are an absolute outrage (to me – many shoppers seem to find them reasonable), and I could totally see lots of people buying a $70 hat.
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Yes, it might possibly sell. If someone walked in and completely fell in love with it and had plenty of money, sure, I can see it happening. I still think the chance of it happening are quite slim!
I’ve actually spent more than $70 on a hat, but it was older, quite special and exactly what I needed.
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