Vintage Clothing Dealers

[Stony]

I've done business with vintage clothing dealers over the years and it seems they view their world very differently than the military collectors world. They buy on the cheap and generally sell their items so at reasonable prices as their clientele usually doesn't have a lot of money to spend.

So, I go into a recently opened vintage clothing store and strike up a conversation with one of the owners who have some militaria clothing in the store, but nothing collectable IMO. They are interested in any military items I have for sale, so I go into their store yesterday as both owners want to see what I have. Having seen what type of military items they have for sale in their store, I take in what I think is in their ball park.

They are not interested in anything I have and what I brought is not pricy even in the military collectors world. In other words, not worth the trip for me.

They also have a G-1 type jacket hanging up on the wall and the one owner says it's a M-422a, but from what I can see it's not. They say it has a black label with gold lettering, so that peaks my interest. I told them if they took the jacket down and let me look at the label that I can ID it for them. Well, the guy keeps blabbing on about this and that and never takes the jacket down for me to look at.

Anyone else have experiences with vintage clothing dealers?

 

[Brettafett]

Hahah, yes. There are a few here in the UK.
Rocket vintage has quite a few G-1 and A-2 types, in varying degrees of authenticity and repair. I went to the warehouse and scrounged through them. The original contracts were a bit... dirty and everything needed some kind of repair/ restoration. They are reasonably priced and had a fair idea of what was military and what was repro...
Then there was some other spot in Brighton They had an old Eastman A-2 in there, (probably an early 2000s house model) with a name tag and patch on. The guy there kept trying to convince me it was an original from WW2. I could not stop smiling... The more I smiled, the more he smelt a sale, until I told him straight... He said, "well... I don't know about that. I still think its an original."
What are you going to do.

 

[Stony]

What are you going to do.

Not much you can do. It's like trying to beat the term "bomber jacket" out of a dead horse. The horse is dead and you're tired of beating it.

 

[MikeyB-17]

I have done quite well out of vintage clothing stores on Ebay in the past. Some don't have a clue what they're selling or what they're worth. Probably my favourite G-1 I've owned came from Ebay, vintage store, a C-series Irvin B. Foster which cost me £80 BIN. The listing mentioned a 'professional repair' under the pocket flap-the pen slot! A mint early CWU-45/P, with signal flag, listed as an 'MA-2', £24. Some seem to have so much stuff to shift they just take a guess at value and don't bother to do any research. Long may it continue!

 

[Grant]

In NYC, I've found a waning interest from vintage dealers when it comes to selling vintage flight jackets in general. They say a decrease in demand from their biggest clients (fashion designers and the Japanese) is the cause. That said, I always get positive comments from strangers on the street when wearing an original A-2 or M422a/G-1. Go figure.