Club Obi Wan

So I thought I knew me hats ( being the proud custodian of a 100% beaver AB myself), but what is the AB Deluxe I see mentioned quite a bit?

My AB has a gold colored logo inside, but I've heard mention of a red logo on the deluxe model. Anyone?

Regards! Nevada

How much is the Deluxe, if you don't mind my asking?

I.C.

Yes, to be explicit, I have an Adventurebilt Indy Fedora in 100% beaver. It has a gold staff of ra representation.

I've heard the AB Deluxe has a red representation, but what else makes it "deluxe"?

Regards! Nevada

You might want to have a look here:

viewtopic.php?t=19968

There is a post by Fedora himself that explains everything quite well, so I won't bother. Hope this helps!

-GCR

I've heard the AB Deluxe has a red representation, but what else makes it "deluxe"?

I will repeat it again here for the lazy folks who won't take the links.


To me, the AB Deluxe is a hat for hat afficionados. I scoured the USA for felt and parts, while Marc, being in Germany and fluent in several languages, scoured the world. He has his felt specially made just for his hats, and has factory water proofing added during the felting of the felt so it penetrates the felt, instead of being a topical application. He has extra beaver fur added to his bodies and specifies the amount of stiffener used in crown and brim. His raw bodies are made just for him and the AB Deluxe. It is a very expensive body, and as far as I know, he is the only hatter using this felt.

His sweats are not regular sweats. He sources the hides, the roo skin and has them sent to his sweatband maker. He is copying the tape and stitch patterns from vintage HJs. Many of the details in his hats go back to the original vintage Poet, and would go unnoticed except by the extremely anal folks. But Marc is an anal guy, so what would you expect? Basically Marc is copying the vintage Poet, but upgrades the materials for rugged use. We both opted for this, as we wanted the Indy fedora, but we wanted superiour materials so these hats would not fall into the disposable category that most factory hats fall into. We wanted to do the Indy fedora justice.


Marc sourced the ribbon that HJ used to use. He was kind enough to supply me with this ribbon. This ribbon costs me 10 times the price of the modern Schiff ribbon, but I bite the bullet and use it because it is what was used at one time by HJ.


If you bought Marc's hat from a reputable hatter like Optimo, you would pay between 1000 bucks and 2000 bucks for the hat, if the same markup was applied that Graham has on his hats. This gives you an idea of what his hat is worth, if bought from a reputable and well established hatter.

If you could buy this hat from GH, I would imagine he would ask 10 grand for it. And, that ain't no joke. Fedora

ummm....so what does Marc price them as?...not for me, but for the OTHER lazy folks

Thanks for you re-assuring words Steve. I really appreciate your high opinion, as I know that you name a spade a spade no matter if it's from a friend or not. My very first bows were a bit off and Steve mentioned this straight and right away.

ummm....so what does Marc price them as?...not for me, but for the OTHER lazy folks

Marc, has the new sweatband (Very cool, btw!) increased the overall price of the Deluxe? Or is that yet another cool feature included into the current price of the AB Deluxe's design?

The price for you guys overseas is 329 EURO incl. PAYPAL fees, shipping and taxes. That is with the custom made roo hide sweatband and the matching vintage reeding tape.

I currently only have VERY few prototype roo hide sweatbands and - as much as I wish I could offer these for the same price - I just can't due to the incredible high cost of these. You can get a decent rawbody for the same price of one of these puppies and I have to forward the extra costs (and ONLY the extra costs). So the total to the U.S. will be 349 EURO, both on the few I have and with these I'll have made at the beginning of the new year.

Regards,

Marc

Just did a quick calculation with Apple widgets, and 349 Euro comes out to $456 dollars.

Thanks for the replies and information!

Nevada

How much is the EU shipping?

Marc wrote:The price for you guys overseas is 329 EURO incl. PAYPAL fees, shipping and taxes. That is with the custom made roo hide sweatband and the matching vintage reeding tape.

So the total to the U.S. will be 349 EURO, both on the few I have and with these I'll have made at the beginning of the new year.

Regards,

Marc

Okay, I'm confused. For someone in the US, is it 329 Euro or 349 Euro?

For us here in the US, it's 329 Euro, which, according to my calculations anyway, is about 432$.

Except you want the new roohide über-sweatbands, than it would be 349, - Euro (around 456.88 US Dollar).

It all depends on the material you choose.

Jens is right. It's 349 Euro incl. shipping, if you want a roo hide sweatband Indy Fedora.

I tried to make a little list:

Shipped to:...Modell:...............Total:
U.S.A...........Roan goat skin....329,00 EURO
U.S.A...........Roo hide..............349,00 EURO
Europe.........Roan goat skin...349,00 EURO
Europe.........Roo hide.............369,00 EURO
Germany......Roan goat skin....339,00 EURO
Germany......Roo hide..............359,00 EURO

I know that Germany is part of Europe, but the shipping is 10 EURO less, so I listed that seperately.

I'm making the same amount on each hat, no matter where it's shipped to or what sweatband you chose.

Hope it helps.

Regards,

Marc

Why is the EU shipping so darn expensive? 40 euros for one little box?

It's not the shipping VP, it's the taxes! Something, that I unfortunately have no control of

Regards,

Marc

Where do these taxes come from? The VAT? There shouldn't be any import taxes or customs within the EU.

There aren't any import taxes nor customs within the EU, but I have to pay sales taxes for every hat I don't export outside the EU.

If Finnland wouldn't be within the EU, it would probably be WAY cheaper as NONE of my U.S. customers have been forced to pay import taxes yet (at least not that I have heard of).

Regards,

Marc

So Marc, what is the procedure to order one of your DEEluxe models? Do you have a website address?

And what is the current wait time again?

Thanks,

Nevada

Just tell me that you want one and PAYPAL the amount to my e-mail address. That's basicly it.

A friend of mine is working on a homepage for me, but he isn't done yet and I don't want to rush people, who are doing a favor for me.

The current wait time is round about 3 months. If you want one of the new roo hide sweatband however - that might add just a tiny bit yet, as the few prototype sweatbands I had sold out like hot chocolate on a cold winter morning I'll order them at the very beginning of the new year.

Regards,

Marc

Hey Marc, perhaps you could send the hat to a German member and then (s)he could send it to Finland.

Germany......Roan goat skin....339,00 EURO

Europe.........Roan goat skin...349,00 EURO

Hmm... it would cost 339 Euro to have it delivered to Germany and then another 17 Euro to forward it to Finland. Makes a total of 356 Euro... I don't see the advantage here

If you have it send to the U.S. you'd save 20 Euro, but it cost 30 Dollars to have it forwarded to Finland, so that doesn't help neither.

Besides, being an honest vendor, of course I wouldn't even wanna know, if you plan any "tax tricks". I can imagine better reasons to go to jail for than trying to save my customers the taxes (Mark and Jens: you're thinking of that church on Bornholm too, aren't you ).

Regards,

Marc

Marc wrote:(Mark and Jens: you're thinking of that church on Bornholm too, aren't you ).

Regards,

Marc

You talking to us? 8-[

Regards! Michaelson

*stops-digging-for-a-moment* Who, me?! 8-[

Actually, I think of Churchills "treasure chamber". Do you remember Peter's story?!

Will you shut up?! MOD??? Oh, ehh...

Regards,

Marc