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Who wants a Southern Pacific "SP" cap?


KaBar

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Who wants an Espee cap?

 

Ever see an older SP unit, all black with a red front end and white block letters "SP" ? I'm considering getting some ball caps made. I looked into it--a regular one-size-fits-all ball cap with the plastic snaps, black crown and red bill, with white embroidered block letters "SP" from a high-school baseball team uniform supply store costs about $14 a pop. I'm still looking for a cheaper supplier, as that seems too high. Anybody want one? I'm not into making a profit, it would be strictly for the greater glory of our fallen flag, Espee.

There's two or three hoppers down here in Houston that want one. We're considering ordering maybe twenty or so if people say they want one. If we get a big response, we'll probably order a bigger order. Who wants to fly the colors for the Espee? Get 'em up!

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Sorry to cap on you KaBar (love the name, and the real thing), but I get my hats from this store I go to, to get railroad hats. Most any major road. They're the "Truck-Stop" hats (Foam in front, mesh in back). And they're only $3!!!. But yours seem way better quality, why w/the embroidery and all. I'm interested some what. But I do usually only wear truck-stop hats.

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Guest fr8lover

sign me up broham...i need more to ad to my small collection!

 

the only ones i have are mesh and frankly not fit for human wear since 1970.

 

on that note why are mesh hats so big now?

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Don't ask me...I hate the looks of regular hats w/out the mesh back. And can't pay for fitted hats. I've alwyas liked them cause no one wore them and it classifies you as a redneck, plus I sweat a lot and they give atiquate ventilation. Then what Jackass (which ruined everything underground about CKY & friends) came around...every kid and their mother went out and got mesh hats & aviator glasses. Truck-stop hats will always be redneck and hardcore, they shall hold hands in a hetrosexual manner for eternity.

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We're getting closer

 

I talked to four separate suppliers of athletic team caps (and uniforms, banners, trophies, etc.) and each time the price drops, but to some degree you gotta be able to put your hands on the item to be sure you're getting what you want. You gotta figure if they are used to getting $14 a pop for a ball cap, it's probably like the ball cap they issue to high-school/ college baseball teams, i.e. a pretty professional piece of gear. I'm not sure I'm willing to pay that, myself. I found a guy who just does embroidery. He has a computer-driven sewing machine. You bring him the caps, and he'll embroider them off his machine for a set price, per cap. The more caps you contract for, the cheaper the price, but the minimum is six and that price is good up to fifty. To get another break, you need to order more than 144, which is way more than we'll ever need. I found some caps, now I gotta figure out if it's worth it to go to all this hassle. One of my bros said, "What the hell, just do it yourself and make ONE cap. These rest of that shit is too much hassle." I don't know. If I could find an Espee ball cap on eBay, I would just buy it and shine the rest of it on.

Okay, I contacted the ball cap people. One size fits all (OSFA) cotton twill ball caps, black crown, red bill, one dozen, with shipping and handling $45. That's about $3.75 a piece. Next--the embroidery guy.

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Sounds awesome Kabar.. The other option that you could always revert to if needed is to find a nice cap, then get one of those nice round 3.5" patches and sew it on the front.. I found a Southern Railroad patch that is only fitting for a hat, and I know that if I ever was to find a Southern hat that was made this decade it would be some super shitty foam front cheap iron on thing.. (I just saw one the other day at the model railroad show) ... So, just in case all else fails, I think that the "gifts for rails" page sells those patches like I mentioned.. I dont remember the adress, but you can search for it with google just using gifts for rails..

 

sorry for the incessant rambling, I just got to work and am trying to avoid the inevitable.. work.

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Need a P.O. Box

 

I guess I need to get a P.O. Box so I can do offline business and get mail somewhere else besides my home. I talked to the ball cap people again--the caps have been shipped. The embroidery guy says when I get them, bring them to him and he can probably do the job in an hour or two. Then I have to figure out what it will cost me to mail one to a buyer, and that will be the price. Right now it's looking like around $8 or so, maybe a little less, depending on the cost of mailing envelope and postage. When I have a dozen caps finished, ready-to-ship, I will be into it for $81. Hard to believe a few ball caps could cost $81 to create! And, I still have to ship them and pay for postage. My time and labor is free, of course. It's becoming somewhat clearer to me why the athletic apparrel shops are charging $14 for a ball cap!

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Guest fr8lover

kabar: id be interested in knowing what you think about that book. in my opinion it was a decent read, sometimes a little slow but he kept it going for most of the book. i was thinking that at least a bit of it was a tad embellished but hey, even nonfiction is fiction these days...

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Ball Caps Arrived From Supplier

 

Got 'em this morning. They look pretty good. They are "Otto" brand, manufactured in Bangladesh, if you care about that. They are 100% brushed cotton, six-panel, black crown with red ventilation "eyelets", a red "button" on the top, and a red bill. (Actually a better description of this color is "crimson" because "red" has more orange in it.) Nice stitching throughout. They don't have foam in the front, they have what is called a "full buckram", which is that part that is foam on the less expensive "gimmee" caps. They look pretty good, really. The back is adjustable with a Velcro closure, instead of those plastic fasteners with little holes and studs that fit into them.

Tomorrow I take them to the embroidery guy to get the white block letters "SP" embroidered on them.

I've been trying to figure out the best way to do this to avoid anybody getting pissed. I guess I'll get a P.O. box, and have one volunteer send me a money order that covers the cost, then let him give a report to everybody else on the website. Then after that, whoever wants one will at least have more than just my opinion on whether or not it's a good deal. Does this sound workable?

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Postal Mail Box

 

Took the caps to the embroidery guy. He gave me a sample of the letters embroidered on a piece of scrap cloth. They look pretty good. If you get a P.O. Box, it's at the Post Office and costs a fortune. If you rent a box from a check-cashing place, it's called a Postal Mail Box and is a lot cheaper ($21 for three months.)

 

My Postal Mail Box is as follows:

 

West Side Rail Fans

12554 Bellaire

P.M.B. 108

Houston, Texas 77072

 

Don't send anything til I tell y'all I got the caps in my hands and I can tell you an exact price. Who wants to be the first guy and willing to make a report? Payment should be by Money Order only, no checks, please.

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Exchange Rate

 

Tee-Rase---I checked the exchange rate, and you are correct, the U.S./ Canadian exchange rate is at one U.S. dollar to $1.59 Canadian. I had no idea there was that much difference. I understand it fluctuates some, let's keep an eye on it, and see if it comes up closer to 1:1. This is a problem for American business--a strong U.S. dollar makes American products overpriced and uncompetitive in the world market. On the other hand, everybody wants to put their cash in American banks, because it's not likely to lose it's value much. Unless you are unfortunate enough to trust some idiot like the people running the Enron Corporation. (What a bunch of crooks.)

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hats/monikers

 

Yes, let us know the price when you're ready.

Kabar i also wanted to mention, have you ever checked out the boxcarart.com site ? I'm assuming that you might be a fan of the hobo monikers, well this sight has an extensive photo collection of those, as well as a number of interviews with some of the artists themselves ! It even has a message board where people post lists of the streaks/monikers they catch. I think you'd enjoy it, it has nothing to do with aerosol, monikers only.

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