Sporran Deals?

[xman]

I have bought a couple of thousand items on eBay with relatively few real disappointments (items just not delivered, ignorantly described, lied about) but I have been reminded more than once that you usually get what you pay for.

I have bought a synthetic horsehair sporran that I would not recommend at about $50. I have a handful of the chrome cantled rabbit fur ones. They are nothing special, but they look pretty good. I have grabbed a couple of plain leather ones for around $25-30, which is decent. Don't expect the leather to be topnotch at that price. I think you can buy them from SWK at about that price if you don't want to mess with eBay or you like the idea of doing business with XMTS members. I didn't know about SWK when I bought mine.

Part of this is more philosophy than economics. Getting a $315 sporran for $300 saves you the same amount as buying a $30 one for $15, but I suspect the $15 one will make you feel as if you got a better deal.

A little judicious customising helps. I swapped the tassels from the white rabbit with the ones from the black rabbit- I think the contrast helps. You can see elsewhere (Traditional Highland Dress) a pic of me wearing a formerly black leather sporran that I glued a leopard stencilled rabbit pelt onto. It rocks.

Like so many other specialty markets, highland wear has been revolutionized by the internet. Local availability/ scarcity allowed many sellers to make a healthy profit on the same budget goods that now pop up on eBay. If the next-cheapest sporran is $150, then you can sell a lot of creppy ones for $100, but when the cheap ones drop to $45, vendors have to follow the market or specialize in a better grade of goods.

Yeah this all makes perfect sense. The thing I like about using eBay is it's not like it's real money. I can sell a couple of razors and pad up my PayPal account to spend on goods there again. Sure saves the credit card bills from piling up. From looking around today I notice that the goods I believe I can trust from some of the vendors there are about maybe ten percent cheaper than the goods I know I can trust from the vendors here. I could watch for some deals to appear, but I think I'm going to grab the bulk of my kit from members now. Maybe Donnie takes PayPal.

Thank-you all so much for your input ... again!