Most common question.... Why are your fino fino hats so low priced...are they really the same?
YES! There is only one Montecristi and in Montecristi only a few hatsellers. You have the Delgado Family, The Pachay Family, The Chavez Family (Notorious for selling
Cuencas as Montecristis, we DO NOT BUY FROM THEM), and the Mero Families. How can those $10,000 hats be any different? We buy from the same families as the
other hat sellers around the world. The difference is we don't feel our blocking is worth the extra $9000.00 plus dollars that they must believe their blocking is worth.
Email me if you'd like to discuss this...even those in Hawaii, New Mexico, Italy and such.
1. Can you send me a sample of your merchandise? Yes! We have low cost Sample Packs for alpaca items if you would like to try us out. See them at
HERE If you're inquiring for hats, email me and I'll make a sample package for you.
2. Where do you obtain the merchandise? Panama Hats:
All of our Montecristi Panama Hats of Paja Toquilla come from the town of Montecristi, Manabi, Ecuador. Our Cuenca hats come from either Cuenca, Azuay, Ecuador or from
Canar Province, Ecuador.
Alpaca:
We purchase most of our alpaca merchandise at the world famous Poncho Plaza in Otavalo, Ecuador. Many other pieces we buy direct from Peru and Bolivia. The products are not 100% alpaca, unless they say they are.
Folk Art:
We scan the countryside looking for unique art and use a myriad of artisans in our projects.
3. Do you have references?
Yes. We can offer you email addresses of clients as references. We also are sellers on ebay so check out the username panamahat*net . Sorry, the ebay hats just aren't as good as the website hats. It is a tool to keep the weavers weaving, blockers blocking, and my family working...but the hats aren't equal.
FEEDBACK RECORD .
4. What types of payments do you accept?
We accept checks, cashier or bank checks, and money orders via mail to our address in Indiana. Click the Contact Us menu button at left.. We accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover and electronic check transfers via Paypal. We're exploring yet other avenues of payment. At times we accept barter or trade. This won't be for much longer but IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO ACCEPT DIRECT CREDIT CARD PAYMENTS FOR INTERNET TRANSACTIONS IN ECUADOR. That is why we work in conjunction with clearinghouses and not direct with banks.
5. Does "BABY ALPACA" mean that babies are harmed in processing? All alpaca skin items come from naturally fallen animals. An alpaca is worth much more alive, with repeated shearings, than from what little money its skin can bring.
6. Who do I contact? Who are the buyers? Who are the sellers? Robert Weber, info@panamahat.biz is the contact. The buyers are my wife Diana's family. The sellers are my wife Diana's family and li'l ole me (Robert). Her family owns the company, I own the English skills.
7. Do you ship worldwide?
Yes! The listed prices include shipping and handling for North America only. The rest of the world must add an additonal shipping charge of 10% of order.
8. Why are your Montecristi Hats so low in price as compared to others? There are a number ofl reasons for the low prices. I'm not here to offend anyone nor question business practices. These are the main reasons we can offer low prices:
- We have
very low overhead. Basically we pay for the webpages, our
taxes, and the product. We use locally produced decorative
hatbands of leather, cloth or silk materials rather than to
purchase over priced imported exotics. When available we use
Grosgrain ribbon. It's not expensive although some sellers
mark it up enormously. Call the local fabric store and check
on silk and grosgrain ribbon...you'll see for yourself. The
inner leather high quality sweat bands are also produced expressly
for us under contract and we hand sew them in place. We also
use local hatblockers to finish the hats completely rather
than transport (another expense) the hats off to a high overhead
country to do the same thing as do some sellers. Rent and
realestate in Ecuador is nothing compared to the States. In
fact, we own our facilities. We utilize FEDEX for all Montecristi
orders and the inexpensive Ecuadorian Mail system for the
other orders. For the past couple years we've just been making
a name in the business and need to keep our prices low enough
to appeal to many levels of society. We offer many levels
of hats and don't aim to serve the exclusive crowd nor just
those who seek economic hat solutions. We certainly have such
offerings and at great prices, but we want to sell to the
"regular man on the street" as well.
- Finally,
to let the cat out of the bag, there is an incredible markup
by some sellers, we know because we buy the same exact hats.
Normally you get what you pay for in this world but in this
case, not necessarily. Frankly we'd rather make volume sales
and offer excellent products and excellent prices than make
just a few $2,000 sales per year. We appeal to all levels.
This helps you, helps us and most of all helps the local hat
artizans, as their fees and prices don't vary much. I guess
you could say "we're in this for the good of all". If you
want a great Montecristi at a great price, guaranteed, we're
here.
Thanks
for visiting us. . Please email us or fill our our Contact Form to ask questions, leave comments or offer suggestions
about our web site.
Robert, Diana and Andrea Weber
Que Vedo, Ecuador
Montecristi, Ecuador
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