Picked up this Patriots Sports Specialties hat earlier today that looks to have never been worn but likely sat folded on a shelf and yellowed over the years:

I wanted to get it clean but A) didn't want the colors on the embroidery to run and B) didn't want to affect the stiffness of the brim. I tested the colorfastness by dabbing a Q-Tip dipped in soapy water on the embroidery. The colors thankfully did not run. I've cleaned hundreds of hats over the years and have learned that dyes, especially red, love to seep into white fabric. Cold water is your friend when dealing with these. I did some additional research and found that dabbing a mixture 1 tsp of white vinegar and 1 cup of cold water will help stabilize the dyes, which is a neat trick I will be incorporating into my cleaning methods.

I then used a mixture of 1 cup cold water, 1 tsp Oxi Clean, and 1 tsp Dawn Platinum to use as a detergent to further clean the hat. I lightly scrubbed the stained parts of the crown (while doing my best to avoid the embroidery) and dabbed away any immediate moisture to avoid dye running and to get the stains out. I then applied a second scrubbing of the detergent mixture and let the hat dry in the sun. Super happy with the final result:

Found this beauty the other day:

Good news: the camcorder was fully functional when plugged into its DC power supply.

Bad news: the battery it came with was dead as a doornail.

I tried a variety of techniques to revive the old battery, including:

• Using alligator clips in combination with a 20Ω resistor to safely discharge the battery down to 4V, followed by recharging on the battery charger. No luck.
• Using a 9V battery to "zap" the dendrites in the old battery, which also failed.

At this point, I was down to 2 options: ordering a modern third party replacement (which was roughly $25) or creating my own battery pack. Luckily, I was able to find these Sub C Ni-Cd batteries from Amazon that would A) serve as a suitable replacement and B) provide a slightly longer runtime than the old battery (2200 mAh for the new batteries, 1800 mAh for the old batteries):

Thus, I ordered them and got to work. Here is what my workstation looked like during the repair process:

It's sort of hard to tell based on this image, but the new batteries (green battery on the bottom right) were not an exact replacement for the old batteries (tan ones in the center) due to differences in size. ALWAYS CHECK BOTH MEASUREMENTS!!! The new batteries were the same height as the old cells but were slightly larger in diameter. Rather than ordering ANOTHER set of batteries, I decided to go with a "brick style" layout (3 on bottom, 2 on top) rather than the flat pack layout used by the original battery pack.

Luckily, the matching battery heights allowed for the new cells to be inserted into the base of the old battery pack that sits flush against the camera. After some careful soldering, wiring, and hot glue, I had a battery pack that was working!

Everything is carefully soldered and properly insulated with hot glue, resulting in no hot spots on the battery. While this worked, I didn't want to list a camcorder that looks like part of it was ripped out of the Terminator's abdomen so I decided to come up with a case for it.

I had initially used electrical tape to wrap the battery pack like a mummy. However, this was an ugly solution and made it much harder for the battery pack to make proper contact with the camera's battery terminals. Attemping to remove the tape from the base of the battery pack for a better fit resulted in an even uglier solution. Kinda glad that I neglected to take photos of that attempt.

My final solution? Vinyl wrap. I had bought a couple of smaller rolls for my car but was disappointed with the color so I never used it. While unsuitable for my car, the dark blue carbon fiber wrap made for a much cleaner "shell" for the batteries. A couple wraps of vinyl, some quick work with a heat gun, and careful trimming resulted in this:

Pretty happy with how it turned out. Best of all, everything works as intended and I no longer have issues with the pack not making contact with the camera's terminals. Should have this one listed soon!

Finally found a way to lift stubborn oil stains out of clothes without even having to wash them! Picked up some K2R Spot Lifter from Amazon and it works great for pulling stains out of clothes, no water needed. Just spray, leave the room (this stuff is POTENT smell-wise), let dry, and brush the powder off. Boom, no more stain. Leaves a starchy feeling afterward that is easily removed in a normal wash. Saw this on Instagram a while ago and have loved using it ever since.  See the results on this McDonald's shirt:

I've got my first event of the year coming up next Saturday at The Melody Maker in Clinton, MA. I'll be set up from 10AM-2PM. Come get some coffee/cookies and then swing by and see if you can find anything!

WELCOME TO THE MASS STATE VINTAGE ONLINE SHOP!

Although an overwhelming majority of my sales are through eBay and Etsy, I have always had the desire to have my own store that cuts out the middle man and reduces the amount of fees I have to deal with. The store also serves as a creative outlet for me to do some graphic design and coding.

When I started resale during college in Jonesboro, AR (wolves up!) as "870 Vintage" back in 2018, I ran an online storefront through Square that I eventually let fizzle out. Square changed a lot about how they run their online storefronts during that time so I didn't mind leaving. 

When I lived in Memphis for grad school (doing business as "Mid South Vintage"), I ran my own storefront through a Wordpress site. This was basically my intro to web design, CSS, HTML, JavaScript, etc., and I learned a lot through putting a barebones website together. However, I didn't have much time to maintain the site while in grad school and most of my sales were through other channels so I eventually ditched the idea of a website.

Fast forward to 2026 and I am selling full-time on eBay, Mercari, Poshmark, Depop, Grailed, Etsy, and a few other marketplaces. The idea to start another storefront arose after ordering a custom Darth Maul tee from Mass Vintage. I've always had a ton of respect for what Dan does over there and ordering from him was what gave me the inspiration for starting a Shopify store. I'd also heard what seemed like hours of Shopify ads on the radio, podcasts, YouTube, etc. so I figured it was a good time to start another online store.

I've always been attracted to the retro aesthetics of Windows 95 and have already used it as inspiration for my initial Mass State Vintage website that houses links to my marketplace accounts as well as my event calendar. With this Shopify site I wanted to create something even more retro, inspired by the 90s PC aesthetic and the art style for the game Nubby's Number Factory. I love the old Geocities/Angelfire look, crusty/wiggly GIFs, etc. and think I did a good job of incorporating that into the site. All of the site's graphic design was done by me, such as the product photo borders and custom GIF buttons:

GIF generation in Sony Vegas

Product frame creation in Photoshop

Aside from site design, getting everything correct on the backend also took a lot of time. I already have 1000+ items listed online through Vendoo, which is an awesome service that allows for inventory management across multiple online marketplaces. This service thankfully has Shopify integration so I've been able A) list all new products to this site and B) comb through products I already have listed to get them listed here. As for the latter, I still have many products in my inventory that need to be listed here but I will get to them as time goes on.

Overall, I'm super happy with how this site turned out. I am also happy that it has allowed me to keep my graphic design/coding skills sharp. Both of these skills were very valuable when I was in grad school and I am thankful to be able to put them to good use on my current path.

I'll be updating this blog intermittently with new events I'll be at, lists of cool items I've found in the past, and various other musings. Thanks for stopping by!