Anyone else have those classic Hartmann suitcases? (No wheels) They were a traditional graduation gift back in the day. They were expensive, and now they’re worth very little. I can’t bring myself to let them go though.
A repair in that range? Do I have to come to where you are?
I’m going to try to find a cobbler to repair a great little piece my husband picked up a few years ago, and had the airline break on its first use. Had he told me when it happened, I would have had them cover the cost of replacement, but no, he just shrugged. I think I am his muscle, to be honest. But, thanks!
We have the old luggage we got as college graduation sets in our attic. One holds by clothes I want to hang onto…just in case I ever have grandchildren, and the other holds American Girl doll clothes…and yes…we have a lot of those!
At one time, DS brought back a piece of check-in luggage with one side of the “pull handle” broken. It is kind of hard to pull the luggage at the airport. Of course, we replaced it with a new one.
I forgot what kind of luggage he has right now. If it is one which is of the low quality, we may buy a better one and get his worse one on our return trip. (Hmm… we have not booked our return flight yet. We had better schedule our return trip and book the ticket soon, before the price goes up. My wife prefers to stay there longer but I am not sure at this moment The frugality side of me prefers to save as many vacation days as I could. I think it is better to talk to DS and agree on the schedule first. We should not show up and stay whatsoever days we want to without getting an agreement first.)
I repaired a bag that we mistreated and wore a hole through the nylon. It took a little time, some black fabric and thread. We like it because it packs very small in its own zippered bag and is very light. It should last a few more trips. Normally, we don’t repair luggage, as after a decade of more, we may want something new or different.
We’ve had the Delsey over a decade. It’s an electric blue, so easy to pick out and very sturdy. The B&R bags are a chocolate brown, so pretty easy to find as well. We have bright green covers over the suitcase handles to make them more distinctive.
A little off topic…we have a royal blue Delsey we took on a cruise. Sticks out very well. But funny…we picked it up on the dock…and drove to a relatives house…and it was there we noticed…it was NOT our royal blue bag at all.
Had to call, and drive back.
Mcat2 I’m still not clear…why are you giving your son the nicer luggage?
Our friends once took the wrong bag to hotel in DC and then had to cab back, R/T. It was a costly and tiring error. I check luggage tags, even if I’m “sure” the bags are ours. Many DO look alike.
I’ve stopped buying luggage and most clothing for our 26 & 28 year old “kids” because we all prefer they choose what will work for them. S buys what he likes and D forages our house and takes one of the old bags we aren’t using any more (but still work great).
Pizzagirl-H lugs his Hartmann every time he travels. It weighs a ton, empty! No wheels. It looks great and has never been damaged by the airlines. It’s about 36 years old.
@thumper1, it was nice to see the reference to American Girl doll clothes. Thank you for supporting the company; I’ve done work for them over the years!
@waitingtoexhale , they did it for free in about 5 minutes. Totally worth it! !
All our recent luggage purchases have come from TJMaxx or Marshalls. It’s fine.
@thumper1, It is because he could use it more than we do.
Re: “American Girl”
Do you refer to the dolls and some books about these girls (Samantha, Kerstin, Molly, Felicity, etc.) who lived in various period of American history? If yes, we bought many books (but nit the dolls) for our son when he was young. He read all the books that we bought for him but was not very enthusiastic about “girl’s stuff” in the end. (I read these books too, about the time he read them, so that I could "(oretend to) share the interest and discuss it with him.)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_Girl_characters
@mcat2: I really, really like what you said there ^^^, mcat2.
Yes…mcat2 those are the American girl dolls…and this is off topic…but why did you feel you needed to “pretend” ypu liked the books? If you liked them, that would be fine, right?
Anyway…yes…we store the American Girl Doll clothes in an old hard sided suitcase in our attic.
We’ve bought at least a half-dozen large rolling duffel bags at Target to supplement our Tumi and Samsonite rollaboards, and we love the Target bags!
The reason we have bought so many of the Target rolling duffels is that we live overseas, but our kids are in different schools in the States, so all their stuff (too much stuff) needs to get flown back and forth all the time. Each kid has 2 duffels and we parents use the remaining ones. The Target bags were a good value and have proven to be sturdy and reliable over the years and miles.
When buying any luggage, look at the ZIPPER and the WHEELS. Make sure they are beefy.
For personal rollaboards, also look at the retractable handle. For cheap rollaboards, the handles are wimpy and easily break/jam.
It is important to see whether the fully extended handles seem fairly sturdy or flimsy. Comparing a few side by side can be helpful. You want the handles sturdy enough to work well with a load–in the store they are empty.
If you are willing to use a non roller backpack, a soft sided one can squish into slightly too small spaces more easily.
Less weight and more space as well.
@Waiting2exhale, Thanks.
Although I myself was not enthusiastic about dolls or American history (I headed right to the tech related or at least STEM-related book section when there were still no lack of bookstores unlike today, so you could tell where my interest was at that time), I think that kind of fiction books may be good for DS who was born and grew up here. But it is always good when parents are doing things along with their kids when they were relatively young. It could increase the time being together too, so why not?!
He likes boy-ish stuff like Hank the Cow Dog and the neutral stuff like Thomas the Tank Engine when very young. Even though we also bought many toys like dolls (yes, he has dolls and a lot of beanie babies or stuff animals, and Little Tykes or Fisher Price “kitchen center” when he was young), boys will be boys after a certain age, I think.
Regarding “back packs”, our family members almost always use a back pack (the kind the high schooler or middle schooler uses) as a carry-on. We therefore often bought the check-in luggage only and rarely bought the carry-on one. We hate it when they are sold as a set. We continued to buy that kind of back pack when DS was already in college. For example, the laptop is just put into the back pack. We put a light coat there too in case it is too chilly on the plane. We once tried the bag specifically designed for the laptop, but we somehow did not like it (too bulky due to all the padding – although I agree it is safer for carrying a laptop in that way.)
My wife just claimed that she’s more experienced in finding and buying luggage. I have located the two TJ Maxx store and she said both of them are “too far away” (which is like only 20 -30 minutes drive away!) Thus, she would try Ross first. She has invested more time in selecting and buying luggage than I have, in the past decade or so. I guess this is her “territory”. LOL.
I have found a greater selection of quality items at TJ Maxx than at Ross, but I understand if the distance is something which is off-putting for your wife. I wish her success at Ross.
Our son was a STEM kid from the day he was born, but played with the kitchen centers as well. Funny to remember how other mothers railed against exposing him to the little plastic dishware and fruit that help to fill out those toy kitchen centers. I thought those mothers had two heads but no brain, quite frankly.
My kid is an awesome young man, and he can fry an egg. He named his favorite stuffed animal and I still have it. I have dressed it in a glow-in-the-dark, map-of-the-universe t-shirt from Lands’ End, and sat it on a bureau in my middle schooler’s room. We think of it as a little piece of the essence of the big brother who has gone off into the world to study self-same universe.
This could be true. In this area, it seems that TJ Maxx is at a better location than where Ross is at in this area. (“Better” in the sense of being closer to an area where the school district is better.)
So it could be true they (TJMaxx) may carry a greater selection of high quality items (maybe at a slightly higher price.)
I believe that if you pay more, it is more likely that you could get a higher quality item (but not always of course.) However, if you pay a lower price, the odds is against you that you will get a high quality item.