clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Bureau of Trade: Your Online Shop for Petrified Lightning, Explosives Crates, and Menswear

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

Men's shopping destination Bureau of Trade relaunched today, revealing a beautiful online space for discovering some of the most unique items to be found on the internet, including watches, motorcycles, cars, furniture and clothing, mostly of the manly variety, though there's plenty for women to love as well (vintage Hermes scarf, anyone?).

But does the world really need another shopping site? Why not stick with eBay and Craigslist for vintage? Says founder Michael Phillips Moskowitz:

To learn. To laugh. To lust after goods that really matter. Not things, but truly narrative merchandise. You can wade or slog through the slurry of digital waste, or you can delicately tiptoe across the pond on lily pads to find what really matters.

Every month, the San Francisco-based site's operatives scour eBay, Craigslist, and smaller resellers to find the best merchandise that fits with their theme of the month. Currently it's "Continental Rift," so you'll find things like this military dossier case ($62), this Waltham diver watch ($125), this Texcoco Mexican wool rug ($165) and this 1960s shooting jacket ($87). Some items are one of a kind while others are available in small batches. You can also sell the rare items you've loved long enough on the new iteration of the site. And don't miss the clever videos, co-produced with Esquire.

For more on Bureau of Trade, see our Whale Week interview with Moskowitz.
· This Whale is Hunting for a Real Whale Skeleton [Racked SF]
· 13 Places in San Francisco Where You Can Spend It All [Racked SF]
· Bonobos Opens Actual Doors in SF [Racked SF]