Used Alden for BB LHS cordovan - should I go ahead and recraft immediately?

[TheWGP]

This is crossposted here and the other forum, simply so I can get a breadth of opinion - I know a lot of people do one or the other. Thanks for your comments!

Just snagged these on the Bay, $160+11 ship - $16 instant cashback = $155. Here's the auction, though I put what I guess are the most crucial photos below: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=180466509979

They appear to be Alden for BB unlined LHS - is this the correct diagnosis? I'm afraid I overpaid for used ones, but I still come out significantly cheaper than BB's asking of $600 for the same shoe or even Shoemart's 546 for the Alden LHS, even after a recrafting and all, so I'm fine with it - since I was semi-planning for a $500+ expenditure!

I suppose the larger question is, should I plan to recraft these immediately? I measure to an 11E (though I wear an 11EEE in AE Park Aves and similar) , so I'm thinking these will do just fine after some wear, especially since they're used. I'll have to wait and see how they fit exactly when they get here, but I don't think there will be many, if any, fit issues, since I don't have a particularly high instep, which seems to be the LHS' achilles heel, as it were... apologies for the bad foot joke. Anyway, what would you forumites do? Plan to immediately ship them off, or wait a bit? Oh, and which color does BB sell of the LHS - they just call it brown on the website, and I'm rather inexperienced in matters cordovan?

 

[JayJay]

I'd wear them several times to see how they fit and adjust to your feet.

 

[rebel222]

Make sure they fit before you recraft them. Those don't have too much wear, so you could go a while w/o a recraft. Those are an older model, judging by the solid nailed heel. Also, they are #8 burgundy. Not sure where you were looking on BB's website, but BB calls them burgundy.