Thread: eBay Prices?

Originally Posted by Phrank

The prices will keep going up on these beautiful vintage razors until there's none left. Already you see, even in my year of buying, prices doubling and tripling for less and less quality blades. The thing with the vintage blades is they don't make them anymore, and in most cases they haven't been made for over one hundred years.

Eventually the new makers will catch up and there will be lots to choose from again, but the old vintage blades will become rarer and rarer.

Notice that on a world wide forum like eBay, pretty much the entire straight razor community will notice when a sought after blade comes up. And when they do, with the occasional exception, go for very high prices.

Every "keeper" you've got will be for sale again someday ........ whether it is by you, or the person handling the estate. We're just custodians of this stuff.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Every "keeper" you've got will be for sale again someday ........ whether it is by you, or the person handling the estate. We're just custodians of this stuff.

I've often thought how many different lives the vintage razors I own have touched, and whose lives they may touch in the future.

If I had one wish for the blades I currently own, is just that they were never trashed. That they ended up appreciated and valued by someone, and of course brought some joy and happiness in having and using something with such a rich history.

Originally Posted by Phrank

I've often thought how many different lives the vintage razors I own have touched, and whose lives they may touch in the future.

If I had one wish for the blades I currently own, is just that they were never trashed. That they ended up appreciated and valued by someone, and of course brought some joy and happiness in having and using something with such a rich history.

I'll appreciate them Phrank, hint, hint...

I promise I won't practice honing on them.

Originally Posted by Phrank

Hahaha...why do I have the feeling I'm going to get blamed for that!?!

Since I started using a stra8 I bought all kinds of blade styles and grinds, and after I found the type I prefer, which is the W&B wedge, and near wedge the prices seem to climb every day!!! So Phrank I will humbly take donations......

Dunno, I just bought a razor on ebay at something like 20% discount compared to retail - supposedly unused and the pictures were good and it looked nice. It was on the high end of the scale though, the old beaten up razors may well be a fair bit more expensive than they used to be recently.

I think I've been at this for six and a half years and the prices have been generally going up. Back in 2007 the entry level Dovo was $50 honed by Lynn, ebay specials were in the $10-$15 range ($5 if you'd get a lot of 15-20 which were fairly popular back then), filarmonicas were around $100, the big w&b probably $50-$70 (I never cared much for them so don't remember exactly).
With standard inflation the current prices should be 20% higher, but they are much higher than that, so that's demand outpacing the supply. It's not in all segments though - I think it's most pronounced at the low end (when I was first looking you could have a lightly cleaned up and honed vintage razor in good condition for $15-$25) and the high end (the custom razors now seem to be about twice what custom razors used to be, and now there is a lot more variety).

Now Safety Razors are crazy! I sold my 250 plus back in 2007 when I started with straights. Those same ones have nearly tripled in value... BIG Bubble in that market

The "market clearing price" on straights on an international auction site like eBay will not only be segmented by price and/or form, but by a desirability we will never know or understand.

To speculate is fun, but on this thread alone, we are seeing all kinds of "differing opinions.". I personally hope they are going up because demand is being spurred by new guys vs just a bunch of rich Phranks buying everything up in an effort to forgo a 7 day set, and move directly to a 365 day set lol!

Prices going up means more people will consider entering the market on the supply side.

Will prices rise enough for companies to enter the market? You could argue they already have in that the mighty Gold Dollar has entered the foray.

The only question I really have is, will these men who are starting into it still desire the straight experience and seek a decent razor after the horrors inflicted by the mighty Gold Dollar lol?? Or will this entrant kill demand lol!!

Doh!!!

I don't know, I keep reading somewhere that those Gold Dollars are as good as any Filarmonica out there, just need to be honed on a lapping film costing Another Dollar, but the all powerful honemeister extortionist mafia is keeping that secret and banning from the internet everyone who threatens to reveal it.

Still these Gold Dollar razors have gotten so rare nowadays that even the mighty Titans were brought out of Tartarus to their help (cf. Xena season 1). I hear sometime soon they'll be nailing the sky in place so that Atlas can come to the fight as well.

Ever notice how Atlas is only ever depicted in America as clean shaven?

Alas as the sky rips at its seams, I wonder how much of the earths burden he'll trade for some Spanish steel lol? Perhaps a Gods ransom? That may very well be why... that razor with the harp, that gets so very sharp, is so dear at the auctioneer. Lol.

Tend to agree with most views expressed regarding the increases in the last year on the bay as that's been how long my interest in straights has supplanted VWs and Chevy parts as my number one searches. Hard to find a sweet W and B sans the England moniker for what I'm willing to spend. Glad I bought one through here instead that's just perfect.
I'm still on the hunt for a Japanese straight, and of course a maestro livi to honor Italy but I am patient, and persistent, and I love the eBay search engine, very specific..
Cheers.