Hi prodigy. Looks like we have the same thought about this!
I'm sure your right on the ones you mentioned. I was looking for a Henckel. Zig was in the $180-$200 range and japannippon was $90-120.
Right but back to what frioduro said about the condition. Were both razors in mint NOS? Or one slightly used? I'm just curious, I don't doubt that japannippon has a good deal here and there, he has over 1300 auctions. It just depends on what brand, and condition.
I did purchase the Henckel from JN and it was in near perfect condition. I feel it was well worth the $60-$80 dollars I saved over an NOS razor because as soon as it's dragged over a hone, they're the same.
For collectors purposes/display case, that's a different story.
To be more specific, I ordered a bunch of Henckels from japannippon.
All were described as secondhand mint.
Two were indeed mint, with very little honewear, if any. One looks more or less NOS. Price was under 100 each. Very happy with these.
Two were heavily honed, one with a frown, and the original blade width had been reduced by 3 or 4mm.
The other had far too much honewear for the price.
Pictures looked great on both!:thinking:
Both were above 150. I sent these two back.
Inspect the pictures carefully!
CRAAAAAAAAP.
Now I'm going to go stare at 1300 razors.
I've purchased 6 razors (maybe more?) from zigzigpapa. He's top shelf, and his NOS razors are probably a little cheaper than you'll find them a lot of places (still, the ones that are $200, that's a lot of cake no matter how you slice it). You can send him offers for a few bucks less than he's asking and he'll come down some.
As for tanifuji being expensive, tanifuji finished iwasaki's razors. There won't be cheap NOS tanifjuji razors unless they have really undesirable proportions.
I have bought one single razor from tamahagane honsha (j-nippon), and it was a decent razor. It was still more than zigzig would sell the same razor even though honsha called it 45% off, or so. I don't have anything against j-nippon, just observe that he's listing gobs of razors and he doesn't need to price any of them low enough so that they sell frequently. If he makes a sale or two a day, it's probably worth it to him - thus he has no incentive to be that inexpensive.
I have purchased a couple from this seller and everything was smooth as could be.
Japannippon will also lower the price if you ask, on some razors.