Thread: Blind bidding

I'm not trying to knock anyone in particular here on this great forum with this post, so please don't take offense to this. It is not directed at any individual.

I have become quite fascinated with all the posts stating, "I just bought this razor and would like to know if I got a good deal/what it's worth." It's surprising to me that so many would blindly purchase a product without first knowing what even its ballpark worth might be. Or how much it might cost to refurbish.

I'm not saying this approach is wrong, by any means. But I guess I am just curious as to why you did not research it beforehand, why you did not ask the forum members before you purchased it, what caught your eye about a particular razor, what you would do if the razor you bought turned out to be worth far less than you paid for it, or what happens if it cost a ton to refurbish?

There is always the junk drawer.

I don't know if I'm guilty of this, but I do know that for some, it seems that if they ask before purchasing, the razor gets purchased before they get an answer... So they decide that they'd rather purchase the razor while it's still available, and then ask once they get it, than not get the razor at all.

I'm betting that this is more of a newbie issue (and now I'm sure that I've done it before) because they've read the "don't buy this crap, don't buy those zeepks, etc." and yet when they see a razor that is a good buy (for example, on BST), it's gone before they had a chance to PM about it.

I think that if we want to stay the "gentlemen" of SRP, we have to keep this in mind - both with our posts of FS razors in BST, and with our advice to newbies wanting to enter into our world. They, like us when we first joined SRP, just don't want to get "taken".

As such, I think flashchat has become more important as someone (maybe me) is almost always in there, and we're usually loose enough to freely give advice (the hope is that we're giving good advice... ).

My $0.02, you can paypal it to.....

Originally Posted by prhomme

I'm not trying to knock anyone in particular here...

Neither am I in saying the following..... but maybe people are afraid if they ask questions it might draw unwanted attention to the item and cause a bidding war? Even if it's a largely unfounded worry given the gentlemen on this forum, it might still linger.

Mostly I think it's just because people like to be reassured that they made a good purchase. Someone, especially a newb like me, might be pretty sure they got a good deal but we wanted an old salt to pat us on the back and say "Ya done good kid!"

With presumption that this thread is about my 2 posts last night, the factors are these:
When I did a forum search for "gracie," as an example, I saw a couple posts from more informed members saying that these particular razors are "gems."
What happened a couple hours prior to this particular ebay purchase was what led to my making this impulse buy:
I saw a red injun, mint condition, buy it now price of $60. These razors have a good reputation, but I just wanted a pair or 2 of more knowledgeable eyes to take a look before I committed to buying. I recieved a couple of responses within a minute or two and went back to buy it and saw that it was sold. My hesitation of only a couple seconds cost me a razor that I really would have liked and probably paid twice as much for anywhere else.
I continued to search on ebay but was just passing time, no real intention of making a purchase. That's when I came across the Gracie razor (seen here, btw: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWN:IT&ih=016).
I decided that it was a good price and the razor was from Germany and the pictures looked good. So I bought it. After that, I simply decided that I would like a couple others to take a look and offer me a simple 'yes, that's a good buy,' or 'no, you paid too much.'
I asked a lot of people, both in the forums and privately because I wanted a little more direction. I got a lot of information, and I have a lot of people to thank.

Actually, strange as it may seem, I thought that's what these forums were for- the uninformed ask questions, the informed answer.

I did not even read your posts - again, this was not geared to anyone whatsoever. I see a lot of the same kind of posts and just wondering why people, given the tremendous opportunity this forum presents to provide knowledge on what a razor is worth, would ever bid on a razor they have no clue how much it is worth.

The whole "I don't want to ask because others may bid on my item" is shaky at best, because any given razor on ebay has a million eyes looking at it.

No offense taken, I'm just sort of, you know, making my case:


Given the result of the injun I was referring to, you could understand the frantic nature of my thought process, at least for those couple of seconds... It certainly isn't that I thought the razor would be purchased out from under me by an SRP member the second I asked about it.

Also, there isn't exactly a spewing geyser of information about that particular razor on this site. I just wanted to make sure I have all my bases covered.

But, just for the record, I think perhaps some of us will feel slighted when reading this thread. Saying something like, 'no offense, but...' is sort of a trifiling thing to say when what you say will inevitably be offensive...even if only marginally so.

I think we all bid blindly on ebay to some extent - some photos are excellent, but a lot aren't and what looks OK to some might look like a problem to others, regardless of experience. Take the Escher with a crack in it thread for example. It's just the nature of the 'bay - without picking it up and seeing it first hand, we are all just more or less making a judgment call, and no amount of research is going to help with that.

As to researching brands etc, that's fine if there's info. available, and google and this site are great tools. But there's so much out there that has very little info., particularly for the lesser known brands. And getting to know even the more well-known brands takes time. I think I was a member of this site for 6 months before I'd even heard of a Friodur, for example.

Anyway, I guess all I'm trying to say is that when you start down this road, the learning curve is steep to say the least. There's so much information here regarding so many things - it takes time to get through it all and digest it. In the meantime you want to get on with it and shave! I see the "Did I do OK" type threads as self-directed learning, and a natural and completely understandable part of the process.

James.

Another component is I generally don't bid based on "what it's worth".
I'm bidding based on whether I like it. I'm often curious if it's worth anything but it's not really a determining factor.

-Bob