Thread: 10 razors with no scales

Okay, twice ozikansas has put up a sale of 10 pretty nice straight razors, blades only, no handles.

The first time, all 10 were very nice considering the scalelessness, all had decent makers marks, etc.

I was outbid at the last minute and they went for $176.50. 17 bucks a scaleless razor.

the second time, yesterday, there were again 10, this time two of them have no brand name, which makes them kinda worthless in terms of expending effort to re-scale them.

But as an experiment, I did a little incremental bidding to find where the current bid was. It capped out at OVER $200. Then, a bidder with a SINGLE SALE under his belt, oldcoldwarrier, came in and capped my (seemingly) outRAGEOUS bid of $275.00 at $276.50.

$276.50? for 8 usable straight razor blades with no scales?

It was kind of a fun ride, and I am CERTAINLY glad I didn't get these. They were WAY overpriced at $200.

Currently there are 10 nice razors out there for sale WITH SCALES with a buy-it-now price of $250. Maybe I should snag those? (No f'n way.)

Is this an example of bidding hysteria or what???

(And yes, i realize I was participating in the hysteria!

This time next year they will be 600.00.Regards gary

Sorry, in my enthusiasm I forgot to mention it was an Ebay auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=380026015889

in case the link doesn't work, the number is 380026015889

i was bidding on this set of razors and a few others this week. i cannot believe how much people are spending on razors these days.

Yeah, it's kinda crazy - and unnecessary! I've got what I think is a nice little collection going, 2 W&B, 2 Bokers, 2 Gencos and an Ern and all but one were between $7 and $12. Paid $15 for one and felt like it was high! Good deals are out there, it just takes patience and a willingness to put some work into them when you get them. I find it greatly satisfying to take a nicely crafted tool from the past that's fallen into disrepair and shine it up, put a nice edge on it and put it into my rotation.

I think some people are making more money from them by re-selling them. Say for example the guy that bought that lot of 10 in that auction for 276.50 that is 27.65 per razor, now if he makes a bunch of scales puts them on and cleans them up a bit he can re-sell them for a profit. If he gets around $40 per razor he makes a little profit, probably could get more than that for some depending on how good of a job he does. I'm guessing that this is what people are doing with these rather than actually using them.

I usually get leary whenever I see a "new" ebay member or a person who has been a member for like 5 years with one win in all that five years all of a sudden running prices up on auctions. Sometimes it makes me think its the seller driving up the price.
Especially with the newer hidden bidder thing you can't even check the sellers other auctions to see if that same person is placing high bids there also.

Originally Posted by Traveller

This time next year they will be 600.00.Regards gary

Dang, I have GOT to get at building a grinder!!

Originally Posted by bevansmw

now if he makes a bunch of scales puts them on and cleans them up a bit he can re-sell them for a profit.

I see what you're saying but in your example, where exactly would he be selling the rescaled razors? I assume you mean handmade scales rather than slapping some Dovo scales on the blades. I've rarely if ever seen listings for rescaled razors on Ebay since I think most buyers could give a rip or fail to appreciate the beautiful work of many of the rescales that are done. If in your theoretical example that person would do a quality rescale and sell the razors for $40 on SRP BST, I'd say more power to em.

Originally Posted by JBrock

Sometimes it makes me think its the seller driving up the price.
Especially with the newer hidden bidder thing you can't even check the sellers other auctions to see if that same person is placing high bids there also.

Very good point. Ebay couldn't track a seller from setting up a duplicate account and bid on a different computer (to eliminate any IP address tracking) could they?

Chris L

Originally Posted by JBrock

I usually get leary whenever I see a "new" ebay member or a person who has been a member for like 5 years with one win in all that five years all of a sudden running prices up on auctions. Sometimes it makes me think its the seller driving up the price.
Especially with the newer hidden bidder thing you can't even check the sellers other auctions to see if that same person is placing high bids there also.

Just FYI, it is possible, but it isn't easy.

1. You have to give Ebay a real name and address and they check it. You need to give them a credit card, debit card, checking account, or use ID Verify. All require SSN and other identification. If you haven't tried to create a false identity, you probably don't know exactly how hard and dangerous it is.

2. These are criminal activities, and involve interstate commerce, so technically federal crimes. Ebay is monitoring this closely because they are a target for organized crime, particularly originating in eastern Europe, China, and Russia.

So, I really doubt a seller would play this kind of game with a bunch of old straight razors.

There are some people out there with serious money to spend and strange hobbies (like us!) and dropping a few hundred on a lark on some straight razors isn't that big a deal.

Originally Posted by bevansmw

I think some people are making more money from them by re-selling them. Say for example the guy that bought that lot of 10 in that auction for 276.50 that is 27.65 per razor, now if he makes a bunch of scales puts them on and cleans them up a bit he can re-sell them for a profit. If he gets around $40 per razor he makes a little profit, probably could get more than that for some depending on how good of a job he does. I'm guessing that this is what people are doing with these rather than actually using them.

Your numbers don't quite work.

Even if you go low on additional materials cost, rounding up the actual cost to $30.00, making $10 per razor isn't too hot.

No way this can be done in less than 2 hours per razor. $5.00 per hour? Then, it is quite likely that at least two of those razors are warped (that's why they never got used in the first place) and can't be honed out.

More likely this is someone planning to spend 4 hours per razor and asking $100+ for the result.