Thread: Will I survive Ebay?

I was wondering if any of you experienced folks could take a look at the items below and let me know how my ebay shopping skills are doing. I would like to know if, regardless of price, they would be worth buying. These are some of the razors I am interested in. I am looking for a razor to clean up and make a daily user.
These are not razors I intend to bid on/buy, but I an am trying to get a warm fuzzy, so when i see one I like in the future I will be confident that it will be a decent buy.

MANHATTAN Cutlery of Sheffield Straight Razor - eBay (item 290539514548 end time Mar-06-11 09:50:13 PST)

Wade & Butcher Sheffield Straight Razor L@@K - eBay (item 260744684026 end time Mar-06-11 09:22:24 PST)

VINTAGE 1903 STRAIGHT RAZOR WITH BOX GENEVA CUTLERY CO. - eBay (item 150569756808 end time Mar-06-11 13:18:26 PST)

Originally Posted by straightshot

I was wondering if any of you experienced folks could take a look at the items below and let me know how my ebay shopping skills are doing. I would like to know if, regardless of price, they would be worth buying. These are some of the razors I am interested in. I am looking for a razor to clean up and make a daily user.
These are not razors I intend to bid on/buy, but I an am trying to get a warm fuzzy, so when i see one I like in the future I will be confident that it will be a decent buy.

MANHATTAN Cutlery of Sheffield Straight Razor - eBay (item 290539514548 end time Mar-06-11 09:50:13 PST)

Wade & Butcher Sheffield Straight Razor L@@K - eBay (item 260744684026 end time Mar-06-11 09:22:24 PST)

VINTAGE 1903 STRAIGHT RAZOR WITH BOX GENEVA CUTLERY CO. - eBay (item 150569756808 end time Mar-06-11 13:18:26 PST)

Make a list put a price down and watch to see what they go for.
After you have a track record you will have the answer.

All three are possibly good razors. But there
is no way to know 100% without cleaning and
honing them up.

Thanks, cost doesnt really matter to me. I will not pay more than I am willing to pay even if it is worth that much money. my question is weather they sell for $1 or $1,000 could they be usable or are they not in good enough shape to deal with. Don't get me wrong, I still would like to make them shiney, but they wouldn't have to look mint.

You're asking for a _guarantee_ that a razor sold through eBay will be OK.

No such thing exists.

I just bought a very nice-looking blade, at a reasonable price. When it arrived, I found a little chip, and a deformed section of the edge that didn't show up in the photo. It's fixable, but it'll take time, and reduce the razor's width substantially.

Even with blades I've bought at antique shops, and looked at closely, there have been problems. It only takes a _tiny_ warp to make your life (as a honer) difficult.

As the previous post said, the only way to _know_ that a razor will hone-up nicely is to hone it up.

If "money is no object", the obvious answer -- if you want something that shaves -- is:

. . . Buy a new razor.

If your goal is to learn to sharpen and hone, every "bad" razor is a new learning opportunity.

charles

I believe I misrepresented what I was looking for in this thread.
I am not looking for a guarantee that I will be getting a good razor.
I was not saying that money is not object, I was trying not to ask if they were worth the price that they had on them. I know that monetary value is not to be discussed here. I was simply trying to stay away from that.
I am not even asking if these are good razors. I know it can be hard to tell from photos, exactly what is going on with the razor.
All I am asking is, are these razors something that you would consider buying if you were in the market for a similar razor? I hope that clears up what I am trying to get out of this. Thank you for the posts.

Those are all potentially alright AFAIC. The W&B has a crack at the pivot and the seller only showed one side of the blade. He obviously isn't a razor guy since he has more pix of the box than the razor but the blade looked decent on the one side. The first one was ho-hum and the Geneva looked pretty good.

You would be better off getting a shave ready razor out of the SRP classifieds if you don't know what to look for. Also, JimR is a forum member living in Japan. He might be able to let you know of a local source for a vintage razor if you send a PM to him.

Originally Posted by straightshot

All I am asking is, are these razors something that you would consider buying if you were in the market for a similar razor? I hope that clears up what I am trying to get out of this.

I don't think I understand but of the three the w&b is the one that looks best, so that'll be my choice. There aren't any obvious flaws other than the cracked scale at the pivot pin, so if you want a steel to sand, or an edge to try bevelling and honing that's not a bad candidate.
The problem is that I don't have any interest in such razors, so I don't know how to answer your question. If I am to buy a razor in such condition it'll have to be much more special than these.

It's still unclear to me what do you want a razor for? Is it to sand steel? Is it to learn honing damaged edges? Is it for shaving? Is it to resell for profit? For every one of these questions, or a mix of them, the answer is different. The only way really is to get a hands on experience with these things.
If you want to learn about restorations you would have to deal with much worse damage, if you want to learn about honing you'll have to get experience on much bigger variety of razors and damage, if you want to just get a nice shaver it's foolish to gamble on something that has no edge on it when you can have the complete product for less money, if you want to make money out of this you should learn all of those previous things plus examine very closely the competition you're facing and decide if you can pull it off.... There are better ways to make more money with less risk.

To me, the only one that strikes a chord is the Geneva.
The blade *looks* solid, no rust that needs immediate attention, and the scales are not broken.

To me, the scales on the W&B would eventually lead to problems--either by breaking, or by the scratched initials irritating me and making me want to rescale it. So that way lies madness.

The Manhattan cutlery doesn't have enough pics. Never bid on an auction that doesn't have good, clear pics of all parts of the blade.

Originally Posted by JimR

Never bid on an auction that doesn't have good, clear pics of all parts of the blade.

That is very good advice !

FWIW --

The Geneva looks good. There's an area of corrosion that extends down to the edge; if that's "devil's spit", it'll take some honing to clean up.

The W&B, in one photo, looks like the edge is bent, right at the toe. Again, honing work.

The Manhattan is so poorly photographed that I can't even guess what it would be like.

The price on the Geneva (around $20) would be OK, _if_ the blade were in good shape.

After my most-recent experience, I've sworn off eBay for a while. Too much risk. But I live within reach of many antique shops.

Charles