Thread: Buying from Ebay

I have recently bought some beautiful razors from Ebay but I can tell you they are no bargain. You get what you pay for. If you are in to restoring and have the know how to change scales etc great. But, I do not mind that much paying for quality and mostly with only one or two exceptions, when I bought a razor advertised as shave ready it was in fact shace ready. I would love to find an antique 7 day set that is in great shape.

Hmmm. Okay. I would argue that you can get some razors on eBetray for about five dollars, shipping included, that will hone up to be solid shavers that will last a lifetime.

Five bucks. That is a bargain. Good luck on your search for the 7 day set.

Buying anything on Ebay is tricky and that certainly includes razors. I have a tight budget and where I live all the antique stores are convinced that anything old is worth megabucks regardless of condition. Needless to say I'm not a fan of antique stores. That leaves shopping online for razors. I've bought 4 razors on Ebay. My first was a Clauss and I love it. I paid $14 for that including the shipping. I bought a Wester Bros De-Fi for a shortening project for $10. Not as nice as the Clauss but still good. Then I got a Chicago Palmer and a Wester Bros Manganese together for $16. The Palmer isn't bad but the blade on the Manganese was terrible. I was still able to trade the scales from the Manganese for a discount on honing so it still wasn't a total loss.

So far my experience has been pretty good. (Knock on wood)

Lori

As my experience with razors has increased, the percentage of them that I obtain from eBay has decreased.

Originally Posted by HNSB

As my experience with razors has increased, the percentage of them that I obtain from eBay has decreased.

I agree. I'm getting much better, I used to try to find bargains and I bought many razors (some of which I now wonder why I bought them). Now I've decided to lay off buying several budget items and put my money towards one or two "good" razors that are more desirable. Possibly a larger risk but the nicer razors tend to have much better pictures and descriptions; some even come from reputable sellers with great feedback.

It depends on what you are looking for.

If your are buying extra-popular brands (dubl duck, W&B, CMON, etc.) in excellent condition AND shave ready with gold wash and fancy scales you will probably pay out the nose on e-bay. Is that what you mean by quality?

Wanting shave ready puts you in a bind, anything shave ready goes for a premium on the 'bay, and may or may not really be "ready" so that's a bigger risk/reward ratio than I would go for. Consider learning to hone if you're a DIY type.

If you don't mind not having a mega popular brand on your steel and know what to look for you can get excellent condition razors for $10-40 every day that will shave with the best of them, but they won't come shave ready. Do some research on vintage American made razors, IMO they are quite inexpensive and are very high quality blades.

One thing to consider is ask questions of the seller. Often they are ignorant of what to look for or post pics of, but will gladly answer any questions and post more pics. Ask them to measure the hone wear, if the scales are straight, to look for hairline cracks in the blade, etc.

Consider purchasing by brand/model/condition-- without regard to 'shave ready' condition--and then send them out for honing, I bet it would save you considerable cabbage...

Additionally, several members/sponsors here have internet stores where you can buy restored and shave ready razors for reasonable prices.

Good luck with your quest for the set!