Thread: Whoa!!!!

Originally Posted by MasterMason03

Just another exchange with the seller.

Me:

Dear billiardcues,

For all I know, there could be a bunch a junk blades with pretty scales on them. I have amassed quite a collection myself in the tune of 40 plus and I have probably spent no more than a thousand on them. Yes, unique scales adds value to a razor but the value is more in the blade itself, age, style of grind, manufacturer, and et cetera. I have razors that are in pristine condition that date back to the reign of Queen Victoria. It is a shame that serious collectors and users of straight razors cannot share in this lot.

Him:

Dear captjohnarcher,

I'm trying to find time to take photos of each razor separately, as they should be shown. If I get it done I'll post them on ebay. These are the cream of the crop examples from three decades of watching for and trading razors, of which we had a little over 1,200. I realize that blades mean a lot to some collectors, but we mostly focused on the most interesting and most difficult to find patterns. And just in case you're not aware of it, the shotgun razor is worth three times this average, and the Indian-WITHOUT-THE SWAZTIKA - twice the average. Funny, here we are, trying to give newer razor collectors a wonderful and very rare opportunity to purchase 38 excellent pieces, without forcing them take a ton of near worthless ones, and at prices we paid for them ourselves more than 15 years ago, when we QUIT collecting, and throw in a very nice case, and we get an email like this.

- billiardcues

Smh... -.-

new ad pictures are up, price is now 15k BIN... Is this person serious? half the blades have chips in them, none are shave ready, there is no list of manufacturers and from what the pictures are showing he is more proud of the scales than anything else. He makes sure to state that the collection cost more than he is selling it for...and dont forget to buy his barber pole for 3.5k!!

This reminds me of some dealings I had with the owner of Desert Classics. He still has the car that I was interested in, a 1964 Malibu SS Convertible. The car as is was a piece of junk and definitely needs some heavy TLC and this moron was selling it for $25,000. I attempted to negotiate with him and it resulted in him taking a belligerent tone with me with him saying " I sell cars hand over fist and what it is priced for is only what I will take for it."

Let's see what happens with this message.

Me:

Dear billiardcues,

You must really be off your rocker. I have seen the new pictures and quite frankly I am not impressed. There are some questions that are not answered in the listing, list of manufactures, condition of the blades (damage, chips, shave readiness), and the condition of the scales (cracks, celluloid rot, and other damage). About that part of you saying that the whole collection costs more than what you are offering for it, I seriously doubt that. You sound like someone who wants to make an excessive profit on a product that there is more questionable than reality.

I know it is messed up to be talking to this guy but when something is as fouled up as this, I cannot help be stir up a hornet's nest.

Ok not to be rude here, but it is you that is wrong, the seller is right,,look at post #10 Harvitz81 tried to explain it to you all, we are NOT the only razor collectors out there and they think we are just as stupid as we think they are... To buy a Fili for $600 with plain old ugly scales is a waste of money to them... To scale collectors the blades have ZERO value, they are only for display...

I have dealt with a few of these guys in the past, I changed out scales for them to better looking blades, they could care less what I do with the old blades just don't crack a scale...

I have seen some of these Figurals go for well over $1000 and the MOP and Silver and Pewters even higher....

"one man's trash is another man's treasure"

PS: Many of the very special scales it actually doesn't matter what razor is in it because they were sold aftermarket, and added to a special razor by a man of means...
Much like people add custom scales now to a razor that they love...

Originally Posted by MasterMason03

Let's see what happens with this message.

Me:

Dear billiardcues,

You must really be off your rocker. I have seen the new pictures and quite frankly I am not impressed. There are some questions that are not answered in the listing, list of manufactures, condition of the blades (damage, chips, shave readiness), and the condition of the scales (cracks, celluloid rot, and other damage). About that part of you saying that the whole collection costs more than what you are offering for it, I seriously doubt that. You sound like someone who wants to make an excessive profit on a product that there is more questionable than reality.

I know it is messed up to be talking to this guy but when something is as fouled up as this, I cannot help be stir up a hornet's nest.

The problem is you, and your behavior is just making us look like obnoxious children.
Please, if you are not interested in buying, just stop sending messages to the seller.

There is absolutely no point in harassing the owner with mails about the condition of the razors, because that kind of collector does not care one bit about the blade, and is generally only interested in the fact that the original blade is still attached to the razor. They would not dream of shaving with one of their razors.

Most collectors generally care only about the condition of the scales. I've seen individual razors with special scales go for 700$ and more. And credit where it is due: the scales in this collection are really something. Among those collectors, 450$ per blade is really not that out there.

You might as well start whining to car collectors about the fact that their vintage cars have horrible mileage and a very bad ncap car safety rating, and then whine and bellyache that he wants more than 1500$ for a 1967 vintage car. Or you might as well complain that a 1920s postage stamp is only worth its face value, and that anything more is ridiculous.

Right, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I do not like it when discussions here are used to fuel harassing messages to other people. The only results will be that a) collectors get a bad impression of general straight razor shavers, and b) SRP gets a bad name.

With that in mind, I contacted billiardcues with the following message:

Hello,

I have seen your auction of the straight razor collection mentioned on our straight razor forum.

From our pov, your collection seems overpriced because we don't value the scales as such. We generally only care about the blade and how it shaves. However, I realize that with all things collectible, value is in the eye of the beholder, whether it is stamps, wrist watches, paintings or something else. And I have to admit that the scales in your collection are impressive.

I have noticed that one or more of our members have been sending you messages to complain and make fun of the price and the condition of the blades. Please don't hold them representative of general straight razor shavers / enthusiasts.

Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience which may have been caused by the discussion of your collection on our site.

Kind regards,
Bruno.

Please let this be the end of it.

Well I have to personally apologize to the members of the board. Yes the collection is quite lovely, heck I would
want the display case for my collection. I guess I got a little carried away.

Some nice scales/razor there, the seller would probable have more luck breaking it up, doubt anyone would drop that much coin at once without seeing and examining each razor. I know I would not.

I would break up that collection into half a dozen lots. You can see that they are grouped together in a certain way in the collection box. Those are the groups I would make. Because as you say, as a collector you may not be interested in all of them, and dropping all that money with the worry that you have to be able to sell the ones you don't want...