Thread: What to look for in a listing, sellers, and advice for a beginner.

Originally Posted by Cove5440

I agree with the ones that are mentioning to pass on it. Unless it really speaks to you, you can get something for the same price or better from members on this forum that will provide a shave ready blade. The price isn't the concern to me, more the shave ready part, that I believe someone else mentioned on this thread already. Check out Glenn's site gemstarcustoms.com as well.

I also want to echo the comment that posting live auctions isn't a good idea if you want the razor. You'll have a couple of situations. First, someone else might be watching it and waiting until the end to avoid a bidding war. Second, you will be bringing the razor to the attention of a large number of razor collectors that have AD's.

I have to say that while I agree in part I have been buying and selling on ebay for quite some time and have friends that make their living solely on ebay these days. We have found that if it is something you really want bidding early is the way to go as long as you know what your max price is and you are disciplined enough to not go over that even if the bids reach that mark. I know from personal experience that waiting till the end you have a 50/50 shot at getting sniped by someone with software in the last two seconds and it has happened to me many times in the past. Again this is if it is something you want for your personal use or your personal collection and know "how much it is worth to you". If it is something you are looking to grab cheap and resell the approach is usually quite different and that is where software and sniping come in handy. These days though even with software you often get sniped and the price goes through the roof in the last minute. I had a friend a few month back use his software to try and get a Murano Chandelier for my wife for her birthday. The price was sitting at $325 and IIRC 12 bids up until ten seconds to go and he set his software to take it to $480 for me. In the last few seconds there were 9 more bids and it went for guess what.......$485.00 Grrrrrr............! Sure that is an extreme case but it happens quite often. Sad part is I'd have spent $600 and we based the $480 number on what it was at knowing there would be other snipers trying to hit it. Most often snipers are in it for resale and cheap to make profit and waiting till the end when you want it for yourself is where that will bite you. If one is willing to pay 80.00 for something and a reseller is only willing to go $50 so there is margin they will beat you almost every time when an item is sitting at $10 or 15 bucks right to the end. Setting the price early knocks them right out of the game. Now getting lucky and being willing to wait indefinitely to get what you want can pay off but it is rare. I know I have and know many others that said to themselves "I should have gone more!" many times.

Just my experience from what I've seen from both sides of that fence.

Bidding early is the way to go if you want to please the seller. Put in your max early and watch the price go up if anyone else is willing to pay the same or more. Waiting until the last few seconds to put in your max does two things..... one it doesn't drive the price up, two, it prevents you from going over your max if you don't end up high bidder. You won't have time to throw in a higher bid. I've been ebaying since '99 with over 1500 individual feedbacks as a buyer and a seller. I LOVE guys who bid early .... and often. Don't be a sucker. Always remember, no matter how rare it seems to be, there will be another one coming up for bid in a day, a week, or a month.

Another thing new buyers should pay attention to is the feedback number of a seller and look at recent feedback of that seller for dates and frequency of sales. A seller such as above with 1500 feedback or one with thousands will almost always have a bunch of people sitting in wait which hammer the item in the last couple seconds. Prices can double or more in that time. Someone with feedback of 5 has almost no one watching unless they somehow wrote a great listing and has a great item to go with it.

Me personally if it's something I have to have for my shelf I to this day hit from the beginning and run off those who are looking for cheap and if in the end I get it I stayed within my limit. I will however put my max bid lower than I am willing to go and bump it with a few seconds to go when someone has capped my bid or came close to it so I have a cushion to work with. If I didn't...............good for the seller in that they found someone who it was worth more to. That said if I'm looking for "cheap" I will often wait till the very end which I will venture to say that 75% of the time end up being outbid and 50% if I have my friend use his software for me.

At the end of the day everyone has a different way of going about it and none of them are the wrong way really. Just a personal preference of how to manage their money depending on the end goal.

feedback meens everything IMO,as a buyer use a sniping service,you can get a free trial run from bidnapper.

I would skip Ebay for now and buy from the classifieds here or Whipped dog for used and Straight Razor Designs for new, you'll know what you get is sharp.
Another thing to try is going to antique stores to learn about razors, there you can look them over in person, see edge dings, hone wear etc, then when you go to Ebay you'll have a better idea (if the pictures are good) of what you are looking at

Originally Posted by FDR

I have to say that while I agree in part I have been buying and selling on ebay for quite some time and have friends that make their living solely on ebay these days. We have found that if it is something you really want bidding early is the way to go as long as you know what your max price is and you are disciplined enough to not go over that even if the bids reach that mark. I know from personal experience that waiting till the end you have a 50/50 shot at getting sniped by someone with software in the last two seconds and it has happened to me many times in the past. Again this is if it is something you want for your personal use or your personal collection and know "how much it is worth to you". If it is something you are looking to grab cheap and resell the approach is usually quite different and that is where software and sniping come in handy. These days though even with software you often get sniped and the price goes through the roof in the last minute. I had a friend a few month back use his software to try and get a Murano Chandelier for my wife for her birthday. The price was sitting at $325 and IIRC 12 bids up until ten seconds to go and he set his software to take it to $480 for me. In the last few seconds there were 9 more bids and it went for guess what.......$485.00 Grrrrrr............! Sure that is an extreme case but it happens quite often. Sad part is I'd have spent $600 and we based the $480 number on what it was at knowing there would be other snipers trying to hit it. Most often snipers are in it for resale and cheap to make profit and waiting till the end when you want it for yourself is where that will bite you. If one is willing to pay 80.00 for something and a reseller is only willing to go $50 so there is margin they will beat you almost every time when an item is sitting at $10 or 15 bucks right to the end. Setting the price early knocks them right out of the game. Now getting lucky and being willing to wait indefinitely to get what you want can pay off but it is rare. I know I have and know many others that said to themselves "I should have gone more!" many times.

Just my experience from what I've seen from both sides of that fence.

Personally, I do bid early and walk away. I bid on a large number of items, put my max bid in and try not to look at them or let the emails that I'm not the highest bidder any longer sway me. At times, if I really want something, I may go back once, but I try to limit that as much as possible. I was just joking around about what can happen, because I see that a number of times, when I bid on items, I'm the highest bidder until about 30 seconds left of that item.

Thanks for the replies so far, everyone! A lot of helpful advice. Actually, I think there is a lot of overlap in lessons that one can take from both straight razor buying, and a previous (and still ongoing, just not at the rate it used to be) hobby of mine: coin collecting. Speaking from the numismatic side of the equation, the name of the game is really knowing what you should be looking for, and knowing what flaws typically arise in the thing you're looking at. That knowledge comes with time, and I can see where rodb is coming from with his antique advice. Seeing razors in person makes all the difference in the world.

That being said, I am looking specifically for a Henckels razor. I already own a Boker wedge, and a Revisor full hollow that I found at an antique store and still need to send off to get honed. I don't mind doing this and paying for it, considering the dough I have in them right now. However, are Henckels so highly sought after that people can't find them in an antique store, or have any members had success finding quality "diamonds in the rough"? I'm more interested in the vintage blades, but I think eventually I'll cave and pick up a newer Dovo from SRD.

I know this is more an auction talk thread, so I apologize for moving off topic, but new points raise new questions! Oh, I'm really starting to love this!

Here's a link to pics of my current blades: http://straightrazorpalace.com/membe...zor-place.html

Thanks for the help guys! I'll probably have more questions to ask when I have time to... I'm at work right now, but I'll be following the thread for most of the day. *Shhhhh*

I hear ya there. I do the same thing and especially when selling. I list it and look when it closes. The only time I check on an item is when I get messages or questions on it. My wife keeps an eye on things and she'll come to me with "I can't believe it's only at $5.00......you paid $20 for it.". I just ignore it and when it closes at $60 3 days later I make sure and point it out to her. When the really good ones come along I love rubbing it in a little. Only a couple weeks ago I had an old lamp up which was nothing special but it was nice to say the least. I saved it from a dumpster actually so I had nothing in it and was getting paid to clear the property on top of it. It was at .99 cents with a day to go and she said she was going to have a friend buy it so we don't let it go for nothing. "ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!!!!!" It ended up just shy of $70.00 all in the last 4-5 hours. She is finally starting to realize that I don't put things up that are junk and I don't waste my time if it isn't going to sell. One thing I've found for sure is if I'm looking for something specific and it's on ebay I never plan on getting a bargain. I've gotten many bargains but they have all been by chance when I'm looking for something else and someone has it listed in a bad place or odd category where the right people who would buy that item aren't looking for it.

For those who are looking on ebay for razors as well as other items I'd suggest keeping an eye on local auction companies and even calling them to ask if they have any upcoming auctions with items you are looking for. Check auctionzip and look at pictures of the upcoming auctions. The last lot of razors I picked up weren't even advertised on their listing or catalogue but I found them in their pictures along with a good many antique padlocks which were also not listed but shown in pictures. There are many that slip through the cracks and if you're bargain hunting for personal use or for resale that is a fantastic way to get what you are looking for. Television in the last couple years has made it a little harder with all these auction shows but they are still out there if you look around.