Thread: Passing on a razo

Does anyone else here pass on razors that have no bids at the end of a 7 or 10 day auction? Lately I have had a few on my watch list, but when I check it an hour or so before, there are no bids? I generally get the feeling that people with a better eye than I are seeing something I don't.

My batting average so far has been excellent, I've purchased about 50 from eBay and only had 2 clunkers. One was a Wosty that someone had ground the pits out of, leaving the blade with a poor timber. The other had a microscopic crack in the blade that I couldn't blame the seller for. I sanded it and buffed it without ever seeing it.

It depends. usually if there are no bids that means there is something there. but sometimes people just don't see it due to so many razors going up at one time. but if I ever run across one like that I take a chance. and in the long run there is something wrong with the razor IE (crack,cell rot chips" due to poor pictures or the lack of description the sellers are usually pretty good at the return policy. I would take the chance, because you never know sometimes.

I have actually gotten alot of nice razors that nobody was bidding on. Like the above post I think since so many get listed at once alot of people don't see them, but I still like to see clear pictures that show all of the blade. Alot of people only look for certain brands also so that leaves alot of really good razors open. Good scales are usually a bonus for me since those can always be replaced, but you can't replace the blade.

I got my one Wostenholm, a 15/16 IXL with some amazing etching on it, for cheap. I believe the reason I got it so cheap was it stayed under the radar only because it wasn't listed as a George Wostenholm. It was listed as an IXL razor. People have saved searches that alert them when something is posted, If its not what they have saved they'll never know about it. They'll never put it under their watch category. Unless they happen to be surfing ebay and stumble upon it, it won't get as many views as it should.

I haven't been on ebay for may be 2 years, but there used to be many razors going unsold because they didn't have the big-name brand. Sometimes there are razors of far better brands than the usual popular ones, but the people in the know just haven't noticed them. I've gotten some nice picks this way.

But if a popular brand is going unsold and the price is low, the overwhelming chances are there's something wrong going on there. Those attract bids based on brand name only from beginners who have absolutely no idea that the condition is far more important than the brand name.

There is also the possibility that the brand name is not listed and hard to see on the pictures, or misspelled.
I seem to remember I got one of my most unique vintage TIs that way. It has fancy engraving on the blade, very wide blade, scales were 'folk-arted' by the owner - didn't look at all like TI and the asking price wasn't low enough to pick the blind gambling bids. But since it looked unusual I took a very careful look at the low quality pictures and from two edges of the stamp that were sort of clear to make out I was 99.9% sure it's a TI. But that was back when I was still looking on ebay for cool unusual razors.