Thread: Purchasing a vintage straight razor

JMO,Luis,stay away from ebay for now.Your best bet is to watch the SRP classifieds.The people that sell here are all members in good standing.
They have reputations to protect.
Tho ebay can be a great venue for seasoned resto folks,it is also fraught with many pitfalls,Is a crap shoot most of the time.
I have sent several friends here: For Sale - Gem Star Customs.
Glen is one of our Moderators,He on occasion sells vintage blades in his damn fine shaver section,IMO the best way to start your journey,good luck.

It's a combination of luck, taking a chance and covering all of your sources. I haven't bought any razors on Eboy in a couple of years now however in the past I got some great bargains. Sometimes things go under the radar because of titling a piece poorly or sales during the period between Xmas and New Years when many are financially tapped out or maybe poor photos or bad descriptions.

You have to keep looking day after day.

Here's one I posted before that I thought was a good deal. Still haven't honed it though.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/show-...tson-huge.html

+1 on watching the classifieds here. I've also gotten some great deals from some of the vendors here too. You might want to check out their ads. Like those who advertise in SRP classifieds, they are members and very reputable.

Your best bet is to keep an eye out here in the classifieds. You'll not only find a nice vintage but in all likelihood it will be shave ready.

I will echo what several others have already said - the SRP classifieds will be your best bet. The other main advantage of buying here is that most blades are tested and shave-ready, which is a huge bonus. I took a quick scan of the classifieds and found many razors that are very affordable.

Good luck and have fun

Another option that can be very hit or miss is antique shops, depending on the location of the shop I find they often have nice razors. If you're ever passing through Wisconsin for example I got a beautiful pre 1850's Sheffield from an antique store near Wasaw for $12 and they seemed to have lots of good razors. In Minneapolis the stores seem rather more picked over.

After I made probably 3-5 antique store purchases (that shave excellent) I decided to try out ebay. It is a little trickier, but after you kind of know what to look for with vintage razors it becomes a little easier. Sometimes pictures can be deceiving too, razor will sometimes show up looking better than pictures, other times it will be extremely worse than the pictures. Just use good judgement and don't spend more than your comfortable with. I usually find better deals at local antique shops. Ebay makes it easy to look for a specific razor, compared to antique stores which are luck of the draw.