Originally Posted by
gugi
Yeah, with a DE you are buying a holder for the blades, with straight razors you need it to be in good condition.
But either of these should be fixable with good honing if its not up to spec. Well, you can't put back the steel, so you can only hide the wider bevel with sanding over if the aesthetic bothers you, but it's usually much better deal to buy one of the razors that have survived in excellent condition.
There certainly is no rotten steel, chips and warping, 1/8" of the blade width missing which are the type of things that would make me consider simply throwing the razor away and moving to a better one.
BTW you need a strop - that's the only thing that keeps the edge going a lot longer than a cartridge/DE blade :)