What's the real investment??
I see many request for a budget setup, along with some encouraging answers, but I'm wondering how realistic those answers are. Let's go through what a person really needs to get started, and to keep going
1) Sharp razor. This looks like the minimum price will be $30. That's close to a charitable donation, but it happens here with some regularity
2) Strop. A basic strop you run $30, and you don't get canvas. A 4-sided paddle with 3 pasted sides will run about $65. You do get something to nicely tweak out a razor, but you still don't have a hanging strop.
3) Something to tweak out the razor. The paddle strop will do nicely for this. I have a two-sided pasted paddle and a hanging strop, and that combo has been serving me nicely. I expect it will for some time to come. There's this "barber hone" thing that I've yet to figure out. People keep pointing to redtrader99, but I really can't figure out which hones would make nice finishing stones (If somebody knows, it would be lovely to post it!!). Assuming one of these stones is suitable, let's put it at about $20.
So, it's looking to me like complete newbies, minimum would be a $30 razor, a $30 hanging strop, and a $20 finishing stone for a total around $80. The next step up would be to add a nicer hanging strop with canvas instead of a basic strop, for about $30 more ($110), or to give up the strop and barbers hone and go for a 4 sided paddle instead, for about $95. This will work just fine, but I suspect that anyone who chooses this route will eventually want a hanging strop too, which will put you at about $125-$155, depending on the strop.
I'd say the bottomish line for a system that let's you do some edge finishing that includes a hanging strop with canvas, then, is about $110-$125. This setup should keep someone going for a year or more.
If you need to add a brush and soap, you can do that for about $15 for perfectly servicable boar brush and a good drugstore soap like Van der Hagen. After this, it looks like you can get into the honing biz for $70-$100 if so inclined.
Is this about right??