Thread: Tips on Ebay buying?

Originally Posted by welshwizard

For the inexperienced, ebay can be laden with pitfalls. However it is worth pointing out that there are a large number of sellers on ebay who are completely honest.

I've bought a couple of beauties from ebay, but my first ecperience was a bad one. I got ripped off for £25 (not the end of the world as far as money goes, but it's the principle!) for a very poor "razor" (even more painful to shave with than a cheap bic disposable - i gave up after 2 strokes), a dodgy strop and a bunch of freebies. The guy had a great feedback score and talked the talk well enough, but thinking about it now he described the blade width in metric... which should've been a warning to me!
I suppose it's true of ebay that if it looks too good to be true it probably is. Also I tend to watch out for multiple listings of similar (if not identical) products, especially when they say "more than 10 available" or something along those lines. For razors that probably means cheap, mass produced, low quality lemons.

By the way, I saw mentioned above that we're not allowed to badmouth any vendor by name here. Does that also apply to posting a link to the auction with the title "avoid like the plague" as long as their name doesn't appear in the post?

Originally Posted by SpockIOM

By the way, I saw mentioned above that we're not allowed to badmouth any vendor by name here. Does that also apply to posting a link to the auction with the title "avoid like the plague" as long as their name doesn't appear in the post?

I'm not a mod, but I'm pretty sure that would violate the spirit of the rule. Otherwise, I'd be doing it on a regular basis!

+ 1 for Whipped Dog

My first razor was purchased from a well known store and I paid the extra money for it to be "shave ready". I also bought a good used razor from Whipped Dog which came "shave ready" without the extra cost. Between the two, I'd say that the Whipped Dog razor was better honed than the store bought and was about 1/8 the cost overall. The best feature of Whipped Dog is you can try all sorts of razors; just keep sending them back to him and paying for the honing (he explains this better) and then decide what type of blade you enjoy best, size, grind, etc before you go on a acquisition spree.

Just my two cents and I have no economic stake in Whipped Dog. Good luck.

Originally Posted by SpockIOM

By the way, I saw mentioned above that we're not allowed to badmouth any vendor by name here. Does that also apply to posting a link to the auction with the title "avoid like the plague" as long as their name doesn't appear in the post?

I would say yes, as this looks like nothing more than trying to circumvent the policy. Any issues with a seller/buyer should be resolved directly, SRP is not the place for this. If you want to warn others about an ebay party, the proper way to do is to leave the corresponding feedback on the transaction.

If you have concern about a particular razor you can start a discussion about it in the ebay section. We have a lot of these posts of trash razors, but that's a little different. (And btw I don't quite understand those threads, because everybody can see the so called 'razors' are junk, a useful thread would be to point out something not obvious that makes a razor trash, even though to many people it won't look like a problem.)

Here is a thread that was started a while ago that might be of some interest.
http://straightrazorpalace.com/aucti...bay-101-a.html

Originally Posted by mrbison

So I have seen information that says newbies don't need honing equipment at first.
The obvious question in my mind is how do you keep your razor sharp without being able to hone it periodically? How long can you maintain a blade just by stropping it before it needs to be re-honed?

A razor well stropped can shave some faces for a couple three months.

At that rate the price of a good combo hone and a finisher works
out to about two or three years of shaving when having a honemaster
do the work. Their finishing hones alone are worth the price
of admission.

After a couple trips to the honemaster revisit this question.

Perhaps start a 4k/8K or 3K/8K combo hone or a 10K to 12K
man made finisher. If the touch up attempt is less than stellar
send the razor out but the light touch learned by a couple
of months shaving goes a long way. Any hone needs to be
lapped flat so add the price of a lapping solution.

Remember that many men in the day would generally take their razors
to the barber to be honed properly.

An inexpensive extender for an individual is a balsa
strop/hone lightly loaded with sub micron abrasive. Balsa strop/hones
do clog with swarf if used a lot so it is the rare honemaster
that uses one. However for an individual they work well
enough to reduce the number of honemaster visits by a lot.

I happen to like the feel of a razor final polished with 0.5 micron
chrome oxide (CrOx) so this is where I would start. With ease
you can go coarser with a balsa hone but not finer. Diamond
at 1 to 2 micron is quite aggressive and results in a slightly
harsh edge by some faces.

A visit to a hobby craft shop will find balsa if you
are inclined to make your own.

Once you know what a shaving edge should feel like, honing your own is a very satisfying part of this hobby. In my own experience, though, it has cost more than the razors and I was lucky to already have a 1k waterstone, a slooow coticule, and a nice barber's hone.

Here's what I've spent on hones:

Norton 4k/8k: ~$85
DMT 325 for lapping: ~$45
Spyderco UF for finishing: ~$80 *
Thuringian for finishing: $110
Coticule slurry stone: $16
Modular paddle strop from SRD, with .5 u diamond spray: ~$90**

* still haven't decided if this was a well-informed purchase
**not a critical addition, but a nice one

And I'm considering rounding out the collection with a faster coticule.

So, it's kind of pricey. If you only buy shave-ready blades you can get by with a barber's hone only. If you buy a blade that needs restoration, you'll need either a coticule and good skill at using it, or a small suite of stones to take you from a fresh bevel to a polished shaving edge. At some point you're likely to fall victim to Hone Acquisition Disorder, and you'll find yourself seriously writing things like "And I'm considering rounding out the collection with a faster coticule."

Through buying blades on our Classifieds, I've experienced edges from other hones that are well outside my budget. I'll keep in touch with those sellers and occasionally send out a blade for one of those extra-special edges.

Just a little reality check, with dollar amounts, about one man's toe-dip into honing.

Have fun!

Thanks for all the info in this thread gents.

Did I take notice of any of it?

Nope, I just bought this!

ANTIQUE TYZACK CUT THROAT RAZOR IN BOX on eBay (end time 09-Jan-11 19:55:25 GMT)


But the name Tyzack has a tremendous amount of personal history for me and even if it cant be brought back to life I will polish it up put it out on display.
If I can get it shaving again..bonus!

Cheers

I don't see any problems with that razor. It should be relatively easy to clean up and make ready to shave. Don't even think about breadknifing the nick in the edge!

I will clean it up and send it off for a honeing/repair ( I did spot the nick bye the way )

Thanks. +1