Antique dealers....or crack addicts?

I went into an antique shop today in Vancouver - and the dealer had about 8 straight razors. One red imp - cracked scales, tarnished to hell and gone, a Queen Cutter (WH Morley), plus a TOTALLY rust covered (it looked like an old tailpipe) Boker - price: $60 for the rusted Boker, $80 for the red imp, and $100 for the Queen Cutter. I LITERALLY laughed out loud.

I told him that those are $20 to $30 MAX on-line. He popped the gum in his mouth and said "no way..."

I walked out shaking my head.

Another shop had three - an old Wade and Butcher plus a couple of others - $55 each - because the scales were "french ivory" - which I translate as "yellow celluloid"


Are these guys high??? or what????

Barry

I don't think so. I'd hate to smoke crack and then have to sit in an antique shop.

What we tend to forget is that antique dealers have the element of time on their
side. They get plenty of traffic, their overhead tends to be low, so they can just
put the razors out there and wait. They are better at sitting in their chairs and
waiting than evaluating razors, so they just put a high price on them and wait.

Most likely, these shop owners have heard there is growing resurgence in straight razors and are trying to add some coin to their pockets by raising the price. You were probably not the first or even second person to walk into their shop and inquire about straight razors. So, they see an interest and adjust their prices up. I have noticed the same thing here in Arizona, once I could find razors at great prices, now not so much and the quality of razors have declined. Chipped blades, almost completely rusted, etc going for $50 and up.

I went to Vancouver's flea market (BC, not WA).
It was the same.
All razors were advertised for $40, $45, $50+, despite their really poor conditions.
And they wouldn't negotiate more than $5 or $10 off!

Good points for the time (low over-head) and interest increase.

At one time you could walk into a shop and make an offer and the owner knew little about the mdse and probably met your price to move things. Those days are pretty much over. Most of these guys have books on valuating everything under the sun. They cater mostly to collectors so eventually they will find someone to buy at their price even if it takes 20 years.

I was there this morning - that's where I saw the wade and butcher - full hollow - not bad, but not $50.

Barry

Quote:

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Originally Posted by christophe

I went to Vancouver's flea market (BC, not WA).
It was the same.
All razors were advertised for $40, $45, $50+, despite their really poor conditions.
And they wouldn't negotiate more than $5 or $10 off!

Good points for the time (low over-head) and interest increase.

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You can get much better deals here in the SRP classifieds , and shave ready , to boot . Don't waste your time with stubborn uninformed dealers .

The biggest problem is that the dealer's are pricing off ebay, and we all know how inflated that soul sucking black hole can be.

Here in Idaho the antique shops are all sold out and they know that the demand is out there. So now what is available is way over-priced.

I agree, in the time I've been straight shaving (maybe 3-4 years) antique store prices have skyrocketed. I could once pick up some nice, quality vintage blades in good condition for $20, and that was up to about 6months ago. Back then there were a few "out there" dealers who'd charge $60-$80+ for garbage, but not many. Nowadays, no more. I haven't been in a shop in months that had prices lower than top-dollar retail. It kinda makes me sad.

On the other hand, for some reason, I've also seen a lot more quality razors. Maybe dealers know they're in demand so they look for them now. In my past few visits I've seen maybe 20 razors I'd have considered buying in the past when their prices weren't $80-$150. Luckily, I have enough razors so that I don't feel such a strong need to buy at that price.

I've seen a similar rise in the price of safety razors too. I recently bought one for when I'm traveling and when I used to see buckets full for $5 each, now there are fewer and in the $20-$40 range.

I've had the same thing happen. They just don't know the market. Best thing to do is walk away. Who wants cracked scale, rust covered razors anyway? Lots better stuff available much cheaper.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ace

I don't think so. I'd hate to smoke crack and then have to sit in an antique shop. Attachment 84789

What we tend to forget is that antique dealers have the element of time on their
side. They get plenty of traffic, their overhead tends to be low, so they can just
put the razors out there and wait. They are better at sitting in their chairs and
waiting than evaluating razors, so they just put a high price on them and wait.

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Yeah, you would end up stealing your own antiques, taking them home, then bringing them back to the store after the binge.
Too much work for me.

Ebay isn't always a sucking black hole, I got a CC Craig razor in halfway decent condition as my first attempt at resto (MINOR rust and pitting, scales are good and pivot is nice and firm, no nicks etc on the edge) and I paid 12 bucks..

I was at a gun show today and a guy there had a roll of razors. DD goldedge for 80. Even hone wear, straight bevel. Rust spots all over.
He had a Case Blue Dot for 80 as well and it was in worse shape.
He was all over the place on prices for his other blades.
Boker #50 that was pretty clean for 20.
He had just enough knowledge of the blades to make life difficult.
I overheard him telling someone one of the blades was Sharp enough to shave with. All you have to do to check is lightly draw the blade across your thumbnail. If it sticks then you can shave with it.
His prices also seemed more based on the condition of the scales.
I think a lot of antique dealers are in the same boat.
It's old. It looks pretty. People collect them for various reasons.
Therefore we're gonna charge as much as we can get set with. Mark a few cheaper to keep them moving and mark the rest for 5-10 bucks more than what we'll take and knock the couple bucks off so people feel like they got a good deal.

At an antique shop I got myself a couple of very good razors out of a pile of approximately 15 razors.

The rest were not so good and some that were rusted honed out and even chipped beyond repair.

But the funny thing was that all the razors were marked at a fixed price of $39.00. The 2 I purchased were probably worth that amount and they could have even asked for more but the others worth way less than the $39.00 and some worth only $5.00 if that.

I don’t think they had any idea on what they are worth and what razor was better than others they marked them all at the same price.

I have found that some antique stores base their prices on the scales as they look ‘pretty’ even though the blade is shot as they think most buyers would use them for show and not to shave with.

I have noticed that especially at antique shops, people price the razors based on the scales. Pretty fancy scales = Hi Price Tag. So they think they are riding the resurgence of straight razor use, but they don't understand what is valuable to us. It is the steel we want. We will pay for the steel - not the scales. We will make our own scales if need be. But if the scales are nice, so much the better. It's just that we won't cough up the scratch just for them.

At least that's my theory.

I agree that the prices are starting to really climb. I know there are collectors out there that do not care about the blades and just collect them for the scales. I frequent mostly antique malls and the prices are skyrocketing. I made mention to one owner that the prices of the few straights there were high for what they were $160 & $110. Granted the razor were very usable with very little to no rust but were nothing real fancy. She told me that in here mind they were indeed overpriced but she does not set prices, just rents space.

In another mall, a person has many straights and all are marked between $150 - $399 and a seven day set at well over $1000. I saw him adding some items one day and asked him how or what he goes by to set his prices. He told me that he likes all the items he has and if someone want them they will have to pay. I did not reply and just walked away thinking to myself now I know why his items never move.

A few have even said that straights are becoming hard to get and that is also driving the prices up. We just have to look harder and be more patient. I did just pass on one today but may go get it tomorrow. It was a close to spotless 5/8ths Fox Cutlery but the price was close to pushing my limit.

1. About a year ago, I was in the Vancouver BC flea market, and found the _one_ seller of straight razors. I went through his stuff, and found one old Boker in good condition with a cracked scale. How much? "Oh, that's the broken one -- you can have it for $7." It's my one _real bargain_.


2. The limit to antique prices for shavers is set by the availability of new straight razors and DE's that match, or exceed, the performance of the vintage stuff. As long as I can buy a Merkur or Jagger DE for $30-$40, and a Dovo or Boker for $80-$100, I'm not going to spend more than that on a run-of-the-mill vintage piece.

Of course, there's no limit to the price for collectors. It's a whole different mindset.

Charles