Thread: Local Pawn Shop

I went to the local pawn shop today and asked if they had any straight razors. They had 4 old ones. I was hoping to pick one up for under $40 and restore it. One was a decent candidate with a restorable blade and broken scales. When I told him what I was going to do, he looked at me like I was nuts. "You probable polish old coins too" he said. Anyways, he ended up wanting more than a new Dovo for each of them. The shop owner knew nothing about the razors other than that they were old, so I was kind of surprised he valued them so highly. I passed and will keep looking.

Well, I guess, he thought since you were crazy enough to want to shave with them then you would be crazy enough to pay a high price for them. Some of these antique store owners that don't tag their items base their price on how they judge the customer. Old, to some, mean valuable. Rare, to some means priceless.
Old and rare means ridiculous eBay auctions.

I have had similar experiences at antique stores where some vendors think chipped blades and broken scales increase value. I even let one vendor know that the box they were selling with a pair of straight razors went to the shavette in their case. They kept the box with the straights.

Had a similar experience at a store I went into once and never again. They had a Friodur scales were mint but the blade had terrible hone wear and a chip big enough to make it unsalvagable and they wanted 100 bucks. The shop owner proceeded to tell me that the chip was no big deal and that it could be made to shave with I said yeah if you want to lose half the blade and have a 3/8 razor (showed him on my razor ruler how bad it would be).

I ran into this countless times while searching for my first straight. You have to remember these people are selling old things to look at or use as decor. Some use e-bay as a price guide but only look at the highest price to compare. They know nothing of shave ready other than they are words used to describe the highest priced razors. They don't see our world and the amount of razors we see. To them it is one of a kind item and they got it. It looks pretty sitting on the shelf of a bathroom or in a cup with a brush next to it. At least they aren't being thrown away :<0)

Always bothers me when they say " i sell a lot of these to woodcarvers" i can just see some woodcarver (nothing against woodcarvers, i do a little of that myself) taking a mint Wade and butcher and hacking it to pieces instead of using and old worn out unusable one.

Yes, pawn shops and antique stores aren't the best places to find a good deal but every now and then you can stumble across one. Found a decent George W. at a nearby flea market and the gentleman wanted too much for it. I love the buying and selling game. We talked about it for a few then I made him an offer. He didn't want to sell it at my price that day so I gently inferred the more it rusted sitting in his shop the less it was worth. I returned each week to see how much more "it had rusted", after 3 weeks I got it for my price.
Buying and selling is a game of manipulation, most of the time the buyer has the advantage.

Antique stores generally are pretty proud of their straight razors. I've seen rusty, chipped pieces of garbage that are 6/8's athe the heel and 2/8th at the toe, barely recongnizable as something that used to be a shaving implement with a $60 price tag on it. By contrast, Flea Market and Thrift Store people (when you're lucky) see straights as just trinkets and are content to pocket a couple bucks just to get rid of them (besides nobody actually shaves with these things anymore, right?)

I visited a antique store in a little town this weekend. They had about a dozen razors. This is the one that I came home with. I plan on shortening the blade to eliminate the chip and then replace the scales with shorter ones to match the blade. There were a few others that looked to be worth taking home as well, but I can always go back

Unless there is a crack at that chip it looks like it will be way easier just to hone out the chip. If you were looking for a shorty candidate to start with I guess it is as good as any.