Quote Originally Posted by v76 View Post
But from an investment standpoint, if you know you'll stick with straight shaving, a naniwa or shapton set is tough to beat. I still use my chinese "12k" alongside a swaty barber hone with good results and don't feel the need to buy more stones. Also, I noticed that a lot of people have been "flipping" barber hones... meaning that they buy them for very cheap and resell them for 5-10x more. I'm all for capitalism but I just don't want to encourage those behaviours and markets. While I love my "sought-after" 3 lines swaty... I wouldn't pay 60$ for one.
I think $20.00 to $30.00 is a reasonable price for all but the most rare barber hones. I was very surprised to see what they're selling for now. I got most of mine for $10.00 to $15.00.