From my limited experience I feel there are varying levels of shave-ready...

My first razor in early January was a shave-ready razor from Larry @ whipped dog. I remember my first shave and thinking "wow, its amazing a piece of steel can be this sharp" and I shaved with it for a few weeks, and was very happy with it.

After that, I bought a W&B FBU via ebay, the seller turned out to be a member of SRP - magpie. It was also advertised as shave ready. When I took that blade to my skin, it was honestly like taking a hot knife to butter. So smooth and a brilliant shave, and a far nicer experience than my first razor.

Obviously there are other factors, such as the size/grind of the blade etc, but purely from these 2 experiences, 2 razors bth "shave-ready", I definitely preferred the latter to the first, yet would deem both as shave-ready.

In saying that, I have no regrets for the whipped dog purchase, I still feel it was a great starting point and didn't fear damaging the razor or experimenting with stropping technique, and I now have a spare razor to lend anyone wanting to try straight shaving.

Regarding definition, I feel that for a razor to be shave-ready, the buyer should be able to open the package, rinse it off and have a first shave, no stropping required. I would also recommend that procedure to buyers, as by doing it this way, you cannot blame a seller if you ruined an edge due to poor stropping technique etc. Its just a fair and safe way for a buyer to evaluate a purchase before complaining or leaving negative feedback. And for sellers, offering a razor stropped for evaluation by a buyer is good way to make them happy with their purchase, rather than risk them having to strop themselves and potentially ruin the fine edge created.