Thread: Please help with item currently on eBay

Hi All,

I stumbled upon a razor on eBay I may be interested in buying. To know my background, I am Australian, and would love an Australian brand razor (I am new to this and just starting to acquire a couple of razors).

I saw this razor (Platypus) which I understand is an Australian brand but with blade made in Solingen... any thoughts? is this something I should bid on? If so, how much should I pay? (1 $AUD is approx $US 0.88 so around 12% more expensive than $US)

I would really appreciate help with this, as I am too new to know my elbow from my undercarriage. Id pay a slight premium over true valuation just to get an Aussie razor, but don't want something rubbish. Id love to be able to get something like this if its decent, and Im sure the other Aussie guys I meet on here would appreciate a look/touch/shave as well.

Kind Regards, Andrew

Don't know if you can consider it Australian, at least to me, when it's made in Solingen, it's German, and a you basically cant'go wrong with a vintage German as long as the blade isn't chipped or defect in any other way.

What you should pay? Let me put it this way: How much is it worth to you?

We don't do valuations here as the value is completely in the eye of the beholder, a razor might be worth $2000 to you but to me it's only worth $50

Thank you. I understand the position about valuations, one wouldn't want to advise it is worth $x if it in fact turned out to be rare and worth 10x, or vice versa... A legal disclaimer for anyone wishing to comment... I will not take any "valuation", for lack of a better term, to be any form of recommendation, nor would I be upset if "valuations" are WAY off, even if by a factor of x100, nor would I believe it to be, in any shape or form, to be an official position of this site, its sponsors or members. I just don't know enough to be able to form any opinion at this point.

I also understand what you mean by "Don't know if you can consider it Australian, at least to me, when it's made in Solingen"... but it raised an interesting point for discussion, if anyone knows... If you were an Aussie and wanting to get something from your home country, what would you consider regarding brands, models etc.

Thanks heaps for your reply.

Andrew

Well, it looks to be in decent shape, and would look better with a bit of polishing. It doesn't appear there is anything functionally wrong with it, so I'm sure it could be made to shave just fine. Just a matter of how much having this kind of razor means to you versus any other razor of similar quality.

Hi Andrew,

you can't really consider these razors as Australian but they do have local interest. I guess this might have been the reason for the high price I saw on one at the Woolloongabba Antique centre about 18 months ago, i.e. 70 or 80 dollars from memory. Old Bengalls and suchlike seldom go for anything like that. Mind you, I have seen prices above 50 bucks for specimens with 10c piece sized bites out of them

A couple of thoughts. The razor appears in those pictures to be in save-able condition. I understand your thought on wanting the razor. I bought many and still couldn't tell you why I wanted them to begin with. As far as how high you should go that is personal. We all have to find our happy place on our own. Now that I have more razors than I need and less razors than I want I don't bid very high and I wait it out, if this one is too high another will come along eventually. I can't see that one going for big money, but it may if two guys want it really bad.

Originally Posted by AndrewJM

I also understand what you mean by "Don't know if you can consider it Australian, at least to me, when it's made in Solingen"... but it raised an interesting point for discussion, if anyone knows... If you were an Aussie and wanting to get something from your home country, what would you consider regarding brands, models etc.

Thanks heaps for your reply.

Andrew

I think there's been a discusssion about Australian made razors in the past, but I can't remember if anyone came up with any.

Even though Norway isn't the biggest country, there have been a handfull makers that made a few razors, they're not easy to find, but I've been lucky enough to get my hands on one. If there on the other hand didn't exist any, I would probably be happy with one branded by a Norwegian company

Of course a Norwegian razor would be fantastic, but not as fantastic as an Aussie razor

(Line dropped, now just waiting for a bite) lol

Originally Posted by Zephyr

I think there's been a discusssion about Australian made razors in the past, but I can't remember if anyone came up with any.

Even though Norway isn't the biggest country, there have been a handfull makers that made a few razors, they're not easy to find, but I've been lucky enough to get my hands on one. If there on the other hand didn't exist any, I would probably be happy with one branded by a Norwegian company

Originally Posted by AndrewJM

Of course a Norwegian razor would be fantastic, but not as fantastic as an Aussie razor

(Line dropped, now just waiting for a bite) lol

I don't know, I reckon an Aussie razor would be a bit too laid back to really be bothered shaving you, whereas a German razor would be very efficient, so this razor could go either way, it will be very good at not doing more than it had to, or really frustrated with it's own lack of motivation. My Swedish razor is great, but it does like listening to terrible europop.

Hi Ed, I was waiting for you to come to the party and give some good advice, you never fail to deliver... and in a very amusing way this time Cheers (or "soupy twist" to our English masters out there [fry and Laurie reference there] )... Andrew

Originally Posted by edhewitt

I don't know, I reckon an Aussie razor would be a bit too laid back to really be bothered shaving you, whereas a German razor would be very efficient, so this razor could go either way, it will be very good at not doing more than it had to, or really frustrated with it's own lack of motivation. My Swedish razor is great, but it does like listening to terrible europop.