Thread: Old timers, what have you seen change over the last ---- years?

Interedtingly enough, the same thing is happening in the watch world. It may be my small part of the world or just the things I am interested in but the interest in automatic and hand wound watches has an intense following, like traditional shaving. I love it. It just goes to show that the really good and quality things in life may ebb and flow but they never really go away.

I see it harder to find decent razors in the wild. As stated before much more custom makers out there.

Originally Posted by rosborn

Interedtingly enough, the same thing is happening in the watch world. It may be my small part of the world or just the things I am interested in but the interest in automatic and hand wound watches has an intense following, like traditional shaving. I love it. It just goes to show that the really good and quality things in life may ebb and flow but they never really go away.

I'm into vintage watches too. I think appreciation for watches and straights are much the same, it's great to be able to enjoy a quality piece of equipment for its intended purpose 100+ years later. And to have it work as well as when it was made is amazing. So much of what is made today is meant to be disposable.

Not my cup of tea, but:
I see many also getting into quality ink fountain pens of many types and skyrocketing prices. And...custom manufacturers. One of which I am aware makes the body out of hollow nitrocellulose acetate blanks which have been in a controlled environment for ten years or more; very stable by then.

I think that money over and above foreseen needs in a bank and excess securities can be a losing proposition but hard quality durable goods to be sold by the recipients can stay ahead of inflation.

YMPV
~Richard

The big S is correct. I still don't think of this as hobby.

As Richard said of pens, old pocket watches used to be fun to buy and swap. THen it got fashionable and the prices went WAY of out sight. Same thing with pocket knives. A utilitarian tool that has been elevated to cult collector status.

At an abstract level, very little has changed in my opinion. There have always been certain brands that were popular, and therefore, relatively expensive. When I started, everyone wanted W&B razors, so they went for USD 150 while regular razors were still USD 50 or less. Filarmonicas could still be had for USD 50, which was a reasonable price. Dubl Ducks, possibly the most common razors in the market, also fetched relatively steep prices, much to the amusement of the men who had made them. Hones? First, everyone had to have a full set of Nortons (I still have one...). Then Naniwas. Lapping films. Diamond pastes. Natural hone crazes came and went. Strops? There even were strop progressions. A craze which did not last long after the vendor who invented it was banned...

So, nothing new in the hardware department, really. Only, prices have risen, and then dropped again somewhat. You will still find the occasional person with more money than sense forking out four digit sums of money for some shiny toy on eBay, but as long as it makes these people happy, why bother?

eBay has become very much unusable. I quite like this eBay Purchasing Primer, but too few people seem to read it. eBay is full of broken trash, shoddily "restored" (rather, raped) trash, and overpriced trash. There are also new old stock razors, but typically at absurd prices given their complete lack of rarity (hint: if you want a rare razor, get a Desert Rider).

The "custom scale" madness seems to have abated, thank God. A few years back, too many people seemed eager to rip perfectly salvageable scales off vintage razors, only to replace them with recycled glow-in-the-dark bowling balls. And Jesus wept. These days, the punters seem to have learned to appreciate the beauty of original designs more, resulting in a slew of skilfully executed "original restores" (aka restorations). I like that a lot, because unlike NOS blanks, NOS scales are very hard to come by.

The one area where I actually see a lot of movement, is soaps (and, to a lesser degree, creams). When I started, you either went for supermarket brands, invested a bit more in English products, or bought Castle Forbes. And that was that. With the advent of online shaving stores came more products, yet most still industrially made.

I have always had a soft spot for interesting software. Meaning, innovative, unusual, or simply rare. Otoko shaving soap being a good example. Affordable, completely out of the ordinary, yet functional. Not the best shaving soap ever made, but made by an individual who is dedicated to the point of drivenness, functional in an unobtrusive, understated way, and ethically soundly marketed.

At the other end of the spectrum, I have seen the rise of products which are touted as "artisan", but seem to be made from cheap import base products to all intents and purposes. Scents are the latest craze, and the ones I had the distinct displeasure of sampling were atrocious. The olfactory equivalent of pink candy stripe swirl custom scales. Of course there is a market for such monstrosities. Just like there are markets for Brazilian animal porn, American beer, or German romantic novels. But that does not mean I have to enter them.

That said, if you keep an open, but focused, mind, getting interesting, innovative quality equipment has never been easier. Once you understand how marketing works in the shaving scene (vendors and manufacturers subverting entire online communities; reviews being rigged; blogs and vlogs begin leveraged for viral marketing in dark grey areas), you will be fine. Never better, really. I think that is great. Overall, and despite some fairly ugly developments in niche markets, the shaving scene has become far more vivid, exciting, and enjoyable.

Good stuff.

PS On a personal note, one thing has not changed, and I find that very, very sad. No real effort at collating information available in one central place has been made. The Wiki/Library here is in a state of almost complete neglect. The Straight Razor Database a few people here built never really took off, either. I have, quite honestly, given up hope that this will ever change. The Google Arts Project would be a good place to replicate the SRDB, but I am not going to spend a few hundred hours of my time again to no avail

Have only been at this near 3 years so can't say I am an old timer. I can say shaving has for me changed from something I despised to a totally enjoyable experience. Would explain why I sported a beard for some 30 odd years.
Locally I have seen prices of cut throats increase across the board, and vintage DE razors even more. OTOH Merkur, EJ and Feather razors are readily available as are DE blades thanks to the Internet, not to mention soaps, brushes etc.
Sadly, 99.9 percent of our population remain ignorant to any alternative other than Gillette.

In my time shaving with and collecting straight razors, there have been two different groups. The razors that always command a high price like the big Wade & Butcher and Filarmonica blades and then another group that come and go out of fashion. When I started collecting straights a few years ago, Waterville razors were fetching a good price, now, not so much.