Thread: Anyone ever get a real deal on ebay?

Excellent observations on Ebay, Quick. I could not agree more. It's lost its appeal a bit for me since all of yooze are watching it all of the time now..

I go mainly for stones vs. razors and agree the deals are when they're mislabeled and the seller has no idea that they are selling a vintage cottie or Thuringian. I've purchased coticules for $15-$20 shipped. I got a great condition Imperial hollow ground razor and vintage coticule combo both for $27 including shipping on an auction site.

It's amusing to me that there are new razor sellers on Ebay. There used to be Altima55, Philotrix, Mr. Berens and a few other non-USA sellers and that was about it. Now I see more with a seemingly endless supply of razors selling on Ebay.

I'm to the point in my razor possession and collection where I have far more razors in need of some resto than I have time. Therefore my acquisition appetite is very selective (and therefore not as exciting!!). I stopped at 4 antique stores yesterday and found nothing worth buying. Too expensive or too crappy.

It seems Ebay razor sellers are getting more savvy in that they're setting a minimum bid; maybe that doesn't make much difference in the end, but it keeps people like me from bidding at all on a razor in need of work that may already be set at $15 + shipping.

Chris L

There seems to be more interest on Ebay lately. You throw a bid on a nice Duck or W&B or Henckels for that matter, They easily go over 100 dollars, maybe 200. I just got a Duck from a lady that described the blade as 'Great Condition" "Slight surface rust, no nicks, chips, etc...When I got it, It had a nice blob of rust along the sharp edge. Luckily, she refunded my money.
There would have been no blade left after I breadknifed the heck out of it. I agree and think your better off with a Vendor,member, or the classifieds, unless you can sneek in under the radar and snip something great. I deal with Altima55 a lot, Aka Bob Keyes, he's a nice guy. He always has something worthwhile. There was a reaper on there not too long ago, the blade was frowning, the scales weren't too bad, but it went to 255.00, to me, it's not worth it.

i have purchased 2 razors from Ebay and one was $13 shipped and the other was $12 shipped. i consider both to be learning tools, they will never be show pieces but i will eventually get them shave ready. i have seen some pretty good deals go by but i am cheap so anything over $15 before shipping is out of my range for now.

i have however gotten a couple really good deals on DEs, one was a Gillette Slim Adjustable that i paid $1.25 for (plus shipping so total was $6) and i found a Gillette Fatboy for $7.80 plus shipping which was really good because it was in really good condition.

I have much more of familiaritiy with the double edges then straights so I know that the new versions of what you bought chee go for much more than what you paid for them. Adjustables go for $115 new and the new versions of the fat boy go for approximatly $60. So they were worth a lot more than what you paid for them. I would recommend fixing them up a bit and selling on this site: Razor and Brush Sales Board, watch yourself on this forum folks there know exactly what these things are worth and what a good and bad restore job looks like.

Anymore out standing deals?

i got a good condition torrey for 8 bucks. i had glen/gssixgun put on some scales and bam, i have a great 1st razor shaver. use it everyday over my sheffield. next im looking for a duck and a 11/16 wedge, but it will be here from srp classifieds, because rhey come shave ready 90% of time and i wont have to spend an exrea 25 bucks to have it honed.

Originally Posted by Quick

(I hate you )


eBay is not like a flea market or yard sale anymore. It's quite sophisticated with advanced searches, alerts, proxy bidding, sniping services, etc., and mainly the scale -- bazillions of people 24 hrs a day. It's gauranteed that others will see the item you're looking at and it's gauranteed some will know it's fair value. There is always some very small chance that all the above people just happen not to be buying at the moment. Generally prices are a bit lower for the following reasons: Sellers may be just selling off unwanted stuff, no store front or overhead; basically the barriers to entry to set up business on eBay are almost non-existent. The flip side is risk to the buyer. As always, the better deals inherently carry more risk. The occassional super deal is most likely a result of a poorly described or poorly presented item due to the seller's lack of knowledge and/or skills. The risk to the buyer is higher in that they won't know exactly what they're getting until they have it in hand. I think the highest margin is to those who add value after the sale, the people who restore razors for example.

With razors in particular people don't factor in the extra costs. I bought a very nice Kinfolks for $86. Probably somewhat of a deal (since GSSIXGUN happened to fall asleep at the time...). I wasn't really positive about the condition but it turned out to be NOS. Possibly with little to no use. Then I spent an additional $20 to get it honed. I'm thinking that razor, new and shave ready, might be fairly valued at $135? $150? Hard to say since they aren't made anymore and there is that value.

Bottom line is that if there were consistent bargains then someone already has made a business of buying and reselling on eBay. There are loads of people doing just that already on the very tiniest of margins. Remember there are practically no barriers to entry and the scale is huge so if you can make a penny on a dollar people are doing it as a full time business. Even with the low overhead to reduce prices they are driven back up a bit due to the allure of finding that spanish dubloon from the santa maria for 50 cents. Very much like buying lotto tickets with similar odds.

I do think there are tremendous deals on only the most esoteric items and straight razors are not that. I won a used Hogan Apex Persimmon 5 wood for $15 once. It went with the Driver and 3 wood I had bought new (each going for something like $180 at the time). It was a phenomenal deal but not many people use persimmon woods anymore... I felt bad and sent the guy $25 so he could cover shipping

Spoken like an economist.

Last fall I picked up (sniped) a J A Henckels twins "Platinum dry hone" in near mint conditions for about $16.
It is a great little razor that I use almost daily.
I will start rotating in my new antique store $10 D C Halsted now that I finally got it honed right.

I got my John Barber for 0.99$

And just last week I was mad at myself for having forgotten to check a sheffield 7 day set that was on my watch list. It went for 100$ and the razors were in good condition, as was the box

So it happens. You just have to be lucky.

A Thiers Issard Tortoise Shell 5/8 Spartacus, with a TI paddle strop and three tubes of TI paste all brand new in boxes from a men's boutique who was clearing out stock........$25 + shipping. This actually ran all week with no bids and I missed the close so another member here won it. I asked the seller if they had more and they said yes and listed another set with a Buy It Now of $25.

My first, and LAST ebay bargain.

Now on other non-razor things I have made a killing many times, on shave stuff, once.

Tony