Thread: Anyone ever get a real deal on ebay?

Anyone ever gone out onto ebay and gotten a real deal on a straight for a fraction of what the item is worth? Ever walked away from an ebay listing becuase the offeror is asking way above what you could get it elsewhere such as straight razor place classifieds or classic shaving?

Yes to both questions!

I have had reasonably good success on ebay. I got a great Dovo for $66 and a nice Jowika for $40+..

Definitely (to both).

A NOS Kinfolks just came in the mail 2 nights ago, for $25. I'll be honing it this weekend.

Anyone care to share what they bought and for how much. That Kinsfolk seems like a great deal.

Yes I have gotten some great deals. They are not common but they do happen now and then. I got a Dovo Mammoth razor which goes for around $400 for $120. It needed a good honing but was in otherwise good shape. I've gotten several Ducks for good prices probably because they weren't listed as Ducks but as just Bresnick. I recently got a Bresnick Mandarin which is a very rare model, the precursor to the Goldedge actually for about a hundred bucks. I also got a Puma 6/8s in pristine shape for around $60.00. Just a few examples.

If the question includes ebay.de and tradera.se, the answer is yes. Especially the no-name razors from Solingen can be had on the cheap. For example, I got this Steinhoff for EUR 10. My best man still likes it.

Originally Posted by RayG

Definitely (to both).

A NOS Kinfolks just came in the mail 2 nights ago, for $25. I'll be honing it this weekend.

(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

I usually do pretty well on e-bay, but more because I am looking at restorable razors rather than Minty/NOS stuff....

My great deals are when I am expecting a ok restorable razor and I find a minty beauty in the package...

That little bit of rust or the seller that says nicks in blade, or cracked "handles" doesn't scare me off it tells me that most people will not be bidding on that razor.....

A few months back I won 3 Boker King Cutters off of ebay. They all had some rust, and the scales needed to be changed on 2 of them. But as far as the razors went they cleaned up really nice (all the rust and discolouration came RIGHT off), and I shave with one of them everyday.

I picked up all three for about $15 I think, so I'm still quite happy with that deal

Dave