Thread: How many use a pricing guide when buying/selling

Not sure if this is the correct topic to place this, so if it needs moved please do so. Also made the vote public.

How many people use a pricing guide, like Standard Guide to Razors, 3rd ed. by Ritchie and Stewart, when buying or selling razors?

Good points to use? Bad points to use?

I am curious if it has been found by those here to be a reliable way to price. It seems to me after reading three different "guides" that it may or may not actually help in our current market place. I was going to see if it worked for some of the models that are going well (big old wedges), but thought I would ask all of you for your experience along the way.

IMHO it helps for determining value for collectors, and if you follow the formula it can get you a ballpark figure.
It does not really help with pricing and or value for users though. There isn't any consideration for grind, size, edge holding, ease of honing, etc.

*Edit* There is also a pretty obvious favoritism towards American Manufacturers. While there are some great American brands, I don't think that a Robeson* is worth more than twice as much as a Greaves or a Joseph Elliot as a baseline.

*Nothing against Robeson, I like them a lot. It was just the 1st example I thought of.

It is always helpful to know what buyers think items are worth, so I voted yes. However personally I like to check the recent sale prices of the particular item at whatever venue I plan to be selling at

I just pay whatever I think it is worth, or whatever the seller asks as long as I can afford it and it is not too extreme.

Having said that, I can see how a pricing guide would be useful.

James.

I use it as a reference to look up makers and their relative values, but not as a means of deciding pricing. For all of its many drawbacks, eBay is still the better baseline for seeing what the market value is. Even this is imperfect and prices fluctuate constantly, but it's real money and not the single opinion of a writer who may have his own prejudices and preferences.

Regards - Walt

The printed price guides tend to be outdated. Many of them were published before ebay and the internet. Now it is a different world. I look at completed items in ebay every now and then.

I also go with completed items on the bay - at least for a ballpark figure. I'll also go with what I've paid for similar razors, as well as what the sold ones here in the classifieds went for. But in all cases there's always that one out there that just calls to me...

I use the guide to help determine how rare the razor may be, not to price it. As has been said in other posts, the mood of the market determines prices. Sometimes the guide is a help with razor identification, too.