Thread: Are there deals in the future?

Originally Posted by greenguy206

My question is this: Have you ever seen any "young hipsters" anywhere near an antique shop? I have tried getting some of my friends in their 20s and early 30s interested in using straights with no luck. I don't think many younger guys have the patience or interest in getting into using or collecting straights. Personally, I have a feeling it has more to do with retirees that have the time and money to pursue such things. Plus the people that think they can make a quick buck.

I would disagree here. We have seen and still see many new guys in their teens, 20's and 30's show up for a variety of reasons. Some are for the Green and conservation, some for the expense savings, some because they think the sport is cool and many many others just interested in what it's all about with the entire wet shaving experience. We see fathers and sons and people with heirloom razors from someone in the family. Nuttin' wrong with being in a hurry all the time and we have all been there. We here at SRP have long been about taking the chore out of shaving and making it a pleasure for those who want to spend the time on themselves enjoying this experience and all it has to teach (Notice the word teach which implies taking the time to learn. I think one of the biggest problems with new guys is that they come in and expect immediate results. The same applies for finding deals.) Although we may never be mainstream, this population continues to grow. There really is a fascination with it for sure. There are many facets to this sport all the way from simple shaving to collecting and all the crafts associated with it.

I still think there are great deals out there too. They may not be the same great deals that we got 10 years ago, but they are great deals for today. Some deals come with luck and some with diligence.

It's all about having fun.

Have fun,

Lynn

OK, I opened my yap so I better confess that it may not be as bad as one would think. Maybe the stores I shop in are just more picked over than others and maybe it is just the dealers they sell space to. Today though, I scored. I picked up a monster german razor with a barber notch. It is close to a wedge in the grind and has moderate hone wear but definitely not a belt sander. $12!

That one is going to get a full resto job I think. I cleaned it up a bit and it has just a very little bit of light pitting but overall really good. It might even be worth going with a regrind.

I don't really look for razors anymore, but a couple of weeks ago I went to ebay and found what I consider a deal. I paid $75 for a razor that in my opinion is worth $150-200. It has been sitting there in the right category, properly labeled, decent pictures from multiple angles, reputable seller, no questions asked return policy and a buy-it-now price. Hadn't lacked in views from tire kickers either.
Knowing some basic statistics is very useful. It's relatively easy to demonstrate that the chances of getting a good deal are negligible if you lack expertise, or are really cheap. It's way smarter to get a low skil/low wage job than look for a killer deal on ebay.
Of course some people are after the deal hunting not actually getting a deal.

I don't get it? No deals? I just watched this Palmer go off with no bids.

Take a good look at it and it's a damned nice razor that just needed a little TLC. $5.95. The shipping for $6.95 was more than the razor.

Vintage Antique Straight Razor Palmer CHICAGO CELLULOID - eBay (item 110530590436 end time May-16-10 14:25:07 PDT)

Now, if you want to buy a nice, minty 8/8 Dorko for that price so that you can flip it for a couple hundred, good luck to you. But if you're just looking for good, serviceable razors that need a good home, they're still available. Not as many as there were 5 or 10 years ago, but they're still there.

DustinW, looks like your town has plenty of game left in it...check out these places: minneapolis antiques - Google Maps

Not sure that you've been to all of them....also, check out the ones just outside of town. If you have a GPS, you can usually create an itinerary where you can enter multiple addresses and it will take you to each location in the shortest amount of time. Some of the newer ones will let you stop your itinerary and then pick it up later. That google map will likely take you months to cover...and about the time you get done, the shops you started with may have already restocked.

Originally Posted by red96ta

DustinW, looks like your town has plenty of game left in it...check out these places: minneapolis antiques - Google Maps

Not sure that you've been to all of them....also, check out the ones just outside of town. If you have a GPS, you can usually create an itinerary where you can enter multiple addresses and it will take you to each location in the shortest amount of time. Some of the newer ones will let you stop your itinerary and then pick it up later. That google map will likely take you months to cover...and about the time you get done, the shops you started with may have already restocked.

I have been to a lot of them... There are a lot of specialty and appraisal only stores as well. There is also a fairly big number of stores that are out of business. I'm not giving up, that's for sure. I do need to learn to do full on restores myself though >.<

Location, Location, Location, hehehe I like that one but would add 3 "L"'s of my own to that OK???


Luck, Luck, Luck...


The last week of April the wife and I took a one day drive up the back highway between Spokane and Seattle we never even got close to Seattle and stopped in a little tourist trap Bavarian style village called Leavenworth but we also stopped at every single antique store we saw along the way I brought home 9 razors in two days....

There is a little antique store up by the trap range I shoot at and a Flea Market on the way there I stop at both every Sunday when I shoot, I have picked up quite a few from both ....

Shear luck !!!

+1 on Lynns comments. I'm 27, and I came to SRP to find a better way of shaving, and found it! Along the way I also found that the hobby is great fun and I met a load of awesome people through the site as well. Never mind pulling a thread and finding a jumper at the other end, I found an entire new wardrobe..!

I also just got my dad interested in straights, and gave him an old ERN I had. I know, I know, its the wrong way round, but someone had to show him the light..!

Originally Posted by Stubear

+1 on Lynns comments. I'm 27, and I came to SRP to find a better way of shaving, and found it! Along the way I also found that the hobby is great fun and I met a load of awesome people through the site as well. Never mind pulling a thread and finding a jumper at the other end, I found an entire new wardrobe..!

I also just got my dad interested in straights, and gave him an old ERN I had. I know, I know, its the wrong way round, but someone had to show him the light..!

Oh I absolutely know there are people like you out there... For me it was a lot of things that got me interested but none of it was a leming type influence. It's the people that don't know why they are doing it that I suspect will likely not stick with it.

Originally Posted by DustinW

Oh I absolutely know there are people like you out there... For me it was a lot of things that got me interested but none of it was a leming type influence. It's the people that don't know why they are doing it that I suspect will likely not stick with it.

… and they're usually going to be the ones putting up the dodgy restorations up on ebay who Robin was bemoaning (quite rightly) earlier in the thread. Yeah, we've all got to learn (often by our mistakes, guilty on that score), but there is a balance to be struck, and those looking for a quick buck seem the least likely to find it. Nice thread by the way