Hiya,
This is the sad time of the year when it comes to finding shaving items around here. Yeah, all during the summer there's various flea markets, antique shows, and garage sales to pick through. Those sources shut down during the colder months, making it slim pickens. Estate sales are year round, but those are very much a hit or miss kinda thing (mostly miss). Heh, I think most people toss old razors and stuff like that, thinking it's worthless crap that nobody would want to actually pay money for.
This morning I took a little drive to a large market (200+ dealers), mainly because it's the last meeting of the year and you never know what someone's gonna bring. Usually I have mediocre luck at best, but I was up early anyway.
The bad thing about living in the US is that I rarely ever see any Made in England razors. Man, some of those are great looking, but of course no one here would have ones like that.
The good news is I see lots of vintage USA made Gillettes.......much more than any of you guys would in those types of sales situations. All in all, I think I've got the better deal......heh.
This morning I came home with two fatboys, one cased and one by itself. Both are in nice shape, as is the case, and the total cost was well under $20. They came from two different sellers, which was pretty odd. Yeah, it was a fairly lucky (but chilly) day.
These sellers just don't take the time to research what that shaving 'crap' might be worth asking, so I'm actually dealing from strength here. I'm sure the sellers were happy to unload those silly old razors.
One tremendous part of this 'hobby' is the fact that this is a totally blind item to most people when it comes to asking price. Heh, I gotta admit that does tickle me.
Maybe a year ago I was browsing a conducted estate sale in a very nice neighborhood. There were pros handling the pricing and they ran the whole deal. Sometimes the prices are good and sometimes not, and sometimes you can bargain on the prices.
I got there a few hours after the sale started, and no telling how many people had wandered through before me. The good news is if there ARE any shaving items, they usually don't move fast. That was the case here, since a wonderful shaving brush was still there for me to snatch up.This one was NOS and still in the box. Sold by the Marshall Fields stores in the 1950s maybe, and possibly made by Coates or Simpson. From what I understand, this type of knot was called a 'whitecap', which makes sense.
There was no price on the box and so I took it over to a woman helping with the sale. Asked her how much, and I could see her trying to figure out what to charge for this obviousl;y worthless item. After about 10 seconds she says "That will be $10". Heh, I woulda maybe even paid $15 for the goofy thing.........
I'll include a pic just for the heck of it. Oh, for some reason,I guess I'm not able to post any more pictures for now.
This is the sad time of the year when it comes to finding shaving items around here. Yeah, all during the summer there's various flea markets, antique shows, and garage sales to pick through. Those sources shut down during the colder months, making it slim pickens. Estate sales are year round, but those are very much a hit or miss kinda thing (mostly miss). Heh, I think most people toss old razors and stuff like that, thinking it's worthless crap that nobody would want to actually pay money for.
This morning I took a little drive to a large market (200+ dealers), mainly because it's the last meeting of the year and you never know what someone's gonna bring. Usually I have mediocre luck at best, but I was up early anyway.
The bad thing about living in the US is that I rarely ever see any Made in England razors. Man, some of those are great looking, but of course no one here would have ones like that.
The good news is I see lots of vintage USA made Gillettes.......much more than any of you guys would in those types of sales situations. All in all, I think I've got the better deal......heh.
This morning I came home with two fatboys, one cased and one by itself. Both are in nice shape, as is the case, and the total cost was well under $20. They came from two different sellers, which was pretty odd. Yeah, it was a fairly lucky (but chilly) day.
These sellers just don't take the time to research what that shaving 'crap' might be worth asking, so I'm actually dealing from strength here. I'm sure the sellers were happy to unload those silly old razors.
One tremendous part of this 'hobby' is the fact that this is a totally blind item to most people when it comes to asking price. Heh, I gotta admit that does tickle me.
Maybe a year ago I was browsing a conducted estate sale in a very nice neighborhood. There were pros handling the pricing and they ran the whole deal. Sometimes the prices are good and sometimes not, and sometimes you can bargain on the prices.
I got there a few hours after the sale started, and no telling how many people had wandered through before me. The good news is if there ARE any shaving items, they usually don't move fast. That was the case here, since a wonderful shaving brush was still there for me to snatch up.This one was NOS and still in the box. Sold by the Marshall Fields stores in the 1950s maybe, and possibly made by Coates or Simpson. From what I understand, this type of knot was called a 'whitecap', which makes sense.
There was no price on the box and so I took it over to a woman helping with the sale. Asked her how much, and I could see her trying to figure out what to charge for this obviousl;y worthless item. After about 10 seconds she says "That will be $10". Heh, I woulda maybe even paid $15 for the goofy thing.........
I'll include a pic just for the heck of it. Oh, for some reason,I guess I'm not able to post any more pictures for now.