For your viewing pleasure, Madams and Messieurs:
The Gillette Slim Adjustable Index (GSI), or Adjusti-Dex.
The Gillette Slim Adjustable Index (GSI), or Adjusti-Dex.
Being the uncreative type with too much time on my hands, I daily cruise the Interweb© stealing ideas from other people’s blogs, copywriting© them as my own. I stole this particular idea from Bike Snob NYC, BSNYC complies an index of Chris king headset prices (the CKHI) as well as one of that hipster staple, the Bianchi Pista (the Pista-dex). Both are fairly useless metrics as the prices come from Craigslist. And I’m really not sure what hipster shavers shave with, but I’ll get that figured out real soon.
I thought it would be fun to create a price index for razors; I see those prices for Slims and wonder ”Hey, does anyone actually pay that for a Slim? Would I donate a months salary for a shiny newish (looking) adjustable?” (It would be a month’s salary if I lived in a dirt hut in Nepal) But mostly I want to know, “Can I resell this and retire?”
At first I thought of creating the Fat Boy index, but my little watch-mounted Casio calculator lacks sufficient memory for averaging such large numbers, and besides I didn’t like the acronym for Fat Boy index. In fact, the name Fat Boy irritates me, and smacks of sizeist discrimination against an otherwise fine razor. Anyway, a Slim Adjustable Index is much easier all around, as some Fatboys are mislabeled Slims anyway, plus there are a number sold each week, giving me a better data pool (try doing a President or blue-tip index, OMFG) and it is my favorite razor.
The Adjustidex©, or GSI©, as I am now calling it, is calculated by compiling a average of selling prices of Gillette Slim Adjustables for the past week or so garnered off eBay completed auctions. I average the first 20 or so sales that pop up in my search radar, razor only. No cased razors are included, as that usually indicates that the seller thinks it is "worth something". As you will see later in this thread, cased razors are a not-so-good-deal if you are looking for a daily shaver (unless you are a dedicated collector). Shipping charges are not included in the index, because all shipping should be free anyway, so sez me. Condition is not taken into consideration as that would be way too much work, so no snarky comments. Besides, all eBay sellers are often tellers-of-tall-tales when it come to razor condition.
I may track the index over time, and may include useless graphs and lame commentary. Or I might just post up some bacon pictures. I’ll quit when it no longer becomes fun, or I run out of clever things to say (still working on the clever thing).
I thought of putting this in the safety razor forum, but was concerned it might be interpreted as a serous post, or worse, a public safety announcement or a guide on llama piercing. So into the Barbershop it goes.
The Adjusti-dex for the week ending June 13: $21.10
Highest price: $38.99
Lowest Price: $10
Highest price: $38.99
Lowest Price: $10
Comment: I’m feelin good, because I just scored another decent looking Slim for $12.50, so that puts me at the lower end of the index. Life is good. Probably good for Cedarfurniturnman too, because I bet he sold the Slim for $38.99. At least the buyer got a puck of the worlds finest shaving soap, which is worth at least $100, or a free llama piercing.
Post snarky comment below.
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I prefer the term "waif" myself. The Waif-Adjustable has a nice ring to it, don't you think?
