WARNING: Rant - eBay razor sellers please take note of this definition

[BarrysCool]

I agree that people over-use the word 'rare' on eBay.

But if I may, I would like to play devil's advocate for a bit.

Imagine the collector world before eBay. Imagine an item of which, say, only 100,000 were made.

In your pre-eBay lifetime you may only run across a couple of them in antique stores. They are considered rare.

Fast forward to eBay. There are no more, though possibly fewer of these items around. But because eBay exists, those that are sold often end up being sold there, for all the world to see instead of spread out among thousands of antique stores.

The item has become incredibly easy to find. But is it any less rare than it was before?

Excellent summary if then one is to take the stance that an item is therefore determined to be rare according to availability. We are therefore determining the word availability as being one's ability to achieve possession of an item.

Therefore the item is rare due to it's availability rather than it's quantity pre-eBay.
Likewise post eBay has reversed this by making the quantity available to all and therefore quantity determines rareness.

 

[Evil Malkil]

This post is so funny and so true!

 

[Doctor Love]

...yeah, you see these on ebay all the time.

 

[BBrad]

As one who plays around on eBay as both a buyer and a seller, I agree that the word "rare" is used way too often. One might classify a 1-5 Toggle as rare . . . but a ball-handled Tech is not!

Not all eBay sellers have the level of knowledge that we share with each other here at B&B. For some, a '65 Super Speed is "rare" only because they never saw one before. For others, however, the word is just used as a form of keyword spamming and has no real meaning other than to entice an unknowing buyer into a bidding war with some other equally under-equipped soul.

The word vintage, however, is another issue. As an adjective, the World English Dictionary offers the following:

— adj
6.	(of wine) of an outstandingly good year
7.	representative of the best and most typical: vintage Shakespeare
8.	of lasting interest and importance; venerable; classic: vintage films
9.	old-fashioned; dated

While the totally de-plated NEW with a common bar handle is not rare, it certainly qualifies as vintage.



​

 

[alex2363]

I seen more RARES on Ebay than a $5 dollar steak night at Texas Road Steakhouse.

 

[WoodfordReserve-Neat]

WOW!!! L@@K !!
Now here are a bunch of Antique ones that sold recently !!!
They are too smart to use "RARE"
Amazing how people believe these are even authentic much less...........

http://www.ebay.com/csc/i.html?rt=n...olutionary+razor&_fln=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m283

 

[paco664]

RARE............

 

[alex2363]

That's why I read this book.....

 

[rajagra]

That's why I read this book.....

You like fresh prints?

 

[jsj_297]

My EJ89L isn't rare either? sighhhh

 

[leonidas]

Glad you are a member, too !

Why is it that many, many sellers who sell world wide exclude Italy ? Is it the Customs Red Tape? I have seen a lot of sellers claim that the items have been delivered by Delivery Confirmation, yet the buyer claims they didn't receive the item ?

...luckily, i am stationed on a US Navy base....so all my mail goes via the USPS.....

.....i've been in Italy a total of 9 years (2 tours), and i know that the Italian postal service has a bad reputation....

....if folks here want to send anything of value, it goes by courier, i.e. DHL, UPS, etc..

...an italian friend of mine told me that the Italian postal workers sometimes have very sticky fingers........

...in fact, a couple of items i've purchased from other countries in Europe, will not mail to Italy........because of items getting 'lost.'

 

[Azback]

There's a guy selling Derby blades on a local auction site in NZ for $19.50 for a ten pack. He describes them thusly: "Normally retail upto $15 a pack and hard to find now days "

Ahh yes the elusive Derby, on the hard to find, must have, totally worth $1.95 a blade, lists of wet shavers world wide. Some people have no shame. At least some of the eBay sellers could be mistaken in thinking their item is "rare". But the above jerkface is clearly preying on the gullible newbie.

 

[WoodfordReserve-Neat]

...luckily, i am stationed on a US Navy base....so all my mail goes via the USPS.....


.....i've been in Italy a total of 9 years (2 tours), and i know that the Italian postal service has a bad reputation....

....if folks here want to send anything of value, it goes by courier, i.e. DHL, UPS, etc..

...an italian friend of mine told me that the Italian postal workers sometimes have very sticky fingers........

...in fact, a couple of items i've purchased from other countries in Europe, will not mail to Italy........because of items getting 'lost.'

That pretty much explains the "ship world wide with the exclusion of Italy" that I see so often on eBay.
Thank you for your insight.
You keep your wits about you over there...especially if they move you to a more sandy location, YKWIM.

 

[pcravis]

rare guys on ebay

 

[YKMV]

While I was surfing the Bay the other day, I noticed that many listing say they will not ship to Germany with the same disclaimers as those about shipping to Italy. It may be a default computer reaction to the IP of my computer (Germany). FWIW.

 

[GordyN]

I hate seeing razors listed as something like "Rare Super Speed Adjustable", yeah now they really are rare!
From what I've read in some descriptions, and something I run into in daily life, is pure naivety, or ignorant (small minded) to online life compared to offline. If you haven't been online much, or are aware of what's on online auction sites then you may think that the safety razor you have in the box in your attic is rare.
This happened with my father, when clearing out his father's house, he took everything he thought was worth money, and binned those he deemed worthless. He thinks the Box Brownie he has is worth a small fortune, yet items like all the straight, DE and SE razors my grandfather amassed, we're just rubbish. This was made very transparent when he recently asked me to put some items on an auction site for him. EVERYTHING he had was "really rare". I showed him the price that exact items were selling for, and he subsequently fell out with me!

 

[luvmysuper]

Know what's really rare?
Complaints about eBay sellers.

 

[Slash McCoy]

Or "shave ready"!