OMG how much for that rock?

here is a stone for all you really serious honemeisters ...

http://cgi.ebay.com/Japanese-whetst...075?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2eb161955b

you might want to be sitting down to look at it.

Yea thats out of my price range.

I have bid on one of his stones, but more in the $60 range.

Note that you can make an offer if you think the stone is worth less than the BIN amount.

can you believe you can get an ultra fine stone for 20 times less?

I think the reason it costs so much is the size. Isn't that like a 8x3x3" stone he has drawn in the center there?

How sweet - free shipping!

SliceOfLife said:

I think the reason it costs so much is the size. Isn't that like a 8x3x3" stone he has drawn in the center there?

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Yes it is.
And it weighs well over 6 kilos ~13lbs

This vendor is extremely hard to communicate with unless you speak Japanese.

My order was a mess and took forever with the free shipping, so long in fact, I opened a dispute with Paypal and won the dispute before the item got here. I paid him again using the original invoice, a year later he writes to me monthly asking for payment.

Jim said:

This vendor is extremely hard to communicate with unless you speak Japanese.

My order was a mess and took forever with the free shipping, so long in fact, I opened a dispute with Paypal and won the dispute before the item got here. I paid him again using the original invoice, a year later he writes to me monthly asking for payment.

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There was a time when this vendor was very responsive but I suppose with the higher demand, he hasn't needed to give good customer service. I avoid him altogether.

TstebinsB said:

There was a time when this vendor was very responsive but I suppose with the higher demand, he hasn't needed to give good customer service. I avoid him altogether.

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That seems to be the consensus of everyone that has some real knowledge about J-nats..

Is that supposed to be expensive? There are Japanese naturals that sell for ten times that price and are way smaller. Folks collect them in Japan and prize them for their rarity.

I wouldn't buy from 330mate bc of other people's experiences anyway...

Oh and I've seen japanese stones worth 15,000usd before, nevermind 2,800 lol

Disburden said:

Oh and I've seen japanese stones worth 15,000usd before, nevermind 2,800 lol

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Worth or priced at?

There are a few vendors of these stones to whom I would not mind paying $2,000 or $3,000 (assuming I had the cash to spend, of course!), because the vendor's credibility and reputation are what you're buying along with the stone. For example, if you spend $2,000 for a stone from Alex Gilmore or So Yamashita, you can be certain that you are getting something really, really special. Based on everything I have read, however, the same is not true of this vendor here. Everyone is free to form his own opinion, of course, but to me, spending $500 on a really nice stone from a vendor I trust is a much better deal than throwing away $50 on a stone from a vendor who I don't trust.

I bought a $75 stone off him recently (It was listed for more but he accepted my offer) and it went pretty smoothly. I haven't had alot of time to play with it yet but early trials indicate that it will be a nice finishing stone.

I really start to question the value of shaving equipment once the price climbs above $300 or so.

Then again, two years ago I would have laughed at spending more than $20 on anything shaving related