Did you ever pay too much...

[ezmike]

... for a bottle of AS when you could have bought it for less?

Here's what I mean, I love the old time stuff like Old Spice, Aqua Velva, Skin Bracer and the basic Clubman/Pinuad products but I'm a bigtime fan of glass bottles. I know that vintage bottles of this stuff can "spoil" if not stored under the right conditions. Sometime Old Spice will turn a very yellow-brown color and not smell the same. We will leave whether or not the current production of any of these smells the same as the old stuff out of conversation for this post.

Anyway back to the point, Old Spice glass bottles are abundant but not so for AV and SB (at least not where I live), so after I snatched the last glass bottle of AV off the shelf of my local supermarket several months ago my quest for a dimpled Skin Bracer bottle begain. So as I often do I combed ebay for a bottle. I found one but thought the $8.00 BIN plus $7.50 S/H was too much so I passed and although no one bought it the seller has not re-listed it or responded to my e-mails. I don't know why I thought it was too much because I've paid more for Old Spice many times. So my search continued until last week when a seller that I have purchased several bottles of Old Spice from listed a dimpled glass bottle of Skin Bracer, with its box. So I entered my max bid and went on my way. On Saturday I received notice that I won. I was excited and still am except that I paid $25.50 for the SB and $6.00 shipping.

Go figure, sometimes when it comes to the simple stuff we make the most incredible decisions.

Mike

[michiganlover]

$31.50 for a bottle of glass Skin Bracer? I think you seriously overpaid. I recently picked up two 7oz bottles of Skin Bracer Cooling Blue in the dimpled glass bottle for $20 shipped. The bottle is exactly the same as regular Skin Bracer, except for the label. One of them has a quite damaged label, so I might yank it's label off when empty, and refill it with the green Skin Bracer.

[ezmike]

John,

That was the point, it was a Homer Simpson moment and I'm betting I'm not alone just crazy enough to post it. I absolutely over paid especially when I passed on the other deal at half the price. Come to think of it, I saw the deal you made on ebay, there was Cooling Blue and one of the other no longer available scents in a two-for one price deal.

Mike

[michiganlover]

John,

That was the point, it was a Homer Simpson moment and I'm betting I'm not alone just crazy enough to post it. I absolutely over paid especially when I passed on the other deal at half the price. Come to think of it, I saw the deal you made on ebay, there was Cooling Blue and one of the other no longer available scents in a two-for one price deal.

Mike

Mike, I totally understand!! I paid over $20 each for Old Spice Whitewater, and Old Spice Lagoon (products not available in the US) which still come in super nifty see thru glass bottles. I wanted them primarily to refill. Imagine my great disappointment when I discovered they are extremely difficult to refill!!

I tried with a mini-funnel, and spilled better than half of the liquid out!! The best I can figure, is I need to attach a small piece of pipping to the funnel, so as to bypass the reducer on the bottle. Grrr!!

Neither fragrance was in my opinion worth $20+. The Whitewater is a pleasant smelling aquatic. The Lagoon less so, more of a highly fruity concoction, that I didn't really like. The Lagoon I gladly PIFed. The Whitewater I will use to completion, but see no need to replace.

[ezmike]

John,

Here's the best or worst part (depending how you look at it), Because I really dig the old style glass bottles I'm really only interested in the bottle. If it were one of the special bottles they produced like the light bulb, I could maybe justify it but not just for the bottle to refill with current liquid, unless I don't open it and display it with my other vintage NOS AS bottles of AV, OS and Clubman/Pinaud. That's my next decision.

Yeah, the Old Spice bottles are tough to refill. I had the same experience. I used an unsused irrigating syringe with a long tip to transfer what was left in one bottle to another partially filled bottle. Still was a little tricky.

Mike

[Luc]

I think if you really want it, only you can say if it's overpaid or not...

I got a few things that I could probably had paid less but I think everyone was in that situation at one stage. We were looking so much for that item and didn't want to wait that we overpaid.

I think second hand stores are best if you are looking for something specific. Sometimes, you could even give them your name and number if they come across certain items so they sell it to you before they put it on the shelves.

Anyways, I started a 'grocery' list where I got the Skin Bracer original 100ml bottle (as an example). I wrote down the price of the last 3 groceries that I visited and surprise-surprise, the price goes from $1.71 at the cheapest to $3.49 for the exact same bottle (they are not on special at either place, it's the regular price). So, if you do a bit of research, you should know right away if you are overpaying or not. You should then be able to take an informed decision to either accept that over-payment or wait for a cheaper one.

[ezmike]

Luc,

I agree that only I can decide if I over-paid. In this case, given that I had an opportunity to purchase the same item at half the price but passed it up, I'm gonna take it on the chin and say I did. Will I lose sleep over it, no.

Okay, on to the next search.

Mike

[ZackP]

That's life! But, why fret? :) This just means two more bottles will come to you for CHEAP :D

[Robert45]

On the other hand, I've almost always thought I paid too much regardless of whatever I bought! I am forever thinking I could have brought it, whatever it might have been, cheaper somewhere else. It is a curse!

[Charlie NJ]

John,

That was the point, it was a Homer Simpson moment and I'm betting I'm not alone just crazy enough to post it. I absolutely over paid especially when I passed on the other deal at half the price. Come to think of it, I saw the deal you made on ebay, there was Cooling Blue and one of the other no longer available scents in a two-for one price deal.

Mike

Wow, I was going to post the same thing, I was a little embarrassed that I paid 35 bucks for Edmond jagger aftershave balm this week. I got a sample of this stuff and really liked it but after reading I think I could have bought something for 5 or 10 bucks that would have done the same thing

[Lamb Root]

John,

Here's the best or worst part (depending how you look at it), Because I really dig the old style glass bottles I'm really only interested in the bottle. If it were one of the special bottles they produced like the light bulb, I could maybe justify it but not just for the bottle to refill with current liquid, unless I don't open it and display it with my other vintage NOS AS bottles of AV, OS and Clubman/Pinaud. That's my next decision.

Yeah, the Old Spice bottles are tough to refill. I had the same experience. I used an unsused irrigating syringe with a long tip to transfer what was left in one bottle to another partially filled bottle. Still was a little tricky.

Mike

I understand you 100%.

[ezmike]

Ya see, I told you there were others out there. All they needed was a little grease to get them to come forward. BTW, the bottle of Skin Bracer arrived a couple of days ago. The box is in really nice shape as well. I'm kind of leaning towards displaying it and looking for another vintage Skin Bracer bottle, maybe empty, to decant the new stuff out of those terrible plastic bottles.

Oh yeah I forgot to add, for those who want to refill the old glass bottles especially Old Spice or anything with a smaller diameter splash top, I mentioned that I used a 10 ml irrigating syringe, those might be a little difficult to find. It might be easier to find one of those turkey/chicken infusion or basting syringes. You know the kind, you fill it with you favorite combination of butter and spices, lock on the needle and inject it into the breast meat to keep it moist and flavorful. They work too.

Mike