Grand Shave King - ebay caution

I was curious about grand shave king safety razors and checked ebay recently and saw one that was listed. At first glance it looks terrific, it had a couple days left and I considered bidding on it (when it was in the $60 range). I took a closer look at the pictures and noticed that a corner tooth was bent inward, upon closer investigation I could see that the corner tooth was more than bent inward, a crack had begun to form where it is joined to the baseplate.

If I was the seller I would not be able to sell a razor such as this without noting the blemish, granted they suggest the pictures are there to show blemishes and they certainly do show this one...

Anyhow, I wanted to post here prior to the end of the listing but it isn't allowed due to it being a live link then, sometimes it would be nice to do so but I understand the rule. Hope the buyer noticed the flaw and is ok with it...I was burned once by not looking closely at the pictures, to all of us here, be careful to check the pictures and make sure everything is how you expect it to be, especially if you are dropping high dollar bids.

I just feel bad thinking it could be one of us here that ended up with a razor that isn't all that it appears to be.



In the picture bellow you can see the damaged tooth in the upper right:


Here it is the lower right:

Good catch and even better you backed off the sale when you did.

Sweet looking razor.

You can bet that the seller doesn't want to bend that tooth back to normal for fear that it would break off. Wonder if there was a logical way to fix it. It is a sweet looking razor.

They are not the best shavers. The head is I'd say half of what a tech is aggression wise if not more. The handle is an awesome shape, but aluminum so quite light. Cap is prone to deformation due to the grooves. It really does hold more moisture within the head though IDK if it helps at all. I'd strictly say if you find one in the wild cheaply, by all means snap it up but never pay collector prices...

The handle's knurling, thickness, and length really made a good impression on me. One of the stainless companies would be well served to copy it.

The thing to do with that razor is buy it for parts if you had one with a screwed up cap. It was probably dropped early in its life and not used much. Usually, the caps develop a bit of a smile to them.

kcb5150 said:

They are not the best shavers. The head is I'd say half of what a tech is aggression wise if not more. The handle is an awesome shape, but aluminum so quite light. Cap is prone to deformation due to the grooves. It really does hold more moisture within the head though IDK if it helps at all. I'd strictly say if you find one in the wild cheaply, by all means snap it up but never pay collector prices...

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I wouldn't have gone high on this razor, I was surprised to see it go for so high, I don't think the buyer noticed the damaged tooth. I am glad to hear that the razor isn't spectacular, but I can't get over how cool it looks.

Extremely mild shaver as already mentioned. I prefer mild razors, and this was still way too mild for me. Funny because it looks aggressive. Once you see the curvature of the head in person it's easy to understand though. It really bends a blade downward and the teeth are very long.

Meh, a little super glue will fix that.

Woodekb said:

You can bet that the seller doesn't want to bend that tooth back to normal for fear that it would break off. Wonder if there was a logical way to fix it. It is a sweet looking razor.

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They are, unfortunately, zinc. Low-temp solder (Tix, melts @ 275* and does not tarnish) works well for most razors, as long as you're careful with the flux. There were a couple of variations of the Shave King, one somewhat more efficient than the other by most accounts. Mine has a very definite "sweet spot", that if slightly off barely shaves; properly oriented, it's extremely comfortable and efficient.

Personally, I like aggressive razors, so it is really more concentration-intensive than it's worth, for an average shave, IMHO. However, I have kept it, because of the high cool factor.

Wow... $326??? OK, so I know that something's worth what someone's willing to pay for it and all, but that price is unbelievable. I paid quite literally one tenth that amount for a nice boxed example in an eBay auction just slightly over a year ago, and it's not like it was listed incorrectly or hidden in a larger lot.

My impression of the razor is generally in line with what everyone else has said so far, although I don't find it to be so incredibly mild -- I'd put it just to the aggressive side of a Tech, personally. It's certainly an interesting beast, though I can't really say I notice a ton of difference from the "lubricating" slots. It does seem to have a bit less cap friction, though I would attribute that more to the slots functioning like the scallops on a Granton knife than I would their holding any amount of water.

To the point of Price...I recently saw a plain old Slim which sold for $375 on Etsy...I want to know what the guys buying at such a rate are thinking? Is there really such a market for them? It looked NIB, but had obviously been replated.