At no additional charge: 1 rusty razor blade

Got my most recent prize from the bay yesterday and it had a blade loaded all covered in rust and tetanus.
(Not actually a surprise, I could see it in the pics with the listing.)

It was a first for me. Has that ever happened to you?
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I'm always careful when I pick up a raazor at an antique store. Half the time the old blade is still there.

Yep. Happened a while back on the 'bay. As noted above, like a gun, I always treat a razor as loaded and ready to fire until I have hard visual confirmation otherwise.

BSAGuy said:

Yep. Happened a while back on the 'bay. As noted above, like a gun, I always treat a razor as loaded and ready to fire until I have hard visual confirmation otherwise.

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^This.

Happens all the time. Again, the golden rule with antiques is to leave it as-is. Modifying, cleaning, or removing a portion of it, could reduce the value of it. Maybe someone wants it for an old timey display and wants it to have the rusty patina on it for the looks. The vendor doesn't want to take the chance of doing that. If the buyer wants it clean, it's on them.

Most times, on ebay though, it's laziness (IMO).

I don't care. The more rust, the uglier, the cheaper I can get it.

DaltonGang said:

I don't care. The more rust, the uglier, the cheaper I can get it.

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They can send me all the rusty blades they want, at first it kind of bothered me, but not anymore.

What really gets on my nerves is when a seller uses padded envelopes to ship a razor, or a cased set. That is really the only thing that upsets me. Fortunately most sellers are smarter than that.

nuclearblast said:

They can send me all the rusty blades they want, at first it kind of bothered me, but not anymore.

What really gets on my nerves is when a seller uses padded envelopes to ship a razor, or a cased set. That is really the only thing that upsets me. Fortunately most sellers are smarter than that.

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Agreed on both. Many of the sets I have purchased come with a free rusty blade installed. I also get irked when the sellers send in an envelope. I recently acquired a nice ball end old type w/ no cracks...well until I received it in an envelope. It was cracked. Not too happy but luckily it was cheap so I didn't return it but told the seller to make sure they send these type of things in boxes in the future. The razor handle was also screwed on so tight it was very difficult getting off. This may have also been the culprit.

Oh yeah - many, many times, both in antique stores and on eBay.

The one time I remember most was the first time it happened to me.

The seller had wrapped a razor so vigorously in plastic wrap so that I had to be quite rough to get the razor out.

It was an OC razor, so even more dangerous, but I was lucky enough to just get away with the scare.

rusty blade? heck, I've gotten hair, soap scum, dead skin, lord knows what else.

Toothpick said:

rusty blade? heck, I've gotten hair, soap scum, dead skin, lord knows what else.

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I think I'll just stick with the rusty blades.

gibsonx4 said:

I think I'll just stick with the rusty blades.

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I don't blame you.

Toothpick said:

rusty blade? heck, I've gotten hair, soap scum, dead skin, lord knows what else.

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Yep, been there. Makes me wonder what the heck happened. Did the guy give up, mid-shave, and just said to heck with rinsing it and threw it in a drawer to be forgotten?

TheVez2 said:

Yep, been there. Makes me wonder what the heck happened. Did the guy give up, mid-shave, and just said to heck with rinsing it and threw it in a drawer to be forgotten?

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This is how I imagine it

*guy takes 2 strokes, looks at razor all full of lather and hair
"That's the ticket! this will sell for big bucks now"
*guy lists razor on ebay

Toothpick said:

rusty blade? heck, I've gotten hair, soap scum, dead skin, lord knows what else.

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Same here from antique stores. Apparently it makes it look more vintage

just got one in the mail from my Aunt and it still had the blade in it. It now safely resides in the bank.