Aussies! Where do you buy your vintage razors?

Blokes, shipping prices for the US of A (or pretty much any foreign land) to our fair country is soooo expensive it makes these "cheap" vintage razors like techs and pretty pricey. So what does any Aussie bloke looking for a vintage razor or two do? I've been to all my local antique shops and op shops with no luck at all.

Where do you blokes get your vintage razors from? Do you just stuck it up and pay the shipping rates? Is there some secret antique store somewhere in Sydney that has cool razors? Do you stalk estate sales?

Any suggestions?

Locally; eBay and garage sales. Occasionally can be found at auction places (MGS, etc) but not always.

When I do purchase non-Aus I just cop the shipping rates as cost of doing business.

Use a forwarding company like Shipito to get the razor from the U.S. to Australia. Standard vintage razor should cost no more than $5 to Australia. I do it quite often.

Lifes a Peach said:

Use a forwarding company like Shipito to get the razor from the U.S. to Australia. Standard vintage razor should cost no more than $5 to Australia. I do it quite often.

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Cheers for the tip, might give it a go!

Haunt the antique stores. All the dealers know they are desirable, so you will probably not get many bargains, but they know to stock them. It is just a matter of being there at the right time.

I trolled eBay for about a week waiting for decent deals to come up. Shipping to Australia isn't always that expensive! My current daily shaver is a 65 Aristocrat in excellent condition I got for about 30-35 bucks delivered from Argentina. In fact, it's usually more expensive to get them on eBay from Australia as Aussies tent to jack up the prices on...well...everything ever.

My suggestion? Get a cup of coffee, some biscuits (or whatever will keep you sane over the next couple of HOURS), go to eBay Australia, literally type 'safety razor' in the search bar, set the sorting to Price + Postage: Lowest First and set the Item Location to Worldwide. Then just scroll until you find something you like. I see about 10,000 results just looking it up now. Get searching! If you have a maximum budget obviously put that as your upper limit, but know that you may not have to spend that much to get your perfect razor. You also may have to spend more than your budget, it's all about what works for you.

Great vintage razors to consider are of course Slims, Superspeeds, maybe some Techs if you're into three piece designs. For less than ten bucks you could also order a Weishi 9306 series razor from China which copies the all-brass Super Speed design but is brand spanking new. The 9306-A is more expensive ($18) but has a stunning golden finish that adds a little luxury to your shave.

Go out and find yourself a bargain!

In my time in Aussie antique stores I have found a cased gold executive fatboy, cased regular fatboys, an ABC set, a number of aristocrats, slims... and that is just the Gillettes. They are out there. And dont shy from the other brands. There are some that are less known, therefore cheaper, and are excellent shavers.

Some Europeans on ebay ship at very reasonable prices. If I have to buy from the US, I use a shipito account which makes it a lot cheaper.

Short answer is everywhere. That's where you score all the cheap Rockets or in my case, my favorite, hybrid 40s British techs

Sorry to reprise this thread gents, but in which towns or cities are you finding these gems?

I travel across SE QLD and Northern NSW very regularly for work, and visiting six antique stores last week all I managed to find were three of four straights and a single SE Valet. (All of which were overpriced at $35 to $70.)

All I've found over here in Perth was a tech, yawn.

Would go to more antique stores, but they are getting quite rare ( the antique stores that is )

i know this is an older thread now - but adding my little bit. Here in Adelaide, i have visted around 8-10 antique stores, and have found virtually nothing. A few old, overpriced straights, that looked like they needed a lot of work. But that's it!! I am starting to give up hope finding a reasonably priced Fatboy or Superspeed. I'd even settle for a good condition Tech! But nope. Shipping to Australia is insane on eBay, most want to charge $30 just for shipping! THe razors sometimes go for 'ok' prices, sometimes...but shipping. argh.

Gabeson said:

i know this is an older thread now - but adding my little bit. Here in Adelaide, i have visted around 8-10 antique stores, and have found virtually nothing. A few old, overpriced straights, that looked like they needed a lot of work. But that's it!! I am starting to give up hope finding a reasonably priced Fatboy or Superspeed. I'd even settle for a good condition Tech! But nope. Shipping to Australia is insane on eBay, most want to charge $30 just for shipping! THe razors sometimes go for 'ok' prices, sometimes...but shipping. argh.

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I hear what you are saying, seems that lately it has been rather slim pickings at the antique stores.

Last time I went out looking, the only thing I found was a rather crusty looking GEM, and even then they wanted $20 for it

To make matters worse, the standard response was "Oh you should have been here last week, someguy brought the ones we had"

Andy said:

I hear what you are saying, seems that lately it has been rather slim pickings at the antique stores.

Last time I went out looking, the only thing I found was a rather crusty looking GEM, and even then they wanted $20 for it

To make matters worse, the standard response was "Oh you should have been here last week, someguy brought the ones we had"

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Haha yep just our luck oh well. Actually yes now that you mention it, I have seen 2 GEMs around - both looked in pretty average condition so I didn't even both enquiring about price. But that's it really. Either, people aren't trading them in to Antique stores, OR, they are getting more popular, and hence the good ones get snapped up quicker. Maybe the latter.