Thread: eBay 101

I thought about this for a while and feel it a good tool to help the newbies and the rest of us. Unless you want to waste your money on a gamble you should study up before placing any bids on purtie eBay junk. I offer this thread for us to capture and share some of the stuff you should look for, and when you find it, run for the hills and avoid the item!

Here is one to start with. While you will not see this on every razor that has had this issue it is one that there is no return from and can be hidden very easily. It is one reason I avoid any razor that looks too good for it's age. Can anyone tell what's wrong here? It's pretty obvious.

Please feel free to add any pics you find on eBay that show what to look out for. What I have done is click on enlarge under the ebay listing picture, press <ctrl> and <Print Screen> on your keyboard. Open Windows Paint and click paste. Crop the pic as you desire and save. Upload to this thread is you wish to help us learn what to avoid on eBay. This should be fun!!

Looks like it got burned and may have ruined the heat treat of the blade at the toe.

Originally Posted by InstaRAD

Looks like it got burned and may have ruined the heat treat of the blade at the toe.

Yep, Nice catch. Can you see in the first two pictures how that is obscured in the pictures? Good for the buyers that the last picture was included in the listing. These blades have gone for some big bucks in the condition this one is in, if the blade wasn't annealed at the tow.

Anyone have any more 'items to avoid' pics to share with us?

I'd suggest using this thread as a good test. If you didn't spot the problem on that razor, you are not ready to be shopping on ebay. There is a lot of stuff you have to watch out for.

That is a wierd one too Joe it doesn't look to be buffer burned it really looks heated....

Here is one that is about sold.

Nice etch on the blade but, so many problems...
Frown, pitting, uneven and excessive hone wear towards the toe.
Pictures are taken such that there is little pitting shown, the fisrt pic shows most but because its at an angle you can't see that there probably is pitting very close to the edge.

Here is a thread created by Gugi. It captures cell rot. http://www.straightrazorplace.com/fo...-buy-ebay.html

The pitting covers most of the area of the blade when it is closed and lightens up above where the scales would end. Because this is a hollow ground blade there is no hope for it. If we were to take it to the greaseless compounds there would be no blade left after getting the pitting out. There is a very limited amount of work that can be done to hollow ground razors when it comes to pitting and staining.

here's another one

Loads of uneven hone wear and a wonky bevel on that one..! And the end of the scales is broken off.

Here's one with 8 bids. Anyone think this one can be made shave ready?