Going...Going...Gone! Straight Razors Rapidly Vanishing.

Take it from me, someone who looks just about everywhere for razors - they are disappearing from all markets at an alarming rate.  Several years ago, you could go to a flea market, garage sale or antique shop and find some pretty nice straight razors virtually by the boxful - sort of like you can today with common pocket knives.  This is a burning hot market folks!  When I visit antique stores, indoor and outdoor markets all over the northeast and mid-Atlantic regions, I'm finding very little material of ANY quality. I'm not even finding razors at unreasonable prices.  The last weekend I spent looking yielded just ONE razor - and it wasn't anything impressive.

The bad news is that those of you who haven't been buying have missed the "ground floor" opportunity to buy nice razors cheaply. The good news is that with availability low, values are just going to increase.  So look for and buy the very best examples you can find (originals, not the "rescales" or reground blades) - even if you have to pay more than you ever have before.  Wet shaving and straight razor collecting is growing.  Even the DE razor market, which used to be completely dead (you could easily find Gillette "Fat Boys" for a couple of dollars.) is red hot.  Mark my words - we haven't come close to seeing the top of this market.  If you are an investor, buy now and put a lot of money in your pocket later. If you are a collector, buy the things you love while you can  - your opportunities are shrinking. 

In the meantime, I will, as always, keep my eyes open for all of you - picking up both the good and the common stuff when I can.

The Vintage Shaving Shoppe Gets "The Chair"

It's not just about the razor or the quality of the shave - at least it isn't for me and for most serious collectors I know.  Razors hanging on a wall or even in a nice glassed-in case look somewhat odd and forlorn set there alone in a living room or office.  The finest and most enjoyable collections I have ever seen are put in a setting that gives it context, history...a flavor of shaving past if you like. 

It is with this in mind that I am proud to announce that The Vintage Shaving Shoppe has just laid its hands on a near mint condition 1920s era Koken Barber's Chair with child seat.  This beautiful item is all porcelain and nickel plated iron. It has the original headrest, original upholstery (or if re-upholstered, it was done many years using original materials).  The hydraulics work wonderfully and the chair tilts and swivels like new.  The chair is SO good, that all I have done to it is added hydraulic fluid, lubricated the moving parts and polished and protected the finishes. The only work I am having done (at no small expense) is re-plating the two footrest surfaces with nickel to return them to "showroom" condition and re-upholstering the child seat.  The chair should be available for sale in two to three weeks for $2,500.  It weighs approximately 350 lbs, so local pick up is required.  I will work with serious collectors who don't mind the considerable expense of having the chair shipped to a distant location.

I have also been buying other items that will provide context to and enhance, your collection, including two Gillette display cases, two wooden Sanitizer cabinets and a early 20th century beauticians license.  Please feel free to contact me at assistance@vintageshavingshoppe.com if there are items you are searching for that I may not be currently displaying.

Here are a few "preview" pictures of the chair:

The Vintage Shaving Shoppe & Little Stropper Get Vocal With Our Toll Free Number!

In order to provide even better support to our current and prospective customers, Vintage Shaving Shoppe and Little Stropper can now be reached by phone - toll free at 800-636-9670.  So all of you folks that would rather talk to a person rather than send an email, now have a number at which to do it.

Speak to you soon!

A Close Shave With Death - The Truth About Those Fancy Shaving Mugs

In the last few years, increasing numbers of collectors have been taken by the beautiful variety of shaving mugs that used to grace barber’s shelves by the dozens.  Of particular interest are the so-called “occupational” mugs – those that depicted the various occupations of the people of the town.  There were mugs for the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker, each featuring images that illustrated their occupations and often their name.  There were also mugs for lawyers, train conductors, tailors, chimney sweeps and even baseball players.  Those mugs without pictures often had the name of their owners proudly painted across the pure white or otherwise decorated surface.  Some of these styles of mugs are worth just a few dollars.  Others, especially the occupational mugs, can fetch hundreds or even thousands of dollars from serious collectors.

Typically, these mugs sat on a shelf in the barber’s shop, yet they were the property of the owner of the mug.  In fact, when the mug’s owner died, the mug was returned to the family by the barber.

While we are on the subject of death, I wanted to pass along a bit of shaving history that is slightly macabre…and the REAL reason for those cheerfully decorated mugs – fear of the Grim Reaper. Since it is likely that you weren’t born in the early 1900’s, you might not be aware that it wasn’t until 1928 that Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin.   And it was a good ten years before it was widely used.  If you were unlucky enough to get a nasty bacterial infection prior to Fleming’s discovery, you just had to ride it out and hope for the best.  

So those gentlemen who could afford them, bought their own mugs primarily to avoid catching another customer’s blood-borne bacterial infection.  It was THEIRS and could never be used by another customer.  Those who could not afford their own, took their chances that the barber washed his common mugs carefully between shaves.

In truth, if the barber employed even the most basic hygiene methods, like a good scrubbing with soap and water, the chances of passing along an infection would have been nearly zero; but it does say something about the tenor of the times before antibiotics were commonly available. 

Anyone for a nice personalized shaving mug?

A Word To The Salon/Barbershop Owner...

 Running a profitable barber shop or salon is a tough way to make a living. There is a lot of competition and you need to differentiate yourself from the competition. A great way to do this is by giving traditional straight razor shaves. Do the whole thing - hot towels, real shave soap, a nice shave brush and a few fine VINTAGE razors. There is a reason for this I will mention in a minute. The customer will leave more relaxed and you may have just become their barber for life. And with places like The Art of Shaving charging over $50 a shave, anything you charge will be a bargain.

Back to the vintage razors. Another source of income for you can be the sale of fine, professionally honed, vintage straight and double-edge razors. The Vintage Shaving Shoppe, LLC. typically sells directly to collectors, but we would be happy to work with you to make these fine razors available to your clients. And because we have no minimum number of razors you have to buy, you can start out with just a few while you begin to gain confidence in this new source of revenue. As we are one of the world's largest buyers of straight razors, so you can be assured that if you need more, we will have them in stock. Since we also provide honing services, you can collect your customer's razors and send them to use for honing - we will send them back shave-ready.

We are also steadily increasing our stock of Barberania (yes, it is a word) - vintage shaving items that like old shaving mugs, strops, brushes, vintage photos and more. You can sell these items or use them to create the atmosphere of an old-time barber shop.

Want to know more, email me at assistance@vintageshavingshoppe.com, I would be happy to discuss how to bring traditional wet-shaving to your establishment.