1. Yep. Gem stainless and China made Schick injector blades are generally regarded as the best in current production. 2. Depends on whether you're a collector or a user. There's a big sliding scale there but a vintage beater can shave as well as a mint edition. Depends on what you want. 3. Dunno.
As far as blades goes for injectors you have 3 to 4 major types of blades to choose from. 1. Chinese Schicks - you can buy these at ebay, walmart, amazon, etc. 2. Japanese Schicks - these differ from the Chinese ones and include regular injector blades, Schick II twin blades and the Proline B-20 blades 3. Supply injector blades - these are made in Japan and may either be a rebrand of the Japanese Schicks or their own custom made edge either way the place to buy these are from Supply Shave Co. 4. Personna blades and rebrands like Ted Pella, Taconic Shave, Parker, etc. There are other companies that make these blades like Kai but far as I know they are strictly for medical use and not sharp enough to use for shaving. As far as Gem blades goes there used to be 4 suitable for shaving but the only ones easily found these days are the stainless steel PTFE coated blades. Connaught shaving even with the international shipping is one of the more competitive vendors on price that carries all these blades except for the Supply and Chinese Schicks. https://connaughtshaving.com/
You don't have to ride it exactly flat, you only start there and slightly angle it out until you find the best working angle.
1. They are readily available now. Always? Only time will tell. 2. Your choice. If you want it to look new, then buy near-mint. Since you are going to shave with it, don't buy NOS still in the packaging since you will pay a premium for packaging you will just rip open anyway. I'm pretty much talking about the later Schick injectors in blister packs. Personally, I would go for user-grade in decent condition. That's what I did and it didn't break the bank. You should be able to get a really nice condition vintage Schick injector for less than $30. 3. I've never used AC. The blades are pricey. The advantage of fleabay is that many sellers don't know what they are selling! That's how you get the good deals. There are tons of Schick injectors and Gem-style razors there. Those vendors you mention above I've seen on the bay, and they charge premium prices. Avoid.
I did some digging on the Gem blades. The ones suitable for shaving usually have a 3 facet cut. The part numbers are the following for packs of 100 Stainless Steel coated PTFE - commonly used for shaving 62-0165 Stainless Steel uncoated - not recommended they are very tuggy 62-0167 Carbon steel- super smooth but the blades rust if not dried between shaves 62-0161 Carbon steel blue blades - some guys like these never did see why myself and prefer the regular Carbon Steel blades 62-0163 razorbladeco.com carries all these blades. You can find smaller quantities but they will cost more for the blue blades on amazon sold as Gem Blue Star blades in packs of 10 with a blade bank. The other also but you'll have to look around on that.
The Gem PTFE coated stainless steel blades and Personna injector blades are used extensively in the medical industry, they are not going anywhere anytime soon.
I just realized the OP is in Australia. Not sure how common these U.S. made vintage razors are there locally. I suppose you need to pay shipping from the U.S. then on the bay.
On condition, most razors tend to look worse in the picture than in person and most clean up nicely, what you want to keep away from are obviously rotted and/or broken razors. As long as they are in good working condition a little TLC goes a long way with vintage stuff. Since the O.P. is in Australia the way to go initially on single edge razors is find vendors in the US selling lots with at least 1 to 2 razors you do want and if you can get those razors for the equivalent of $20 USD or less when you spread the cost per piece your shipping cost also drops per piece to the point if you get the scragglers cheap enough you might be able to resell them locally and make back what you paid for the lot plus shipping without selling the razor(s) you actually wanted.
Looking at completed sales in the U.S., I see a bunch of Type Es in decent (nowhere near bad) condition that sold for less than $5 USD. Looking at my purchase history on the bay, I paid $22 for an E3 in good condition with a lousy-condition original case 2 years ago.
@ChrisB if you want these 3 razors to get started for the price of the shipping pm me. It should cost me somewhere around $15 - $20 USD to ship them your way. If you don't take them they will eventually wind up as TSD raffle items. You got one good aggressive razor in the micromatic open comb, the other Gem is milder and the Schick Type I Hydro-magic is a beater but a good working razor.
Still waiting for some blades I ordered from Connaught shaving a while back, as well as some other stuff from overseas, hopefully should be here soon after the Easter break. Even stuff ordered from over East in Australia seems to be taking ages to get here. Meantime the excitement builds.
Update @BBS your package arrived earlier today it feels like Xmas just after Easter! All well wrapped, you will be relieved to know all three look to be in great working order after their long journey. Super cool gesture. Now just need to decide which to play with first!
https://www.etsy.com/shop/TechichiS...820tWIGaLG&eaid=82589671361&x_eaid=c1f01f2e48 Not much help to the OP but, for anyone that refers to this thread, my <$20 Gem Type-G SE razor came from this shop, and I was impressed with what it cost and what I received! Not sure about international shipments. Connaught Shaving and Shaving.IE both have treated me well too!
They sell on eBay. I have always passed on their listing for the simple reason that I could pay less from other sellers. I'm not doubting their quality, but they pretty much want top-dollar.
Thought I'd add on modern Gem SE razors these are the following I found are still being produced. For budget razors PAA as it turns out is still producing the Starling SE razor. The current iteration is a V2. These run about $50 now. In the $100+ range you have Wolfman Blackland Sabre Shield Gem razor If you want to make your own plenty of 3D printed designs out there on the thingiverse.
