To the uninitiated, it will seem outrageous. To collectors, you know what this is. Congrats to whomever got it. That bid beat my $421.99 bid. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120690840173 No cracks, plating looks great, no bent or missing teeth.. but best of all, not marked with the usual "PAT. NOV. 15 '04" patent date but instead marked "PAT. APL'D FOR".. meaning this was one of the very first Gillette razors ever made before their patent was even approved. Only 25,424 of these were made in 1904. A beautiful specimen and, value wise, worth every penny. I have to say.. my heart sunk and I'm heartbroken I didn't score this one..
I wonder if the seller knew what they were selling? Imagine the grin when he sees it went for that amount.
cool, i would have had no idea. someone owns a little piece of history there. very nice. i was bidding on a new old stock, nothing like the one above, but got outbid: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320663883898&ssPageName=STRK:MEDWX:IT
The winner of the auction posted over at B&B. If you want it badly enough, if you can afford it, and if you're competing with other collectors, you pay what you need to. I'd very much like to own a good quality Double Ring myself, but not enough to pay what they seem to be going for. Sorry you missed out, but it looks like the buyer did appreciate what he got.
I was watching that, knowing full well that it would sell for far above my budget. You have a pre-patent double ring don't you Jody?
Oh Rodd, you brought back such a painful memory... not that you knew or anything... I had to go through a big ordeal with PayPal and get my very large chunk of money back, a little over twice what the DR in this auction cost, because the seller didn't ship and cut off all communication. And it still makes my blood boil! :angry032 :angry019 On a better note, watch the haul thread shortly... finally I got something else...
Thanks Jody, I knew it was a double ring, old, in good condition but missed the pat. applied for and wondered why the big boys were out to dance; wisely I decided it was time for me to get off the dance floor or be stomped.
I know it's none of my business.... I used to think that it was a good thing you weren't addicted to drugs (of course I assume that ) because of all the money you spend on razors But then an offer of $400+ for this one makes me think you should reconsider them:whacky011 You must have a great job... At what point is 'too much' for a razor? After all, you probably have a few hundred others laying around...that just blows my mind. I'm not trying to be negative...just trying understand why you, or anyone for that matter, would spend that much on a razor?
Because I don't have the money for paintings by Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, Georgia O'Keefe or Frida Kahlo? :happy097 I look at it this way.. I don't do drugs, I don't go out and party, no good bands ever come here for me to see live so I don't do concerts, I refuse to pay the prices they want to go see a movie and eat corn kernels, I don't eat out 10 times a week, I don't have babies because diapers, formula, doctors appointments and my sleep time is expensive, and my other half brings home a check too.. I've choosen to divert money most people spend on other things, to an awesome razor collection. And I know 40, 50 years from now (if not sooner the way prices have been going up), that whomever gets my collection when I'm dead and gone, will be well rewarded double if not triple what I paid for it all. A cased Super Speed can be had for $25 today... $400 in 2050. Invest.
Yeah, aside from the fact that I was too pissed to even broach the subject again, I was quite embarrassed. ha! I've learned not to boast about owning a high dollar item until it's in my hand....
It's a prison/sanitarium razor, right? I saw a youtube video demonstration this week using one. Nice piece.
No. It's not a prison razor. It's the first Gillette razor model made and sold to the public in 1904. The prison razors, aka the Gillette Psycho, didn't come about until the 1950s.
Somebody paid over 400 bucks for a razor?!? They must be totally nuts, and will be lucky if they can sell it for one quarter that much 10 years from now. It reminds me of a friend who "invested" in laser tag guns, only to take a bath when the value plummeted a short while later. Bric-a-brac collectibles are not the best investment instruments. Now if somebody were enterprising, they would start cranking out fakes by the boatload in China and selling them on eBay. After all, people used to pay good money for pet rocks.
It is a very nice piece, I bet the seller really had no idea what he had.... If your hobby is wet shaving and you truly treat it like a hobby, price doesn't matter, the thing is, at this point in time I really wouldn't consider anything relating to it to be a future investment.
double ring Guy across the street got it, so at least it is still in a community of people that appreciate shaving and the tools invented to do it with.
This razor was made between mid 1904 and the Nov. 15 date since it has a serial number. Prior to Gillette serializing their razors they made about 55,000 Double Rings without serial numbers and marked "Pat. Apl'd For". Those are the early ones and more valuable. Len