Blade Prices?

An (unnamed) online wet shaving vendor is having a “sale” on blades.
So I looked at the actual cost of Gillette Nacets with shipping.
Then compared the same on other websites for both Nacet and Voskhod blades.

Needless to say…I was pretty damned shocked by the price(s)
Let’s be clear…I’m not advocating buying your blades from anywhere.
(Just me…but I’d rather buy my 100 blades along with other items from a small business shaving vendor, even if I pay $1 or $2 more…)

But $16 more (more than double the price) after a 15% off sale?
Seems like a complete ripoff to me…these guys are laughing at offering a 15% off sale price.
Caveat Emptor my friends!
No wonder some guys try to get 47 shaves out of a blade!
(HEY! Maybe I could buy some blades and resell them to guys who triple the price of handles that they bought on BST?)

Maybe covering losses from the recent "Tabac-apocolypse" where for a brief time of panic buying the esteemed soap in the milk-glass bowl was listed and sold for $12 .

Ive been leery of buying blades on Amazon since I bought some very reasonably priced Kai blades - vendor said they were loose. ie, not packed in the blue cardboard box - as you know Kai blades have no marking on the blade or the wrapper. So I got a bunch of blades with no marking on the blade or the wrapper and not in the boxes.  They shaved much rougher than the Kai blades I had bought from vendors that did come in the box.  Counterfeit?  Who knows but I suspect yes.

West Coast Shaving sucks

West Coast Shaving sucks

Their blade prices or generally?

I did a search elsewhere, just to see prices in comparison. This seems to be around the same price for other vendors too. A lot of which only sell by the 5-pack (tuck?).

My guess... They probably all shop on the Bay, Amazon, whatever. Then they resell it. I could be wrong, but it makes sense if you need a wholesaler and don't have an 'according to hoyle' vendor for a specific product.

Sent from my RadioShack TRS-80 using Tapatalk

West Coast Shaving sucks

Their blade prices or generally?

Generally. They are owned by a venture capitalist group so that tells you they are only in it for the money. I've seen numerous "sales" like this from them that aren't really that great. Despite being called West Coast Shaving, their warehouse is in South Carolina (go figure). I've read multiple reports of their order fulfillment and shipping being super slow including the couple orders I've made from them. For my money there are much better places to shop at for shaving gear.

West Coast Shaving sucks

Their blade prices or generally?

Generally. They are owned by a venture capitalist group so that tells you they are only in it for the money. I've seen numerous "sales" like this from them that aren't really that great. Despite being called West Coast Shaving, their warehouse is in South Carolina (go figure). I've read multiple reports of their order fulfillment and shipping being super slow including the couple orders I've made from them. For my money there are much better places to shop at for shaving gear.

Oh man, if venture capitalists are getting into wet shaving then that doesn't bode well for prices.  It also tells you that what money there is to be made in the space is as a vendor and not on the hard working creative side - the actual makers of the hardware and software we all love.  I've tried where possible to buy directly from the artisans in the belief that more of the dollars will stay in their pockets and keep them in the game.  Venture Capitalists 

The best bargain I ever got for blades was Shaverboy, a Canadian brand. (manufactured in China)
They originally (last year) offered 100 blades for CAD$7.95, which included tax and shipping for Canadian customers.
They're great blades too, comparable to Astra SP or Derby Extra.



Now the price is up to CAD$9.95, and there's no mention of shipping or taxes until part way through checkout, where they now say "Shipping & taxes calculated at checkout". I've not gone further to see what the shipping comes to.

[edit - I just looked at the unboxing pix of my order last year. The shipping was $3.21 of stamps, via Canada Post. The sales taxes was probably something like 15%.]

One thing to consider is that there’s a high chance of getting counterfeit products (not just blades) on Amazon nowadays….If you search, you’ll see small business websites with actual stores in Canada that sell DE blades at very reasonable prices…