Sept 2022—Is Wolfman still such a hot commodity?

He cannot keep interest high by selling same products over years and increasing the price often.
It became a company which is trying to sell a simple aluminum shave brush over $300.

'Same' is the key word here...the design doesn't change or evolve....like sailor or iPhone.
But the prices just rose and rose....the premium is for perceived value and excellence
of craftsmanship. And he actually created a lower standard of finish...that sounded like
a downgrade, with lower price and expectations. Quite unprecedented for an aspirational
brand.

Navigating the wolfman experience is now not as straightforward as before. Many folks,
me included, needed to try many gaps before deciding which is "the one". I personally ran
through 7 or 8 new mirror polished razors just to settle on 1.35. Back then, these razors
were easy to resell without losing money....now Im not so sure. And reselling a used mirror
polish razor today would be a challenge. I consider myself lucky to have been able to
experiment without too much downside financially.

Looking at the price increase I think it was justified. For instance, when James offered two SS finishes, mirror and, IIRC, Satin (?) the mirror was much more expensive. James worked alone, and did all the finishing by himself.

Now a premium polished head is $625 Cad, and premium satin is $525 CAD. The whole razor didn't cost that before the prices increased. Now a basic brushed matte razor head is $300 CAD, and basic polished $325 CAD.

Say all this to say, James is finally getting paid for the work he was 'giving away' in the past. Imagine his looking at a razor he was selling (years ago) for $400 CAD going on ebay for $800 USD ! Anyway, I'm not happy he increased his prices, but I understand it. Surprised he didn't do so years ago.

It's a fair system, even though some of us can't give this amount of money for a razor. He did what he thinks it's best for him and I believe he doesn't get so many complaints anymore. People were getting crazy...

If I had a time-machine, I'd tell myself a few years back the following:

"Just stop buying dozens of razors, it is not worth it. Keep one or two that suits you and stop buying more. You don't need them, you won't live for centuries, you have one face."

I've spent a few thousands on razors. I must have bought and sold around 60 razors during the last decade, which is not extreme for the hobby but certainly not an average number. The two Wolfman razors I own are BY FAR the best shaving tools I've used. I'd have saved much more money if I had not bought all these vintage and zamak razors through the years.

People that have dozens or hundreds of vintage and other inexpensive zamak razors, even duplicates of vintage, say that Wolfman prices are very high, even though they have spent much more money on more items, which for me makes no sense.  Anyway.

Less (and more quality razors) is more (enjoyable shaves) This is my motto in the hobby.

Some find happiness in buying hundreds (mostly cheap items), some like me nowadays find happiness in buying two perfections and stop there.

Same here, I have slimmed my collection down to 2 DE and 2 SE razors and have to remind myself that I have enough. It was buying a Vector that cured my SE RAD.

Now to avoid the BST and stop browsing eBay!

Same here, I have slimmed my collection down to 2 DE and 2 SE razors and have to remind myself that I have enough. It was buying a Vector that cured my SE RAD.

Now to avoid the BST and stop browsing eBay!

good luck with that 

I think the two razor arsenal is very do-able...but first one has to take the obligatory
lap of discovery....no way one could just enter the world of DE buy one razor and
stop! For me, the journey kind of ended with the Sailor and Taiga because they
cover every gap there is...with off the charts refinement.

I still get tempted with offerings like Athena though....but still holding up hehe

The only way I justify it is by saying: don't wanna take these crazy expensive and
rare pieces on holiday...so let's get a travel razor.

Inflation plays a big role I suppose and limited numbers. I was never able
to justify a Toggle to myself at $500.

As a former collector of vintage tube radios, I developed this theory about collectibles.
The farther away you can recognize a particular model (of whatever vintage thing), the higher price it brings, regardless of the intrinsic quality.
For example, a Philco Transitone "Boomerang" radio:

Or a Fada "Bullet" radio (made of Catalin):


Both use the same generic 5-tube circuitry as any other kitchen radio from their day, and don't sound any better, but because you can spot one from the far side of a football field, they cost an arm and a leg these days. You could even argue that the colourful Catalin radios (like the Fada) are of lower quality than plain brown or painted Bakelite models because the Catalin cabinets would shrink, crack, and change colour (from ultraviolet) over the years. That lovely "butterscotch" colour was originally "alabaster", "olive green" was blue, etc.

A Gillette toggle razor has a similar cachet, because no other razor in the world resembles it. There might be rarer models, but they will never be as recognizable from a distance.

Simply moving from zamak to stainless steel provides heft and a more solid feel in the hand.
Plus I think its not cheap to make these boutique pieces cheaply and at scale. Guess they charge
for labour, time and equipment...plus they need to make a decent profit to keep going.

True, but the results have to justify going through all that effort, even if only to make it pretty to look at. 
One of the few things I remember from the Design History Survey lectures in college was the notion that "[a successful] Form ever follows Function", even when the successful form has seemingly useless features, such as streamlined fins on a toaster. The gimmick is that there is such a thing as a social function.

Oh, and as far as stainless steel goes, I wish you could get SS handles that were hollow, i.e. less hefty, but thick. I find most of them just too heavy for a good balance.

Is a BBS1 a hot commodity? Depends upon supply and demand

I saw a used 2x basic polish WR1 .61 SB gap on the BST for $365usd yesterday which included shipping.  Baffled that didn’t sell.  The seller will put that back up on the BST the week of Thanksgiving for current market price and sell it without any problems.

One year ago I had a post in the BST for a copper Wolfman handle.  My offer was $500usd cash.  Not one geezer would come off their extra handles and it wasn’t a secret who had them.  Frustrated with holding a WR1 copper head with a gap of .74 SB for almost 2 years I sold it in 1.5 minutes for an amount “the buyer offered”

8 weeks later I purchased my copper .54 DC Wolfie with 2 handles and a stand

I don’t think I can sell my copper Wolfman rig in 1.5 minutes today



Is ROCKWELL 6S still a hot commodity? Ummm, maybe, depends when you entered this arena

A hot commodity in my opinion is “the newest, latest and greatest” as well as items you cannot have by simply opening your wallet

WHAT is the newest, latest and greatest for “YOU?”

Inflation plays a big role I suppose and limited numbers. I was never able
to justify a Toggle to myself at $500.

As a former collector of vintage tube radios, I developed this theory about collectibles.
The farther away you can recognize a particular model (of whatever vintage thing), the higher price it brings, regardless of the intrinsic quality.
For example, a Philco Transitone "Boomerang" radio:

Or a Fada "Bullet" radio (made of Catalin):


Both use the same generic 5-tube circuitry as any other kitchen radio from their day, and don't sound any better, but because you can spot one from the far side of a football field, they cost an arm and a leg these days. You could even argue that the colourful Catalin radios (like the Fada) are of lower quality than plain brown or painted Bakelite models because the Catalin cabinets would shrink, crack, and change colour (from ultraviolet) over the years. That lovely "butterscotch" colour was originally "alabaster", "olive green" was blue, etc.

A Gillette toggle razor has a similar cachet, because no other razor in the world resembles it. There might be rarer models, but they will never be as recognizable from a distance.

Simply moving from zamak to stainless steel provides heft and a more solid feel in the hand.
Plus I think its not cheap to make these boutique pieces cheaply and at scale. Guess they charge
for labour, time and equipment...plus they need to make a decent profit to keep going.

True, but the results have to justify going through all that effort, even if only to make it pretty to look at. 
One of the few things I remember from the Design History Survey lectures in college was the notion that "[a successful] Form ever follows Function", even when the successful form has seemingly useless features, such as streamlined fins on a toaster. The gimmick is that there is such a thing as a social function.

Oh, and as far as stainless steel goes, I wish you could get SS handles that were hollow, i.e. less hefty, but thick. I find most of them just too heavy for a good balance.

I really had to search how much the beautiful "Boomerang" you posted is going for, so I found some sold listings on Ebay... these are pricey...

I'm sure it's a fine hobby.

One of the quirks of being a nomad has meant that I've never ever acquired a living space
to house a collection of any sort. And so Im always motivated by utility, rather than
collecting stuff.

I can see how a functional radio would command those kind of prices as it would be
used for hours at a time, maybe all day long....while a razor gets at best 10 minutes
a day...or every few days.