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You’re listening to Wet Shaving Talk powered by Sharpologist.com where we’re dedicated to preserving the art and skill of classic shaving. I’m your host Joe Borrelli and today is Jan17 th ,2022
Today on the Show
Happy New Year
Meet Up In Arizona
K ShaveWorx Closing Up
Mislabeled Double Ring on Ebay Sells for Cheap!
Price Increases
Meet Up In Arizona
K Shave Worx Closing
Mis-Labeled Double Ring
It’s always important to check the description. This one sold for $220.
Price Increases
Our show is powered by Sharpologist.com, “What Your Father Didn’t Teach You about Shaving”
Special Thanks to:
Mark aka Mantic 59
Most of All……….YOU!!!!
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Our next show will be 1/31/22
Until then….
Shave straight and Shave Safe!
Transcript
You’re listening to, Wet shaving talk, powered by Sharpologist, dotcom, where we’re dedicated, preserving the art and skill of classic shaving, I’m your host, Joel, and today is January 17th 2022,
All right, everyone, welcome back to the podcast and happy New Year to you all, 2022 is finally here. I apologized for missing the first show, but honestly I needed a little bit of a break after the holiday season. Everything you’ve read in the papers, everything you’ve read online, whatever you think of, it’s happening in the retail world just about everywhere in the world right now, and I can tell you it was very difficult season to get through being a retail manager and being sick.
On top of that I did catch the FLU or something really bad was really really beat me up. I put in probably the most hours I’ve put in many years and I actually had to go out a few days sick. So it was a tough holiday season and I just like, after everything, I just need some time just to relax and to really rebuild what we’re doing at home and everything like that. I just get the family all set away and you know, get all the stuff done, cleaning and now get the cars maintained and everything like that just to get everything ready for the new year. Because you know being a retail manager and being so busy.
I know a lot of you guys out there are busy certain times of the year. I know if you’re an accountant, this is your busy time in the year. I know if you’re in supply chain usually know the summer time is a busy time. Ease that’s getting ready for the holidays and for retail managers this time of the year is really you know. Just coming out of from November to December is really just like a blur. You kind of like let everything go off. I mean I have. I’ve been doing this for so long. I have a plan. I have everything set up before Thanksgiving to last me until really until New Years had New Years come round and my my brother-in-law got married on January first. So that was a big thing. We were preparing for that holiday. So it was just like a big rush. So I had to take a little bit of time off from the pocket. So I apologized, but we’re back on normal schedule and really happy to be back.
Few things, guys, if you hear some wind or anything in the background, I am sitting out on my patio. It is about 67 degrees right now in South Florida, so I’m enjoying the nice weather, beautiful day outside and I love recording the broadcasts outside. So I apologize if you hear any sprinklers or if you hear a bird chirp or something like that, it’s just I m outside and really it is. It is beautiful. So today on the show, all right.
Well, on our first show of 2022 we’re going to talk about well, first off, I want to wish you all happy New year, so we’ll we’ll do that. Second, it will be a meet up in Arizona. This is going to be a really awesome meet up. That’s going to be done at Razor Emporium. We’ve got a shave works, some major vendor, major artists and closing up shop. They announced a few weeks ago that they are going to close and they’re going to have a few more releases and that will be it. Once that’s done, that’s done. A mislabeled double ring on sold for record low double ring sold for under $300 I’ll tell you about that and also some tricks on how to find it, how to find those. Those gems and also major price increases are in the honestly they’re in their works for for most artisans and most probably most software. And you’ll see maybe shave brushes as well, and I’ll tell you how to battle them, how to. I’m sorry, how to combat those price changes, how to save a few bucks here for you and that, and you know, also now be very nice to the to the vendors and stuff. It’s not their fault. So without further ado, let’s get on with the show.
All right, everyone meet up in Arizona. It’s the Arizona shavers meet up. Coming up. It’s going to be held at Razor Emporium. I got to be honest with you guys. This is very exciting because this is one meet up that I really want to go to and I’m going to try and make it there. That’s what I’m going to do. It’s going to only be one day here. I’m on, have to fly in the day of and fly home the day that night. So now sticking around for me, unfortunately. But I would love to go to this meet up and I’m seriously considering it. They’re going to do on the 26th of February, a shop tour. Well, first, all the doors open up at nine am razor emporium. You can go there and look around and talk to everybody, you hang out.
They’re going to do a ten shop tour. So we’re going to tour the shop, how they do all the repairs of the razors and plating and all that good stuff. There, goin to do a plating demo at 11 o’clock, show you how they plate razors, and then at 1130 they’re going to do a soap making demo as well, and then around 1230 they’re goin to do lunch at a water station brewery, which is, I guess, within the area, and they’re doing specials, raffles and all that good stuff. So I mean this is a really exciting meet up. It seems to be like it’s about half a day. So if you can get it if you’re in the area, if you’re within driving distance, I would highly recommend taking this day off and trying to go there and having a good time, because this is really going to be fun. I mean this is going to be an awsome meet up and just to see all all the tools and everything. I mean. Like I said, I am trying to make this work. I’m going to see if I can go, but I would have to only go for like one day.
So if I do, I’ll I’ll announce it on the next cast. If I’m going to go there and and have and and actually meet up at this at this meet up and if you guys have any questions for the podcast or going and you want to just, you know, introduce yourself and I’d love to meet anybody who listens or anybody who’s any wet shaver that’s interested. I’ll definitely carve out some time to where we can just hang out and maybe that you now have a separate table, whatever any questions, comments concern whatever for the podcast. Love to do that. If I can get over there, so something that I am considering, it is in a few weeks. So I can definitely have an answer by the next post if I’m goin to be able to make it. But I would love to go just even for a half-day it’d be great, yeah.
So if you’re if you’re ever wondering how they restore Gillette razors or vintage razors or what they do with the plating process and everything, great opportunity for that open for that shop tour as your emporium here in the next few weeks to check it out on their website on February 26, 2022, starting at nine.
So k-shaveworks has been a vendor that I’ve been dealing with on and off since 2015. I’d say I worked with them with a couple of collaborations. They’ve actually made me a custom soap that was going to use, but unfortunately the wholesaling stuff just didn’t work out. We’re to get the same deal as some of my other brethren that are in the area, so I wasn’t able to do it. It would require just too much for me to handle, but their quality of the products have been, you know, really nice. I mean, I remember at first they started off and they were little little bit touch and go here with with the aftershaves, but they really perfected that after about a year or two.
So they’re they’re coming out, their last sop, the finale. This will be the final so that they come out with, and they they’ve decided to close-up shop and just really focus on their day jobs, which is something I think you’re going to see a lot of in the near future and just to talk a little bit more about that, not involving just k-shaveworks. You’re talking about vendors here and you think about like if you have a day job and you do this on the side and then all these all these, you know the COVID challenges and everything, and trying to order containers and order an order lye, scent oil and stuff like that, and this is just your your secondary job or hobby. It’s really tough to stay in the loop.
Not only that but also stuff you know. With with the customers asking questions, I mean they probably get hundreds of emails a week. They have to answer them in timely matter, or else then you’re not. You’re not very good artizen this and that you now dealing with returns, dealing with people that aren’t happy with stuff, dealing with damages, dealing with shipping delays. You think it’s a lot of communication with the online businesses. It’s a ton of communication I could tell you right now, with the shipping delays going on and shipping increases, it does hit hit the vendor’s hard. So I can understand why they’re probably shutting down. They’re probably making you know two or three times more, maybe five or ten times more in their day jobs. And this has just been like a hobby and a lot of fun and just been something that they started up to see if they can make it bigger.
But it’s just it’s it’s just not big of an industry yet to where you know you could start making soap out of your house and sell it at West Coast shaving or sell it at Maggards and a couple of other vendors and sell it direct and then be able to say: I’m going to retire. You know the way to do that would be like kind of like Cremo if you have know Cremo. You’ve seen there their business, this business model. They’re in Target. They’re in public, they’re in grocery stores, they’re in, you know, drug stores everywhere. They’re probably thousands of stores and that’s the type of business that you would be able to say he can retire on or this will be my complete job. You know if you’re doing that with distribution. You know also talking about like companies like Phoenix Artisan Accoutrements. You know that’s a day job because he does, does bulk and really has the advertising down and really just keeps going with the new releases and stuff like that. So that would be a business model that you could see. That’s that’s his bread and butter he’s got. You know he’s got his own warehouse or whatever. You know a little shop that he uses and can sell thousands of soaps a month. You know if you’re doing it from your garage or from your home or from a little bit of a place like that, it’s very hard to sell enough to where you can just say, hey, I’m done with my day job and I’m going to retire.
So I mean that’s kind of some of the stuff that we’ll be talking about here in the future with with artisans and stuff in all that area. I’m actually writing an article analyzing the weaving industry for 2022, something I’ve done for the last, I think, four or five years for Sharpologist. I’m writing it right now. It’s this one’s going to be the most intense one I’ve ever written, because the market is the. It’s really been affected quite a bit over all of this. The price, all the challenges from from COVID, the pandemic challenges are just and they keep going, they keep getting worse, worse in this area and just keeps pending. And just one thing leads to another and this starts. And last year this wasn’t a problem. You know, shipping wasn’t a problem last year. Now they got containers stuck out on ships, could due to congestion and all that stuff. It’s just it’s just a big mass. So hopefully we don’t see too many more vendors closed. But I do predict we’ll probably see several others back out here in the near future. So k-shaveworks. We do salute you. We wish you the best of luck in the wet shaving world and we hope that you guys still are active in the community, at least as as members and as a hobbyist instead of instead of vendor. So we do wish you good luck and we give you a nice wet shaving talk salute.
So recently I’m very big on ebay. Go on several times a day looking at stuff. Look at not only just wet shaving products but other things as well. I do like to have a general knowledge of collecting multiple things like one. I know you know wet shaving, my number one collecting area. That’s my number one hobby, but also I love watches. I love vintage watches, I love new watches. You know I love swiss watches, japanese watches. So I’m always looking at watches. I’m always looking at wet shaving stuff like brushes and razors, mostly razors, and then I look at pens through and stuff like that. I just look at really weird things. I guess that just interested me and I found this mislabeled double ring last week and it was labeled as like Gillette razor or something like old Gillette razor. And I don’t know if the case is correct for the time the case is kind of beat up, but it is a full case. It’s always important to check the description because this one sold for like $220 somebody got lucky on it and it was closer to the end of the auction because I remember looking at it was like $30 for a long time. At the end of the auction it went up now, regardless case double ring. Even if the case is beat up, I’d say it’s definitely worth the three to $500 range right now.
And if you’re looking at other items like toggles, togs are going for a huge premium right now. They are going for like $700 for a case model or a $1000 for a case model when they used to go for like three. I got mine for and back in 2018 and 2019 I got my case tioggle, which is in great shape, with blade bank and everything paid like $300 for it. You know, maybe a little bit less. Now you’re going to go $5-6-8-1000 for for it with the shipper and everything, which is something that’s been unheard-of since I’ve been in the industry. I mean since I’ve been doing this, since I’ve been playing with wet shaving or whatever you want to call it. You know, been involved, but this one you got to look at and sometimes just looking at Gillette razor, just googling Gillett razor putting Gillette razor and just searching, you might find one.
That’s how I found this, because I have an automatic search comes back to me. When when more Gillette razors are posted and I saw this one, I was like ok, I want to see where this one goes and it went higher than I thought it was because I think a couple of other guys found out about it. But yeah, that’s the way you can get some good deal. That’s why that’s how I got my double ring. I got a double ring, double ring, 1904, model, no serial number. I got it for like around 280 back a few years ago because it was mislabeled as Gillette Razor and I got lucky and I just nobody else really was on it except maybe a couple of guys.
So and that razor could have probably gone for $5-700 easily. So just looking at this for the the double ring here, the pictures and the show notes, always important to check the description, look and look searched. Even if the case is beat up, it’s still a case and it still adds value to the razor and this razor is beautiful shape for what it is. I mean it does have a lot of patina. A lot of guys like to get rid of that patina on these on these razors because silver coat, it’s very easy to do so personally. Patina, I think, really shows a lot of character and I like to keep it on there. So just looking at that picture, it was a really good finds. I’ve actually seen a couple of red dots, red dot for that. I saw one go for like a 101 guy bought one for like 80 bucks because he said: buy it now $80 and he just went and so it. It was mislabeled Gillette razor. He just bought it and then posted it on one of the Gillette forum. Hey, I got this for $80 and that raises going for about ten times that right now.
Unfortunately I’ve never really gotten to get something that crazy. I’ve never been lucky enough to find a toggle in an antique store or anything like that, but they are out there and check it out and check. You know, just keep checking. That’s all you got to do. Just keep looking searching and you’ll find that grail eventually, and that will be the day that you get the post online too, and you’ll be so proud of your your catch, and that will be definitely a staple part of your collection.
All right, so moving along, price increases, you know this is something that you know this is. This is bound to happen, but it’s going to get real here pretty soon. Guys. Yeah, I saw a post by Sterling saying that a barrel of jewellers. Excuse me, perfumers Alcohol has almost tripled in price in the last three months and that. So here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to have your going, have price increases, but the venders, the artisans, in order to stay competitive, they’re going to have to, they’re going to have to be, they’re going to cut their profits, which is something that sterling said. Yeah, we’re going to keep it as minimal as possible. We don’t want it to affect a customer and look, I understand where they’re coming from and that that statement. But I also understand it’s a business. An you got to make money and if they cut their profits down, that’s when you see companies like k-shaveworks closed because they’re like, okay, we don’t want to raise the price too much.
But we cannot operate at soap being, say example, soaping $13 and more. When every the materials gone up 35 or 40% in the last six months, our soap can’t stay the same price. We have to raise our price 30 to 40% just to break-even right. Combat that with inflation. Whatever you want to talk about and you’re looking at, they’re losing money and they raise their price 30% so I applaud that mentality. I think that you know that’s really they’re really showing how much they care about the people and their customers. But honestly, guys, it’s it’s not going to, it’s not going to be able to be sustainable. They cannot run a business like that. Nobody can. You’re going to have to raise the price. Something’s got to give right. Shipping costs are expensive, right, so shipping and all that’s going up. So a few things, a few words of advice to inventors. Guys, raise your prices and make money. We don’t we’d rather pay more at at the check out than for you not to be in business in six months like, honestly, if, if you told me today that he had to raise his soap from 15 to $22 a tub, listen, I’ll pay it. I would pay it because, look it’s a, it’s a shaving soap tub. It’s a hobby. This is not something that I go out and buy and I need. It’s not like bread and I need it every day. It’s something that I want to buy. It’s not, it’s not a necessity, it’s a luxury right and shaving soap. You know, puck or container, that that stuff will last several months. Most of us don’t use just one soap. Most of us use multiple types of soap. Right.
We have different types of brands, we have different vendors, different sense. You know we collect them, we want to have, we buy, we trade them so very rarely do you see whether use all their soap up in all their aftershave. Primarily, now there are some people out there that just use one soap, one brush, one razor. But I can be honest with you. Most of you listening to this podcast probably have more than one or have tried at least more than one brand. Otherwise we’d all be using Williams, you know mug soap or or something like that, with Vanderhagen brush right. Otherwise we’d all have the same stuff right. So a couple of things you know, advice to the venders. Raise your prices, do what you’ve got to do to make money and stay with us, because we’d rather you be here and cost more than not have you at all. And I think most of the wet shavers listening to this cask will agree with me. 2 is for the customers. Consumers. Guys, go easy on on these vendors. I’ve talked to a couple of vendors.
They’re getting, you know, shipping delays and all that stuff and they’re having issues getting you know, getting those orders to you on time. It’s not their fault once it leaves the place, once it leaves their, their, their facility and its shipping, and it takes two or three days longer. It’s not their fault. All right, give him an extra couple of days if it says it’s going to be there Monday and it ends up, and then it’s not there until Monday. Don’t call them, don’t bother until Thursday. Just think about this. You’re part time artisan or full-time artisan. You’re working with your day job maybe, or this is your primary job. Whatever there, you send out a 100. So you got a 100 people asking questions. You got customers asking questions about it. You have people that just want to shoot around and talk and they’re very busy, that’s I’d say, probably communication or social media. For these vendors is probably about 60% of their job. Maybe 70% of their time is spent answering emails.
You know talking about shipping issues, checking on shipping issues and all that stuff. So give em a couple of extra days and give them some time to to really get that order to you, because it’s not. Once it leaves their facility it really isn’t their fault and you know most vendors will do right. If it doesn’t get to you, they’ll give you a refund, but don’t don’t go calling them. You know, if it hasn’t been here on the same day, give him a couple of extra day, because you know the US postal service is a little slow. So that’s my advice. Guys just go easy on each other. Really vendors, raise your prices, do what you got to do to make money and stay business consumers. Be mindful of that and mindful of the shipping delays and all that stuff. And then all in all, guys, if, if you’re looking at this and like you know, they’re saving their, the prices have gone up so much and I can’t afford it anymore.
Okay, there’s ways to first off purchase items from artisans directly and save some money. One is buy and bulk most artisans all for a deal. If you buy like $75 or a $100 or more free shipping right there, you’re going to save yourself about $20 in shipping right, maybe maybe a little here they’re more or little less 20 bucks or going to save. That’s like whole soap for free. Think of it like that now. I feel like well, I don’t need a $100 worth of stuff. I just want to buy one soap. That’s when you got to get with your friends. You know, if you have a local wet shaving group, have locally I used to hang out with a bunch of wet shavers in the area where I live and we would say: hey, we’re gong to do a bulk order. Everybody put in your order what you want and then we’d just give the cash to one guy and he would place the order and then pick it up and have, like Minnie, meet up, know COVID, you can’t really do that or may not want to do that, but many meat up could be. You know three times when I could tell you some wet shavers that were local, I would just drive to their house and put it in the mill box and say: okay, I’m going to put in your mailbox or whatever, because they’re close by or they would do that for me too.
So I mean figure it out. You know you can do that, both orders or the best way to do it, and then look for sales and look for promotions there. There are some promotions out there and they’ll always do like a bulk deal if you buy like. Hey, if you buy the bundle you’ll save ten percent that combine with shipping. You can save up to like maybe like 30 or $40 on order just by doing that, by buying and buying the set or buying what’s on sale, clearance or whatever. So you could still combat these high prices and still give the vendor and still give the vendor artist their due diligence and their and the the proper funding, and still give them business. Now they don’t mind filling up a box and setting it out and offering the free shipping if you’re purchasing a $100 worth of stuff or two, whatever it is. So that’s just my thoughts on that guy is the price increases and stuff. It’s just, it’s a shame that all this, all this is happening from COVID, from the pandemic you now. We did not see this happening back in 2020. Two years ago we were just we were talking about, hey, meetups and all this stuff. What’s going on the Big Shave Southwest? And and then we went two years without any meetups. And then now we’re starting to see the supply chain issues, which is starting to really catch-up so it’s a shame, but we’ll get through it and there will be things will be back to normal eventually someday, to where we’ll be talking about this with our grandchildren, great grandchildren, friends and family. But you remember that time when they’re in a pandemic. That’s what I think.
So, guys, it’s really good to be back on the podcast. You know, after having really like again, difficult holiday season and health issues this year never have been happier to do a podcast and just to have some fun talking about wet shaving. And you know, always you can email me at joe, dot whetha ing news at email dot com any time and I will definitely get back to you. An we can definitely talk wet shaving if you like, and hopefully I get to meet. Meet some. You had that meet up. I’m really going to start and this week and see if I can make it happen with timing and just issues. It would be like a one day thing for me, so I would only have a few hours. But I would really look forward to seeing that doing that shop or probably more than anybody out there, because I’m always interested in how that stuff kind of stuff works. So until next time. Just remember, our show is powered by sharpologist Dotcom, what your father didn’t teach you about shaving. Don’t forget to check out Sharpologist guys. He’s got some really good information coming out there. Mantic has been really really on top of it with the current trends and everything. Really impressed with some of the articles coming out there. I’ll check out also my blogsite, which I’m actually upgrading right now, so it’s closed, but it will be open pretty soon. Have straight and safe dotcom and also, you know, if any questions or anything like that, always feel free to email me. Our next show will be on the 31st of January and until then shave straight and shave safe by by now.
