One thing I have seen people say is that Gillette was able to produce high-quality razors, in large enough numbers, that have lasted such that there are still a lot of working models, due to the economy of scale of making them back in the days when the market for them was very large (since DE razors, aside from SE stuff like the Injector, were the only game in town unless you wanted to learn to shave with a straight razor).
The end result being that you can get a working Superspeed or whatever from the 50s for less than the price of a case of beer (vary the size of the case depending on how much booze costs locally). Even fancier stuff like the adjustable ones is quite affordable. Compare to the prices you'll pay for a working, halfway-decent condition guitar from back in the day: you can get a working, good quality 1959 Fat Boy for a hundred bucks US or less, and it retailed for about 2 back then.
In comparison, a Stratocaster (for non-guitar nerds: Fender's machined, solid-wood-bodied, bolt-on-neck guitars were originally derided for being cheaper and easier to make than acoustics or Gibson-style hollow/semi-hollow electrics) in 1957 cost under 300 dollars - nowadays depending on condition you could pay somewhere in the neighbourhood of $30,000-50,000. And that's not just for collectors - musicians will swear that 50s and 60s era guitars were just better, especially Fenders. Of course, it's way easier to break or otherwise mess up a guitar than a little thing made of metal. And way more people over the years have done something stupid like refinish their old Strat.
Now that I've finished being amazed at how much people will pay for a guitar, the point: I've got a couple old Gillettes, including the Blue Tip I've been using. Supposedly, current TTOs just aren't as good, certainly not at the same price point. The high-end razor makers seem mostly to be making 3-piece models.
So, the question I'm wondering about is, if I end up buying a new razor, is there any reason to not just get a good-condition vintage model (obviously the issue there is whether or not the seller is telling the truth) instead of a current-production one?
How do modern razors measure up to old Gillettes?
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