Cost efficiency of pricey DE blades

[dgilman]

I know this is nothing new to us denizens of B&B. I just can't help pointing it out again, partly to gloat over how much I enjoy this, and partly to underscore the fact for newbies wondering if the whole business is a good idea. I stopped wasting my money on cartridges years ago – if only I'd known about this when I was a starving grad student! – but I still chuckle to run the numbers. For those who worry that the apparent cost savings are off-set by the expense of replenishing razor blades in pricey bulk purchases, here are the numbers for several blades I like. I have assumed average prices I've seen from B&B vendors, a bulk purchase of 100-blade packages, conservative estimates of how many shaves each blade is good for, having tried them out on my face, and that I would throw out the blade the moment it began to feel less than optimal.

BLADE BRAND AND VARIETY	BLADE LIFE	PRICE IN BULK	PRICE PER BLADE	PRICE PER SHAVE
Feather	2 shaves	$40.00	$0.40	$0.20
Gillette Super Platinum Black	4 shaves	$50.00	$0.50	$0.125
Shark Super Chrome	4 shaves	$20.00	$0.20	$0.05

There are several worthwhile points to take away here.

1. Even DE blades that seem very expensive are cost-efficient in terms of their performance. Gillette Blacks are easily the most expensive blade I've ever tried, if I look only at the price of the bulk package in the online shopping cart. But when I look at what it actually costs me to shave with that blade, it's a lot friendlier.
2. Finding the best blade for you is not necessarily a matter of sucking it up and buying the priciest blade available. In its performance, the Gillette Black is a better buy for me than the vaunted Feather, which is the least cost-efficient blade I've ever tried — and for Pete's sake, even that comes out to twenty cents per shave! And, much as I like the Gillette Blacks, I think they are neck-and-neck for shave quality with the Shark Super Chrome, which costs less than half as much in bulk. (And I like both of them better than Feathers.)
3. Using a worn-down blade after it has begun to shave poorly is madness. Look at those prices per blade and shave. This is not a Fusion cart that represents a small wad of bills that will never return to your wallet. My Shark SC blades cost less than twenty cents each (I actually buy them for less than $20 a sleeve), and, in a good week, I can get six pleasing shaves out of a blade. Even if I feel the need or profligate desire to discard a blade after only four shaves, that still means I paid five cents per shave. $0.05 is not worth a bad shave, an abraded face, and a case of razor burn to me.
4. Experimenting with sampler packages (and the occasional loose pack) is worth your money in the long run. The odds are slim that whatever DE blade you first happen to try will be the best one for your purposes. Try anything and everything you care to; you will be a happier person using your own personal Best Blade in the Universe at a per-shave cost of five cents, thirteen cents, or even twenty cents than getting by with a dull, displeasing blade that happens to run a per-shave cost of two cents. I kind of caught my breath at the cost of a single pack of Gillette Blacks, but I'm glad I bought it and tried them. Now I know that, if I ever tire of Shark SC and I feel a little more secure in my financial planning, I can buy the Blacks with a clear conscience that I'm not wasting money.

Hope my obsessiveness proves useful to others. I'm going to step away from the computer and the spreadsheets for a little while, and have a shower and shave. For pennies.

 

[Luke Sky High]

I need to point out something about the Feathers. Some people love them and keep buying because nothing else is cutting so effortless and comfortable. It's not the extra pennies.

 

[dreadpirate]

Every time I have seen a thread on this, someone always points out that the relatively small difference in cost between blades is overshadowed by personal preference and what provides the ultimate shave to the individual. Especially when you consider the most expensive DE blade is way cheaper than a cartridge.

That being said, if you are on a budget, there are some cheap blades out there that provide a great shave.

 

[johsa]

As long as you buy the blades in bulk (100 or more), the price per shave is quite low. I get four shaves out of feather blades so I do not complain.

 

[crfcom]

You seriously need to shop your 7 o'clock Black purchases more carefully. I'm paying half what you are on my last 3 or 4 100 blade buys of this blade.

 

[Mick]

Great post and thanks for the time and effort you've put into this.

I've never given any thought to cost per shave. I recently sold $2k worth of razors and brushes on BST and I still have way too many to use what I left more than once a month.

I gave up on the "cost per shave" idea a LONG time ago View attachment 310250

 

[cubfanbob]

> You seriously need to shop your 7 o'clock Black purchases more carefully. I'm paying half what you are on my last 3 or 4 100 blade buys of this blade.

Likewise the Feathers - those can be had for $29 per 100, shipped. And Shark Super Chromes are $14.38 per 100 on Amazon, with free shipping.

 

[bryan1980]

For most of my short DE shaving career, I've tended towards the cheaper end of the spectrum (Red IP's, Astra SP's, Lord Plats). I only shave three days out of any given week, so that means even if I toss a blade after three shaves, I'm only using one blade a week. So, paying more for longevity doesn't make much sense for me. That said, a good blade is a good blade, no matter what the price, and I've been purchasing some high-end blades lately, but I'll still be tossing them after the third shave.

 

[dgilman]

You seriously need to shop your 7 o'clock Black purchases more carefully. I'm paying half what you are on my last 3 or 4 100 blade buys of this blade.

> You seriously need to shop your 7 o'clock Black purchases more carefully. I'm paying half what you are on my last 3 or 4 100 blade buys of this blade.

Likewise the Feathers - those can be had for $29 per 100, shipped. And Shark Super Chromes are $14.38 per 100 on Amazon, with free shipping.

I'm not much interested, honestly. My personal preference in this matter is to patronize the vendors who maintain an active presence on B&B and, in my judgment, are more attuned to stocking a wide variety of things that I (and many others) want. I'm willing to pay a little more than the absolute lowest available price if it means supporting a discerning vendor. I also have an antipathy toward buying things on auction sites.

Besides, why in the hell would I buy 300 blades at once? I don't even know what country I'll be living in by the time I could run through that many.

Great post and thanks for the time and effort you've put into this.

I've never given any thought to cost per shave. I recently sold $2k worth of razors and brushes on BST and I still have way too many to use what I left more than once a month.

I gave up on the "cost per shave" idea a LONG time ago View attachment 310250

Mick and Dan: different planes of pogonotomic existence.

 

[dpm802]

The price of a blade per shave never enters my mind. The only factor I consider is PERFORMANCE.

I primarily use two brands of blades. Feather and Derby. I bought these in bulk for 25c and 8c respectively, and I get two shaves out of each blade. I could stretch it out to 3 or 4 shaves, but why bother? Saving money on razor blades is not going to make me or break me financially.

 

[klundtasaur]

Is there a site or a post where someone has tracked the cost of DE blades over time across different vendors? I'd hoped that's what this post would include--I'm curious how much fluctuation there is in bulk-blade purchase. Since it's something I do only rarely, knowing that there was a time/season in which their prices were typically lower would be informative.

 

[seattleshaver]

I have Astras and Feathers. I find the Feathers to be sharper but rougher. I don't like them. The Astras on the other hand are sharp enough and seem to me to be much smoother (and much cheaper). It's an individual preference thing I guess but cost per shave doesn't really factor into it for me until I've settled on the brand then I will consider cost as in the best place to buy them and best volume to buy them in.

 

[Moondoggie]

Thanks for your post and breakdown of razor costs. It's pretty cool that such a good shave can come from such an inexpensive blade! However... (And this is the fun part...)

I gave up on the "cost per shave" idea a LONG time ago

It took me less than a week to give up on my saving money sales pitch to myself as I received package after package full of shave goodies to help me with my savings! At least my wife was kind enough to give me one of the drawers in the bathroom to put most of it in. My question now is when will my saving money by spending money addiction end???

Not trying to steal your thread here, just laughing at myself. I do love it when I change out a blade after a couple of shaves because I can and its only a few cents. I used to torture myself with dull cartridges just to stretch a couple more shaves out of it. Those days are gone and I'm glad!

 

[crfcom]

I'm not much interested, honestly. My personal preference in this matter is to patronize the vendors who maintain an active presence on B&B and, in my judgment, are more attuned to stocking a wide variety of things that I (and many others) want. I'm willing to pay a little more than the absolute lowest available price if it means supporting a discerning vendor. I also have an antipathy toward buying things on auction sites.

Besides, why in the hell would I buy 300 blades at once? I don't even know what country I'll be living in by the time I could run through that many.



Mick and Dan: different planes of pogonotomic existence.

You opened a thread about the calculated cost-per-shave of different blades, and you're being told that your cost numbers are off by about double. If you don't care about the cost-per-blade, I'm having trouble understanding why you started the thread.
Speaking for myself, I buy 100 to 300 blades at a time when I catch a premium blade at half price so I can change them as often as I please and because I plan to live for another decade or two. A couple of my favorite blades are no longer made, which also bothers me not at all because I have a couple hundred in my blade locker, so that's one reason why some of us buy more blades than you do. Right now, Polsilver Super Stainless and Personna Red blades are getting hard to find and going way up in cost, if and when you can find real ones. Flea-Bay is buried in fake Personna Reds. Back in my blade locker I have 400 genuine Reds I bought when they were cheap. Get the idea?

 

[brucea]

I go with the astras and personna blue labs at around 10 or 12 dollars per 100 shipped I am happy. If I want to splurge I go with the polsilver blades they give my face a nicer shave than the feathers.

 

[cubfanbob]

> You opened a thread about the calculated cost-per-shave of different blades, and you're being told that your cost numbers are off by about double. If you don't care about the cost-per-blade, I'm having trouble understanding why you started the thread.

That was my reaction to dgilman's reply as well. I was merely trying to point out where blades could be obtained more inexpensively.

 

[redrako]

Thanks to the OP for doing some of the legwork on this.

Like any markets, DE razor blade consumers will have a range of price sensitivity where price is very important at one end of the range and not a factor on the other end of the spectrum.

B&B is a great resource to find bargains, yet it is also a great resource to find merchants who stand by their products, and more importantly their customers.

Perhaps more importantly, at least for me, I like to do a budget shave occasionally and point out to my lovely spouse that my blade cost less than a dime, my Arko stick, TGN brush etc. etc.

 

[dgilman]

You opened a thread about the calculated cost-per-shave of different blades, and you're being told that your cost numbers are off by about double. If you don't care about the cost-per-blade, I'm having trouble understanding why you started the thread.

> You opened a thread about the calculated cost-per-shave of different blades, and you're being told that your cost numbers are off by about double. If you don't care about the cost-per-blade, I'm having trouble understanding why you started the thread.

That was my reaction to dgilman's reply as well. I was merely trying to point out where blades could be obtained more inexpensively.

I won't pretend it isn't a little strange. My intent was actually to point out the relative costs of shaving with DE blades over cartridge shaving, even with relatively expensive blades. As came up, though, I'm also not insistent on making the shave as cheap as I possibly can, because of a conflicting preference to patronize particular businesses over others. We humans are funny critters that way sometimes.

 

[JayEddie]

1. Using a worn-down blade after it has begun to shave poorly is madness.

I remember doing this with cartridges because I felt that I needed to get as many shaves as possible out every one of those damned expensive things.

 

[crfcom]

I won't pretend it isn't a little strange. My intent was actually to point out the relative costs of shaving with DE blades over cartridge shaving, even with relatively expensive blades. As came up, though, I'm also not insistent on making the shave as cheap as I possibly can, because of a conflicting preference to patronize particular businesses over others. We humans are funny critters that way sometimes.

We humans are always funny critters.