Gillette 7 o'clock yellows - fake??? UK ebay

[Jools]

Hello guys,
Sorry if this has been covered before but I can't find anything on here. (or Google).
I bought a sample pack of blades a couple of years ago. Recently I got round to using the gillette 7oclock yellows in various different Gillette Tech's I own. I loved them and the became my go to blade.
I should perhaps explain I have a full short beard and only use a DE razor for my upper cheeks and neck to edge my beard, so it's not unusual for me to get a couple of weeks worth of shaves (7ish) out of a single blade, as I'm not covering a large area and not shaving where the stubble is at its most course..
I eventually ran out of the 5 blades in the sample pack and I liked them so much I decided to buy 100 blades, with shaving habits as above, they should last me years (or so I thought)...
I live in the UK so I looked on ebay for them from UK sellers. I found them for £9 per hundred including postage so I thought it was a good deal. (there seem to be lots of sellers in the UK selling them for a similar price to this). The seller had sold lots of them, and had no negative feedback relating to Razer blades, so I went ahead with my purchase.
They arrived in 2 days in a folded carton that opened up into a retail hang up display board (the individual packs of 5 slide off to the right hand side).
All the packaging looks legit, as does the Russian St Petersberg address etc.
The blades are printed (slightly smudged/offset print but not unlike my others, they are wrapped in plain slightly transparent wax paper and the glue marks are in the same place as my other blades.
HOWEVER so far I have used 2 of these blades and had similar results from both of them.

Shave 1, very sharp but feels rough, caused mild irritation on neck area,

Shave 2, feels dull in terms of sharpness, but much smoother. Slight tugs on hairs, and leaves some hair uncut, meaning I needed significantly more passes. (bearing in mind I'm only edging a beard)

Shave 3 , almost blunt, tugs instead of cutting had to apply pressure and lots of passes, didn't really get the job done at all!

So from using the five 7oclock yellows in my sample pack and getting 7 decent shaves (beard edging) before noticing any significant difference in the blade, to using 2 blades from the new pack and getting 1 rough shave and one useless shave there is something very wrong.
Could these be fake?
Has anyone ever seen or heard of Gillette 7oclock yellows being counterfeit ?
I'm really at a loss right now.
Im on vacation at the moment, luckily I had a pack of Wilkinson Sword blades in my travel bag, so I've ditched the 2 gillette blades I brought with me and switched to the wilkys until I get home.
Thanks in advance for any help
Jools

 

[G-Dogg]

They’re my favourite blade, and I got mine from a UK eBay seller for a similar price. Everything you say about the packaging checks out.

I’ve never heard of the Yellows being counterfeited: my guess is that you may have been unlucky and got a couple of dud blades from the same run. I’d try a different tuck and see whether the problem persists.

 

[Mick]

The cost of blade making machinery would keep anyone out of "making" fake blades.

 

[@ngel]

They’re my favourite blade, and I got mine from a UK eBay seller for a similar price. Everything you say about the packaging checks out.

I’ve never heard of the Yellows being counterfeited: my guess is that you may have been unlucky and got a couple of dud blades from the same run. I’d try a different tuck and see whether the problem persists.

+1

 

[GearNoir]

They’re my favourite blade, and I got mine from a UK eBay seller for a similar price. Everything you say about the packaging checks out.

I’ve never heard of the Yellows being counterfeited: my guess is that you may have been unlucky and got a couple of dud blades from the same run. I’d try a different tuck and see whether the problem persists.

+2

If there were duds to be had, assuming QC missed them, they’d likely all be in the same 100ct. due to the way they are manufactured by large roll.

 

[Jools]

The cost of blade making machinery would keep anyone out of "making" fake blades.

Thanks for your reply Mick, but that's not exactly so.. There are already counterfeit Gillette Rubie Platinum Plus. And Feather blades being sold on eBay. This is quite well documented. Apparently the fake blades are made in China. There are some reports that the Fake feathers come from the philapinnes (its quite well documented on a few different forums, one even explains the profit margins of doing such in volume and believe it or not, for such a low cost cost item, its colossal.
Yes, the machinery is expensive, but IF the companies who manufacture blades are corrupt. The process would be easy for them to replicate 'branded blades' that sell upto 5 times the amount of the budget price blades they normally turn out.
I can't find any details of the 7 o'clock's being knock offs though...

 

[Jools]

They’re my favourite blade, and I got mine from a UK eBay seller for a similar price. Everything you say about the packaging checks out.

I’ve never heard of the Yellows being counterfeited: my guess is that you may have been unlucky and got a couple of dud blades from the same run. I’d try a different tuck and see whether the problem persists.

Well I'm hoping that they are just a couple of duff blades, but hoping it's not a batch as that could easily cover several thousand blades. I'll try another tuck as soon as I'm back home from my vacation. I'm really disappointed though. I know I'll have no confidence in using these blades (especially with the first 2 being duds) Everytime I change a blade it'll be like playing Russian Roulette. .
Thanks again,
Jools

 

[G-Dogg]

Well, I really hope it is just a one-off (two-off?) and that you don’t allow this to affect your wider enjoyment of the blade. The only obviously dud blade I’ve ever had was an injector, but there are other times when I’ve wondered if a particular blade is a bit below par, or it hasn’t lasted as long as previously. I suppose it’s inevitable that the manufacturing process won’t be 100% effective 100% of the time, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you that this is just an exceptional occurrence.

 

[Jools]

Well, I really hope it is just a one-off (two-off?) and that you don’t allow this to affect your wider enjoyment of the blade. The only obviously dud blade I’ve ever had was an injector, but there are other times when I’ve wondered if a particular blade is a bit below par, or it hasn’t lasted as long as previously. I suppose it’s inevitable that the manufacturing process won’t be 100% effective 100% of the time, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you that this is just an exceptional occurrence.

Thank you, I hope so too. I love the Yellows, sharp enough for me, and smooth too with no irritation at all. The 2 I've used in this tuck are the total opposite to the characteristics of this blade...