Perma-Sharp Super: genuine or fake?

[CobraX]

I've recently ordered a 100-pack of Perma-Sharp Super double edge razor blades from Turkey via e-bay. Before ordering a 100-pack, I already owned a 5-pack which I bought from a Belgian store.

My 100-pack arrived today, but the labels on the blade differ from the ones on the 5-pack. Same goes for the box. So my question is:

Is my 100-pack genuine or fake?

I've uploaded a few pics to imgur which show the differences between them.

 

[psfred]

Looks like slightly different packaging to me. Note that the copyright date on the Turkish sourced blades is 2009 -- it's quite possible the later runs of blades and boxes were different.

I'd shave with them and see, Permasharps are very nice blades and a fake would be pretty obvious if lower quality.

 

[frstplce]

This came up just recently in regards to the Astras. Saving ink perhaps?

fake astras ?

 

[malocchio]

PSFred is right...the shave will tell you.....The ink on the Turkish blade looks horrible ,my Perma Sharps look like the Belgian blades , but they may have cheapened out on the box and blade ink to save money , let's hope they didn't cut back on the cutting edge quality.

 

[CobraX]

So far I've shaved myself once with a new blade (one from the 100-pack from Turkey via e-bay). I can't say they shave badly, but I'm not sure either that they are truly genuine Perma-Sharp Super razor blades. I've sent Procter & Gamble UK an e-mail asking them if these are genuine blades. Let's see what they have to say.

The more I look at the pictures though, the more differences I see.

FRONTSIDE OF THE BOX
1) The Turkish e-bay box says "TM" after the word Perma-Sharp while the Belgian store box has a registered trademark sign (®) after the word Perma-Sharp.
2) The Turkish e-bay box spells the word super as "SÜPER" while the Belgian store box spells it as "SUPER".
3) The Turkish e-bay box has the text "ÖZEL SİSTEM" on it while the Belgian store box does not have that text on it.
4) The Turkish e-bay box has the text "5 ADET ÇİFT TARAFLI TIRAŞ BIÇAĞI" on it while the Belgian store box has the text "5 ADET TIRAŞ BIÇAĞI" on it.

BACKSIDE OF THE BOX
1) The Turkish e-bay box has a registered trademark sign (®) on it while the Belgian store box does not have this.
2) The Turkish e-bay box has the number "21" inside the triangle while the Belgian store box does not have this.
3) The Turkish e-bay box mentions the text "PAP" while the Belgian store box does not mention this text.
4) The Turkish e-bay box mentions the text "Üretim Yeri: Rusya" while the Belgian store box does not mention this text.
5) The Turkish e-bay box mentions the number "91167714" while the Belgian store box mentions the number "98950128".
6) The Turkish e-bay box mentions the text "2009 Gillette" while the Belgian store box does not mention this (this makes me think it's a VERY old batch with possibly even different shaving qualities).

FRONTSIDE OF THE BLADE
1) The Turkish e-bay blade mentions the text "PERMA-SHARP STAINLESS" both above and (mirrored) below the gap and the font isn't solid (it's an outlined font) while the Belgian store blade mentions the text "PERMA-SHARP" above the gap and "STAINLESS" below the gap and it uses a solid font.
2) The Turkish e-bay blade mentions the text "7194AB" on the right side of the blade while the Belgian store blade mentions the numbers "1" and "2" on the left/right sides of the blade.

BACKSIDE OF THE BLADE
1) The Turkish e-bay blade is completely free from texts while the Belgian store blade is identical to its frontside except that the numbers "3" and "4" are mentioned on the sides of the blade.

What's also noticeable on the cardboard packaging is that the razor blade image that is pictured in the top left corner corresponds to what the Belgian store blade looks like.

And if you take a look at the picture the seller listed on e-bay, it also looks like my Belgian store box version.

So yeah, I'm not sure what to think about this. My first impression is that I kinda feel a bit cheated here...

 

[CobraX]

Small update:

An employee from Procter & Gamble mailed me back and said she had to escalate in order to get more information about the blades and she'll contact me as soon as she receives an answer.

Either way I don't think I would have bought these blades if I had known they weren't the exact same ones as the ones I already owned. The slightly different packaging (boxes) doesn't bother me that much, the different prints on the blades do. There's a certain feeling of distrust now. It could be any blade with the label "Perma-Sharp Stainless" printed on it.

In my opinion the seller should have provided pictures that corresponded with the actual product (box + blades). I also can't send them back since I've already used one and shipping would almost cost as much as the blades themselves.

 

[Dovo1695]

Gillette bought the Perma-Sharp brand in 2003. Gillette moved production from Turkey to the PPI factory in St Petersburg (AKA the Willy Wonka Factory of amazing DE Blades) some time after that. I think what you have are some NOS Turkish Perma-Sharp blades.

 

[CobraX]

Gillette bought the Perma-Sharp brand in 2003. Gillette moved production from Turkey to the PPI factory in St Petersburg (AKA the Willy Wonka Factory of amazing DE Blades) some time after that. I think what you have are some NOS Turkish Perma-Sharp blades.

So you think I have received old blades that weren't made in the St Petersburg factory. But judging by the cardboard packaging it initially looks like they are "new" blades which were made in the St Petersburg factory since the cardboard packaging has a razor blade image on it in the top left corner which corresponds to the blades I purchased from a Belgian store.

Could it be that the seller took a new cardboard packaging, removed the twenty "new" 5-pack boxes from it and replaced it by twenty "old" 5-pack boxes?

Old = NOS Turkish Perma-Sharp Super blades
New = Perma-Sharp Super blades from the PPI factory in St Petersburg

 

[malocchio]

The Turkish Perma-Sharps I had years ago came in a plastic and cardboard pack...just like the old Astra Keramics..

 

[Esox]

This made me curious so I took some pics of the only tuck I have left.

Notice the two large wax dots, typical of PPI blades.



I would agree that you most likely have NOS blades and I'd be curious the difference between them and the newer PPI blades.

These are a favorite of mine if one of my razors and I only have two left and need to order more.

I'll be ordering mine from here: PERMA-SHARP SUPER Stainless Double Edge Razor Blades

 

[Dovo1695]

So you think I have received old blades that weren't made in the St Petersburg factory. But judging by the cardboard packaging it initially looks like they are "new" blades which were made in the St Petersburg factory since the cardboard packaging has a razor blade image on it in the top left corner which corresponds to the blades I purchased from a Belgian store.

Could it be that the seller took a new cardboard packaging, removed the twenty "new" 5-pack boxes from it and replaced it by twenty "old" 5-pack boxes?

Old = NOS Turkish Perma-Sharp Super blades
New = Perma-Sharp Super blades from the PPI factory in St Petersburg

I honestly don't know. I never tried the old Turkish one's. Here is an old thread on this very topic:

Permasharp super

Here is an interesting tidbit from that thread:

Pastic box + Gold printed 'Perma-Sharp' = Turkish, made by Permatik Celik Sanayi (Old stock from the old factory in turkey, they moved the production to St-Petersburg in 2003)
Carboard + Black Printed 'Perma-Sharp Super' = Russian, made by PPI, same place as the SI.

These are Russian, if they were Turkish you could read Celik Sineyi on the blade.
You can see the difference here

Your example looks unlike any of the above. Maybe you've got a current production blade made in Russia for the Turkish market? I love a good mystery!

 

[Maxime D.]

I honestly don't know. I never tried the old Turkish one's. Here is an old thread on this very topic:

Permasharp super

Here is an interesting tidbit from that thread:

Your example looks unlike any of the above. Maybe you've got a current production blade made in Russia for the Turkish market? I love a good mystery!

Hi there,

No mistery, just another company who fell under Gillette’s blade. However, I think the Old Turkish factory used to be part of the Scottish company who manufactured the Perma-Sharp somewhen in the 70/80s. I vaguely remember reading an old paper about this.

 

[CobraX]

I honestly don't know. I never tried the old Turkish one's. Here is an old thread on this very topic:

Permasharp super

Here is an interesting tidbit from that thread:

Your example looks unlike any of the above. Maybe you've got a current production blade made in Russia for the Turkish market? I love a good mystery!

My e-bay blades from Turkey don't match any of them indeed. The bottom one clearly matches the one from the Belgian store.

I hope I'll get a definitive answer from Procter & Gamble UK soon. If not, I might contact the seller. I'm also going to see what my options are with Paypal. Cause right now I don't trust these blades at all.

 

[Dovo1695]

For me at least, PPI blades are unmistakable. If the mystery Perma-Sharps even come close to your actual Perma-Sharps it would be amazing should they turn out to be knockoffs. Of my top 5 blades, 4 of them are PPI (GSB, Nacets, Perma-Sharp Super, Polsilver Super Iridium... & Feather rounds out the list). If somebody is successfully making knock-offs of PPI blades, I'd sure like to know about it so I can buy a truck load before P&G sends lawyers. Come to think off it, if they actually are knockoffs, we should have a brief minute of silence for the poor brave souls who infringed on a P&G trademark. I've heard the men they send are from Russia, and they don't have JD's...

My bet is that it's a NOS transitional blade from the era when P&G took over the brand, or a version for a particular export market. But like I said, I love a good mystery!

 

[Ukrainian]

I tried permasharp Belgian version
Really good shave.

 

[CobraX]

For me at least, PPI blades are unmistakable. If the mystery Perma-Sharps even come close to your actual Perma-Sharps it would be amazing should they turn out to be knockoffs. Of my top 5 blades, 4 of them are PPI (GSB, Nacets, Perma-Sharp Super, Polsilver Super Iridium... & Feather rounds out the list). If somebody is successfully making knock-offs of PPI blades, I'd sure like to know about it so I can buy a truck load before P&G sends lawyers. Come to think off it, if they actually are knockoffs, we should have a brief minute of silence for the poor brave souls who infringed on a P&G trademark. I've heard the men they send are from Russia, and they don't have JD's...

My bet is that it's a NOS transitional blade from the era when P&G took over the brand, or a version for a particular export market. But like I said, I love a good mystery!

It's hard to draw a clear conclusion after only 2 shaves on one of the Turkish blades. First impression is that they aren't bad blades, but I'm definitely not sure they are genuine. Yesterday I had to shave again, but I used an "original" (Belgian store) Perma-Sharp Super blade. I still have the impression they are a bit smoother and sharper and right now I have no desire to use the Turkish blades because of that.

I tried permasharp Belgian version
Really good shave.

Yes, that's why I wanted a 100-pack of the Perma-Sharp Super blades. They are my favorite blades because they are both really smooth and really sharp. And the blades I've tried so far are: Personna Platinum, Gillette 7 O'Clock Super Stainless, Gillette Silver Blue, KAI, Perma-Sharp Super and Feather. The only ones I did not like at all were KAI blades.

 

[weekly]

My e-bay blades from Turkey don't match any of them indeed. The bottom one clearly matches the one from the Belgian store.

I hope I'll get a definitive answer from Procter & Gamble UK soon. If not, I might contact the seller. I'm also going to see what my options are with Paypal. Cause right now I don't trust these blades at all.

EBay and PayPal both offer satisfaction
Guaranteed or your money back , so
If you decide to file a claim I suggest
That you file separately on PayPal and
EBay.

 

[smartpc]

it seems to me that these blades are original blades. A new Sputnik began to look different too.

 

[CobraX]

EBay and PayPal both offer satisfaction
Guaranteed or your money back , so
If you decide to file a claim I suggest
That you file separately on PayPal and
EBay.

Thank you for this information.

I started a dispute with the seller on PayPal about 5 hours ago clearly describing my issue (with pictures etc) and asked for a full refund since shipping the items back would almost cost as much as the total price of the product (original shipping costs included). Less than 2 hours later he already agreed and issued a full refund.

I still don't know if these blades are genuine or not and in a way I kind of feel bad for this move since the seller lost a bit of money and he didn't get his product back. On the other hand, this would have never happened if he had provided some accurate pictures of the product (blade included) on his e-bay product page.

It's the first time ever that I've used a PayPal dispute, so I'm glad everything went this smooth and the problem was fixed so fast. Although it's strange that it's listed as an "Unpaid Item" now on e-bay.

 

[weekly]

That's 3 in a row for ST. Petersburg
With different new style of printing
On the blades Astra , Perma Sharp
And Sputnik , all Perma Sharp will
Now probably carry the new style
Of printing on the actual blades.