OMG! That's a steep price! Congrats to the seller, another wet shaving genious
Rare Brush?
- Thread starter old_school
- Start date
It’s an auction, and people are bidding these brushes up of their own free will. No harm no foul. If Paladin can make some extra money this way, more power to them. I have one Paladin brush, and it’s amazing. I can see the attraction of collecting these brushes. But I don’t suffer from that side of our hobby’s addictions fortunately. I have no issue with Paladin and their auctions.
I hope that the buyers are happy. I’ve owned one or two Paladins and found them to be underwhelming. North of $1500 there are far more interesting options than a plastic handle stuffed with gel tip badger IMO. However, it’s a free market and if Paladin can command these prices, good for them.
Nobody is forcing those prices up into the stratosphere but the bidders.
Actually is a PERFECT example of the free market system.
Wish I had a product that people were fighting over giving me money.
It's genius. Because I can absolutely garauntee that if someone had let that slip past quality control, a lucky buyer would have had it up for auction.
Wish I had a product that people were fighting over giving me money.
It's genius. Because I can absolutely garauntee that if someone had let that slip past quality control, a lucky buyer would have had it up for auction.
I agree this is the free market, and everyone is acting on their own free will. It is indeed an impressive display of ingenuity that makes more money—even if they stumbled on it accidentally.
That said, I’m probably less likely to buy their brushes if they use these marketing techniques. That’s also the free market at work.
That said, I’m probably less likely to buy their brushes if they use these marketing techniques. That’s also the free market at work.
Interesting business practices! 
Guess this is why I seldom do auctions.
Guess this is why I seldom do auctions.
Oh yes, I can understand it they are very nice brushes that's a fact, and if people are willing to pay it that's their choice 100%.
But the downside is what I'm saying is it's going to push the price up beyond the working man's price range, but that we will have to see in the future if the brushes go up on the website. Hope not as one day I will get one....
But the downside is what I'm saying is it's going to push the price up beyond the working man's price range, but that we will have to see in the future if the brushes go up on the website. Hope not as one day I will get one....
Rooney into Pooney only takes knocking the right leg off the R. Like my “ HUBBY” where the lampblack wore off the C. Now if it said Looney it would be a different matter.
Smartest post in the thread!
Owen Bawn
Garden party cupcake scented
I just stumbled across this while looking for the original Pooney post.
First, given your judgment regarding our (that is, my wife, my son, and I) trustworthiness, I challenge you to call out any example of dishonesty or BS (i.e., crap put out with a willful disregard for what the truth might actually be) on the part of any of us anywhere in connection with the making or selling of Paladin Shaving brushes.
Failing that, who, in your opinion, conducts business with more transparency that we have?
When we first started releasing brushes, we couldn't keep up with demand. That was a result of our limited capacity based on how we make handles. Brushes were selling for $160-200 and showing up the next day (before we shipped them!) for twice that or more. I wasted several days once going after a guy who was using copy (including images) from our website in his listings. We never raised prices during that period.
As our business evolved, about 20% of our customers were purchasing about 80% of our output. Of course, those guys weren't interested in buying duplicates. So we scrambled to keep putting out new stuff (handle designs and materials). We acquired several of those materials on a bespoken basis and some of the were custom produced, which required purchasing minimum quantities, usually made up of entire batches at cost of multiple $1,000s.
A couple of challenges developed. One was that some materials were characterized by highly variegated patterns such that handles turned from some sections made people lose their minds while handles made from other sections were of no interest to anyone. I still have a lot of that stuff on the shelf. Another challenge was that some of the guys who had spent a lot of money on our brushes reasonably asked if we could cherry-pick material for them. That presented damn-if-you do and damned-if-you don't situations. That's why I decided to install an auction plug-in on our site. When we had pieces that were special in some way, we just let bidders decide. That way I didn't have to subject myself to pillory (from someone prone to knee-jerk judgment) for price gouging (notwithstanding the fact we aren't selling life-saving medicines). It also provided an opportunity to make up a little for the stuff we get stuck with.
So, what would you have done differently?
Forgot to point out that the photo in the OP was taken with a macro lens and posted with the auction listing to clearly show the imperfection in the material. Note also that with that particular material, it's typical for the most eye-popping color patterns to be accompanied by micro-bubbles (both result from agitation while in liquid phase).
We ran about a handful of auctions. I think we've sold close to 6,000 brushes over 10 years, almost all of them from our online store. In a recent thread in this forum, another member expressed his opinion that although we're one of his favorite makers, he's always considered us mid-tier pricewise. The auctions did not affect our regular pricing in any way.
FWIW, we worked very hard to build inventory so everyone who wanted a brush could get one. And when we finally had several pages full of brushes available, demand sunk. Most people (myself included) want what they want when they want it. A few, unfortunately, want what they want when they want it with a high sense of entitlement and penchant to express themselves publicly when their sense of entitlement is disappointed. That's probably less than 1 in 100, but they can make a lot of noise and inflict real harm to makers.
Another quirk (which I also possess) is that what many want most is what they can't get.
The combination of those two characteristics can make pursuit of success very difficult.
There's always going to be people who get their knickers in a knot over what somebody else does, or how much money someone else may be willing to spend on what they want.
"You paid 100 dollars for that? Why, I wouldn't have paid more than 20!"
Yep. And you can cry later about the item that you never got to own because someone ELSE had a different opinion on the value.
I'd give no more thought to them than I do the passing gnat on a summer afternoon.
It buzzes importantly for a brief moment before it passes on to other things to buzz about, thinking that it's buzzing is all the world, and not knowing that most folks just ignore it!
"You paid 100 dollars for that? Why, I wouldn't have paid more than 20!"
Yep. And you can cry later about the item that you never got to own because someone ELSE had a different opinion on the value.
I'd give no more thought to them than I do the passing gnat on a summer afternoon.
It buzzes importantly for a brief moment before it passes on to other things to buzz about, thinking that it's buzzing is all the world, and not knowing that most folks just ignore it!
