How are the other twin-blade cartridges compared to the Gillette Trac II?
I heard that the store brands are either Dorco or Personna. But is there a significant difference between them?
The knockoffs are dirt-cheap compared to Trac IIs
In my experience, unfortunately none of the knock off Trac II brands perform as well as the real Gillette ones. If you can find them cheap online or at a local grocer they're still more affordable than the triple-blade carts and above.
I am not too sure if it was a Trac II or a Trac III that was one of the big deciding factors in cleaning up my late father's super speed and try double edge shaving.
One day I got a free Trac II or III in the mail with one cartridge and I decided to use it. It actually gave very good results and I was already thinking of adding this to my shaving routine of Gillette caned cream and Brute Splash on. This went on for a couple of months until I started getting sticker shock from the purchase of new cartridges and trying to keep the blades unclogged for more than two or three shaves.
Well, as I stated above, I go my father's razor and cleaned it with the tooth brush, scrubbing bubbles and hot water, got some Williams Soap and a Store Brand package of double edge blades and the journey began.
Have I saved any money over the last two years of double edge shaving? Yes and no, I can get about five shaves from my Gillette Yellow Package 7 O'clock blades and a puck of Williams or VHS will last a month so one must figure a puck of soap and a six blade pack for the month and you get about $5:00 per month for actual shaving and I am amazed at how cheap it is. Now pan over to the shaving den (or in my case shelving unit) and you see 25 vintage razors, 10 pucks of soap. 10 or 15 different aftershaves and about 200 different blades and the savings are small if any at all.
Now comes the deciding factor, what was at one time a chore for me has become a pleasant diversion, holding a 50 year old razor in my hand gives me a much better feeling than anything plastic and disposable. And taking the journey of learning everything I can about wet shaving has been WELL worth any money I have spent.
I know that I have not answered your question but I can tell you that the mach II and III give smooth shaves and I can only compare them with the disposable travel 2 blade razors and there is NO comparison. The Machs win, hands down.
I do not ever recall having a BBS face in 30+ years of shaving with Trac II and equivalent private label ones from Personna. I long assumed that some leftover stubble was just a part of shaving until I tried DE. For whatever reason I was noticing Gillette's still-high prices for Trac II cartridges and wondered if I should give them a try, but naaaawww. Even if I remember incorrectly and they give a decent shave, I would still be back on the unending treadmill of overpriced carts and that is not where I want to be. The $1.50 for one genuine Trac II Plus cart is the equivalent of 15 to 25 decent DE blades. Not only are the Genuine Gillette carts so overpriced after 45 years on the market, but they still have the distinction of clogging between blades with rotting molding whiskers, so I am not going back.
Absolutely. You can get a sleeve of 100 Derby or Shark blades for $10, or $0.10 per blade. There are listings of Voshkod and Rapira sleeves for $6.00 or $0.06 per blade. 25 of them would be the same price as 1 store-bought cart from a 10-pack priced at $15.00, or $1.50 per cartridge.25 decent DE blades for $1.50?
Well as I prefer a more premium DE blade, they work out the equivalent of NOS twin blade carts. So the 2000 carts I have are just as economical...Absolutely. You can get a sleeve of 100 Derby or Shark blades for $10, or $0.10 per blade. There are listings of Voshkod and Rapira sleeves for $6.00 or $0.06 per blade. 25 of them would be the same price as 1 store-bought cart from a 10-pack priced at $15.00, or $1.50 per cartridge.
Where do you find premium NOS Gillette Trac II cartridges for $0.25 a blade (which is roughly the price per hundred of GSBs, Polsilvers, and similar)? If you say you bought them for that price a long time ago, then the comparison is no longer fair. Might as well say that some people got lucky and picked up Personna 74's for 20 cents apiece. I use the Personna Trac II compatibles for travel as those are dirt cheap (I bought about 100 for $16 once), but they don't shave as well as the much, much pricier vintage Trac II blades.
Well I don't see any Gillette Trac II blades on the Bay for less than $0.80 to over a dollar each. Mostly generics or modern blades.