There's a Vintage Yardley Shave Soap for sale on eBay and with 17 hours remaining, the bid is $91. Of course, it's in mint condition. Absolutely insane!! 
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Vintage Yardley Shave Soap
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No links to live auctions, but yes Yardley is so grotesquely overinflated it's laughable.
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- #3
Try it now.
No, what Slice of Life was telling you is that it is against B&B rules to post a link to a live auction (not that the link didn't work).
That is one of the cleaner, better examples of a Yardley bowl that I've seen. It will go for over $100, I'm sure.
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My bad...fixed the problem.
Ian: you have vast experience with a ton of the vintage soaps, just how good is Yardley in your opinion? How does it stack up against Vintage Williams, Colgate, and Old Spice?
As you may recall, I traded a NOS set of Wrisley (re-branded Yardley) shaving soap, lavender aftershave, and lavender talc for my first straight razor (a 5/8 Le Grelot w/ French Point), and strop.
I don't think the person I traded it too had the best of luck with it, as he re-traded it on the b/s/t (a couple of weeks later) for some tallow first English Fern.
John, I know you weren't asking me, but I'll weigh in anyway. Yardley is the best soap I have in my shaving den (which is extensive). No, it's not worth the money that it commands on ebay, but as far as performance, it is fantastic. I have also heard that Wrisley is re-branded Yardley, but I've never tried Wrisley for comparison. Yardley gives me a perfect shave every time I use it. It blows vintage Williams and Old Spice out of the water. Just my 02 cents.
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I paid ~$25 for it, and don't consider it worth that. It is virtually identical to the 5-10$ colgates I own. Vintage Williams is better. Tabac is better. Hell, I'm not convinced it's better than VDH Deluxe.
I tend to like my lather very thick (I can always thin it with water; if a lather is too thin, you can't fix that). I'm sure many people don't agree on that point with me, but I can say that for me Wrisley can't create lather as thick or easy as about three quarters of the soaps I own. I have pretty high standards, but after seeing page after page of drooling over the soap, trying it once, posting this opinion and being told everything short of that I had my head up my *** by the experienced fans of it, getting a chance to try it again and finding it exactly as I did the first time, I was thoroughly disappointed by it.
Of course, everyone's opinions are different. If people who have tried it and love it want to pay $100+ for less than 3 oz of soap, I'm glad they've found something they enjoy that much. But if anyone who hasn't tried it before is considering anywhere near that price, then I'd have to say there are much better places to put their money.
Get a puck of vintage williams, a puck of tabac, a stick of Moos, a couple no name vintage gambles, some VDH, and some quality glycerins to top it off. Then go out to dinner with the money you've got left.
I tend to like my lather very thick (I can always thin it with water; if a lather is too thin, you can't fix that). I'm sure many people don't agree on that point with me, but I can say that for me Wrisley can't create lather as thick or easy as about three quarters of the soaps I own. I have pretty high standards, but after seeing page after page of drooling over the soap, trying it once, posting this opinion and being told everything short of that I had my head up my *** by the experienced fans of it, getting a chance to try it again and finding it exactly as I did the first time, I was thoroughly disappointed by it.
Of course, everyone's opinions are different. If people who have tried it and love it want to pay $100+ for less than 3 oz of soap, I'm glad they've found something they enjoy that much. But if anyone who hasn't tried it before is considering anywhere near that price, then I'd have to say there are much better places to put their money.
Get a puck of vintage williams, a puck of tabac, a stick of Moos, a couple no name vintage gambles, some VDH, and some quality glycerins to top it off. Then go out to dinner with the money you've got left.
For what it's worth, I like vintage Yardley a lot (vintage Paislay's as well, another rebrand like Wrisley). I got lucky and picked up a puck for $35, well before the current craze. Do I like it $91 worth? Nope. In fact, I'm trying to accumulate Old Spice right now. What does that say?
I got it unused in excellent condition for under $10 knowing I could have turned around and sold it for about $100. It still had the little banner wrapped around the bowl with the wax paper over the soap. I never sold it and never regretted it. Sure, I could use the money, but it is very unique. A great soap. I use it once every few months. It's worth it just to have something to look forward to.
Ironically, I distinctly remember a thread here reviewing Paisleys where someone goes through some deep ponderings before after much soul searching declaring that while Paisleys is great, it just cant compare to how Yardleys leaves his face feeling.
Maybe it's all crazy. Maybe my Dark escher isn't actually any finer than my Green escher. Maybe my Super isn't any softer than my Silvertip.
Really, if we try to be too definite about anything, it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Mill some Yardley into a tupperware and I'd be curious how many people would use it and proclaim it to be the best soap they'd ever used. I don't doubt it's the best performing soap for many members. I just doubt that it is for everyone that thinks it is.
The more I learn about the chemistry of soap making, the more I chuckle at the absolutist approach people take to judging the quality of these things. To put it simply, there isn't that much variance. A few mils of water makes many many many times more difference in the lather produced than the subtle differences in formulation you'll see in many of these top notch soaps. If you ask me, someone makes his lather "just right" a couple times with one soap by pure coincidence and he'll be convinced for life that it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Maybe it's all crazy. Maybe my Dark escher isn't actually any finer than my Green escher. Maybe my Super isn't any softer than my Silvertip.
Really, if we try to be too definite about anything, it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Mill some Yardley into a tupperware and I'd be curious how many people would use it and proclaim it to be the best soap they'd ever used. I don't doubt it's the best performing soap for many members. I just doubt that it is for everyone that thinks it is.
The more I learn about the chemistry of soap making, the more I chuckle at the absolutist approach people take to judging the quality of these things. To put it simply, there isn't that much variance. A few mils of water makes many many many times more difference in the lather produced than the subtle differences in formulation you'll see in many of these top notch soaps. If you ask me, someone makes his lather "just right" a couple times with one soap by pure coincidence and he'll be convinced for life that it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.
C&S is $90us in the bowl. This is just $1 more. For now. Someone'll probably snipe this higher.
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- #13
That soap is particularly high because another member posted the link to it here at the B&B. The fact that there is a bunch of bids early tells me that non-regular ebayers are bidding on it.
I think it was already at $91 even before the link was posted.
For what it's worth, I'm with Dave on the quality of Yardley soap. I don't have nearly the experience that he does with shaving soaps, but it is definitely the best soap I own. The next closest are Pens older formulation of EF and the current production of AOS Sandalwood. While these two soaps might edge out the Yardleys because of their scent, the Yardleys is definitely the best performer. No other soap that I've tried lathers this easily. And no other soap that I've tried produces this much lather from so little product. And it is definitely the densest, slickest, and most cushiony soap I've tried. The Yardleys is excellent soap, but I wouldn't pay what it goes for on eBay.
For what it's worth, I'm with Dave on the quality of Yardley soap. I don't have nearly the experience that he does with shaving soaps, but it is definitely the best soap I own. The next closest are Pens older formulation of EF and the current production of AOS Sandalwood. While these two soaps might edge out the Yardleys because of their scent, the Yardleys is definitely the best performer. No other soap that I've tried lathers this easily. And no other soap that I've tried produces this much lather from so little product. And it is definitely the densest, slickest, and most cushiony soap I've tried. The Yardleys is excellent soap, but I wouldn't pay what it goes for on eBay.
I wrote that or one like it, which was after a single use. I've put more mileage on it since then, and My Mileage Varied. At this point, I don't detect a difference. If you see Paislay's up for sale, by all means pick it up, and if you get the original bakelite bowl with it, all the better.
IMHO Vintage Yardley is in a league of its own. Trying to compare it to something else is like trying to compare apples with pears.
I'll fess up now that I've been outbid.
It was mostly for fun. A frivolous purchase to celebrate getting a job, even if it's just temp work. Figured it would end over $100--I mean it's even still sealed--so I put in a bid of $97 ($101.01 after shipiping) on Apr-23-10 17:21:31 PDT, which immediately registered the $91--way before this thread started--fully expecting to never see this wonderful soap I've heard so many nice things about. Guess that new Norton starter hone set and this weekend's class will have to do.
Thanks for this thread. It added a lot of fun to this auction, and a few good laughs in chat.
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FWIW, I have a pretty extensive soap collection -- both vintage & modern. For me, the Yardley/Wrisley soaps I have easily outshine everything else in terms of lather, cushion, protection, and post-shave-face-feel.
Re the auction price -- yeah, it's a lot of $$. Is it inflated? Absolutely. Is it worth it? Well, "worth" is a relative term. This is a classic case of supply & demand. There ain't much of it & lots of people want it, so the price skyrockets. The fact that it's "just soap" doesn't have much to do with it.
Re the auction price -- yeah, it's a lot of $$. Is it inflated? Absolutely. Is it worth it? Well, "worth" is a relative term. This is a classic case of supply & demand. There ain't much of it & lots of people want it, so the price skyrockets. The fact that it's "just soap" doesn't have much to do with it.
