A few months ago I read an otherwise informative article on historic straight razors. But at least twice during the article the author made the statement that “straight razor collectors are all really straight razor scales collectors and the brand, shape, and condition of the blade itself is meaningless”. Since I have the complete opposite view (quite happy to buy a vintage straight with a decent blade that I can make shave ready if it comes with busted scales that I can replace) I thought that this was a bit mystifying. My final take-away was “I hope this is true, if so it may minimize the number of bidding wars I get into on eBay!”
I’ve only fallen down the rabbit hole in the past year, so no idea what truth there is to the author’s statements. But certainly on eBay there is a lot of asymmetrical knowledge. Sometimes that means you have ridiculous asking prices for razors and sometimes it means that you can get a great deal on something whose value is not appreciated by the seller. Caveat emptor!
I would agree, I am looking at the shape of the blade and could care less about the scales. Most scales are plastic/resin material. The only place I could agree with that author is if the scales are of some rare material like 'ivory' outside of that I can not think of other materials that would excite me...