Are these counterfeit Polsilvers?

Got my hands on some questionable blades. I’m a big polsilver fan, and got some odd blades. The notable differences are the darker blue box, glue spot difference, wacky lettering, blade profile, and missing super iridium stamp.  The shave is even more telling. There is a night and day difference. I had a terrible first impression of the razor until I realized what was up and swapped it with a legit polsilvers.  See below. Fake right. Real left 

Am I crazy ? Anyone else have any experience with this? 

Boy, I sure don’t know but it seems like your face does.

Yes, the ones on the right are generic Chinese manufactured blades that are repackaged in fake Polsilver branded boxes by counterfeiters. The curled tail on the ‘y’ on the box is the easiest way to spot these fakes. They have been around for years and have been sold widely by real retailers, who no doubt believed they were offering the real thing. Apparently they are decent blades, but certainly not Polsilvers.

Oh boy, that's a crummy deal.

As Polsilver is a favorite of mine, I bought 30 packs of those on sight from a well reputed retailer. Price was under one dollar, that should have raised some suspicion. Decent blades but definitely inferior to the ones I used to know.

cornbread  that's a bummer for you, but thanks for bringing up. 
   This make me hope we can track more of these fakes of the different brands, somehow.

wow the one on the right sure looks dodgy.
Ive heard there are some PS fakes coming out of china

May I ask who the retailer was so I can avoid the same bad buy? I quite like Polsilvers - the real ones LOL

May I ask who the retailer was so I can avoid the same bad buy? I quite like Polsilvers - the real ones LOL

These were from a sample pack of blades in a recent razor purchase. In searching other threads on this is seems most issues are from eBay.

The most sure way to order would be to see actual( not stock) photos of the box and individual razor.

Aside from the Chinese blades having only “Extra Stainless” printed on them (perhaps to avoid copyright infringment on the part of the blade manufacturer), you can also see that the blade tabs are shaped differently than any Gillette-manufactured blade - the tabs are more rounded and less square. The printing is also of inconsistent quality from blade to blade, with the number placement often offset significantly and the printing often blurred or smudged. All of which reinforces that these never came out of any Gillette factory.

A member on another forum did some detective work and actually found the Chinese manufacturer. You can buy these no-name “Extra Stainless” blades on Alibaba and of course the prices from the Chinese manufacturer are very much lower than what they are sold for once they are put in a counterfeit Polsilver box by some fraudster somewhere (likely in Poland).

Unfortunately these counterfeits have got into the distribution chain for many outlets and they are widely available. It is funny that nobody ever wonders why their suppliers seem to have an inexhaustible supply of Polsilvers, which have not been manufactured for many years.

As I said, the blades are actually quite good quality Chinese production, which may be why the counterfeiting has been going on for so long. But they are certainly not worth the prices and you can get these exact blades without a fake Polsilver box very cheaply on Alibaba.

If you want genuine Polsilver SI blades then you should buy instead Wizamet Super Iridium blades, which are at least very similar indeed and are still produced by the same Gillette factory in St Petersburg that took over the Wizamet/Polsilver production from Poland before it was discontinued. They seem to still make Wizamets in annual batches around November or December, and they can be found online, mostly from Morocco, which I guess it the market Gillette makes these for. As far as I know there are no fakes of the Wizamets in circulation. The best vendor for them seems to be Wizashave.com in Morocco and I hear they are sometimes pretty slow to ship, but I never heard of any other problems with them.