Are these counterfeit Polsilvers?

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 Wizablades.com in Morocco and I hear they are sometimes pretty slow to ship, but I never heard of any other problems with them.

Phenomenal summary. Thanks for taking the time to write this out.

+1 regarding. Wizamets. I find them nearly interchangeable.

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.

The fake Polsilvers were sold in the US for many years by West Coast Shaving and Bullgoose. I am sure neither retailer was aware they were fakes, although there were always questions about them. Both these retailers have recently taken the blades off their websites, as more evidence about these blades being fake came to light.

I am sure both retailers are entirely blameless. I only post this to illustrate the extent to which these fakes had infiltrated the supply chain and how many people had been hoodwinked. West Coast Shaving in fact confirmed that they always purchased these blades directly from their regular Gillette distributor. Somebody in the chain knew they were fake, but I do not think the retailers knew, or even their suppliers.

Apologies, I got the name of the seller of Wizamet blades wrong. It is Wizashave.com. Not Wizablades. There is/was a seller called Wizablades as well, but people have had some mixed experiences with them.

Wizashave.com is the generally recommended seller. Price is around $45 for 200, but it varies a bit.

I have edited my original post to correct it.

Wizashave is now stocking in New York and ships from that state for US customers.  They have been reliable so far.  IMHO, I cannot tell the difference between Wizamet and the original Polsilver (I still have around 100 blades).  I purchased the fake Polsilver's from Bullgoose, and I can attest that they are quite inferior to both the original Polsilver and Wizamet.

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).

Actually, all the member did was find "A" Chinese Mfg'r of the Extra Stainless blade and has yet to actually prove they were the same blades being circulated in Polsilver boxes!!

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).

Actually, all the member did was find "A" Chinese Mfg'r of the Extra Stainless blade and has yet to actually prove they were the same blades being circulated in Polsilver boxes!!

How would anyone prove that? The Chinese blades are identical in every respect - odd shaped blade tabs, printing, print quality, misplacement of printing. And no Gillette blades have tabs or printing like this - Gillette blades are all the same shape. There really is no room for reasonable doubt that these are the Chinese blades and are not Polsilvers. But of course anyone is welcome to continue buying them and to believe they are legitimate if they wish to do so, against the preponderance of evidence and the users’ experience that they do not shave like Polsilvers.

The US sellers mentioned have removed these blades from sale, so they are clearly convinced enough to write off their inventories and take the financial loss.

Currently available for sale in Central and Eastern Europe by a Polish retailer. Price is the equivalent of $ 1.2 (currency in the screenshot is Romanian).

Selling fake DE razor blades seems like a tough way to make a living.

Wow this is all I needed to reinforce what I thought. Polsilvers have been my favorite blade for a long time but recently I received four extra packs from a friend. Upon using them I thought it was just me. How could my favorite razor become so awful all of a sudden. The fakes feel wider and more flimsy than the original too.
I thought it was just a bad pack but as soon as I get home I will be throwing them all in the garbage where they belong!

Selling fake DE razor blades seems like a tough way to make a living.

It would be if you set about manufacturing the fake blades yourself. But if you get blades cheap from an existing manufacturer in China you only then need to get the packaging printed, insert the blades, and think up a price. For discontinued razors that have a strong following in the wet shaving community, you can charge a heavy premium for “new old stock” blades. Until people realise that isn’t what they are. And these “Polsilver” counterfeits have been on the market since at least 2015 and are still easy to find online. I believe a lot are sold in Poland, where there are no doubt many shavers who grew up with this brand and are unaware it is long discontinued.

I think they made a very good profit from this particular fraud, and still are.