Artificial scarcity

Always remember that a razor is merely a blade holder, nothing more & nothing less. I feel fortunate in that I can buy a used DE razor for less than $20 on Ebay that gives me great daily shaves. Such is the suffering we, the "unwashed masses", must endure.        

Always remember that a razor is merely a blade holder, nothing more & nothing less. I feel fortunate in that I can buy a used DE razor for less than $20 on Ebay that gives me great daily shaves. Such is the suffering we, the "unwashed masses", must endure.        

Lol.. as an unwashed Plebian, I agree.


Sometimes I ask myself, why am I spending all this money... my wife is not amused..! Wake up boy!

Mazda and Ford can easily increase production of Miata's and Mustang's. Both also offer limited edition models by choice.
Lamborghini could probably not increase production even with strong demand. The Lamborghini Centenary might be called a LE, but not by Lamborghini's choice.

Artisans are frequently 1 person shops with some getting help from family members. Production is in-house. Not sure if adding family members is that easy. One of the negatives of making excellent products is excessive demand exceeding supply.

I just sold the last jar of Orange Frost from this batch. Now all I have to do is wait for the demand to build until everybody on earth craves a jar and then I'll create not 600, but 6 new jars so that demand will stay high.

Mwah, ha, ha! Soon I shall rule the shaving world! <= Plankton voice.
Excellent! <= Mr. Burns voice.

I just sold the last jar of Orange Frost from this batch.  Now all I have to do is wait for the demand to build until everybody on earth craves a jar and then I'll create not 600, but 6 new jars so that demand will stay high.

Mwah, ha, ha!  Soon I shall rule the shaving world!  <= Plankton voice.  
Excellent! <= Mr. Burns voice.

You need to change the name of the soap and give it an even more bizarre description: "What do you get when you are holding hands with your girlfriend hiking in Antarctica and you stumble upon a freak orange grove.............ANTARCTIC ORANGE FROST THAT'S WUT!"

Instant millionaire.

I'm trying to think of a product that I own that has had some kind of scarcity (artificial or not) around it that I would say was worth it.

I have a few Semogue mixed hair brushes. For a few years they were making them using different sizes and handles and I bought a bunch, they sit in my medicine cabinet since their regular cheap boar brushes are fine.
I have a Weber PH, somewhere. I think I avoided most of the rare razor hype. No desire in even trying a Wolfman.
I used to have some RazoRock soaps, there used to be a high turnover in scent. Used up a tub of the original XXX and Caprician Lemon, and partial tubs of Fresco and Nervous Wreck. Don't really miss any of them, the lemon was nice enough.

There are so many products that if it's not easily available you can order something just as good that's in stock now.

I recall a great Italian soapmaker, who three years ago created artificial scarcity and you had to be online the exact time he was releasing the soaps to have a chance to grab one. It was very difficult, but most of you know what I mean.

And...? There are thousands of artisan soapmakers out there, including several dozen praised on the wetshaving forums. There is absolutely no reason people could not have purchased another quality soap.

Wolfman tried to do the same, to offer a product readily available, but I really don't see this moving.

Ditto.

I found this in a post over at The Cave Brook forum:

For the record though, I must use a post war Tech (to avoid the dreaded "blade chatter" that I've never experienced) and hold the razor at precisely 32.678 degrees with a Derby blade hand stropped on Levis brand denim while facing magnetic north and listening to Carry On My Wayward Son by Kansas to achieve true BBS which only lasts twenty one minutes due to my extremely sensitive skin and extremely manly, very very coarse beard. Cheers.

It's pretty much true. You don't need that oh so exclusive razor or rare-as-hen's-teeth soap to get a great, thoroughly enjoyable, super smooth shave. Sometimes wetshaving on the forums goes off on tangents and gets lost in goofiness. No wonder some folks think we are nuts.

I recall a great Italian soapmaker, who three years ago created artificial scarcity and you had to be online the exact time he was releasing the soaps to have a chance to grab one. It was very difficult, but most of you know what I mean.

And...? There are thousands of artisan soapmakers out there, including several dozen praised on the wetshaving forums. There is absolutely no reason people could not have purchased another quality soap.

And... back then, three- four years ago, there were only a handful of known artisans, for example Pannacrema in which I'm referring to, MDC and Mike's. No B&M, LPL, L&L etc. It seems that today anyone can make an "artisanal" product in his house and sell it. Things back then were different. Artisanal soap was something new. Wetshavers were doing their best to try one. One not dozens of them. Some like the one I'm using as an example took advantage of it, at least it seems to me like that. Now we read about a new artisan almost every month. Is this logical? How many artisans you think this hobby can stand?

Praised soaps on the wetshaving forums is not always a good thing. Maybe they are not praised for the obvious reason. And maybe that's why we don't read about them after a while. It happens with the razors and brushes as well. This doesn't mean anything to me. I'm not new in this hobby so I don't get excited that easily like most of the new members. A great number of members in today's fora are relatively new, so I don't expect from them to understand.

I recall a great Italian soapmaker, who three years ago created artificial scarcity and you had to be online the exact time he was releasing the soaps to have a chance to grab one. It was very difficult, but most of you know what I mean.

And...?  There are thousands of artisan soapmakers out there, including several dozen praised on the wetshaving forums.  There is absolutely no reason people could not have purchased another quality soap.

And... back then, three- four years ago, there were only a handful of known artisans, for example Pannacrema in which I'm referring to, MDC and Mike's. No B&M, LPL, L&L etc. It seems that today anyone can make an "artisanal" product in his house and sell it. Things back then were different. Artisanal soap was something new. Wetshavers were doing their best to try one. One not dozens of them. Some like the one I'm using as an example took advantage of it, at least it seems to me like that. Now we read about a new artisan almost every month. Is this logical? How many artisans you think this hobby can stand?

Praised soaps on the wetshaving forums is not always a good thing. Maybe they are not praised for the obvious reason. And maybe that's why we don't read about them after a while. It happens with the razors and brushes as well. This doesn't mean anything to me. I'm not new in this hobby so I don't get excited that easily like most of the new members. A great number of members in today's fora are relatively new, so I don't expect from them to understand.

For clarity and accuracy's sake, we just celebrated our fourth anniversary a couple of months ago. Some of us have been around for longer than you think.