#4,761
UPDATE 

I’ve been getting a lot of messages about the 4.5 oz Dragonsbeard Shave soap. It’s not sold out. It’s not showing on the website as it hasn’t been released yet. The Razor Company just got theirs and I’m sure they will be releasing them very soon. As soon as I see that I’ll also post them up on my website. Orders will also be going out to Bullgoose, Pasteur’s and Anticantura. 

So shouldn’t be too long. 

Great shaves! 

Frank

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#4,762

Member
So Cal
Frank, will you also be offering Dragonsbeard shave soap in the 7.5 oz size on your website?

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#4,763
(11-17-2023, 12:08 AM)johnnylighton Wrote: Frank, will you also be offering Dragonsbeard shave soap in the 7.5 oz size on your website?


Thanks for asking. The 7.5 oz sizes were the limited edition black glass jars. There ended up being 30 made and all are gone. So for this V4 version the only ones left are the 4.5 oz size. I release the Dragonsbeard once a year and will shoot for the traditional October 1st date in 2024. 


Got to move on to the fall/winter releases. 

Best regards 

Frank

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#4,764
Hi Frank,  will Top of the Chain be receiving Dragonsbeard and the latest releases as well?

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#4,765
(This post was last modified: 11-17-2023, 06:50 PM by Dragonsbeard.)
(11-17-2023, 03:00 PM)scrum Wrote: Hi Frank,  will Top of the Chain be receiving Dragonsbeard and the latest releases as well?

Honestly I don’t know I’ve been trying to lock down a conversation with the owner and as you may know he’s a full time teacher and it seems like we have a hard time getting on the phone together. I’ve given a lot of time slots to make it easy on him time wise. He’s a good man and I know he wants to order and get ETHOS back in stock but I need him to call me so we can move forward since there’s a lot of new things to discuss. 

Maybe you can drop him a message letting him know you’d like to have products available to you up there. Last time a customer asked him he reached out to me he sent me a message so maybe you’ll motivate him to give me a call. 

 Thank you!

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#4,766

Member
Chester County, PA
(11-17-2023, 03:00 PM)scrum Wrote: Hi Frank,  will Top of the Chain be receiving Dragonsbeard and the latest releases as well?

Frank, you need a more reliable partner in Canada if you can find one.  Sorry, they can’t keep missing drops like this.

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#4,767

Posting Freak
(11-17-2023, 10:27 PM)dtownvino Wrote:
(11-17-2023, 03:00 PM)scrum Wrote: Hi Frank,  will Top of the Chain be receiving Dragonsbeard and the latest releases as well?

Frank, you need a more reliable partner in Canada if you can find one.  Sorry, they can’t keep missing drops like this.

I don’t know if you can find a more reliable vendor in Canada. Carmine at Top of the Chain is a decent guy and has always given me top service. He also has the widest range of artisan products in the country. I think that might be a bit of a problem for him if you go by how much artisan stuff he has on his discounted sale page. Maybe he’s trying to cut back although I can think of several he could drop before Ethos!!

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#4,768
(11-18-2023, 06:03 AM)Marko Wrote:
(11-17-2023, 10:27 PM)dtownvino Wrote:
(11-17-2023, 03:00 PM)scrum Wrote: Hi Frank,  will Top of the Chain be receiving Dragonsbeard and the latest releases as well?

Frank, you need a more reliable partner in Canada if you can find one.  Sorry, they can’t keep missing drops like this.

I don’t know if you can find a more reliable vendor in Canada. Carmine at Top of the Chain is a decent guy and has always given me top service. He also has the widest range of artisan products in the country. I think that might be a bit of a problem for him if you go by how much artisan stuff he has on his discounted sale page. Maybe he’s trying to cut back although I can think of several he could drop before Ethos!!

Marko

I agree Carmine is a very good person and I like him a lot. We’ve had some great conversations in the past and he easy to work with but then something must have happened last year because that’s when this issue with communication started. We usually communicate through WhatsApp and I’d message him about new upcoming releases and he’d message me back saying yes I need to get an order in and I’d send him an order sheet and then I’d not hear back from him so I’d message him agin and eventually he’d respond again saying he needs to get an order in. So that’s how it’s been going since then. In fact the last time I heard from him we had a good conversation and we talked about meeting each other for lunch in Niagra Falls and I said I’ll drive your order there as it’s only about 75 miles from me. So honestly i haven’t given up on him I just think he’s got a lot going on with his full time job and his kids as he’s mentioned a couple of times in our conversations. Since this came up I’m going to reach out to him again and let’s see if I can get him back on track as I get messages from Canadian customers quite often about this topic as they don’t really like paying for the shipping from the US.
I also want to be clear I’m not trying to talk badly about him as I really like him I just need a vendor to be a good steward for the brand which I’m sure you can understand. I’ll report back on this as I know several people have messaged me about the Dragonsbeard release and even more so on the upcoming two. Bay Rum releases and I want him to have them. I know very well what’ it’s like to be overwhelmed and that may be what’s happening to him but I’ll really try my best to get in touch with him.

Best regards

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#4,769

Posting Freak
(This post was last modified: 11-19-2023, 12:15 AM by Marko.)
(11-18-2023, 07:15 AM)Dragonsbeard Wrote:
(11-18-2023, 06:03 AM)Marko Wrote:
(11-17-2023, 10:27 PM)dtownvino Wrote: Frank, you need a more reliable partner in Canada if you can find one.  Sorry, they can’t keep missing drops like this.

I don’t know if you can find a more reliable vendor in Canada. Carmine at Top of the Chain is a decent guy and has always given me top service. He also has the widest range of artisan products in the country. I think that might be a bit of a problem for him if you go by how much artisan stuff he has on his discounted sale page. Maybe he’s trying to cut back although I can think of several he could drop before Ethos!!

Marko 

I agree Carmine is a very good person and I like him a lot. We’ve had some great conversations in the past and he easy to work with but then something must have happened last year because that’s when this issue with communication started. We usually communicate through WhatsApp and I’d message him about new upcoming releases and he’d message me back saying yes I need to get an order in and I’d send him an order sheet and then I’d not hear back from him so I’d message him agin and eventually he’d respond again saying he needs to get an order in.  So that’s how it’s been going since then. In fact the last time I heard from him we had a good conversation and we talked about meeting each other for lunch in Niagra Falls and I said I’ll drive your order there as it’s only about 75 miles from me. So honestly i haven’t given up on him I just think he’s got a lot going on with his full time job and his kids as he’s mentioned a couple of times in our conversations.  Since this came up I’m going to reach out to him again and let’s see if I can get him back on track as I get messages from Canadian customers quite often about this topic as they don’t really like paying for the shipping from the US. 
I also want to be clear  I’m not  trying to talk badly about him as I really like him I just need a vendor to be a good steward for the brand which I’m sure you can understand.  I’ll report back on this as I know several people have messaged me about the  Dragonsbeard release and even more so on the upcoming two. Bay Rum releases and I want him to have them.  I know very well what’ it’s like to be overwhelmed and that may be what’s happening to him but I’ll really try my best to get  in touch with him. 

Best regards
Sorry Frank, I’m not suggesting you’re disparaging Carm. I know he’s got a lot on his plate. I just think Canada is a tough market because it’s so small and it’s expensive. Here in the forums we can get lost in our own little echo chamber. The market for artisan wet shaving products is not huge and Canada hasn’t got a huge population. 36 to 40 million people (depending on irregulars) do a Canadian vendor has to depend on US business and offer the free shipping to US as  as Canada because they have to to compete. US vendors don’t offer free shipping outside of US because they don’t have to. What? 360M people? So on that basis alone Canadian vendors are operating at a lower margin. And if you’re dealing with returns it’s even worse then there’s the FX on the dollar. That’s why there’s basically three significant vendors in Canada. Top of the Chain (#1 in my book), Italian Barber and Fendrihan. Neither of the latter two carry the range of artisans that TOTC does. There’s a few smaller vendors like StoneField which carried obscure ( not top tier imo) Canadian soap makers but he’s shutting down. He’s an airline pilot and there’s only so much time. There are a few others that sell only their own product like MacDuff’s (top tier imo) but other than that it’s a barren high cost wasteland 
There used to be more vendors but they’ve all shut down over the years. I don’t know, maybe most Canadian guys are Williams soap buyers. Or canned. I rarely raise the subject of wet shaving with guys. You get that look. Whatever. Far be it for me to inject a little joy into people’s miserable lives Smile   So I reckon that Carmine is dealing with the same issues all Canadian vendors have to deal with not the least of which is needing a day job to support your family. I want to see these guys thrive. We all do. Personally, I will pay US shipping for stuff I really want. Like Ethos bay rum! Otherwise I wait to see if stuff turns up at TOTC and if it doesn’t, oh well…

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#4,770
(11-19-2023, 12:14 AM)Marko Wrote:
(11-18-2023, 07:15 AM)Dragonsbeard Wrote:
(11-18-2023, 06:03 AM)Marko Wrote: I don’t know if you can find a more reliable vendor in Canada. Carmine at Top of the Chain is a decent guy and has always given me top service. He also has the widest range of artisan products in the country. I think that might be a bit of a problem for him if you go by how much artisan stuff he has on his discounted sale page. Maybe he’s trying to cut back although I can think of several he could drop before Ethos!!

Marko 

I agree Carmine is a very good person and I like him a lot. We’ve had some great conversations in the past and he easy to work with but then something must have happened last year because that’s when this issue with communication started. We usually communicate through WhatsApp and I’d message him about new upcoming releases and he’d message me back saying yes I need to get an order in and I’d send him an order sheet and then I’d not hear back from him so I’d message him agin and eventually he’d respond again saying he needs to get an order in.  So that’s how it’s been going since then. In fact the last time I heard from him we had a good conversation and we talked about meeting each other for lunch in Niagra Falls and I said I’ll drive your order there as it’s only about 75 miles from me. So honestly i haven’t given up on him I just think he’s got a lot going on with his full time job and his kids as he’s mentioned a couple of times in our conversations.  Since this came up I’m going to reach out to him again and let’s see if I can get him back on track as I get messages from Canadian customers quite often about this topic as they don’t really like paying for the shipping from the US. 
I also want to be clear  I’m not  trying to talk badly about him as I really like him I just need a vendor to be a good steward for the brand which I’m sure you can understand.  I’ll report back on this as I know several people have messaged me about the  Dragonsbeard release and even more so on the upcoming two. Bay Rum releases and I want him to have them.  I know very well what’ it’s like to be overwhelmed and that may be what’s happening to him but I’ll really try my best to get  in touch with him. 

Best regards
Sorry Frank, I’m not suggesting you’re disparaging Carm. I know he’s got a lot on his plate. I just think Canada is a tough market because it’s so small and it’s expensive. Here in the forums we can get lost in our own little echo chamber. The market for artisan wet shaving products is not huge and Canada hasn’t got a huge population. 36 to 40 million people (depending on irregulars) do a Canadian vendor has to depend on US business and offer the free shipping to US as  as Canada because they have to to compete. US vendors don’t offer free shipping outside of US because they don’t have to. What? 360M people? So on that basis alone Canadian vendors are operating at a lower margin. And if you’re dealing with returns it’s even worse then there’s the FX on the dollar. That’s why there’s basically three significant vendors in Canada. Top of the Chain (#1 in my book), Italian Barber and Fendrihan. Neither of the latter two carry the range of artisans that TOTC does. There’s a few smaller vendors like StoneField which carried obscure ( not top tier imo) Canadian soap makers but he’s shutting down. He’s an airline pilot and there’s only so much time. There are a few others that sell only their own product like MacDuff’s (top tier imo) but other than that it’s a barren high cost wasteland 
There used to be more vendors but they’ve all shut down over the years. I don’t know, maybe most Canadian guys are Williams soap buyers. Or canned. I rarely raise the subject of wet shaving with guys. You get that look. Whatever. Far be it for me to inject a little joy into people’s miserable lives Smile   So I reckon that Carmine is dealing with the same issues all Canadian vendors have to deal with 
 
I totally understand and I mentioned some of the things you brought up in a detailed message I sent him today. Left him my personal number so hopefully we will be in touch soon. I mentioned I'd still be willing to drive the order to Niagara Falls to save him some shipping costs as I go there now and then as there's a restaurant I like there.   

Thank you for your input.

Frank

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