Price of Gillette blades

Hi All.  It has been awhile, a few years, since I have posted here.  I haven't been elsewhere, just felt my traditional wet shaving act had taken hold.

However, in shopping for some of my old favorite blades I saw that Gillette Silver Blues and Gillette Platinum are about half the price they used to be.  Can anyone explain this?  Are the new batches sub-par?  Any thoughts on this?

...I saw that Gillette Silver Blues and Gillette Platinum are about half the price they used to be.  Can anyone explain this?  Are the new batches sub-par?  Any thoughts on this?

Surely, you cannot be serious? 

There is a war on in case you haven't noticed. The Russian Gov't owns approx. 35% of the Gillette St. Pete factory and the Russkie Gov't is in a bind for cash. Due to embargos sales from there are in the shitter = huge discounts.

Yes I am definitely serious. The connection between a war and the price of razor blades has not come up before, at least in my time. How many people are aware that the Russian Government owns 35% of a Gillette factory? Give me a break.

The prices dropped well before the invasion. Gillette Platinum were like $10 for 100 blades a while back.
Used to be like $30.

Might as well mention, as it was also in your OP... The Gillette Platinum blades I received most recently are different.

The "old" ones I used to always get are these... My favorite blade... AND these FOR SURE are real blades... I know because these are what The Art of Shaving storefronts carried forever:



But the "new" ones are etched like this...



... And the only difference on the box is that the "new" ones have this serial number on one end (not both ends) of the box:



I don't know if the new ones are counterfeit. I have no proof of that. I do feel after probably 8-10 of them that they are not the same.

- I always get 4 consistent shaves with the old ones.
- I seem to only get 2-3 good shaves with the new ones

I could be wrong... I've used probably 1,000 of the old ones and only a few of the new ones. Time will tell for sure.

(There is a third GP (not shown) that is even different from the two above... I used some of those too. Much more expensive, and I didn't find they were as good as my preferred GP. They come in a completely different box and the blades have a different etching from the "new" ones above.)

Thanks for the reply Nero. I have a stock of the old Gillettes so I was not going to get these. I was just curious about the price. It sounds as if Gillette may be following Personna's bait-and-switch approach. I cannot figure out, with confidence, where any Personna Platinum Chrome blade is made. Anyway, thanks again.

Yes I am definitely serious.  The connection between a war and the price of razor blades has not come up before, at least in my time.  How many people are aware that the Russian Government owns 35% of a Gillette factory?  Give me a break.

The "serious" part was regarding your "sub-par" statement. Gillette has never made 2nd tier or rebranded blades.

I bought a large stash of Gillette Platinums a few years ago. Fantastic blades: they were
a bargain even 5-6 years ago when I got mine. I paid about $7 for a slab of 100.
These were not from one of the shaving goods retailers. I found them in a local department store.

Hear is my observation.

I used to buy GSBs for $12 per 100 - best deal in shaving.  GSBs have changed, at least in the packaging.  I just bought 100 of the new version for $14, but have not received them yet.  So, a modest price increase.  The old version can still be had at around $30, because they are no longer produced.

Platinums were expensive and harder to get in the past, but are now around $12.

I believe that Gillette was trying to replace the GSBs with Platinums in the US market.  They are pretty similar blades.  That would explain the low price and higher availability of the platinums.

Maybe the demand for GSBs was sticky, and they decided to come out with a new version to satisfy the demand from shavers who didn’t want to make the switch to Plats.

Afaik all blades from the St. Petersburg plant have laser-etching now. Polsilver Super Iridium for the Moroccan market might be the exception.