#21
Yeah I can’t justify it. I was never willing to pay Wiborg prices and even think the ebonite premium is hilarious. I’ll enjoy the ones I have. I can get a custom straight razor that will last 200 years for the same price as the next brush I would have wanted with tax and shipping.

Dec and Mozingo for the only sub $300 brushes

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#22
(This post was last modified: 01-31-2020, 03:08 PM by george1906.)
I was also looking forward to obtaining a Varlet until I saw the email and looked at the prices. I will pass for now. We shall see if he reduces prices a bit or goes back to his drop method. For those that will drop that amount on a brush, more power to you but I would rather drop that amount on a titanium Wolfie. Just preference for me and I have a ton of high end brushes. This is just too much in my humble opinion for a very plain looking brush. There are other makers out there doing hand tied 2 band knots with comparable or even better hair for much less. Rhodium, Mozingo and Dec are my favorites from a knot standpoint right now.


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#23
(01-31-2020, 12:30 PM)Tester28 Wrote: Just imagine if Super Bowl organisers thought like The Varlet:
people are flipping our tickets for $7,000...since we want to make that
money, let's price our tickets at $7,000 from now on.

But that's exactly what they do. Why do you think most MLB teams have taken over control of their secondary markets for season ticketholders? To offer them a way of unloading extra tickets at a favorable rate? It's to get a piece of the pie.

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#24
(01-31-2020, 04:28 AM)Tester28 Wrote: Just got a notification....prices from $500 (sorry, 495 ) - $535

I'll be interested to see how this works.

$535 for a 29mm is taking the piss. Bigly.
Time will tell.

https://thevarlet.com/order-request

I agree!

(01-31-2020, 01:00 PM)LOOT Wrote: I was looking forward to the order page...until the prices were posted. Shocking to me....but I know there are brush guys out there that'll buy them. Not me. I never really got the attraction to Varlet as the handles are kinda boring material wise.

On the bright side, a custom Varlet is still $300ish cheaper than a DG custom.

It will be interesting to see if the market places the same value on his kit as he does.

LOL I am a brush guy but this pricing is outrageous. An old Mega would cost $295 now has a base cost of $535. That is an extra $240 dollars and what is the difference? Only difference is his non-existent customer service is now existent. I am not paying $240 to send him a max of 2-3 emails.

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Henery
#25
A lot of this has to be intentional as the demand was strongly exceeding supply. What do you do in this case - raise cost to eliminate a segment of demand. Everyone does it. A nearly double increase was a bit excessive, but hey, America.

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#26

Member
Florida
I don't see these prices being sustainable long term, time will tell.

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#27
So does this mean he will only be doing custom orders going forward and no more drops?


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#28

Posting Freak
Peachtree City, GA
(This post was last modified: 01-31-2020, 06:17 PM by DanLaw.)
(01-31-2020, 03:06 PM)george1906 Wrote: We shall see if he reduces prices a bit or goes back to his drop method.

Having worked at a very high level in major corps with strategy and pricing responsibility for luxury goods targeting HNWs, can flatly state that a product gets one chance at maximum pricing - if it works, the brand is elevated to another level henceforth (and previous buyers at the lower prices also gain a windfall) BUT if it fails the opportunity to reset lower is virtually nonexistent.  The seller will have alienated those holding residual resentment that the product is not as desirable as previously thought proven in the market by having failed to attain the premium status sought and hence harbor ongoing dissonance regarding acquiring future product even at the original price while the buyers at the premium price will be outwardly hostile in a public manner about having been taken, likely bitter to products already owned even those purchased at the original pricing structure.  One can not help but wonder if Varlet was well advised to pursue this endeavor - one surely wrestles to label it a strategy.

Contrast this with the creeping pricing efforts successfully employed by James duFour at Wolfman - whether intended, he developed a strategy on the fly via incremental tactical market response to address secondary market flipping and the public's sense of fairness.  Declaration Grooming well and truly developed a strategy incrementally adding value thru more intricate designs and inviting guest artisans as the prices crept upward (seemingly nearing parity with the secondary market based on BST offerings becoming available whilst public perception remains high) AND had the wisdom to offer a comprehensively custom niche offering for those wanting something special or willing to jump the line at any cost - doing so without assuming the potentially business model ending risk Varlet has embraced.

Somebody flippantly mentioned that were the badgers differentiated from those generally used for knots, there might be added value.  Truth told, were a manufacturer to undertake a nonlethal harvesting of badger hair using animals raised on farms treated humanely, I would sell my meager stock of brushes and likely pay a significant premium for a socially responsible badger brush but such is not the case here.  Perhaps this is a viable business model for an aspiring premium brush maker.

Stipulated Varlet has a right to sell their goods employing any pricing structure they wish but as a very wise HR executive relayed to me when discussing employee accountability: there is no rule banning defecation during rush hour in the middle of runway 27R at Hartsfield Jackson International Airport BUT if one chooses such an ill advised plan, there are dire consequences.  Fully realize going to be met with pitchforks and torches by the market fundamentalist mob demanding the witch be burned to save the good people from heresy and Supply Side Jesus' wrath but there you have it.

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#29
Well said DanLaw!

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#30
I'm most interested to see how price hikes by the tippy-top of the artisan world will impact other artisans and/or the secondary market.

I'm mindful of, for example, the initial shade thrown at Carbon for their initial pricing (which they did reduce a bit), and the standard take appeared to be "Geez, a Wolfman [or insert other top artisan] sells new for only about $50USD more..."

Is there a sense maybe artisans have twigged to equilibrium pricing perhaps too late in the game? Is the current high-end shaving market sustainable?

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