Dorco.

Remember them? Used to sell mail order direct, they manufacture handles and blades under their own name, for Dollar Shave Club, and for other no-name razor companies? They now sell exlusively in the States via Amazon. And although their prices have gone up since making that move a few years ago their products are still good, reliable, and inexpensive…. their blades are interchangable with all of their handles, so you can move to a new product line whenever you want to give more (or fewer) blades a spin and aren’t locked-in to a specific flavor or style of cart just because you have a handle that’s “keyed” to only one specific type of refill (cough “Gillette” cough)…. they just work, and they don’t cost an arm and a leg.

Their starter pack with handle and ten cartridges will only set you back $20-25 before S&S discounts, roughly the same price for their 16-cardridge refill sets Here’s their Amazon storefront:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/pag…64093540EE

4 blade, 6 blade, 7 blade (6 front + 1 trimmer on rear), even 3 blade if that’s your thing. And because all of the blades are interchangable with all handles, regardless of the name on the packaging (Dorco, DSC, Costco, Sam’s Club, etc), Dorco is now the No 2 firm in the private label market in both Europe and the US….. and you can often undercut even their QUITE reasonable online prices by going through third party or private sellers on eBay to stock-up. My last two eBay purchases were for a 20-pack of 4-blade carts for $21 and a 16-pack of 6-blade carts for $19.

So… there are options out there that don’t break the bank and that don’t force you into the Gillette ecosystem. And options are good.