"Knife People" more price sensitive?

[On Edge]

I think you’ll find that even ‘knife people’ will run the gamut from “tight” to “willing to overpay” … I think a more accurate assessment would be that knife people are more aware of actual value … what a given individual is willing to pay for a specific knife is an unknowable factor.
The sellers that list currently available knives for far above the going price are just preying on the ignorant … caveat emptor.

[yablanowitz]

We know what they are worth, and we know there are fakes out there. We wouldn't be looking on eBay unless we were hunting bargains.

[Steeltoez83]

I forwarded a para 3 lightweight in rex45 awhile back. I made 3 or 4 bucks profit on the deal. I gave that money to St Judes. I know the purchase price pays the salary of honest workers at the distributors. I calculate the extra shipping cost for ebay purchases, and a few bucks for ebay to take their cut. If the ebay sellers wanted to make it a job, they should work at a bladehq or knifecenter.

[Airlsee]

Most of these responses explain why the Spyderco Swap never took off, for some reason many members here expect to get insane deals off of other enthusiasts or think that second hand sprints/exclusives that they missed out on are going to be sold at a discount because they remember the original sale price...and expect a discount because the knife was pre-purchased.

I agree with the original premise of the thread...if something is not available any longer, no one should expect it to be sold at a discount or the original street price. It's delusional...

I take and post very honest pictures and descriptions, but the responses here make it seem like many of you are expecting to pay street price or even to receive discounts on unavailable knives.

I'm price conscious, but definitely not delusional.

[apollo]

Life is getting more expensive everyday while paychecks stay the same.
Nothing more to it. Collecting knives is a hobby. So it is one of the first things that is going to be price checked. And let us face it prices on knives are not what they used to be.
And the newer the knife the higher the price.
Look at paysan and the Nirvana. Basically the same knife for the same price of +- 750 euro.
But the old Nirvana is a beautiful masterpiece while in comparison the paysan is more of a short on options Nirvana but at the same price. If they would give the paysan the same treatment as the Nirvana it would be a +1000 euro knife its crazy how bad the times are getting.

About the secondhand market for me it is simple. And old knife in mint condition is worth more then its original price. And old knife in used condition full of scratched is not. An Exclusive that is just sold out could be worth a tiny bit more then before. But to give an example. I am looking for a while on a DLT Manix exclusive if i was in time i would have paid 200 euro to get it after shipping and taxes. But now a man is asking 300 euro for it. That is for me insane a knife that was just available can be 50 euro more fine but a 100 is a third of the price that is way to soon in my eyes. In a year or so if no new stock was made fine but so soon is just greed in my eyes.

[vivi]

Life is getting more expensive everyday while paychecks stay the same.
Nothing more to it. Collecting knives is a hobby. So it is one of the first things that is going to be price checked. And let us face it prices on knives are not what they used to be.

Heck, I use knives professionally and even then I'm still very price conscious. I just ordered a japanese made vg10 santoku to bridge the gap between my zcuts and 10" chef knives. It was $32.

[cjk]

...

I agree with the original premise of the thread...if something is not available any longer, no one should expect it to be sold at a discount or the original street price. It's delusional...

I take and post very honest pictures and descriptions, but the responses here make it seem like many of you are expecting to pay street price or even to receive discounts on unavailable knives.

I'm price conscious, but definitely not delusional.

I'm not picking on you just because I quoted you, I just both agree and disagree with some of your points.

When I want something that's discontinued, I generally search ebay sold listings to get an idea of what the thing is really worth. I will look at both auctions and buy it now. I usually get a better idea of what something should sell for from auctions. That usually gives me a ballpark range of what something ought to cost on the secondary market.

There are plenty of folks attempting to sell stuff with BIN prices or initial bid prices way over what the thing they've got is actually worth.

The idea that something should be worth more now it's discontinued just because it's discontinued really isn't particularly valid IMHO. It very well may be depending on what the particular item is, but it really comes down to whether lots of people want it or not (simple supply and demand).

[Airlsee]

The idea that something should be worth more now it's discontinued just because it's discontinued really isn't particularly valid IMHO. It very well may be depending on what the particular item is, but it really comes down to whether lots of people want it or not (simple supply and demand).

I don't disagree, I just don't have a problem with hard to find items being marked up to a certain extent. Whether they sell or not is a different story, but if something is unavailable or hard to find, the convenience of eBay (plus the fees) justifies the mark up, in my mind.

[RustyIron]

Most of these responses explain why the Spyderco Swap never took off, for some reason many members here expect to get insane deals

You are correct. I joined that group and offered up a couple sprints that I decided I no longer wanted. I searched for comps, then offered my knives for less. The users called me out. I don't remember exactly what they said, but it wasn't nice. So I quit that group and offered my knives up on the Facebook group, where they were quickly scooped up by grateful buyers. The Facebook users got the knives, the Reddit users got to point their fingers and went home empty handed.

Personally, I'm both amused and irritated every time there's a Mule Team or Sprint that goes on sale. You can BET that there will be whinging and teeth gnashing over all the "flippers" who aren't even REAL knife collectors. If there was more profit to be made, I'd love to buy extras to sell, make a couple dollars, and quench my thirst on their tears of envy.

I don't go to concerts and sporting events any more, so I don't know how it works nowadays. When I did attend a lot of events, there were a few ways to get the BEST seats. You had to BE someone, you had to KNOW someone, or you had to be VERY lucky. If you were none of those and you still wanted great seats, you had to pay a broker who charged a substantial markup.

It's the same with knives. Get lucky, ante up, or sit in the nosebleed section flipping your off-the-shelf everyday knife.

[Bolster]

I think you’ll find that even ‘knife people’ will run the gamut from “tight” to “willing to overpay” … I think a more accurate assessment would be that knife people are more aware of actual value … what a given individual is willing to pay for a specific knife is an unknowable factor.

I think I understand what you're saying, but: If the dude drops the price of a $300 knife that hasn't sold for months by $3 and it suddenly sells, that (a) agrees with your statement "knife people are aware of actual value" but disagrees with (b) "what a person will pay is unknowable." It seems knife buyers are very sensitive and cognizant to what the price "should" be and thus, it's actually quite predictable how much buyers are willing to pay...ie, far from unknown...in the aggregate. Predicting a single individual? Yes, more difficult, but the marketplace isn't a single individual, it's a mob, and operates on rather finely tuned "mob rules"...it seems to me.

I guess another way to look at this is to turn it upside down...if a knife is slightly underpriced, it sells quickly. If the knife normally sells for $300, somebody will likely buy it quickly for $295, even though $295 is not chump change. So in that case the buyer (or the marketplace) isn't "cheap," but it is rather exquisitely "price sensitive" if a few dollars above or below the mob-derived price determines whether the sale is speedy or it sits unsold.

[standy99]

Being a watch collector and a knife enthusiast (not really a collector) and a fisherman

All have exactly the same traits.
LEs snapped up and sold by $$ hunters
Outrages prices by some.
Bargain hunters.
Hoarders


The biggest thing has been the added interest in both pursuits Watches and Knives.
Flippers, Pseudo dealers (flippers on a bigger scale) and real dealers and Instagram

Ask any of us older guys on here how long a Sprint lasted many years ago. (Not the under 2 minutes they can last nowadays) Mules would take weeks or months to sell out

So basically added interest on everything from watches to knives to shoes to fishing tackle