Production models are usually uninteresting but easier to get than exclusives, so that’s nice.
Can you elaborate why?
Sure!
Exclusives are from a single source, so there are fewer opportunities should it be a particularly popular configuration or if I experience connectivity or checkout issues. This happened with the DLT Purple Cruwear PM2 and several of the St. Nicks models.
Sprints can be purchased from the SFO, and if I’m lucky enough to do so, I can utilize my veteran discount.
Sprints are available to foreigners as well, and this is a positive in the case of a vendor not being willing to ship internationally. It may reduce the qty I technically have access to, but I care about our overseas friends as well.
Sprints come from the mothership with love. They feel more special to me than a model that a dealer is just trying to make a pile of cash on.
There may be other reasons that I don’t recall, but that’s all that comes to mind at the moment.
If you put a lot of value in collecting and that sort of thing, a Sprint can only be ran one time and will never be ran again without some sort of change, while a dealer exclusive can be ran as many times as the dealer wishes. This can be good or bad depending on how you look at it, Sprints will almost always be more rare and harder to get unless an exclusive is ran in a small batch and never ran again. Of course just sheer popularity can change demand, but I think in most cases a Sprint will always be more valuable in the long run than an exclusive.
Production models are usually uninteresting but easier to get than exclusives, so that’s nice.
Can you elaborate why?
Sure!
Exclusives are from a single source, so there are fewer opportunities should it be a particularly popular configuration or if I experience connectivity or checkout issues. This happened with the DLT Purple Cruwear PM2 and several of the St. Nicks models.
Sprints can be purchased from the SFO, and if I’m lucky enough to do so, I can utilize my veteran discount.
Sprints are available to foreigners as well, and this is a positive in the case of a vendor not being willing to ship internationally. It may reduce the qty I technically have access to, but I care about our overseas friends as well.
Sprints come from the mothership with love. They feel more special to me than a model that a dealer is just trying to make a pile of cash on.
There may be other reasons that I don’t recall, but that’s all that comes to mind at the moment.
If you put a lot of value in collecting and that sort of thing, a Sprint can only be ran one time and will never be ran again without some sort of change, while a dealer exclusive can be ran as many times as the dealer wishes. This can be good or bad depending on how you look at it, Sprints will almost always be more rare and harder to get unless an exclusive is ran in a small batch and never ran again. Of course just sheer popularity can change demand, but I think in most cases a Sprint will always be more valuable in the long run than an exclusive.
I try to buy only what I am willing to use. Of course, I haven’t had the time or opportunity to use all of my knives yet, so some have been “collected”, but that’s not my goal.
That’s a good point about multiple runs of an exclusive that I had forgotten about, but reruns aren’t common enough to raise my ranking of exclusives. The only ones like that that come to mind are the Moteng distributor exclusives, red DLT PM2 (have one), and REC PM2. The Moteng ones are common enough to be like regular production, and the second run of the “avocado” pm2 sold out in record time and is stupid expensive on the secondary market, so these reruns aren’t like most exclusive runs.
My preference is just for a design I like in a steel I like with a handle color that isn't ridiculous (bonus points for Micarta). I don't care if it is exclusive to Dealer X or a sprint run, so long as I can get it.
Don't care anymore. Back when I was building my collection, I favored Sprints because it was always made clear roughly how many would be produced. Nowadays, I confine my purchases to new versions of a couple models I favor and will buy pretty much any new variant of those that comes out. On the other hand, about the only thing that can get me to purchase other models is if one is offered as the Spyderco Forum forum knife.
I prefer standard production*. I like trying different steels and colors but I refuse to subscribe to the rat race of trying to keep up with sprints and exclusives.
Artificial scarcity as a sales tactic comes across to me as somewhat slimy. It plays on the "fomo" of people with poor impulse control. It also appeals to people who like to have something just a bit more because it means someone else can't have one. I don't understand that mindset and I don't particularly care for it. It's needlessly exclusionary and a problem in a lot of hobby/enthusiast communities. If there is a demand, why not just make more?
It also encourages flippers/scalpers who are worthless parasites who do nothing but skim money from genuine enthusiasts.
*Exception for exclusives if the dealer reruns the exclusive to keep up with demand. E.g. the HH ukpk or the knife center happawood models.
