Cruwear Military ETA

[jeru]

Please guys, this Dutchie has no idea what you're talking about when mentioning 'KC's website'. What online knife store is KC? And how did you know when they opened up the pre-orders? Is it something they stated in some newsletter or something?

[Donut]

KC = Knifecenter.

[jeru]

KC = Knifecenter. Of course. I'm sorry. That was stupid of me.

[Nate]

I just looked around for preorders when i first read about the cruwear sprint, KC was the only one I found. They shut down the preorder recently, hope I got mine in early enough... Apparently they have a history of over selling their allotments.

[jeru]

Guys, how you got aware of these pre-order possibilities in the first place? I always miss them?

[NoFair]

If you have a regular knife dealer he or she can tell you (wise to let them know which models you like) or check with the forums and see if there is anything coming. If there is something I "need" I let my dealer know when I hear rumors on the forums

[DougC-3]

KC = Knifecenter. Of course....

not to be confused with Knife Country USA or Country Knives, etc :p

...I'm sorry. That was stupid of me.

stupid of you not

It probably took me over a month to compile my list of over 25 knife stores from the initials people use. I couldn't figure out if there was some written/unwritten rule somewhere about not mentioning store names or what? :)

....how did you know when they opened up the pre-orders? Is it something they stated in some newsletter or something?

...and I was very puzzled about how people knew when and where sprint run knives were available. By google searching for sprint knives, reading the forum threads, etc, I found that only a handful of stores commonly sell sprints when they're first released (except for stores which receive a few of the numbered collectors' knives and may or may not sell them, often at a higher price). Usually three or four of these will email you when their knives go on sale, and as far as I know, you just have to keep checking threads like this one and the websites of the other one or two stores which accept pre-orders to find out when they start or stop. And occasionally, stores' "boilerplate" notices such as "discontinued," "back-ordered," "out of stock," etc, are misleading or flat wrong, and you might rarely be able to go ahead and place an order if you click on the order button.

You can just google "Spyderco cruwear military" or the like and pick out the store names among the results to learn the handful of stores which handle a given sprint run. Early on, all the stores might not show up, but when release time is near, I think they generally do.

[DougC-3]

Anybody heard of Tactical-Store.com? They turned up in a Cruwear Millie search and they offered it for sale--not pre-order, not email you when it comes in, etc, and they were taking PayPal and credit cards. But they don't do international orders, unfortunately. The site looked good, had satisfaction guaranteed and seemed legit. The price was too high but included shipping, and a $5.00 coupon for signing up for email brought it down to $22 over the usual price of ~ $157 shipped.

I mulled it over and grudgingly, because of the $22 and it not being a well known (by me) outfit, ordered one through PayPal, figuring if anything went wrong, I could get a refund and still have a shot at the usual stores. Seems like more of a sure thing than jumping into the fray when they're released, no? Maybe the $22 could be regarded as an insurance policy. No shipping date was mentioned, but I guessed it had to be soon, or they wouldn't take all the money, right? It's Labor Day, so, I couldn't call.

The confirmation email said they were a division of Optics Planet! I went to Optics Planet and it was listed there too, with an estimated shipping date of 7-16 days. If I were the fingernail biting type, that's what I would start doing now.

[rodloos]

Anybody heard of Tactical-Store.com? They turned up in a Cruwear Millie search and they offered it for sale--not pre-order, not email you when it comes in, etc, and they were taking PayPal and credit cards. But they don't do international orders, unfortunately. The site looked good, had satisfaction guaranteed and seemed legit. The price was too high but included shipping, and a $5.00 coupon for signing up for email brought it down to $22 over the usual price of ~ $157 shipped.

I mulled it over and grudgingly, because of the $22 and it not being a well known (by me) outfit, ordered one through PayPal, figuring if anything went wrong, I could get a refund and still have a shot at the usual stores. Seems like more of a sure thing than jumping into the fray when they're released, no? Maybe the $22 could be regarded as an insurance policy. No shipping date was mentioned, but I guessed it had to be soon, or they wouldn't take all the money, right? It's Labor Day, so, I couldn't call.

The confirmation email said they were a division of Optics Planet! I went to Optics Planet and it was listed there too, with an estimated shipping date of 7-16 days. If I were the fingernail biting type, that's what I would start doing now.

I have no experience with Tactical-store.com, just remember the old adage, "if it sounds too good to be true it probably is". Very rarely will an unheard-of store have actual stock and be shipping product before any of the regular stores. Something really irritates me about stores that claim to have something in stock, if they don't.

I figure I'll hedge my bets, in case KC isn't able to fulfill my preorder with them, if I find it available somewhere else that I trust, I'll go ahead and buy it - and if KC then is able to fulfill my preorder, I'll have two of them - worse things have happened :) . I have doubles of some PM2's and Millies, triples of at least a couple models, - and an empty wallet :D .

[DRKBC]

I just looked at the Tactial-store.com and the photo of the knife they display for the Cru-wear is the titanium military. I would think if they had the C/W Mili in stock they would be able to put a picture of it up? makes me wonder anyway. I think if anybody had stock this early on it would be one of the larger dealers.

[jeru]

Does anybody know what color the G10 will be? Satin finished blade I guess?

[DRKBC]

Grey G10, Satin finished blade.

[DougC-3]

I have no experience with Tactical-store.com, just remember the old adage, "if it sounds too good to be true it probably is". Very rarely will an unheard-of store have actual stock and be shipping product before any of the regular stores. Something really irritates me about stores that claim to have something in stock, if they don't.

I figure I'll hedge my bets, in case KC isn't able to fulfill my preorder with them, if I find it available somewhere else that I trust, I'll go ahead and buy it - and if KC then is able to fulfill my preorder, I'll have two of them - worse things have happened :) . I have doubles of some PM2's and Millies, triples of at least a couple models, - and an empty wallet :D .

I just looked at the Tactial-store.com and the photo of the knife they display for the Cru-wear is the titanium military. I would think if they had the C/W Mili in stock they would be able to put a picture of it up? makes me wonder anyway. I think if anybody had stock this early on it would be one of the larger dealers.

I didn't think they necessarily had them in stock right now, because, if they were released already, I think we would have heard of it from some of the usual stores, as you say. But I did think that a reputable place wouldn't list them for sale and take the full amount without firm knowledge that they would be coming very soon. Also, I don't think paying 22 bucks extra is too good to be true :) The point is that this should (I hope) be a bird in the hand since the sale is a done deal, unlike the pre-orders, which are sometimes oversold, and the email notifications, which don't guarantee you'll be able to buy before they sell out.

I was a little disappointed that the Optics Planet site listed the expected ship date as 6 to 17 days though. I meant to mention in the first post that, if other stores start selling them before I'm notified of shipment, I'm going to try to buy one from them, then, if I get two, I could keep or return the second or pass it on at cost to another forumite who missed out.

Rodloos, looks like you're living up to your "get both" signature :D and I too have a case of empty wallet syndrome.

[wquiles]

Please guys, this Dutchie has no idea what you're talking about when mentioning 'KC's website'. What online knife store is KC? And how did you know when they opened up the pre-orders? Is it something they stated in some newsletter or something?

KC = Knife Center:
http://www.knifecenter.com/

[Coulro]

I doubt the above mentioned store has them in hand, I've yet to see any collecTors models pop up.

[Capt'n Boatsalot]

Anybody heard of Tactical-Store.com? They turned up in a Cruwear Millie search and they offered it for sale--not pre-order, not email you when it comes in, etc, and they were taking PayPal and credit cards. But they don't do international orders, unfortunately. The site looked good, had satisfaction guaranteed and seemed legit. The price was too high but included shipping, and a $5.00 coupon for signing up for email brought it down to $22 over the usual price of ~ $157 shipped.

I mulled it over and grudgingly, because of the $22 and it not being a well known (by me) outfit, ordered one through PayPal, figuring if anything went wrong, I could get a refund and still have a shot at the usual stores. Seems like more of a sure thing than jumping into the fray when they're released, no? Maybe the $22 could be regarded as an insurance policy. No shipping date was mentioned, but I guessed it had to be soon, or they wouldn't take all the money, right? It's Labor Day, so, I couldn't call.

The confirmation email said they were a division of Optics Planet! I went to Optics Planet and it was listed there too, with an estimated shipping date of 7-16 days. If I were the fingernail biting type, that's what I would start doing now.

I emailed them previously to inquire about the Cruwear Military. Below is the response that I got. Pretty cryptic.

Greetings from Tactical-Store!

Thank you for contacting us. I do not see that we currently have that item available for sale. I apologize for the inconvenience. We are constantly adding products to our website. Please feel free to contact us in the near future.

[DougC-3]

I doubt the above mentioned store has them in hand, I've yet to see any collecTors models pop up.

That was my first thought, that they might have received a small number of collectors' knives. That could have accounted for the slightly higher price, too. But when I saw they were part of Optics World and the prospective ship date was 6 to 17 days or whatever, I gave up that notion.

[DougC-3]

I emailed them previously to inquire about the Cruwear Military. Below is the response that I got. Pretty cryptic.

Greetings from Tactical-Store!

Thank you for contacting us. I do not see that we currently have that item available for sale. I apologize for the inconvenience. We are constantly adding products to our website. Please feel free to contact us in the near future.

Doesn't inspire too much confidence :) I wonder if they would have taken your money at that time. Actually, though, PayPal said they'd paid them, but the transaction is not pending yet at my bank--could be a lag because of Labor Day yesterday. I also went to the Optics Planet site from a Cruwear Millie search a couple of weeks ago, before I knew they had anything to do with Tactical Store, and their peculiar page layout prevented me from seeing the Cruwear entry immediately, they looked sort of junky, and I just disregarded them and left. Consequently I wasn't too happy when I saw that Tactical Store was associated with them, after I checked out at TS.

But I checked around, and maybe Optics World looks OK -- they have a huge presence at Amazon. Ideally I'd rather deal with a private knife store, but I've bought several knives from Amazon and eBay stores and had no problems.

For me I think the worse case scenario is, if they dawdle around, I'll go through with my original plan and try to get one from the usual stores, maybe cancel the OW deal, or, if I wind up with two, as rodloos says, it's not the end or the world :p

[TomAiello]

It probably took me over a month to compile my list of over 25 knife stores from the initials people use. I couldn't figure out if there was some written/unwritten rule somewhere about not mentioning store names or what? :)

I would be very grateful if you could either post that list or message it to me. :)

[TomAiello]

I've bought thousands of dollars worth of optics from OpticsPlanet.com.

I've seen them oversell before, and when that happens refunds have been quick and painless.

I wouldn't hesitate to give them my CC info if I wanted to order this knife from them.