removing prices on sold knives.

[bladsmth]

Now, as Stacy the Bladeforums member, not the moderator:

I feel as Page does....scalpers are manipulating the market to make money off others who get nothing in return....except higher prices. In many places they are illegal. If you do the same thing with stocks or securities, you go to jail for a long time. If caught scalping tickets in some countries, you can join the stock manipulators in jail. Some places in the USA just let it slide because it is hard to stop......That is not an excuse to condone it, though.

Also, it is one thing to try and sell the ticket you bought for your girl friend and she got sick the day before the concert. It is even OK to try and get a few bucks over what you paid, since you are standing outside the arena. But, if you electronically buy 100 tickets the instant they go on sale ( along with a hundred other scalpers who do the same thing) ,suddenly there are no tickets left to buy from the ticket office. Scalpers often pay for these on a credit card, and then immediately offer them for resale online at two to three times the price you paid ( actually they haven't really paid for them yet),.....no money out of pocket, and an exorbitant mark-up...... they are manipulating the market.
Some of the resale sites even look like the actual concert website....which is close to fraud in my book.


If a collector buys a knife of mine and sells it a year later for more than he paid, that is perfectly fine. It is probably worth more now. However, if a person orders a knife or two, and then just posts them for sale with no intention of owning them any longer than necessary to roll them for a profit....I think he is manipulating the market.

[Bailey Knives]

I am actually regretting restarting this thread. I just wanted to state that I want my customers to be able to sell a knife for more than they paid for it. It may not make great business sense but I want them to be able to make a profit on their investment. For what it is worth, in the particular instance I was referring to, I am pretty sure the original owner had the knife for at least 6 months.
Also, I am actually glad Stacy moved it. I started it where I thought I should, and he moved it where he thought was appropriate. I easily bow to his greater wisdom about the rules of the website and where things should go. I should have known that this topic would get edgy pretty quickly but I didn't. I was not meaning to start something that has been beaten to death. I had just not seen anyone mention anything similar to my position on the original post.

[Brian Ayres]

I'm sorry if anything I said was the cause of your regret Matt.

I think it still could be an interesting discussion and if my tone came across as negative, again, I apologize. I am sorry if my questioning Stacy hijacked your thread too.

[Bailey Knives]

No, Brian, it is not you. I should have realized from the previous discussion that there would not ever be a real decent answer. Some people will take prices down for their own reasons and some people will leave prices up for their own reasons. Who am I to question someone else's reasons for doing what they do. No need to apologize at all. I just thought that I had a reason for doing something that someone else had not mentioned.

[daizee]

For what it's worth, Matt, I'm glad you opened the topic again (and I agree it belongs here in ARG). I think these sort of topics demand some serious thought, and the discussion is worthwhile as long as it's civil.

Cheers,

-Daizee

[Rick Marchand]

Okay... so what is "ARG"?... Is that supposed to stand for Around The Grinder?

[RyanW]

Okay... so what is "ARG"?... Is that supposed to stand for Around The Grinder?

haha way to bring conflict to a thread Rick! Maybe "A Round Grinder"?

My thoughts... It is the knife makers right to show the price or remove it for whatever reason they feel. It seems like the ones that want the prices to stay up feel custom knife making is a stable market and prices should be regulated (For lack of a better word) It is a fluid market and highly affected by the economy...

Prices are lowered because makers want to buy more steel, pay a fuel bill, or other curve balls life throws. That doesn't mean that they have to sell a similar knife for that lower price a month later. Chances are an interested buyer will search that makers history and not be willing to pay $50 - $100 more. I see both sides of the coin but, custom knife costs are not controlled or stable in my opinion.

[bladsmth]

Yes - ATG....typo that was repeated as typed by me and others......"R" is next to "T".......... corrected.

[Daniel Fairly Knives]

I often remove the price simply because even with Sold! next to the price I will still have people try to buy the knife!

I have decided to leave the price now, it is helpful as a benchmark.

[Dago Red]

I am SO glad this topic was on here! This has bugged me since I every first came on the forum. I as a "potential" buyer am always looking at knives, some are IMO not worth what is being asked, some could probably bring more. The one thing that irks me to no end is the prices being removed. There is one maker on here who is religious about removing the prices, that and another "marketing" thing he does has decided me on never buying a knife from him although I like a lot of his work.

I never thought about the resale argument, but I agree that value is affected by many things. I like to be able to look and gauge before I bother a maker whether I could even get in the ballpark for their blades (I must have great taste because I can't usually afford the work I like ) by the same token if I'm buying a used or NOS knife I want to know if I could get the same thing for the same or less. Things that could make the knife worth more are delivery, costs going up on new from maker, and let's not forget uniqueness. On many knives even if the knife is recreated the handle material could be unique, hamon could be particularly attractive to a person (I didn't get an answer to a question I asked about hamons and since then don't care one way or another about them).

It's part of being able to research something before buying or before attempting to order. Anybody should be able to understand prices go up, and no seller is obligated to take a low ball offer. Hell I get lowball offers all the time on things I sell.

Sometimes with certain types of items being sold (guns for instance) I'll see where a seller takes the time to find out what the maker would charge for their item now. They'll post what they paid for it, what the replacement cost is, and what they're charging. Or at the least what they are charging and the replacement cost. That gives people a real good reference.

It also helps when maker is trying to sell one fast and "says" it's a discount or low price or whatever the wording is. A person who's been watching their work will know immediately it's a deal and want to jump on it faster.

Red