$tarmate, what's up with the price?

duro

duro

Joined
May 25, 2012
Messages
848
I have several new Spyderco knives on my to buy list. The gayle bradley is a knife in which I can justify the cost....The starmate is also a blade that I want, but the price? It's vg-10, g-10, liner lock construction. Why is this knife selling for 190 dollars? Then you have the ulize, great blade again, but 160 dollars? Again; VG-10, G-10, liner lock...

I dunno Spyderco...These prices are a bit extreme in my view. Hopefully they will come down to a more reasonable level. You used to offer a lot of blade for the buck, but this is getting out of hand.

I certainly won't purchase these knives at this price point. I am not afraid to venture into the high dollar range, but only if I'm getting a lot of value for the dollar spent. In the above cases, the value per blade ratio is pretty eschewed.

So what's up Sal? Does management have a few broken bean counters?
 
duro said:
I have several new Spyderco knives on my to buy list. The gayle bradley is a knife in which I can justify the cost....The starmate is also a blade that I want, but the price? It's vg-10, g-10, liner lock construction. Why is this knife selling for 190 dollars? Then you have the ulize, great blade again, but 160 dollars? Again; VG-10, G-10, liner lock...

I dunno Spyderco...These prices are a bit extreme in my view. Hopefully they will come down to a more reasonable level. You used to offer a lot of blade for the buck, but this is getting out of hand.

I certainly won't purchase these knives at this price point. I am not afraid to venture into the high dollar range, but only if I'm getting a lot of value for the dollar spent. In the above cases, the value per blade ratio is pretty eschewed.

So what's up Sal? Does management have a few broken bean counters?
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It sounds to me like you need to start up your own production company and show him how it's done. Or at least explain in detail how you've managed to design, build, test, redesign, retest, break, refine, build, test, pilot, produce and market hundres of top-quality knives for rock-bottom prices and stay in business for thirty years. I'm sure he'd like to know.
 
I would assume a lot of the costs on these newer folders are there to just break even, what with all the machining, testing, and royalties that need to be paid to the designers.
 
Can't compare either to the Gayle Bradley because they're made in different countries, or you have to factor that in at least

Also, the Ulize is not a liner lock.

I don't understand the Starmate's price, but the Ulize's seems right on point, maybe a little low actually. The G10 Police is the same materials, same size, same country, same lock--in short, close to identical--and just $10 less in MSRP. I would have thought being a collaboration would bump the Ulize's MSRP higher up than that.
 
I was thinking of picking one of these up, but decided to go for another Military. The price is a little high for me as well.
 
I would venture to guess it has something to do with the cost of manufacturing knives in japan and the relatively high current value of the Japanese Yen. Producing knives in Japan is currently as costly, or even more so than producing them in the US which would explain the higher price of recently introduced Japanese made models.
 
duro said:
I have several new Spyderco knives on my to buy list. The gayle bradley is a knife in which I can justify the cost....The starmate is also a blade that I want, but the price? It's vg-10, g-10, liner lock construction. Why is this knife selling for 190 dollars? Then you have the ulize, great blade again, but 160 dollars? Again; VG-10, G-10, liner lock...

I dunno Spyderco...These prices are a bit extreme in my view. Hopefully they will come down to a more reasonable level. You used to offer a lot of blade for the buck, but this is getting out of hand.

I certainly won't purchase these knives at this price point. I am not afraid to venture into the high dollar range, but only if I'm getting a lot of value for the dollar spent. In the above cases, the value per blade ratio is pretty eschewed.

So what's up Sal? Does management have a few broken bean counters?
Click to expand...

+1. I've been thinking the exact same thing during the last week. Sadly I will not be able to justify buying any of the newest releases.

I'm sure there will be a lot of negative comments to the OP but I think Spyderco deserves some honest feedback.
 
mkjellgren said:
I would venture to guess it has something to do with the cost of manufacturing knives in japan and the relatively high current value of the Japanese Yen. Producing knives in Japan is currently as costly, or even more so than producing them in the US which would explain the higher price of recently introduced Japanese made models.
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+1....:)
 
duro said:
So what's up Sal? Does management have a few broken bean counters?
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Dude, there are better ways of making your point. I would never presume to know the knife business better than Sal and the folks at Spyderco. I doubt a rant about the Starmates price will acomplish much. I think sales of the Starmate will speak louder than anything. If it sells well, then they priced it right. Simple as that. The market will find it's equilibrium. If you have a problem with the price, there are a ton of other options out there. There a several knives on my list that were and are not purchased due to a higher price than I wanted to pay for it. I never felt like I should critisize the company. I just didn't give them my money. No hard feelings. It's not personal, it's business.
 
To all the members giving me a hard time about what needs to be said, perhaps you need a spyderco tshirt to show your support. It's available for sale on Spyderco's website; only 34.95.
 
duro said:
To all the members giving me a hard time about what needs to be said
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Gosh it sticks in my craw when people who don't have to buy luxury items complain about their price. It's not like they're gasoline, food, water. There are humans on this planet who are starving to death and you're complaining about not being able to buy another luxury item to add to your pile of luxury items. Speaking of saying what needs to be said...
 
There are A LOT of new models that I would have bought if it wasn't for the high price.

Shame really, Spyderco came out with some really different, interesting designs this year. But I'm assuming the higher price is to compensate from the limited number of sales from such unique knives.

Although the Szabo doesn't seem too bad of a price.
 
I would also like to add...

Think of it this way, Spyderco could have come out with their only new "models" of 50 different colors of Para2, (although the OCDs here would be happy :) ) or come out with the cool designs they offer now and be able to complain about the price.

I for one choose the later and welcome change diversity/selection.
 
The strength of the Yen may be the biggest factor.
I agree that the price of the Starmate seems out-of-whack.
If it is the Yen then we're going to see a lot of models go up in price.
 
RandomAyes said:
+1. I've been thinking the exact same thing during the last week. Sadly I will not be able to justify buying any of the newest releases.

I'm sure there will be a lot of negative comments to the OP but I think Spyderco deserves some honest feedback.
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I think educated feedback is preferred, not this. Making assumptions about "needs to be said" from this person is just laughable. No discussion about new tooling costs, material cost, labor expenses, fluctuations in the exchange rate, etc... Please? Let's hope the knife doesn't squeak when it opens. :rolleyes:
 
Quite simply, this only needs to be discussed if people choose to discuss it. Companies need not justify their prices, they only need to succeed. If enough people agree that a price is too high, the product may fail.

I think the guys at Spyderco have figured out a thing or two over the years, and they seem to be doing well. By all means, spend your money how and where you see justification to do so...but your post seems to be more inflammatory than fact finding from my perspective (FWIW).

Have a nice day;)
 
duro said:
To all the members giving me a hard time about what needs to be said, perhaps you need a spyderco tshirt to show your support. It's available for sale on Spyderco's website; only 34.95.
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This is the same crap you pulled about Southern Grind over in the Emerson forum....... Again, don't buy it. No one cares if you buy it or not.
 
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