A plea for those selling knives on BFC.

Kimberholic

Kimberholic

Joined
Sep 19, 2002
Messages
591
Since the forum is all about sharing information I would like to know why many who sell knives in the exchange section edit out the sale price after someone buys the knife. This price info can be very useful for those researching the value of a particular knife, especially used knives.

This is my plea:
Please, if you sell a knife through the exchange, leave the sale amount in the post so others may research knife values. Since we all know, it is only worth what someone will pay for it.

I think this would be very helpful to every knife nut not just me.

Jon
 
How about the seller do whatever they feel like? One of the nice things about a free market economy.
 
No, it's just a personal pet peeve. What the final price is rests between the buyer and the seller. Using past prices for research, leverage, whatever is not anyone elses concern. If the seller chooses to delete, that's their choice. Imploring them to do otherwise really has no place here.

For example, I bought a Steyr pistol off guncollector last year for $1800. A few months later, one appeared on the forums for $1000. While I did kick myself mightily for both spending more than I should have and not buying the second one, I didn't turn around to guncollector and go - "Hey, give me back $800!" because the second guy was pricing it at what he thought it should sell for.

If something is priced too high, no one is going to buy it, period. If someone does buy it, it's not priced too high, get it?

So, with that in mind, if a seller wants to delete prices after it's sold, it's their choice.
 
What Spark said. And also who is to say the knife sold for what the listed price was anyways.
 
Kevin,

That's a great way of explaining your position and it makes sense.

Mike
 
I just thought the information would be helpful I didn't intend to leverage anyone. Frankly, I see different knives at a local pawn shop and it is nice to do a search here and see roughly what a certian knife sells for. That way I won't experience what you did with the Steyr.

It was just a suggestion. I'm sure there are some out there who would find the info just as helpful as I do. As you said, it is a free market system, so if there are those that agree with me then let them leave the price up. You are free to not look.

Jon
 
Originally posted by Kimberholic
I just thought the information would be helpful I didn't intend to leverage anyone....
Jon
Click to expand...

Kimberholic - you would be surprised how posted prices (which may not reflect the actual sale prices) inspire people to think that a newer posted price is "overpriced".

I use Ebay prices and dealer prices to gauge "market value" - just a suggestion.
 
Spark and I respectfully disagree on this one.

IMHO, the historical record of prices paid for knives sold here can be a useful database to help estimate the value of knives. This can be valuable, for example, in an insurance claim situation.

"How do you know that a Benchmade Model 49-SPL knife is worth $2500? That's an aweful lot for a stupid pocket knife."

"Well, here's a record of one selling for just that."

IMHO, leaving that record is just a small way that a seller can give something back to the community.
 
While I agree that people can do what they want with regards to removing their prices after the sale, I can't help but think either the buyer or the seller has something to hide when this happens.

Perhaps they're embarassed by how much they paid, or afraid someone would point out how they ripped someone off?

I don't get it what's the big secret?
 
Actually Chuck, we don't disagree. I am saying (and maintain) that the seller should do what they feel like. If they choose to delete the price for whatever reason, that is their right. Same if they leave it. What will not happen, however, is a hard and fast rule stating that a seller must do either.
 
I agree that the seller has the right to do whatever he wants with his post after the sale is over. However, I also think that having the prices still listed as a record can be a valuable resource for others. I also don't see anything wrong with someone asking for people to do this. He never asked that it be made BFC policy to not remove prices after a sale, just a general request to the BFC public. I too am often disapointed when they get removed, it is a great judge of market value for a given blade and one that I use often when possible.
 
All Kinberholic issued was a "plea". Not sure how that limits anyone's market rights.

Over time the efficient market hypothesis would state that everyone benefits from price disclosure, buyers, seller, and the information provider/market. If prices aren't disclosed then people will rightly fear that maybe they will end up paying 80% higher than true market price, which hurts the market. Sure the guy who scores the higher price is happy relative to that one transaction, but maybe he has 40 guns to sell, and benefits from greater liquidity.

Reading prices from another market is no better than partial disclosure. And it also points to the risk to BF, since their volume can leak to some place like ebay that does a better job in providing and recording prices. In the BF case though, there really isn't any way of knowing if the stated prices are accurate.

Of course if you believe all that, you probably think everything is fair on Wall Street.
 
96.5684736 % of all statistics are made up on the spot.
 
The price I would like to see listed is the final sales price along with any other special considerations such as trades or cost of shipping. It is also instructive to see the history of the price if the seller had to back down from his original asking price. This tells me things about buyer psychology, which is what sales prices are all about.

I'm not pushing for this information, I am just saying that it can be educational. I see a lot of the value of this forum and the internet in general is a revolution in the free flow of information. I like to encourage and sample the free flow of information. One thing I really like about ebay is that I can see the original listing price and final sales prices of items over time. I can decide when is a good time to sell and when is a good time to buy. I can also get an idea of what is a good price to pay when I find something for sale second-hand or on another special sale. With more info I do more buying.
 
i'd like to put some support behind Kimberholic's REQUEST. i also would kindly ask that sellers leave their prices intact, after a sale is concluded. if you don't want to, that's fine too.

abe m.
 
I think its a woman's choice, :) oops, what i meant to say way that if the prospective researcher cares so much about maintaining a record of prices, they are free to compile their own folder by simply saving all for sale posts of knives they follow to record the original and subsequent prices. Its not hard and with todays hard drives typically at or over 50GB, anyone so interested can easily do it for themselves, or perhaps one of the people who wants a rule can offer to spend some extra time keeping a list up to date of prices on various knives and share it with anyone who inquires in the future.

But i absolutely disagree with a hard fast rule to screw up what is a great (free) system we have going here.
 
Here's my $0.02 worth. I personally would rather the sold items be removed from the message altogether. Let me make it clear at this point that this is nothing more than my personal preference, I have no interest in agitating for any rules, the current system is OK and I'm happy for it to stay that way, it's just that when I look at a post I'd rather not see something that I might like only to discover it's sold already.

Having said all that, since most of the sellers are on the other side of the planet to me it's probably completely impractical for me to buy anything off them anyway.
 
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