Another thread on the vagaries of buying a GEC knife

[WoodManGM]

Mike, thanks for the response above. By way of background, I got into GEC a couple of years ago, maybe 2014, and was straight away impressed by the company and the focus on traditional methods and techniques. I like fly fishing and camping and traditional tools, so GEC was a natural fit. But what made it more special was the relationships I was able to set up with the dealers, most particularly Bob Andrews (RIP) who kept us all informed of GECs various activities through his blog, and was always happy to help me when I asked him to locate a knife, even a rare SFO, if he could. It made the whole knife buying experience infinitely more pleasurable and personal, even from the long distance involved.

Now, fast forward a couple of years and I've lost some of that personal touch that made knife collecting so good, and am now increasingly associating good GEC knives with that same anxiety that Bilbo went through with his 'precious' in Lord of the Rings! It's no longer a gentleman's pursuit conducted in a friendly way, and increasingly nerve wracking and frustrating. Some dealers have been nice enough to give me advance warning of their website release times, but even that notification doesn't quite restore the good vibes I had from those friendly gentlemanly chats I had with Bob. I no longer view my new SFO knives as fondly as the ones he personally sought out for me.

Anyway, we can all wish for the good old days, but I wanted to explain my current disappointment with what this has become. I hope that personal touch isn't lost forever, for me its a big reason to buy a GEC ahead of spending my dollars on something else.

I agree with you wholeheartedly. I experienced a similar loss of desire for the products of a maker of high-priced and high-quality one-piece multitools after pursuing them for quite some time. The selling system made it impossible for me to acquire one from the primary seller/manufacturer. I don't have a job that allows me to wait around for and then respond to an electronic notification that items are now available for sale and will then sell out shortly. And, I'm not interested in paying an extortionary price on the secondary market, although I can afford it. So, I'm over these OPMTs. I wouldn't take one now if you gave it to me for nothing.

A popular traditional knife dealer who sells GEC knives under his own brand name has a selling system that is not that much different from the OPMT maker and accordingly it has been impossible for me to acquire knives from him in the recent past, although I have previously purchased from him. So, like Atwood before him, I am gradually losing interest in his products.

Thus, the lion's share of my business goes to two purveyors. One allows you to pre-order knives well in advance for a nominal fee. The other features a system that allows you to reserve a knife well in advance without paying any fee (fortunately, I despise the 25 frame because although I received the text notification of availability, I would have been unable to respond for hours had I wanted one) . Between these two dealers, I have five 66s reserved.

I hope I haven't gone out of bounds by discussing dealers' selling methods. If so, I apologize. However, I don't think it hurts much to debate selling systems that take some of the pleasure out of the hobby for many of us.

 

[major_works]

CK's early reserve system may well be the fairest way to parcel out these high-demand SFOs. I don't really know if that's true and so I'm not criticizing with what follows, but rather relating my experience with it. It's only panned out for me once (last year's NF 77). When my phone chimed announcing the arrival of the alert text, I immediately, and I mean within seconds, jumped to the CK Early Reserve page and clicked the link to the #25 reservations. They were all closed already. Maybe there's a delay in the texts reaching me for some unknown reason, but this is typically how it goes for me when these SFOs drop. OK, cue the violins...

 

[Buzzbait]

Maybe there's a delay in the texts reaching me for some unknown reason, but this is typically how it goes for me when these SFOs drop. OK, cue the violins...

That could be. I looked at the reservations a minute or so after I got the text yesterday, and everything was still green.

 

[Pàdruig]

The #25 SFO certainly proved to be the fastest to close since I signed up awhile ago. Barlows appear to be pretty hot right now and if you frequent any of the traditional social media pages, you know how collectible the #25 is, with some folks having particularly vast quantities of them. It didn't surprise me at all that the reservations closed a few hours after notifications were sent.

As with any software and/or technology, there will always be unfortunate bugs and glitches and I think Mike offered to discuss such issues off-site with those who have experienced them. If you think about the software and all the variables involved (phone carriers, internet, software, etc.) with a notification system, there are bound to be hiccups now and then. I know that doesn't make anyone feel better but it is an unfortunate fact. There isn't a single bit of software in existence that is infallible...

 

[r8shell]

CK's early reserve system may well be the fairest way to parcel out these high-demand SFOs. I don't really know if that's true and so I'm not criticizing with what follows, but rather relating my experience with it. It's only panned out for me once (last year's NF 77). When my phone chimed announcing the arrival of the alert text, I immediately, and I mean within seconds, jumped to the CK Early Reserve page and clicked the link to the #25 reservations. They were all closed already. Maybe there's a delay in the texts reaching me for some unknown reason, but this is typically how it goes for me when these SFOs drop. OK, cue the violins...

I agree that the early reserve system is the most fair system, even though I often don't manage to get on in time. There are plenty of knives available that are in less demand, and I just don't get worked up about it.

However, I do have concerns regarding this year's forum knife. I will be disappointed if those of us who regularly purchase these knives every year have to "lolly-scramble" to get one. Things could go negative and that would be a bummer.

 

[Danke42]

I'm a US citizen and resident so I'm not affected but at the same time what federal law is being broken in this scenario?

I think the reference is re a CITES certificate of origin being required for export.

 

[cbr1000]

I agree that the early reserve system is the most fair system, even though I often don't manage to get on in time. There are plenty of knives available that are in less demand, and I just don't get worked up about it.

However, I do have concerns regarding this year's forum knife. I will be disappointed if those of us who regularly purchase these knives every year have to "lolly-scramble" to get one. Things could go negative and that would be a bummer.

If people are allowed to purchase 2 or more it's probably going to be a lolly-scramble (rip czarbombr). Part of the problem is there's the folks that have two or more BF accounts to enter GAW's repeatedly or are knife flipper alter ego accounts. Hopefully they sort out a way to only ship one address per credit card on valid BF accounts. Last year there was 386 some odd forum knives.

 

[Knurling_turtle]

If people are allowed to purchase 2 or more it's probably going to be a lolly-scramble (rip czarbombr). Part of the problem is there's the folks that have two or more BF accounts to enter GAW's repeatedly or are knife flipper alter ego accounts. Hopefully they sort out a way to only ship one address per credit card on valid BF accounts. Last year there was 386 some odd forum knives.

RE: BOLD

That's super gross and anyone doing this should get a shunning.

 

[knifeswapper]

I'm a US citizen and resident so I'm not affected but at the same time what federal law is being broken in this scenario?

International shipping in general has become very complicated. You can't ship anything under Fish and Wildlife's umbrella (horn, stag, shell, ivory, and now 100's of ebony and rosewood species) without a $90+ inspection fee and permit on file. There is a more detailed observation here.

Mike, thanks for the response above. By way of background, I got into GEC a couple of years ago, maybe 2014, and was straight away impressed by the company and the focus on traditional methods and techniques. I like fly fishing and camping and traditional tools, so GEC was a natural fit. But what made it more special was the relationships I was able to set up with the dealers, most particularly Bob Andrews (RIP) who kept us all informed of GECs various activities through his blog, and was always happy to help me when I asked him to locate a knife, even a rare SFO, if he could. It made the whole knife buying experience infinitely more pleasurable and personal, even from the long distance involved.

Now, fast forward a couple of years and I've lost some of that personal touch that made knife collecting so good, and am now increasingly associating good GEC knives with that same anxiety that Bilbo went through with his 'precious' in Lord of the Rings! It's no longer a gentleman's pursuit conducted in a friendly way, and increasingly nerve wracking and frustrating. Some dealers have been nice enough to give me advance warning of their website release times, but even that notification doesn't quite restore the good vibes I had from those friendly gentlemanly chats I had with Bob. I no longer view my new SFO knives as fondly as the ones he personally sought out for me.

Anyway, we can all wish for the good old days, but I wanted to explain my current disappointment with what this has become. I hope that personal touch isn't lost forever, for me its a big reason to buy a GEC ahead of spending my dollars on something else.

I agree with the joy of a one on one relationship, and it almost feels like that is why this hobby has stood the test of time. And I am not so good at sugar coating, so apologies. But Bob was able to afford the time to do the things he did because he did not have the volume that we have grown to have. And we have actually throttled our business significantly to keep it at the level that my family can handle it personally but give the customer an assured feeling that everything is handled ethically for every customer. When I started I manually put knives on a website with html coding and had to manually remove them once they sold. I had a forum for discussions and listed a direct phone number to my house. Sadly, we have grown to where those things are harder to accommodate now with one full time nut and one shipping assistant (wife). But we do the best we can. I only ask that you don't look at streamlining as losing the personal touch, as this is not a system I went out and bought - I have spent years putting it together with 95% of the intent being to help the customer.

CK's early reserve system may well be the fairest way to parcel out these high-demand SFOs. I don't really know if that's true and so I'm not criticizing with what follows, but rather relating my experience with it. It's only panned out for me once (last year's NF 77). When my phone chimed announcing the arrival of the alert text, I immediately, and I mean within seconds, jumped to the CK Early Reserve page and clicked the link to the #25 reservations. They were all closed already. Maybe there's a delay in the texts reaching me for some unknown reason, but this is typically how it goes for me when these SFOs drop. OK, cue the violins...

Although once the text is sent, I have no idea where it lingers about - I can assure you that there is no delay in the sending. I have personal SMS numbers at the top and bottom of the list so any delay in the actual sending would be obvious to me. Also, this reserve was open - at least in part - for over an hour. We have a new policy of setting a time for very short runs; but this response surprised me.

 

[major_works]

Although once the text is sent, I have no idea where it lingers about - I can assure you that there is no delay in the sending. I have personal SMS numbers at the top and bottom of the list so any delay in the actual sending would be obvious to me. Also, this reserve was open - at least in part - for over an hour. We have a new policy of setting a time for very short runs; but this response surprised me.

Mike, out of curiosity, can you determine what time on Wednesday you sent the #25 early reserve texts? My phone says it arrived at 1:04 pm Eastern time.

 

[Pàdruig]

This is the time I received the text notification. Pacific time. Seems to correlate with yours M major_works

 

[Jfowler]

I received the early reservation text at 1:04 pm here in Kentucky as well .

 

[Sabercat]

Mine was 1:04 eastern and all options were green when I got there. I was able to reserve the one I wanted after reading Mike's "read me".

 

[major_works]

This is the time I received the text notification. Pacific time. Seems to correlate with yours M major_works

I received the early reservation text at 1:04 pm here in Kentucky as well .

Mine was 1:04 eastern and all options were green when I got there. I was able to reserve the one I wanted after reading Mike's "read me".

Thanks for your input, gentlemen. No fooling, as I'd said, I saw the text the moment it arrived, opened the reservations, and they were all red and marked closed. IDK what to say other than "better luck next time" to myself. I'll bow out of the discussion here and thanks again.

 

[r8shell]

12:32pm Central Time, because Sprint believes text messages, like fine wines and cheeses, must be properly aged.

 

[knifeswapper]

It would be interesting to know if anyone who has delayed SMS messages also have the Remind App; and if those notifications come faster.

 

[knifeswapper]

Thanks for your input, gentlemen. No fooling, as I'd said, I saw the text the moment it arrived, opened the reservations, and they were all red and marked closed. IDK what to say other than "better luck next time" to myself. I'll bow out of the discussion here and thanks again.

You have a different issue. You say you received the message at 1:04 Eastern; which is when it was sent. And there was no way they were closed or marked red at that point. So, you must have been looking at the wrong product. There is no way to tell at this point; but there is no chance they were marked closed at 1:04PM Eastern - they weren't even all closed at 2:04PM Eastern.

 

[jc57]

I have purchased several GEC knives (and Case, and I think even a Queen) over the years through Collectorknives.net, through both the old web site and the new one. Some were done via early reserve including a couple of the 77 SFOs. I have never had a problem with the system that wasn't a result of my own mistake. I have been lucky on the last couple of SFOs that I happen to have a desk job with a computer, and when the alerts came in I wasn't in the middle of something and was able to log in quickly and put in my "sure" reserve.

I've been very pleased with Collectorknives.net - the pricing, communications, delivery, and quality of merchandise.

The issue with GEC is one of high demand relative to the supply. The only thing that is going to solve that is an increase in their production, a decrease in demand (which could be accomplished by them raising prices, since they can), or a solid competitor showing up to siphon off some of their business.

 

[bonky]

For what it's worth, I've been a customer of Mike's for a few years, probably close to a decade now. I've always been pleased with the service he's provided, although it was a bit more detailed in the past than it is now.

Regardless, I have a short list of retailers with whom I deal, and CK knives is right on top. I have only 3 dealers I even bother with, fwiw: CK knives, Knives Ship Free (Derrik, another great guy) and Gunstock Jack (Barry is fantastic).

You can't go wrong with any of the three, and they all go above and beyond to make sure that you are going to be happy with your purchase.

 

[braillediver]

Having multiple Bladeforums Accounts is against the rules and if known those members should be reported to the Admins.