Its a $300 knife people... i think this is so humorous hat so many people have written on this, that do not have any think better to do...ha. Don't post on the Damn internet your pictures if you do not want people to us them. I also have bought from this True Knife place also, i can not believe he would FIRST attack me about taking his pictures amd threaten me, he should of simply asked nicely to remove the pictures. It was Neil's' ATTITUde that turned this all into to such a big ordeal, i would have simply taken them down, but he had to act all "Pissy" about it...Yes, it was my fault for using the pictures, but his faut in the way he asled me to remove them....so here we are.
Normally, I would not be replying to this fellow anymore but I will do so, for the last time, just to clear the air.
You did not buy this knife from us- we only had 2 of the double lug blue version and one went to a collector in Singapore and the other was sold off my table at the Gathering in Las Vegas.
So, this pretty much says what needs to be said about this. Also, this is a TNK exclusive item with Chris Reeve, so you could only have bought it new from us.
I neither attacked nor threatened you- I do not sell or do any business on eBay but have had an account there since 1999- so your notice that you are having eBay pull all my ads off may not work out for you.
As I said, the only way I knew about this was being alerted by several Blade forum members and around 20 other customers to the fact that somebody was using not only my recognizable photos but with my trademark logo (which is a protected copyright in the USA and also Canada). We are a United States corporation with our head office in Williston VT and the original company still operating as well in Montreal Canada.
My first request to you, not rude or pissy, but rather straight and to the point, was ignored and a few hours later you replied, kind of, by pinching yet another trademarked image to add to your ad, now making 2 of my trademarked photos.
I then sent you a message through eBay telling you that I had reported you for copyright infringement- not a threat at all- simply a matter of fact- an action.
Your reply to that message through the eBay system, instead of acknowledging that what you did was wrong, was to state that I was a prick with nothing better to do and that you felt sorry for me.
So, I added a report to eBay for your abuse and profanity. Again not a threat- but an action taken.
You then threatened to report me to eBay for being abusive but that if I called off my complaint you would not do that.
My reply, was that it is in the hands of eBay now and that they would handle it.
Your continued messages through the eBay system, including one that claimed that you would never get kicked off eBay just for calling me a prick because of your perfect rating .
(which I never mentioned, wanted nor even considered a possibility).
The rest of your continued messages through the eBay system were replied to by me asking you to stop the communication and to allow eBay to resolve this.
Regarding my images- the taking of quality pictures (mine are certainly not perfect, flawless or close to being the best) is the most difficult, time consuming and labor intensive part of the dealer gig- it is really easy to buy knives from reliable sources- getting them ready for the website is another story altogether.
I have many requests from all over to borrow my photos- with the exception of eBay, I always oblige when asked- a fellow who has bought a knife from me and want to sell it on a forum or blog will email and ask and I will always comply- that is called courtesy and respect, both ways.
The reason that I always refuse to give permission for eBay is because several years ago, some of you may remember, a bloke from the UK stole basically my entire Chris Reeve inventory of images, my descriptions and details and was selling these knives on eBay (and elsewhere) and after getting the funds from the buyers directing them to me for delivery.
So, that fellow was stealing their money and trying to leave me holding the bag- none of this could have happened had my protected images with my company logo not been used. So, that is the eBay story.
I have obliged many eBayers with generic photos of my knives where the logo was removed and a slightly different version of the website image- not all the time but always for somebody who had bought the knife directly from me.
So, as I have said to you several times, I will let the eBay system resolve this matter- they have a copy of all the internal messages between us- VERBATIM and UNEDITED- and they will know exactly what happened, and what was said without prejudice.
You also threatened to call Chris Reeve- I was kind enough to provide you with their phone number.
You also said that I am your "project this week" to find dirt on- I am not perfect and I have made mistakes in the past and will undoubtedly make them again down the road.
So, that's all I have to say.
Thanks to all of you for your support and especially to the many of you who brought this matter on eBay to my attention- sadly it could have been resolved very quickly and quietly THROUGH EBAY with a simple acknowledgment and removable of the images- it is a shame we have to use so much of Bladeforum's valuable bandwidth on this courtesy of "bigtime".
Best regards,
Neil Ostroff / TNK
