Benchmade retail vs online retail

A

Alford78

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Dec 29, 2014
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I don't know if specific price talk is allowed in this section so will not say the prices but I came across something that made me wonder about benchmade's retail system.

There is a small gun store not too awfully far from me that everyone within a couple hundred miles goes to because the owner basically sells everything at $10 over wholesale.

Well since I've started collecting knives again this past holiday season I decided to take the drive just to see what knives he carried. He had benchmade, spyderco, ZT, and a few others but it's out in the country with no internet so I did the next best thing, I took pictures of the displays with pricing stickers.

All the benchmade autos were about 35% cheaper than Internet pricing I see at the large stores. Is this common to find benchmade blades that much cheaper than typical online prices? I almost bought every one of the autos but they were extremely busy so just snapped the pics which confirmed what I thought to be extremely lower than what I've seen.

Ramble over and maybe someone can clarify what I saw as the norm for what to expect at shows or specialty shops.
 
Sounds like he may not be a "dealer" but may be buying from a distributor/wholesaler.
 
No thats not the norm at brick and mortar stores. Usually you can find things cheaper online, but benchmade went to a fixed pricing lately so that may mean most are around the same price. If they were 35% cheaper at the store, yeah you should buy there.
 
Whenever I see a Benchmade in a store, the price is usually right around MSRP. That goes for most knives in stores.
 
Benchmade started a new "minimum pricing" scheme, or whatever it's called. So the retail prices at the best online stores rose dramatically a few years ago. Perhaps the store you visited is not an official dealer, or perhaps they've gone unnoticed because of their small size and been overlooked by the Benchmade contract enforcers.

Bought my Griptilian on sale at a well-known dealer for under $70.00 on sale, which I thought was a fair price for the basic version of a fairly simple knife with plastic handles. But that was before the the new Benchmade pricing policy took effect. Now the same knife is priced in the $100-110 range...
 
cricketdave said:
No thats not the norm at brick and mortar stores. Usually you can find things cheaper online, but benchmade went to a fixed pricing lately so that may mean most are around the same price. If they were 35% cheaper at the store, yeah you should buy there.
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So he is not following their guidelines is what it appears. Although I didn't check the pricing on the new stuff he had in the display of just the new stuff. Could it be that the autos were discontinued models and he doesn't have to go with the fixed msrp with them? None of the autos were axis in the case I was interested in the most. There were literally like 60-70 customers in there buying guns mainly and the store is only like 1000sqft so I just popped in and out quickly as my main goal was just to see what brands he carried as I already knew he was a benchmade dealer from past experiences. I'm going to go back after the holidays and really check all the model prices other than just the autos. I remember off top of head that had a large SOG tac auto for Aprox $125 and that's what I paid for the mini.
 
The only store near me that carries upscale knives charges at least MSRP, even more on popular models like the Grips.
 
stickymeat said:
what other knife companies are there?
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Lol honestly I don't even own a benchmade. I've came close to buying one quite a few times from this place as it's right next to a place my wife and I go to for our anniversary dinner and other occasions. I've literally walked in there and looked at his benchmade otf autos a dozen times but just couldn't spend the money. That was before I started collecting though.

I've been collecting for about a week now and have acquired CRK small sebenza, SOG tac mini auto, socom auto, lightning otf, and a protech tr2.1x auto. So the prices I've shied away from at this store are really not expensive at all now that I've caught the bug and the benchmade autos look really really nice in person compared to online shopping. They have always made me ponder getting one even though I wasn't collecting each and every time I've went in there. But after dropping $150-$200 on a meal next door then casually window shopping I haven't wanted to pull the trigger for another $200 or so purchase on a whim. But now that I'm collecting I have a feeling I'll buy most of his stock that doesn't have black blades in autos. Still need to check the manual prices and models as I don't even know which I would go in there looking for.

Up until this bug grabbed me I've just carried my Blur for years and hadn't bought or collected any type of knife/weapon since I was a kid. I used to buy at flea markets when was a child and had quite the collection of random stuff that my mother sold off at a yard sale without me knowing it. Nothing special I doubt since rarely did I have more than $50 to spend as a child but after strokes and aneurism she lost her mentality to keep things that were her children's laying around the house.

Ramble over lol and will get some of the non hinderer,strider,Curtiss,microtech,protech knives known as benchmade very shortly. It's about an hour drive and want to have a list of prices to pull up on my phone for the non auto models.
 
Since it seems like it's ok to price talk here is what I snapped pics of since was familiar with model numbers from searching this past week. All have non black blade except 9101BK if that means anything as I don't care for black on black too awfully much.

3300-$275 3350-$240 9052-$142 3550-$115 2550-$120 3150-$100 9101BK-$145

Are most of them models discontinued?

There were about a dozen more in the same case but couldn't get pics because people were in the way- literally bumping shoulders with each other buying guns. Everyone I know buys guns from him since they are literally $10 over cost and has been that way for a very very long time.
 
Unless he has a retail death wish I don't get how he can "basically sells everything at $10 over wholesale" and maintain a store and give warranties and service. I've run several successful retail stores and a miniscule markup is the quickest way to go bankrupt. I current run an ebay retail business out of my house and after expenses a 50% markup over my purchase price barely makes it worthwhile. I'm not seeing how someone with an actual store can survive on an infinitesimal margin unless he has as much money as Amazon.com.
 
monkapotamus said:
Unless he has a retail death wish I don't get how he can "basically sells everything at $10 over wholesale" and maintain a store and give warranties and service. I've run several successful retail stores and a miniscule markup is the quickest way to go bankrupt. I current run an ebay retail business out of my house and after expenses a 50% markup over my purchase price barely makes it worthwhile. I'm not seeing how someone with an actual store can survive on an infinitesimal margin unless he has as much money as Amazon.com.
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It's the amount of guns he sells that allows the minimal mark up. He sells all kinds of other stuff but guns are what draws people in each and every day. I wouldn't even bother guessing how many guns he sells per day but I've never been in there when at least a few people weren't purchasing at the same time.

I doubt his antiques and other nick naks make very much money so can only assume the majority of his business is firearms. The store has been in business for at least 50 years so if he's losing money daily then someone had a bunch to waste at some point and it's merely something to pass the time although I doubt it since the gun section has gradually grown to take up half of the space.
 
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Maybe he sells low but records a higher price to launder money.
 
Well I was still extremely green to collecting when I made this thread a few weeks ago but my wife wanted to have an early Valentines Day meal this afternoon while the kids were at their nanny's so we went to the restaurant right next to the store I've been talking about.

My knife knowledge has expanded exponentionally over the past couple of weeks so I was better prepared to spend some money and so was my wife (man what an amazing woman, she even has an account on USN to secretly purchase knives for me way I don't see it). She wanted to get me a knife for Valentines Day and I just wanted to get whatever jumped out at me since it was too crowded the last time for a detailed search of inventory.

After looking at all the ZT, CRKT, Buck, Boker, Syderco, Benchmade, HK, and some random decent knives I took her to the Benchmade case the held the autos and inspected all the non black models' fit/finish, action, centering, etc... and gave her a choice to pick out the one she was going to purchase for me of the 4-5 that passed the handling tests. And, wow! She did what any knife geek's wife would love for them to do! She said, "I'll take the Ifidel!" I told the lady assisting her that I would be purchasing some other knives separate from that transaction so she went and opened up a few sliding glass door cases for me to inspect other knives while she rang up the Infidel.

Last night I had been looking at the CRKT Eros titanium models and they just happened to have the small one so that was first on my list. It had a very mild tight pivot but still managed to flip open with a little effort (will give it some cleaning) so it was definately going home with me.

There were a couple ZT carbon fiber flippers that I almost tested out but instead thought, "well why not get my first two Benchmade's on the same day so I meticulously went over a bunch of them and ended up with the best centered and best action knife in that case which just happened to be a griptilian sheepsfoot.

I went in there expecting to spend more money on higher priced knives since would have been saving more money the higher the model cost but was just one of those things where I had already made up my mind on purchasing an Eros the night before and they just happened to have it while was on my mind. Then when I was handling the Griptilians the sheepsfoot was so so smooth my wife even mentioned how nice it was so.....whose to disregard a comment like that right after she picked out the Infidel.

Was a good day and hand picked an Ifidel that has very tight tolerances considering it's an OTF!

Next trip I'm going to be prepared to hand pick a Spydie. I'm still lacking knowledge on them compared to BM, ZT, and a few of his other offerings.

I know this thread is pointless now that my original questions about BM manufacturer pricing policies in general have been answered but just wanted to share how I finally took advantage of the deals I stumbled upon and how my wife did a great job in choosing what I just could have asked for but left up to her as a gift is that much more special when thought is put into it.
 
Wait, how do you know the owner sells everything for $10 over wholesale?
How do you know what wholesale price is? Benchmade basically does not do wholesalers (Moteng and BlueRidge) the 2 largest wholesalers stopped carrying Benchmade about 5-6 years ago. That means that he must be buying direct.
 
RevDevil said:
Wait, how do you know the owner sells everything for $10 over wholesale?
How do you know what wholesale price is? Benchmade basically does not do wholesalers (Moteng and BlueRidge) the 2 largest wholesalers stopped carrying Benchmade about 5-6 years ago. That means that he must be buying direct.
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No, he sells his firearms at $10 over his cost. But I was inccortect about that as he has raised it to $25 since I first dealt with him. I had time to talk to him today about it since wasn't swamped. But I didn't question his knife pricing since I like having the prices available so just purchased no questioned asked. People always question his gun pricing since nobody has ever seen such low pricing so it's a conversation heard in there quite frequently. I have no idea about BM just that it is way lower than anywhere I've ever seen.
 
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Alford78 said:
No, he sells his firearms at $10 over his cost. But I was inccortect about that as he has raised it to $25 since I first dealt with him. I had time to talk to him today about it since wasn't swamped. But I didn't question his knife pricing since I like having the prices available so just purchased no questioned asked. People always question his gun pricing since nobody has ever seen such low pricing so it's a conversation heard in there quite frequently. I have no idea about BM just that it is way lower than anywhere I've ever seen.
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Oh wow, that is still kind of a very tight profit margin to deal with. I'm surprised he can stay in business, unless he can sell in high volume. The Benchmades in the gun shops I've seen, are usually sold at MSRP and they are not willing to negotiate on price. One gun shop in particular the guy told me, the price on the knife is the price that it's sold at, no matter what. These guys will haggle if you make a purchase of say over $1000, but you are lucky to get a whopping 3% off. Coincidentally, these guys were selling $500 ARs for around $1200. I told the guy, with prices like that you won't need many employees here after a while. It was basically a gouge shop. I wish we had a decent knife shop here where I live. But no such luck, the only one we had closed down last year.
 
RevDevil said:
Oh wow, that is still kind of a very tight profit margin to deal with.
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It really is. I wonder if he bought the stock while costs were still low, and once he buys more stock at the new, higher costs the sale prices will rise to keep that same margin?
 
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