Benchmade's new MAP for Gold Class is full MSRP

halflife78

halflife78

Joined
Mar 9, 2016
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327
I don't normally get involved in the cost complaints around Benchmade, but this is just stupid and good way to start pushing customers to other brands.

Luckily MAP only applies to advertised pricing, dealers can sell at whatever price they want as long as it isn't advertised outside of MAP.

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DrRollinstein said:
I believe those are the ones that run for a certain amount of time, but they produce as many as needed. Where limited is a small amount produced
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Thanks, that make sense.

That might be a good idea for those makers doing sprint runs as well. Make them till demand slows down then stop rather than a fixed number that is gone instantly.
 
IMHO this just moves money from flippers to dealers, probably a good thing. Others should follow on Sprint Runs as well.
 
ndmiller said:
IMHO this just moves money from flippers to dealers, probably a good thing. Others should follow on Sprint Runs as well.
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Nope, based on what I heard the dealer margin is less, so BM is making more here not everyone else. Don't know if this is accurate though.

To clarify, I heard dealer cost went up so margin is lower and the offset was the new MAP structure.
 
Prices for gold class to begin with are outrageous. The people who buy them have enough funds to not really care and are die hard fans to buy a benchmade over a custom for the same price or less. Then you have collectors, flippers, etc.

Alot more to add to this but I think this says really all that needs to be said atm.

If it gives dealers more profit for the few they will sell that's fine. They don't really do anything for that extra profit imho if they ain't inspecting them before they leave.
 
Given (as others have previously mentioned) the high price of entry for a Gold Class knife, it's been my experience that a lot of them tend to make their way to dealers, only for dealers to sit on them for a while because the price point greatly narrows those in the market for one. Given this news of MAP and MSRP being the same advertised price point going forward for gold class knives, will the old/older stock of Gold Class knives (some of which dealers have already had for several months) like the Gold Class Foray or Gold Class Valet that came out within the last year also be retroactively subject to this new policy? If some of those knives have already been sitting for several months, I personally don't see an overnight price hike of several hundred dollars doing anything to help them sell any faster.

Something that I'd like to put out there for the sake of conversation is this; I can understand the reasoning behind the move (even if my wallet doesn't support it). When Benchamde is trying to market their Gold Class knives as essentially a high-end luxury product without compromise, (to some) it could be seen as weird that those same products are being sold "at a discount" from the moment they hit store shelves. The (possible) perception being (again, to some) that the way it's currently being marketed cheapens the product in the eyes of some consumers. Maybe not the best analogy, but to me, it's similar to how if you go to a car dealership, they have a variety of incentives (usually price/discount related) to get you into a Honda, Ford, Toyota, Chevy etc. However, if you're shopping for a Ferrari or a Lamborghini, the price is "the price" because when they sell you the car, they're also selling you on the brand, and applying the same tactics used by everyday automobile manufacturers would possibly cheapen/alter the perceived brand image. Whether Benchmade should/shouldn't be pulling this move is an entire conversation unto itself though.

I'd also like to add this; when Benchmade prices their products (re:setting MSRP), I like to think that they do so with the MAP price in mind - kind of like how a grocery store might inflate regular prices before a sale so while the deal might seem pretty decent and incentivise people to buy, it's actually not that far off from the regular retail price. What I take that as is while they'd like to make "X" amount of money off of a knife, they're clearly ok/able to do fine making "X-15%" off their knives. With this new stance on MSRP/MAP pricing on their Gold Class knives, it would be nice (although I highly doubt seeing this happening) if they lowered the MSRP towards the MAP side of things (where they were clearly ok with selling Gold Class knives at previously). This way, they're still moving forward with the one "non-discounted" price for any perceived optics, but it's also not just an overnight arbitrary price hike either.

Just my $0.02.
 
I love Benchmade and own a bunch of their low rent ones (no gold :p), but wouldn’t buy one that cost more than a CRK, Hinderer, Medford, etc. Just me. Same with Spyderco and ZT - nothing they make is worth over $300 IMO and most of my favourites are under $150.

Good on Benchmade and their dealers if these fly off the shelves, but I won’t be going near them.
 
Nevermind, not getting into a pointless argument about who make profit here when it won't change anything.
 
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SharpieB said:
I love Benchmade and own a bunch of their low rent ones (no gold :p), but wouldn’t buy one that cost more than a CRK, Hinderer, Medford, etc. Just me. Same with Spyderco and ZT - nothing they make is worth over $300 IMO and most of my favourites are under $150.

Good on Benchmade and their dealers if these fly off the shelves, but I won’t be going near them.
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I wouldn't pay Medford prices for a Medford! Price aside, the gold class offerings just aren't my thing. The William Henry "kitchen sink" aesthetics look gaudy to me - sometimes more is less. But who knows, maybe one day there will be a Valet or Foray or 765 gold class that demands my $$$.
 
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