- Joined
- Jan 20, 2007
- Messages
- 101
GDay,
I dont get to spend a lot of time on the computer, so let me apologise in advance if I dont respond to anyones questions for quite a while.
Recently, ie: since January this year, I have been trying out internet knife vendors, so I figured I would share what I have found for anyone else buying from Australia. I wont go through the list of those who simply dont ship outside the US or those that charge $150USD delivery regardless of the order.
Of those I have dealt with:
www.knifeworks.com responded consistently to email both promptly and usefully, also very good prices (particularly on the Benchmade I was after) and service. Kept me informed of my order status. There was minor shipping problem which originated from USPS, not knifeworks and was soon resolved. At least using the USPS tracking number I could see at any time what was going on with my shipment; when it left the US, when it entered Aussie customs, when it left and when it reached the destination post office. I dont recall any problems in placing my order, either. The only shortcoming was that the website didnt indicate which models were presently in stock and which were not, but they were quick to revert by email anyway.
www.newgraham.com also responded to emails promptly and sensibly, very good prices and service. I found the website just a little obscure when selecting the shipping method for international, it doesnt offer that option straight up, you have to just select a US domestic shipping method, put in your address as outside the US and then submit it and it will bounce you back to the same screen with the only shipping option as Best Way Ground. The reality is that the knives came USPS Priority (which cost $10 less than www.knifeworks.coms method but didnt have to be signed for and the tracking number never got me any information apart from when it was picked up in VA, is that worth $10?) and shipped quickly despite ordering two out of stock models. One was out of production, which they notified me of within a day or two and gave me the option to substitute or cancel that part of the order. At the same time they told me that the other back order would be ready the next week. It actually shipped on the Friday before their suggested shipping week. The order took 10 days to make it me in Perth. One other very slight hiccup I had when placing my order which may be specific to Firefox was that, having added quantity one to my cart, when I tried to back out of the model detail page the browser warned me that it would resubmit the data on the page when I did so. And so it was that I ended up with two of each in my cart and had to sort it later. Not a biggie, but had me scratching my head. It was late at night though.
www.bestknives.com now this one was weird. They had the best price I had seen on a Boker 591 Beluga so I placed an order on Jan 6th. The order tracking page showed its status as under review and will ship in 2 to 3 days and remained that way for two weeks. Finally I tried a follow up email and got no reply. I sent another follow up with same result. Looking around I noticed that a number of other sites were no longer listing the Beluga and e-mailed a couple of the ones that still did enquiring about it. Knivesrus, Mountain Heritage Crafters and Shoplite all responded pretty quickly that they were out of production and their suppliers were fresh out. I sent a note to bestknives pointing out that since everyone seemed to be saying they were unobtainable, I was fine to just cancel the order. Still no reply. About this time I got a request from Yahoo to rate this merchant. I sent them another email suggesting that we still had time to cancel the transaction and I could at least be neutral about them. No response for another two days so I followed through with Yahoo around the 25th Jan and soon saw that, while their overall ratings were respectable at 4.5 and 4.5 out of 5, the recent feedback was split 50:50 between some very general Best Ever!!!! and other FIG JAMs and Totally useless, never answer e-mails or the phone, I would have cancelled my order ages ago if I could have ever got through to someone. Hmmm, I know which camp I fell into, but I dont think they were overly fussed by my adding to the chorus of discontent. Imagine my amazement when I got an e-mail on the 3rd Feb saying that my order had been shipped. The address on the Click-n-Ship notification was a bit mangled but recognisable. The order status is still under review but it is now showing Shipped. On the 13th Feb., blow me down, a Beluga showed up. I dont know whether to be impressed that they eventually tracked one down or royally p****d that by then, having given up on ever hearing back from bestknives, I had tracked one of the Final Editon ones down myself and now I have two. One thing about the one that bestknives sent through though is that the edge grind was terrible. One side was fine but the other was reminiscent of a cheap serrated kitchen knife. Clearly it was roughed out and missed its final sharpening; maybe that was why it was still kicking around. Doesnt really bother me as I intend to re-do the edge anyway.
www.theknifeconnection.com while the above was going on, these guys still showed stock of the Beluga on hand so I tried to place an order on them, but each time I submitted the order I got an error message saying that there had been a problem processing my order and to use the back button edit my data and try again. After the third time of this, I gave up and e-mailed them about it, on the 19th Jan. The next day my bank rang me to say that three identical transactions had been put through within a couple of minutes. I e-mailed theknifeconnection that day and got no reply, so figuring that I had now shelled out for four Belugas when I only wanted one to try and was unlikely to get any, I sent a last message on the 23rd and then on the 25th I got a reply from Tammie saying that she had been away for medical reasons and that actually all they had was three authorisations, which they expired and anyway they couldnt get Belugas as they were discontinued. Fair enough. Apparently the error was caused by my shipping address differing from my billing address. I usually get deliveries sent my work, I am there more than at home when deliveries typically arrive.
myknifesourcecom (endevergsp) on ebay figuring that I had put so much time into getting a look at one of these Belugas I checked ebay and found myknifesourcecom listed one of the Final Edition ones in black so I took it at the Buy it Now price. Payed with Paypal, it shipped next day and came in with the original Boker box, sheath with leg straps and Boker registration card. Arrived in about 10 days. Exactly as described, pristine. No problems at all.
Silver_hands on ebay based in Adelaide, South Australia. At least we are in adjacent time zones which makes communication much faster. Ordered a swag of Leathermans for the guys at work. Very easy to deal with, quick to pack and ship. Excellent prices and very accommodating.
www.knifesupplycompany.com one of the best presented and most user friendly websites. Always been very quick and helpful in their email replies to any questions I have had for them. All their knives list with the quantity in stock on the page and the expected in date for those out of stock. I have queried a few of the due in dates, but they have always stood by them. So far though, every thing I have thought to order from them has been out of stock so no real info on what happens after you place the order. However, I get a good feeling from them as they have always been dead straight with me even when it wasnt going to help me put an order on them. I did back order one item, which is not due in until the end of March, but at least I knew that before even adding it to my cart.
www.discountsupplyunlimited showed the best price I found on the Mission MPK10-Ti, so I e-mailed them asking whether they actually had any on hand. They responded pretty quickly that they did and could ship to Australia for $23.50USD so I placed an order for one. Payment could be via credit card or Paypal. I ended up using a credit card. A couple of days later they e-mailed me to say that there had been an error in their inventory and that they didnt actually have any, so sorry consider the order cancelled. I checked their website and found that the knife was still listed, but now at $80USD more than when I placed the order. Still a reasonable price mind you, but I think that I will try elsewhere. When I asked about it, Shawn replied that yes they were getting some more in by the end of the week but the price had gone up. No point trying to hold someone to a deal they dont want to be in.
www.elitesteel.net based in Brisbane, so no issues with Customs (not that I have had any so far, knock on wood). Listed the MPK10-Ti at a not unreasonable AUD price. I e-mailed them regarding the sheath, since the kydex one is belt carry and the hytrel one leg carry. I need leg carry. It took about a week for Jason to respond but he did apologise for the time taken, it seems that their site is undergoing a major restructure. Unfortunately theirs is the belt sheath, so no deal there. However, once you take delivery into account, their prices generally do compare quite well to some of the better US vendors and Australian ebay online stores like Cutting Edge Knives and Accessories, so I put in an order for a Fallkniven WM1, which apparently shipped fairly promptly but still isnt here18 days later. That is longer than any delivery I have had from the US once they shipped., so dont expect that you are going to save a bunch of waiting by going local. I was holding off posting this while I waited for some of the deliveries to come good, but I figured that I have to do it sooner or later. Paypal only.
While on that subject both Mission Knives and Fallkniven themselves have been very good to respond to emailed questions quickly and usefully.
www.knivesaustralia.com.au based in Western Australia and have some superseded models from mainstream manufacturers at attractive prices and a swag of unusual brands and knife making materials and tools. Be warned the phone number on the website appears to be their home number and he didnt appreciate being rung up at 18:45 on a Friday evening to try to order a Spyderco MeerKat. During working hours they have been easy to get on with, really quite chatty and quick to deliver. Credit card over the phone.
www.alaskagun.com responded pretty smartly considering I first emailed them on a weekend, and proved very easy to deal with. Wont do Paypal, but I faxed through my credit card details and they shipped out the knife promptly. It was second hand, but mint and exactly as described. Their shipping price was very reasonable, just $20USD on top of their asking price on bladeforums, and it came USPS Global Priority Mail. Every delivery I have received so far has taken between 10 and 14 days to get to me in Perth, Western Australia, but this was the only one that no-one had to sign for (until the one from New Graham!). Mind you it remains the only one that wasnt opened by Australian Customs on the way through either. Make of that what you will.
www.bussecombat.com no need to go into great detail here I am sure. Responded promptly, courteously and efficiently to e-mails. As an international customer I entered my credit card details when I placed my order on their main website but when the time came to ship they got back to me to say that they dont do credit cards from OS so it comes back to Western Union, Money Order or Paypal (+ 3.5%). Everytime I have checked with Western Union it would cost me an extra 20 to 25% to transfer funds from Oz to the US. Just so you know. It was the prompt I needed to make me get over my beef with Paypal and finish getting verified. The shipping was great, complete with tracking number. Everyone I dealt with at Busse Combat was very helpful. I am not entirely sure what to make of the two different websites. The www.bussecompanystore.com one shows details on the Game Warden and War Boar, but only seems to have a couple of War Boars and AK-47s actually for sale. The www.busssecombat.com one now lists only the Badger Attack TAC.
www.swampratknives.com likewise, very nice people to converse with via e-mail, just nothing available that I want to actually buy so far this year. The M6 is listed on the www.shop.ratknives.com site, but they are actually out of stock. I do know that I am far from alone in waiting for an opportunity to send them some of my cash.
www.scrapyardknives.com also been very prompt and pleasant to speak with. If you are outside the US, you need to be an existing Busse family customer to order from Scrap Yard. As per Swamp Rat, just havent had anything I could actually order until this week. While the Scrapper 6 is listed, if you add one to your cart you will find that it is out of stock. Patti says that it will be back, which would be good, I think one would fit nicely between my Battle Mistress and Howling Rat. A friend placed an order for me when the Dog Father listed as I was in a meeting I couldnt get out of when they were listed. I am sure that it will take a while to sort through the scramble of orders they would have been hit with, family crises notwithstanding (just now happily resolved, thankfully).
Hope this helps anyone in the same position I was in two months ago!
I dont get to spend a lot of time on the computer, so let me apologise in advance if I dont respond to anyones questions for quite a while.
Recently, ie: since January this year, I have been trying out internet knife vendors, so I figured I would share what I have found for anyone else buying from Australia. I wont go through the list of those who simply dont ship outside the US or those that charge $150USD delivery regardless of the order.
Of those I have dealt with:
www.knifeworks.com responded consistently to email both promptly and usefully, also very good prices (particularly on the Benchmade I was after) and service. Kept me informed of my order status. There was minor shipping problem which originated from USPS, not knifeworks and was soon resolved. At least using the USPS tracking number I could see at any time what was going on with my shipment; when it left the US, when it entered Aussie customs, when it left and when it reached the destination post office. I dont recall any problems in placing my order, either. The only shortcoming was that the website didnt indicate which models were presently in stock and which were not, but they were quick to revert by email anyway.
www.newgraham.com also responded to emails promptly and sensibly, very good prices and service. I found the website just a little obscure when selecting the shipping method for international, it doesnt offer that option straight up, you have to just select a US domestic shipping method, put in your address as outside the US and then submit it and it will bounce you back to the same screen with the only shipping option as Best Way Ground. The reality is that the knives came USPS Priority (which cost $10 less than www.knifeworks.coms method but didnt have to be signed for and the tracking number never got me any information apart from when it was picked up in VA, is that worth $10?) and shipped quickly despite ordering two out of stock models. One was out of production, which they notified me of within a day or two and gave me the option to substitute or cancel that part of the order. At the same time they told me that the other back order would be ready the next week. It actually shipped on the Friday before their suggested shipping week. The order took 10 days to make it me in Perth. One other very slight hiccup I had when placing my order which may be specific to Firefox was that, having added quantity one to my cart, when I tried to back out of the model detail page the browser warned me that it would resubmit the data on the page when I did so. And so it was that I ended up with two of each in my cart and had to sort it later. Not a biggie, but had me scratching my head. It was late at night though.
www.bestknives.com now this one was weird. They had the best price I had seen on a Boker 591 Beluga so I placed an order on Jan 6th. The order tracking page showed its status as under review and will ship in 2 to 3 days and remained that way for two weeks. Finally I tried a follow up email and got no reply. I sent another follow up with same result. Looking around I noticed that a number of other sites were no longer listing the Beluga and e-mailed a couple of the ones that still did enquiring about it. Knivesrus, Mountain Heritage Crafters and Shoplite all responded pretty quickly that they were out of production and their suppliers were fresh out. I sent a note to bestknives pointing out that since everyone seemed to be saying they were unobtainable, I was fine to just cancel the order. Still no reply. About this time I got a request from Yahoo to rate this merchant. I sent them another email suggesting that we still had time to cancel the transaction and I could at least be neutral about them. No response for another two days so I followed through with Yahoo around the 25th Jan and soon saw that, while their overall ratings were respectable at 4.5 and 4.5 out of 5, the recent feedback was split 50:50 between some very general Best Ever!!!! and other FIG JAMs and Totally useless, never answer e-mails or the phone, I would have cancelled my order ages ago if I could have ever got through to someone. Hmmm, I know which camp I fell into, but I dont think they were overly fussed by my adding to the chorus of discontent. Imagine my amazement when I got an e-mail on the 3rd Feb saying that my order had been shipped. The address on the Click-n-Ship notification was a bit mangled but recognisable. The order status is still under review but it is now showing Shipped. On the 13th Feb., blow me down, a Beluga showed up. I dont know whether to be impressed that they eventually tracked one down or royally p****d that by then, having given up on ever hearing back from bestknives, I had tracked one of the Final Editon ones down myself and now I have two. One thing about the one that bestknives sent through though is that the edge grind was terrible. One side was fine but the other was reminiscent of a cheap serrated kitchen knife. Clearly it was roughed out and missed its final sharpening; maybe that was why it was still kicking around. Doesnt really bother me as I intend to re-do the edge anyway.
www.theknifeconnection.com while the above was going on, these guys still showed stock of the Beluga on hand so I tried to place an order on them, but each time I submitted the order I got an error message saying that there had been a problem processing my order and to use the back button edit my data and try again. After the third time of this, I gave up and e-mailed them about it, on the 19th Jan. The next day my bank rang me to say that three identical transactions had been put through within a couple of minutes. I e-mailed theknifeconnection that day and got no reply, so figuring that I had now shelled out for four Belugas when I only wanted one to try and was unlikely to get any, I sent a last message on the 23rd and then on the 25th I got a reply from Tammie saying that she had been away for medical reasons and that actually all they had was three authorisations, which they expired and anyway they couldnt get Belugas as they were discontinued. Fair enough. Apparently the error was caused by my shipping address differing from my billing address. I usually get deliveries sent my work, I am there more than at home when deliveries typically arrive.
myknifesourcecom (endevergsp) on ebay figuring that I had put so much time into getting a look at one of these Belugas I checked ebay and found myknifesourcecom listed one of the Final Edition ones in black so I took it at the Buy it Now price. Payed with Paypal, it shipped next day and came in with the original Boker box, sheath with leg straps and Boker registration card. Arrived in about 10 days. Exactly as described, pristine. No problems at all.
Silver_hands on ebay based in Adelaide, South Australia. At least we are in adjacent time zones which makes communication much faster. Ordered a swag of Leathermans for the guys at work. Very easy to deal with, quick to pack and ship. Excellent prices and very accommodating.
www.knifesupplycompany.com one of the best presented and most user friendly websites. Always been very quick and helpful in their email replies to any questions I have had for them. All their knives list with the quantity in stock on the page and the expected in date for those out of stock. I have queried a few of the due in dates, but they have always stood by them. So far though, every thing I have thought to order from them has been out of stock so no real info on what happens after you place the order. However, I get a good feeling from them as they have always been dead straight with me even when it wasnt going to help me put an order on them. I did back order one item, which is not due in until the end of March, but at least I knew that before even adding it to my cart.
www.discountsupplyunlimited showed the best price I found on the Mission MPK10-Ti, so I e-mailed them asking whether they actually had any on hand. They responded pretty quickly that they did and could ship to Australia for $23.50USD so I placed an order for one. Payment could be via credit card or Paypal. I ended up using a credit card. A couple of days later they e-mailed me to say that there had been an error in their inventory and that they didnt actually have any, so sorry consider the order cancelled. I checked their website and found that the knife was still listed, but now at $80USD more than when I placed the order. Still a reasonable price mind you, but I think that I will try elsewhere. When I asked about it, Shawn replied that yes they were getting some more in by the end of the week but the price had gone up. No point trying to hold someone to a deal they dont want to be in.
www.elitesteel.net based in Brisbane, so no issues with Customs (not that I have had any so far, knock on wood). Listed the MPK10-Ti at a not unreasonable AUD price. I e-mailed them regarding the sheath, since the kydex one is belt carry and the hytrel one leg carry. I need leg carry. It took about a week for Jason to respond but he did apologise for the time taken, it seems that their site is undergoing a major restructure. Unfortunately theirs is the belt sheath, so no deal there. However, once you take delivery into account, their prices generally do compare quite well to some of the better US vendors and Australian ebay online stores like Cutting Edge Knives and Accessories, so I put in an order for a Fallkniven WM1, which apparently shipped fairly promptly but still isnt here18 days later. That is longer than any delivery I have had from the US once they shipped., so dont expect that you are going to save a bunch of waiting by going local. I was holding off posting this while I waited for some of the deliveries to come good, but I figured that I have to do it sooner or later. Paypal only.
While on that subject both Mission Knives and Fallkniven themselves have been very good to respond to emailed questions quickly and usefully.
www.knivesaustralia.com.au based in Western Australia and have some superseded models from mainstream manufacturers at attractive prices and a swag of unusual brands and knife making materials and tools. Be warned the phone number on the website appears to be their home number and he didnt appreciate being rung up at 18:45 on a Friday evening to try to order a Spyderco MeerKat. During working hours they have been easy to get on with, really quite chatty and quick to deliver. Credit card over the phone.
www.alaskagun.com responded pretty smartly considering I first emailed them on a weekend, and proved very easy to deal with. Wont do Paypal, but I faxed through my credit card details and they shipped out the knife promptly. It was second hand, but mint and exactly as described. Their shipping price was very reasonable, just $20USD on top of their asking price on bladeforums, and it came USPS Global Priority Mail. Every delivery I have received so far has taken between 10 and 14 days to get to me in Perth, Western Australia, but this was the only one that no-one had to sign for (until the one from New Graham!). Mind you it remains the only one that wasnt opened by Australian Customs on the way through either. Make of that what you will.
www.bussecombat.com no need to go into great detail here I am sure. Responded promptly, courteously and efficiently to e-mails. As an international customer I entered my credit card details when I placed my order on their main website but when the time came to ship they got back to me to say that they dont do credit cards from OS so it comes back to Western Union, Money Order or Paypal (+ 3.5%). Everytime I have checked with Western Union it would cost me an extra 20 to 25% to transfer funds from Oz to the US. Just so you know. It was the prompt I needed to make me get over my beef with Paypal and finish getting verified. The shipping was great, complete with tracking number. Everyone I dealt with at Busse Combat was very helpful. I am not entirely sure what to make of the two different websites. The www.bussecompanystore.com one shows details on the Game Warden and War Boar, but only seems to have a couple of War Boars and AK-47s actually for sale. The www.busssecombat.com one now lists only the Badger Attack TAC.
www.swampratknives.com likewise, very nice people to converse with via e-mail, just nothing available that I want to actually buy so far this year. The M6 is listed on the www.shop.ratknives.com site, but they are actually out of stock. I do know that I am far from alone in waiting for an opportunity to send them some of my cash.
www.scrapyardknives.com also been very prompt and pleasant to speak with. If you are outside the US, you need to be an existing Busse family customer to order from Scrap Yard. As per Swamp Rat, just havent had anything I could actually order until this week. While the Scrapper 6 is listed, if you add one to your cart you will find that it is out of stock. Patti says that it will be back, which would be good, I think one would fit nicely between my Battle Mistress and Howling Rat. A friend placed an order for me when the Dog Father listed as I was in a meeting I couldnt get out of when they were listed. I am sure that it will take a while to sort through the scramble of orders they would have been hit with, family crises notwithstanding (just now happily resolved, thankfully).
Hope this helps anyone in the same position I was in two months ago!
