RokJok said:Let me play a non-IG devil's advocate for a second.If the buyer is willing to pay the asking price and the seller is willing to take it, is the price insane? Methinks its just the market setting a price for the given commodity. Whether folks with more experience or comparitive shopping under their belts think the price reasonable is another discussion.
There are sellers servicing the whole spectrum of the market -- selling to everybody from the "ninja wannabe" seven-year-old kid with $3 in his pocket to collectors of multi-thousand $$ blades. Each sector of the market has their vendor to take care of it, including having PT Barnum types to hype it. While in Japan I was offered at a sword shop in Kyoto a wakashazi blade crafted in the 1600's by a respected maker. I could have brought it home if I only would've had a spare $8,000 on me (plus paying importation tax). Was the blade worth the price? To me, yes. To the seller, yes. To my wife, not in this lifetime.I figure it's still in Japan.
That said, IMHO custom knifemakers, especially you fire-and-hammer guys in the crowd, deserve every nickel you get for crafting your blades. My lament is that too many people don't recognize (and ain't willing to pay for) the amount of care & effort it takes to craft a fine tool. How come the folks who won't pay $500 for a beautiful knife their great-great-grandkids can still be using will pay $50,000 for a car they won't be driving in five years, ignoring the fact that it is worth $15,000 less than they paid for it the instant they drive it off the dealer's lot?
I've bought some Cold Steel blades over the years based on price, not on seeing Lynn's video, which I still haven't. As was noted, they aren't bad knives for a $40-$100. But I won't expect them to perform like a custom crafted blade.
One time I was at a friend of mine's gun store. He has a pretty small shop, but because he's a well known competative shooter, he has lots of high end shot guns. One NJ woman was with her husband "browsing" and complained that the shotgun her husband was holding was more expensive than their Brand new Ford Expedition. Mike pointed out that in 10 years, the Ford would be worth nothing and that the particular shotgun would be worth at least what it was bought for, and probably double, what he was selling it for.
Course, that assumes a pretty select market and a guy with lots of money, but its still pretty true.
