Custom knife dealers- what do you expect?

Chris, your site is a prime example of the best. If I am at my computer and get a notification, I can jump and sometimes get precisely what I want - and it happened exactly that way yesterday, thanks!

And yes, Arizona Custom Knives updates immediately, otherwise I never would have gotten to the knife first!

Now, Chris and Julie, all you need to do is find some Curt Erickson knives!!
 
les, i don't have a problem with the price being removed after the knife is sold, i actually asked a purveyor to do just that on a knife i purchased. i was thinking of trading it and didn't want the price available to the person i was trading with. what i object to is no price on a knife that is available for sale. then it just seems like the dealer is trying to find out who he is dealing with and attempting to get as much as he can out of them. other than that i really don't object to online dealer practices. the advance notification is great, so far arizona notified me about a knife i wanted and when i got home it was gone. not their fault but mine for leaving my computer.:D what i think makes all the difference is good high quality pictures. no offense, but your pictures don't really make the condition of the knife obvious. however, that can work both ways. i bought a knife from a dealer with super high res pictures and thought i saw a mark on the blade. i called and they said it was nothing so i bought the knife. when i received it it indeed did have a small scratch on the blade so i sent it back. a hassle for them and me and i ate the freight charge. and les, thanks for the info about july being the worst month to sell knives. i have two high end folders for sale on another forum and it looks like they aren't going anywhere except back in my safe.
 
Hi Martin,

Yep, the photography needs some work. On the plus side I hear "The knife is so much better in person" alot. BTW, the condition is "As it comes from the maker" or mint, unless otherwise stated.

As for July, it is no secret with regards to custom knives. Vacations and getting ready for kids to back to school, etc. eat into the budget in July and August. Just like trying to sell knives in January....most people are getting their CC statements for Christmas. I can go on vacation the first three weeks of the year. But I need to be back by the 4th week, as if someone flips a switch.

However, if you do want to sell the knives...cut the price in half and someone will buy them.
 
From a maker's perspective, I expect the dealer to be knowledgeable, keep the pricing fair, represent my product to the best of their abilities while promoting my work(s), pay in a timely manner and I expect them to have a broad reaching presence in the market.

It's not a secret that I do a lot of business with Les, and there's a variety of reasons that I do. Mainly, he knows knives, pays on time, has great connections, and represents my items well.

I tend to do a good bit of research on a dealer before I'll enter into an agreement with them.

I think one thing that's overlooked quite a bit is....in the quest to make a better living, some dealers take on knives from hundreds of makers. It makes it very hard for them to know each knife, and it also makes their site very difficult to navigate.

From a collector's standpoint:

-Go with a reputable dealer
-Check out the return policy
-See if the dealer has a good understanding of the knives they are selling
-Ask specific questions and make and effort to see if a dealer is trying to sell you the knife you want/need or trying to sell you the knife that they want to sell.

Not to kiss up to Les or anything, but he's exceptional at feeling a customer out and recommending the right knife for them. I like that and admire that because he may not make as big of a sale, but his customers are more likely to be very satisfied with what they get. It's a long term gain (lifetime/long time customer) vs. short term gain (fast money but customer satisfaction may suffer).....


MT
 
In general, I think most if not perhaps ALL knife web dealers do a great job. At least all I have experence with and/or know of.
The vast mojority of these dealers arn't getting rich from it, they are just good knife people that have taken an additional step and made additional commitments.

I have seen in other collectible medium where some dealers are just in it for finiancial gain and IMO, that takes a lot of the fun out of it for the customer.
 
Hi Mark,

Thank you very much. It is always a pleasure working with a custom knife maker who has the business acumen that you possess.

Hi Roger,

I appreciate your kind words as well.
 
wow great info as I am re-designing a couple knife sites myself at the moment. I will definitely consider email notifications and more sorting options here. and FYI, I have been implementing a system whereby an owner can instantly add or remove a knife or mark one sold without paying me (their web guy) anything additional or passing any additional cost onto the consumer. true, they pay me a little more initially to design and program the system, but the cost of me maintaining it for them would be far greater in the long term. bottom line- when you pay for someone to create your website it is yours and you should not have to wait for updates if:

a: you have the knowledge required to manually update it yourself, or
b: you paid for a system whereby you can make the updates without programming knowledge.

my goal is to keep refining this system to the point where it takes less than 2 minutes to add or modify a knife and less than a second to remove one. But I also want to improve the shopper's experience and this thread definitely hits the major issues.
 
Prior to knives, he sold vintage nudy postcards. Check out one of his Ebay listings and draw your own conclusions about his knife values. My conclusion is that they start out at twice what they are worth.
 
He's got very nice stuff, but the fact is that his pricing is completely out of wak - especially for eBay. As a matter of fact, his inventory has been featured for months.
 
Perhaps he's more a collector than dealer so he's not too concerned about his lofty prices thus selling the knives.
 
He's got very nice stuff, but the fact is that his pricing is completely out of wak - especially for eBay.
Click to expand...

His pricing is not only out of wak for EBay...it is out of wak period.

My conclusion is that they start out at twice what they are worth.
Click to expand...
Look for example at the Barnett Dagger. His asking price is $9,999 and the real value will be somewhere between $4,500 and $5,500. So I totally agree with Bob.

Marcel
 
hmm. Good to know. I don't really have a handle on collectible knife values, so if I were to buy from a dealer, right at this moment, I'd have to trust them and the values they assign to their merchandise.

Fortunately, I'm not very well off, so I have lots of time to learn the values of these things before I burst out of my knife acquirer cocoon and become a full fledged knife collecting butterfly:)

And thinking about this a little more, given what I just wrote down, to me, a dealer has to be 100% trustworthy. Not an easy thing, given that hawking merchandise lends itself easily to those who are not completely above board. Now, I run a business and there are those in my field who are not completely trustworthy either, I've heard some real horror stories! I guess it comes down to honing your spidey senses to the point where you can separate those who are sincerely looking out for the long term health of their business from those who are in it for a quick buck.
 
Marcel54 said:
Look for example at the Barnett Dagger. His asking price is $9,999 and the real value will be somewhere between $4,500 and $5,500. So I totally agree with Bob.

Marcel
Click to expand...

He's doubled the price on a few pieces. Optimistic, to say the least.

Roger
 
Trustworthy doesn't mean that they are not trying to maximize their profit, beyond what you, being the customer, would deem reasonable (whatever the frak that is supposed to mean).

All that to say that there's no industry standard on the big unique pieces. The dealers get you access to pieces that are unavailable otherwise, but you pay a high premium for this.
 
the seller mentioned re EBay is definitely a dealer and also attends shows. I have seen him at Wolverine and I believe he attended Blade this year. Basically, he can put up whatever price he likes but the key is what does it sell for? Lots of dealers mark up knives a few times over what a knife from the maker sells for -- John Young come to mind?
 
I noticed he accepts offers as well...
Definitely doesn't seem to be as pro as the other heavy hitters, but I guess it goes to show that there's room for everyone.
As for asking more than the going price for a thing, isn't that generally called gouging?
 
Read one of his listings on Ebay and see how he hypes everything. He goes beyond the point, in my opinion, that a dealer with integrity would.
 
Lorien said:
I noticed he accepts offers as well...
Definitely doesn't seem to be as pro as the other heavy hitters, but I guess it goes to show that there's room for everyone.
As for asking more than the going price for a thing, isn't that generally called gouging?
Click to expand...

What we are currently paying the oil companies for gas is price gouging. :eek::barf:

If you think a dealer's prices are too high, you don't have to buy their knives.
 
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