Dealers who put sold knives on their site

Joined
Nov 20, 2001
Messages
7,353
Guys,

What do you think of dealers who show knives on their sites already with a 'Sold' tag? Personally, it rubs me the wrong way, a bit like makers who come to a show and sell their wares prior to the opening. In both cases, this is of course completely in their right to do that, and I am not even sure that it is unethical. I have a gut reaction to it but reading from other perspectives would help me think this through.

Cheers,

Joss
 
Joss, i am kinda torn on this issue as well but the one thing i do like about it is the ability to see a knife even after it is off the market. there are some really nice pieces ie fisk, dean, fuegen, hancock etc. that once they are sold never see the light of day again.
 
Joss, i am kinda torn on this issue as well but the one thing i do like about it is the ability to see a knife even after it is off the market. there are some really nice pieces ie fisk, dean, fuegen, hancock etc. that once they are sold never see the light of day again.

Aahah! Very good point, thanks for bringing it up. Sold knife for sold knife, I too would rather get a chance to admire it than not.
 
Joss, i am kinda torn on this issue as well but the one thing i do like about it is the ability to see a knife even after it is off the market. there are some really nice pieces ie fisk, dean, fuegen, hancock etc. that once they are sold never see the light of day again.

This is the way I feel about it too. Even though it's sold it's still nice to get a look at certain knife, especially if it's a rare, old, or exotic/bizarrio model. It also helps if the seller leaves the selling price up also, it gives you a feel for how the maker is doing in the aftermarket.
 
Personally I hate it. When looking for a knife using google, I get a hit, I get directed to a website only to look at a sold knife. I get all excited thinking I have found the knife I am looking for only to see the knife I wanted but am unable to get, because it is already gone..
 
I personally list a lot of my knives as they are completed, especially if they are in any way different from those I have made in the past.
I list them with a $price tag.00$.
When it sells, I change it to SOLD, but leave it in that position for customers, both new and old, to see my offerings/variables.
I've had many people say, "Can you make me one like that one only with a ............".
I also have an "Archives" page.
When I get tired of seeing the "old" stuff, I post a new one, and take the old one and put it on the "Archives" page.
http://www.kbaknives.com/knivesforsale1.html

http://www.kbaknives.com/archives.html

http://www.kbaknives.com/introduction.html
 
I rather dealers leave knives on sites and marked as SOLD.

There's ten or so dealer sites I check each day to track knife prices and sales history, so it's easier if dealers marked them sold rather than just deleting them.
You would be surprised how much you can learn about specific maker's knives, prices, which makers are hot and are not etc. by keeping close watch of the sites.

What really chaps my ass is when dealer's sell knives, leave photos posted and don't mark them as sold. :mad:
 
Hey, Kevin, I have a few Bowies on a Dealer's site in New York and he had sold one but did not yet have it marked "SOLD". A customer contacted him to purchase one of them, found out it was sold, but then went ahead and contacted me and ordered ANOTHER one like it with a few changes!
Even though the original one wasn't marked YET, we still all were happy!
 
I like to see the SOLD knives as well but I would also like to see WHAT it sold for. Most dealers seem to remove the price ?
 
Joss, i am kinda torn on this issue as well but the one thing i do like about it is the ability to see a knife even after it is off the market. there are some really nice pieces ie fisk, dean, fuegen, hancock etc. that once they are sold never see the light of day again.

Exactly my position.

I just haven't the time to travel to shows and such. At least I can see more quality blades this way!
 
I enjoy being able to see the past offering of some of the top makers out there. If only what was available at the moment was being shown, there would be very little to see. Much less compare to the newer work. Much the same reason many of us have an extensive collection of Knife books and mag'. Who doesn't enjoy looking back thru them from time to time. It would be nice to see the prices then and now. But I can understand why the dealers don't keep the prices posted.
 
I like the way Daniel O'malley (Blade Gallery) has a maker's archive section on his site where you can view every knife he has sold.
I believe Great Lakes does this too.

A great reference tool, unfortunately thought they don't include the sales price.
 
I purchase a lot of the stuff I sell from other Dealers,I of course prefer if they take the price I paid for it off as I need to make my markup.
I do not show a list of pieces that have been sold on my site, many others do.I also have a beef with never removing the sold stuff even when long gone, kind of frustrating
Dave
 
OK, slight twist - does it change your opinion of the value of a dealer site to notice that a few new pieces show up on the site already sold? Although I don't know the details, one way that could happen is if the dealer was expecting a piece from an extremely rare maker and sold it before making it available to their entire audience.

Personally, I like the way KnifeLegends does it. They have a "coming soon" area which gives one an option to buy the piece before the knife has been photographed. On another occasion (e.g. today), I have seen a piece show up to another site as already sold, which makes me think that me and the other poor loosers will only get "leftovers". I over-exaggerate this sentiment for the sake of the discussion, of course.

Of course, acting as a purveyor is a perfectly legit business and it's completely possible that this dealer was actually hired to find and buy a specific piece by a given collector. If that's the case, it is generous of him (and smart biz sense) to display the knife as an indication of his "pull" in the knife world.
 
I have noted that people tend to remove the sale price on the classifieds area on this forum. This is weird to me, unless specifically requested by the buyer.

I understand Dave Ellis' point. In fact, I think it would make sense for him to request that the piece be removed from the other site altogether. I suspect he does that (or maybe it is simply done between dealers without asking). It is more interesting to think why the selling site would agree, since it deprives them an opportunity to demonstrate the great value they provide.
 
Certainly, not to even remotely implying that this practice is ever employed by custom knife dealers, however some industries are quite famous for utilizing the illegal "bate & switch" tactic, where the dealer will advertise a popular item for sale which they do not have just to draw customers to sell items they do have. ;)
 
The modern art world is notorious for having galleries sell not on a 1st come, 1st served basis, but thinking strategically about which collection they want to place a given artist in. That certainly happens in the knife world, though not with exactly the same rationale in mind.
 
I purchase a lot of the stuff I sell from other Dealers,I of course prefer if they take the price I paid for it off as I need to make my markup.
I do not show a list of pieces that have been sold on my site, many others do.I also have a beef with never removing the sold stuff even when long gone, kind of frustrating
Dave

I find it quite interesting how some knife dealers will buy from other knife dealers to markup and resell?

Kind of makes you wonder, why the first dealer didn't just ask more. :confused:

Kind of supports my theory that some dealers "make the market" for certain maker's knives by inflating the maker's prices. Not that there's anything wrong with it. Its just good old profitable business practice.

Some investment firms will make a market for a company's stock, but by law they have to notify investors up front that they are doing so.

If some collectors are willing pay the markup, I guess it's great for the dealers.:confused:
 
Back
Top