Definition of a Knife "Flipper" and Opinions?

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DailyEDC

DailyEDC

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Can someone define the word "flipper" in the way it's used here on the forum? I've always assumed a flipper is someone who buys and sells knives either for a profit or just because they enjoy discovering new knives and need to sell one to buy one.

Am I missing something? Is there an added requirement in order to be classified as a flipper?

Also, what's your opinion about people who buy and sell knives frequently, are they bad for the forum?

Are they only bad for the forum if they try to turn a profit doing it?

What if they always sell the knives for less than what they bought them for, are they still a flipper and do people still frown on people who sell knives for less than what they paid?

How long do you have to own a knife, in order to not be considered a "flip?"

I haven't spent a lot of time socializing on the site. so I'm trying to learn the nuances of this crowd. For years I've met nothing but awesome, considerate, amazing people...but that was when I spent years only buying knives and rarely, if ever selling. Now that it's 3 years later and I want to change it up and sell some knives, I'm running into a lot of weirdos who refer to me as a "douchebag flipper."

Every knife i'm selling, mostly because the market was come down quite a bit, I'm selling at huge loses and purchased YEARS ago 2 or 3 years minimum. Am I considered a flipper? Even though I've never profited even $1, one time, on any knife ever? But only always sell for less than what I paid.
 
Capitalism... Supply and Demand.

Like the big sell offs of the
DLT Red M390 PM2s.

Or not capitalism because since they could not afford it..
Seller is
Grand Douchebag because they made a profit from a knife you know they bought cheap to turn around and sell high.

My opinion of them?
IDK...
This might turn into a W&C post..
 
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In general it is someone who buys and immediately sells for a profit. It is often seen in limited number knives where they buy(taking the chance from someone who wants one) with no intention of keeping the knife , just to sell at a profit. Also taking advantage of someone passing on a deal only to profit. Some don't like it, but nothing can be done- they don't see it as anything other then capitalism, others see these forums as community where profit shouldn't be your objective. I have sold many a knife the day I bought it-just wasn't what I wanted, so no need to hang on, but since no profit is made I don't see a problem. I technically flipped, but not in the negative way IMO. So I think it needs to be linked to profit to be negative.
In your(OP) case they may be calling you out as a flipper, but it is really your poor habits of sending out knives(or really not sending) that has caught my attention and has given you a bad rep. As well as poor communication after the sale in some cases. You really need to improve that ,again IMO.-Once is too often and it has happened more then once. Once you establish this type of negative rep it is very hard to put it in your past, no matter what you do in the future.
You do sell some fine knives, but I have always passed .
I haven't noticed anything I would call flipping on your(OP's) part, but I am not everywhere on the Web.
 
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I would think buying multiple limited knives just to turn them would be flipping especially if that's all you're doing here. Can't say that's bad in my mind, but could be worth an ignore to clean up my feed.
 
Flipping=scalping=profiteering, Those are equivalent to me. Legal, yes, but in the context of the community, not ethical. Flipping would certainly be a short term thing. Someone purchasing a knife with the hope that the price would increase over time (years) is investing, and they are taking a risk with that. Its unlikely that they would be able to corner the market in that case and control the price. If it happens within days, the seller is just taking advantage of someone else's poor impulse control. I find it distasteful, but what I think doesn't really play into it, unless however a seller was worried about what people thought of them... which seems to be a trend of late.
 
I always figure knife (or other product) flippers are junkies or tweakers who can't otherwise make an honest buck. One would think they would want to maintain a low profile and fly under the radar. (Since they never pay for dealer memberships)
 
Flipper = buying a limited knife with the intent to profit on resale at the expense of other knife enthusiasts.

Flipper = a friendly, intelligent aquatic mammal who doesn't screw over other aquatic mammals.

Not sure which one you're asking about.

P.S.: you can avoid being a "flipper" and still be a crappy seller.
 
I don't think asking for the definition of insults used in w&c is a good idea. Might get messy. What is clear is the op's track record, which is messy to say the least.
 
Yes, you're a flipper, here's why. When someone looks at your post areas, two thirds of your posts are in the buy, sell, trade sub forums.
That's a pretty good indicator what you're here for. Doesn't matter if you make a dime or a small fortune, it's all the same. A flipper is a flipper. Some people like myself check members post areas to see if they're a contributing member other than selling a knife. I can tell if I'll buy from someone by where they post at. For example, I'm a CRK fan, if a person contributes to the CRK forum through responding to the threads, then I'll buy a CRK from them. That gives me an idea of the integrity of the person I'm buying from.

There's a difference between a member selling some knives who contribute to the community and a member selling some knives and barely contribute to the community. You're the latter one. Annnnd, there's the threads about you in G,B,&U. That's one place you really don't want to be a shinning star in. So many people read that forum and since you've got a couple threads already there, well, it's often brought up on other sub forums.

Here's a thought, consider selling one knife at a time, contribute to the community in the forum you find interesting and gain some trust from the great people here on BFC. Look in the "Want to Buy" forum and see if anyone is looking for a knife you may have. I've done several sells by reaching out to people looking.
 
I think you are asking about the flipper accusation posted in another area here but not listening to the whole problem. Are you being accused of being a flipper? Yep you are. Are you letting it bother you? Most definitely. What you do here is up to you. Does it bother people? Well you wouldn’t be here asking about flippers if people hadn’t called you out on it. So that’s something you need to deal with by yourself.
What you seem to be missing is your track record of going dark and using lame excuses about why you stop contacting buyers after you receive funds. Another thing you need to deal with yourself and figure out is how you want to conduct yourself here.
There are 2 reasons you have a GB&U threads made about you.
1) You are a great seller and upstanding member here.
2) You are not a good seller and dealing with you is problematic.
Reading GB&U you are number 2.

I will say comming here with this thread is kinda lame almost begging for justification of a accusation you know fits the bill.
I saw a thread from you recently and contacted you about a knife.
Without looking you up now knowing how you conduct yourself here I wouldnt deal with you but that’s just me.
 
Ajack60 said:
Yes, you're a flipper, here's why. When someone looks at your post areas, two thirds of your posts are in the buy, sell, trade sub forums.
That's a pretty good indicator what you're here for. Doesn't matter if you make a dime or a small fortune, it's all the same. A flipper is a flipper. Some people like myself check members post areas to see if they're a contributing member other than selling a knife. I can tell if I'll buy from someone by where they post at. For example, I'm a CRK fan, if a person contributes to the CRK forum through responding to the threads, then I'll buy a CRK from them. That gives me an idea of the integrity of the person I'm buying from.

There's a difference between a member selling some knives who contribute to the community and a member selling some knives and barely contribute to the community. You're the latter one. Annnnd, there's the threads about you in G,B,&U. That's one place you really don't want to be a shinning star in. So many people read that forum and since you've got a couple threads already there, well, it's often brought up on other sub forums.

Here's a thought, consider selling one knife at a time, contribute to the community in the forum you find interesting and gain some trust from the great people here on BFC. Look in the "Want to Buy" forum and see if anyone is looking for a knife you may have. I've done several sells by reaching out to people looking.
Click to expand...

This is a good point I hadn't thought about before.

There's honestly a lot that goes into being a flipper or not, including the following:

1. Did you buy a knife for the express purposes of rapid resale at a profit?
2. Did you buy lots of knives for the purposes of rapid resale at a profit? (Thus depriving people who wanted the knife specifically for use or collection of a chance to get one)
3. Is most of your participation on the forum in the sales subforums? (Thus suggesting that your only purpose here is to make a profit flipping knives)

Now that Ajack60 Ajack60 brings it up, I think #3 is the clearest sign of a despised flipper. You can't really tell whether someone is flipping a knife or whether they jumped on a bandwagon, didn't like it as much as they thought, and are hoping to make a little bit of money on a popular trend as compared to whether they deliberately bought with the intent to flip. Also rarely do you make money on a resale. I've only made money on a resale once- I sold for $45 more than I paid, and once you took into account that I eat Paypal fees and shipping, I made $20. In more than a decade on this forum. Very rarely does anyone buy multiple knives and then sell them all at once in a clear flip attempt like #2.

The reason people don't like flippers though, is really that they're perceived as being profiteers who don't contribute to the community and are only here to make a fast buck at the expense of people who weren't lucky enough to pick up a rare knife when it was available. We view ourselves as people with a shared passion. No one really begrudges anyone a fair profit, but if you're only here for the profit, then you don't really look like part of our community, just a predatory outsider.
 
A couple people, that I respect their opinion, have stated he is a flipper. The term just doesn't really fit to me. I am not sure what term I would use for the OP's buying and selling activities and that it would be any less derogatory if I came up with one. It just isn't the traditional definition of flipping as I know it. I do however fully understand their objections and what they are saying, just that the word doesn't fit IMO.
Maybe just me?
"douchebag" is being used in the traditional sense :)
 
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Buying a knife and reselling it for more than you paid is your right just it's my right not to buy it from you. Like how I'm not willing to pay $175 for a Cruwear Para 3. That's fine, it's called adjusting market price through supply and demand.

What is being douchebag (and generally just not a good person) is agreeing to sell a Cruwear Para 3 to me for $140 a month ago, then half an hour later saying you don't want to sell and cancelling the deal, and then reposting the same knife on the exchange the next day for $175.
 
Ajack60 said:
Yes, you're a flipper, here's why. When someone looks at your post areas, two thirds of your posts are in the buy, sell, trade sub forums.
That's a pretty good indicator what you're here for. Doesn't matter if you make a dime or a small fortune, it's all the same. A flipper is a flipper. Some people like myself check members post areas to see if they're a contributing member other than selling a knife. I can tell if I'll buy from someone by where they post at. For example, I'm a CRK fan, if a person contributes to the CRK forum through responding to the threads, then I'll buy a CRK from them. That gives me an idea of the integrity of the person I'm buying from.

There's a difference between a member selling some knives who contribute to the community and a member selling some knives and barely contribute to the community. You're the latter one. Annnnd, there's the threads about you in G,B,&U. That's one place you really don't want to be a shinning star in. So many people read that forum and since you've got a couple threads already there, well, it's often brought up on other sub forums.

Here's a thought, consider selling one knife at a time, contribute to the community in the forum you find interesting and gain some trust from the great people here on BFC. Look in the "Want to Buy" forum and see if anyone is looking for a knife you may have. I've done several sells by reaching out to people looking.
Click to expand...

Spot on. Flippers are here to sell...and take advantage of the "crazy" that is knife collecting.
 
If you don't want to be called bad names, don't engage in behaviour that leads to people calling you bad names.

Do the right thing, you already know that thing is.
 
If you buy knives with the express purpose of selling for profit, then you're a flipper. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, but I don't generally buy from flippers as their prices aren't usually very good and I prefer to do business with those that are involved in the community in ways other than just buying and selling.

If you buy a lot of knives to try 'em and sell 'em quickly, breaking even or at a loss, you're not a flipper. If you sell a fair amount of knives over time from your personal collection, whether for a profit or loss, you're really not a flipper.

Judging from the OP's description of his sales, he's not a flipper. I have no history with or knowledge of him, but whether or not he's a douchebag is another subject....
 
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