Do any of you guys sell in retail gear shops? How do you go about doing that?

G

GrizzlyBear

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Hey guys. Recently I branched out past local classifieds on Facebook to a couple of hunting gear pages that have members all over. I've had a couple of people contact me with interest in placing some knives for sale in their hunting gear shops.

What is the best way to go about this with minimal risk? Do any of you guys sell knives through another shop? Do you sell your knives at full price to the shop who then marks them up...or do you go on good faith and send them knives to sell, they mark them accordingly and then send you money when they sell?

I'd like to do this if there is a logical way of doing so. I've looked into the people who have contacted me and they do run credible, well established businesses...doesn't seem like it's some joker wanting to get some free knives.

I want to hear all takes on this to help me make the right decision.

Thanks guys!
 
Well I'm not a knife maker, but I did major in business administration so I'll offer my opinion. You probably want to stay away from selling on consignment. It's much better to have the money in hand as soon as you let go of your product. The only time I will sell on consignment is when the purchaser can't afford the merchandise upfront but there is a good opportunity of getting more business later on due to the exposure of your product.

Other than that, getting cash upfront is always best. It's only up to you if you want the knife shops to sell your knives at the same price you sell them, in which case you would have to give them a discount so they can mark the product up to match your price. Or you can get your full profit and have the shop sell the knives at an even higher price. The downside is that if you sell them at full price and the shop marks them up, maybe they won't sell as well and there won't be repeat business. But I've only ever bought 3 customs so far so I'm not that familiar with the demand for them.

I hope I explained myself correctly and didn't make it more complicated than it needed to be :).
Good luck with your new endeavor!
 
If you sell to retailers, you sell at wholesale to the shops as a vendor. Anything you sell directly to the customer should be priced similar to the retailer's prices. You shouldn't undercut the retailers or they will quickly drop you as a vendor. As a vendor, you set the MSRP. You could also sell them on consignment, but I have no experience with that.
 
As said above, consigment is tricky. You have to ship several hundred dollars' worth of product to someone and HOPE it sells. You may have no idea if the retailer is going to push them, advertise/promote them, or if they're just going to sit in a case for months collecting dust. Not too many makers can afford to tie up that much inventory. My first questions would be how much similar product (other custom/high-end gear) do they typically sell or get questions about, and is your work going to be sitting next to more well-known (Randalls, for instance) or vastly less-expensive stuff (Buck, Cold Steel)?

You may be better-served by working with a dealer who specializes in custom/handmade knives. It's my understanding that they typically pay up front but require a substantial discount to cover their promotion and give them room to make a profit.

A lot depends on your price-point; it seems that most multi-hundred dollar hunting knives go to collectors, and most hunters carry $50-100 off-the-shelf stuff.
 
Just some observations, sometimes they just want samples, meaning they want one of your knifes for themselves at lower prices, so sell a minimum (5 ?). Their percentage can be 50 to 60 % of sales price. Some dont want you selling on the web. Dont include your web link on your products information, the retailer will toss it. Keep good records as to who has what and take it back if it dosent sell after a reasonable time. if its not in the case and you havent been paid for it, take everything back, your not getting paid.
 
zaph1 said:
If you sell to retailers, you sell at wholesale to the shops as a vendor. Anything you sell directly to the customer should be priced similar to the retailer's prices. You shouldn't undercut the retailers or they will quickly drop you as a vendor. As a vendor, you set the MSRP. You could also sell them on consignment, but I have no experience with that.
Click to expand...
i have 3 retailers and they are all great to work with and this is how we do things (custom orders might take a bitlonger but they get full options not jsut whats ready and on hand in the stores )all pricing is made so as to not compete with my retailers.

how great are my retailers ? i make mostly wat i want and then offer it to them. they buy what they think there marker will like and i sell anything they dont take (classicshaving.com buys every razor i make no questions asked and now and then pickes up a hunter or some kitchen knives ) finding the right people to deal with is key
 
Also remember that as a custom maker, you do not really have what is called an MSRP or manufacturer's suggested retail price. That is for manufacturers. Hence the name. :DMSRP in the knife world is no stoopid inflated like in the retail jewelry or some other luxury goods businesses, but what I see says that "street price" is typically going to be around 80% or so of MSRP. What customs makers charge is SALE price, which is more like the 80% number. The traditional dealer price is 60% of MSRP, so that means 75% of street price. I fyou were an actual manufacturer selling to a distributor as opposed to selling directly to a dealer, the number would be more like 45% of MSRP, but that is not a factor in this type of transaction. That 75% number lines up with the discount that the custom dealers that I have talked to want which is typically 20-30% off of your regular selling price depending on the cost of the knife.
 
Agreed with JdM above. 20% seems to be a good wholesale price for me. Works well, I make money they make money. The consignment deal never seems to work. I will sometimes add a freebie to sweeten the deal with my wholesaler, usually free tooling on the sheath or maybe filework
 
Thanks for the replies so far guys, I appreciate all the takes on this. Horsewright, I was just thinking about that...free tooling on the sheaths to sweeten the deal (at least till I learn some filework :) ).
 
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