Congrats on your first post and welcome to the forums. Who knows, you might even get addicted like the rest of us.
For me gerber is kind of hit or miss, and in general the people around here try to stay away from them. One gerber I bought I think 3 years ago, that was made in Portland, Oregon came sharp, not kershaw, spyderco, or benchmade sharp, but still reasonably sharp. The other gerber, the infamous Paraframe, that I bought maybe a year and a half ago came really dull, infact it was only slightly sharper than the knife you are describing. I never could get that knife reasonably sharp and it is now my firesteel striker. Needless to say that was the last gerber I ever bought. I graduated to higher quality knives as most of the members here have.