Etiquette question for Knifemakers

What is wrong with haggling?

There is an asking price, a bid price, and hopefully at some point a selling price. It is just part of the normal exchange. The number is usually less important then the respect shown by either party. If you walk up to someone selling a $500 knife, offer $475 and get a response like "go away don't bother me", you know you are dealing with someone that has more customers then they can handle. Do you really want to deal with this guy?

It is just the market in action. Relax and enjoy.

n2s
 
I believe this incident happened a about 10 years ago. I heard that a client was looking at a large knife, maybe a bowie or fighter. The knife slipped out of his hands, off of the table and cut the knife maker's leg. The knife maker yelped and the client got scared and ran. Imagine the scene, the sound of pain, a man running away. Other folks and security corraled the client. EMT's came to the knife maker's aid. It was stitch time! It took a while to sort the facts from what was obvious but all ended well. Forgiveness and recognising it was an acident on he part of the knife maker and the crowd, a little calming down on the part of the client and the audience and an apology. All ended well. I wasnn't at the show, just heard about it. Maybe someone else remembers more of the facts.
 
If I think a knife is worth the asking price I will pay it. If I think the price is a little high I will offer what I truely think it is worth. If I think it is way over priced I will move on to another table and not embarrass the maker or myself by offering far less than the price being asked.

I think making an offer is only Ok if the knife is not worth to me what is being asked for it. If it is already well priced, or a bargain, then offering a lower price is bad form, in my opinion.
 
Before you ask,

No, I was not the idiot who dropped the knife!!!!!!!
 
Originally posted by Angie Fowler
Just for your information:
Ed only knocked off $50 on my knife!!!! LOL :)
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Originally posted by Ed Fowler
The above fact has been mentioned sevral times in the past 7 years! You got to remember I had just met the lady of my dreams, I was tongue and thought tied. Would have given her the knife. She asked a question and I answered with the first number to almost come to mind. Had she only gave me $1.00 I would have gladly accepted.
Click to expand...

Great story, thanks for sharing! :)
 
I will pay the asking price if I can afford the knife I am mulling over.

I feel it's hard enough for makers to get to shows and the cost involved of being at the show.

Couple this with the buyer's standpoint with being at a venue where you can touch and feel the merchandise versus imagining what it's like from an internet photo or catalog photo.

And if it's something you really are into getting, you'd might do better to simply get it right then and there. The person next to you might swoop on it and claim it himself!
 
that make all the difference:

"What's the best you can do...???"

Coop
 
That was really good about Ed and Angie! Rascal was just putty in her grasp! Yes, there is a graceful way to bargain for a purchase or trade, and fortunately, most folks are great to deal with. If Ed and Angie were not both good with folks it would never have happened. Hey Ed, best deal you ever made!
 
Thanks John: I think so also, we are still together and all is well on the Willow Bow. I look back on all the great events in my life, knives and the people who come with them have been the source of my greatest joy. Thank you all!
 
I may be a little out of line here, but when haggling on a price I feel that there is a huge difference between asking a maker to cut you a deal on a $120 knife or a $1000 knife. As many of you know (or don't know) a relatively new maker offering up blades in the $100-$150 range just doesn't have much room to play. Many of these guys are working for $7-$8/hr. shop time. While I am not making excuses or laying on a sob story, it is the simple truth. The fact is, I can quite simply absorb a $10 difference in price more easily than they can. Additionally, if they are not making money going to shows, they won't go.
 
Haggeling is part of the game. Some knives I am willing to negotiate on, others not at all. First time buyers generally pay full price, repeat business or buying two or more knives at once will generally get a few bucks off. Depending on what type of exposure a dealer will bring you, his discount I regard as advertising for my product.
If a buyer is interested in a knife and I am not interested in droping its price, I remind the buyer that buying directly from me at a show is the cheapest he will get the knife. There are no extra postage and insurance fees and there is no waiting period. Another thing I find helpfull is to tell a prospective buyer who can not make up his mind which knife he wants, is to tell him " buy the knife you really want not the one you can afford. If you buy the one you can afford you will forever be thinking of the one you really wanted. This relegates the one you have purchased to second best or worse,junk, no matter how well made and finished" I don't want one of my knives to end up that way. More often than not the buyer respects and understands the logic and buys the knife he wanted. I have made a sale but more importantly, I have a happy customer which means repeat business which means a discount!
:)
 
Originally posted by Ed Fowler
I look back on all the great events in my life, knives and the people who come with them have been the source of my greatest joy. Thank you all!
Click to expand...

That seems to sum it up in words and the thoughts they convey better than any thing I hope to come up with could come up with.

Ed, thanks for the time you spend here. You words are a constant reminder to cherish the passions in our lives and the people in our lives.
 
But it turned out well at a recent Australian Guild Show in Melbourne. Having read some of the threads on the issue. I was concerned about how I would go about this, should it occur. As I found, even on the Sunday, as a new maker, I didn't encounter any haggling at all. I also recognised many lookers as frequent attenders at knife shows. I also recognised many as ones who were on a budget. I found the requests about pricing method and why one knife was more expensive than another etc. most reasonable. Its part and parcel of business.

Having said that, I think that most knifemakers are reasonable people. Most buyers, collectors are reasonable people too. Put them together and things will come out sweet ...

There will always be the occasional odd character, often ones known / notorious to the local knifemakers / other customers as the guy who committs every offense listed in this thread. I have met a couple who would be easily classified as mad, bad or just overexcited, had too much coffee. The fact that 99.99% of the customers are pretty together and reasonable folk, make such fellows stick out all the more.

I have seen customers be extremely diplomatic and likewise, I have seen some makers with a spiel that would do a hostage negotiator proud !

I'm still a relative newbie (and becoming a psychiatrist) and find this stuff fascinating (read - sometimes frustrating and confusing).

Cheerio. Jason.
 
I perfer not to bargain on my knives. The simple reason is I feel it degrades the value of them. On Friday the knife is worth $750.00 but on sunday its only worth $675.00. What does that say about the value? To me it says the knife wasn't worth my original asking price.

I give lots of thought on pricing and when I set the knives out they are priced at what my time and materials are worth with enough profits to keep my business running.
 
one big problem with haggling or what i prefer to call negotiating is that once you move one you can move twice. When negotiating a deal, often at times if the seller moves from his original asking price once the buyer thinks that he will move twice.
 
Knife folks are kind of like gun, horse, and hound folks. We midwesterners are used to doing some trading and bargaining as a way of life. I've been a dog and gun trader for 50 years, and seen a few knives and things you wouldn't expect to get thrown in the deal. It's done in a proper way without folks getting their feelings hurt or someone feeling cheated. That's part of the trading/bargaining process, and some trades take quite a while to conclude. Same way at knife or gun shows with makers and collectors, isn't it? A maker has a price on a knife and if the interested buyer wants it for less, the buyer should be graceful about the bargaining. New knives are a bit different as to the actual bargaining price. It's easier to trade or bargain a used article in most cases because of a generally lower price than new. New just doesn't generally have the margin, and this pertains to custom knives being not only more costly to produce, but some of the maker's soul goes into every knife. A person wanting to offer a maker much less than the worth of the knife and the maker, is cutting pretty deep right off the start. I am not one to bargain the price of one of my knives, but I will consider bargaining for a trade item, as long as it doesn't eat and my wife doesn't yell at me for dragging it home. "WHAT? You traded it for three MAGIC BEANS?"
 
Im glad to read that I am not the only maker that goes through this stuff. I do two local Gun & Knife shows in addition to a few all Knife shows and its happened more at the Gun venues than anywhere else. It never bothers me , in fact I sometimes like the exchange.
As you guys have said its how they ask. :)
 
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