Extremely dissapointed with the Black Friday sales this year

TOMBSTONE said:
I think some people don't realize that most on-line vendors already are selling not to far above dealer cost. Alot of times there is not a huge margin of profits, basically quantity is how they make a living. The only exception is like my local brick and mortar kitchen cutlery, culinary supplies carries a small selection of benchmade and spyderco at msrp and then would beable to offer a big discount for a black Friday deal and still turn a profit.
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THis.

People often quote wholesale as the cost of a knife on this board. The biggest online dealers sell at 50% markup, and MSRP is usually 100% markup on production blades. If you add free shipping, Paypal costs, overhead, it doesn't leave much on the bone when you set a 15% markup just to be competetive.

To make it worse some distributors undercut retailers by going through Ebay or setting up front stores, and many knives DO get sold at the price that retailers pay for them.

I would have been a retailer a long time ago if you could sell at MSRP, and if that was the case I would have given 40% discounts on certain items for Black Friday.
 
when one considers wht good prices Knifeworks provides for every day sales, I think a 5% discount store wide is great. I didn t expect anything for Black Friday. The above explanations for margins on internet knife sales are what I suspected and I appreciate this confirmation.
 
I didn't see too many cheap prices, but I got a heck of a good deal on an Emerson Commander, $166 shipped.
 
I don't recall knife dealers having large discounts in past years either. No big deal. Look at it from the point of view that so many great dealers offer Black Friday pricing all year long! :thumbup:
 
cncpro11 said:
I didn't see too many cheap prices, but I got a heck of a good deal on an Emerson Commander, $166 shipped.
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Not too bad of a deal. But you probably could have gotten one in mint condition for around $145 here on the exchange section. The best deal I ever saw for an Emerson was $65 for a very lightly used stonewashed Horseman in excellent condition. :eek:. I also saw a like new in box stonewashed CQC-15 go for $100.

Of course those 2 knives sold within like 30 seconds of their postings.
 
A Justice said:
To make it worse some distributors undercut retailers by going through Ebay or setting up front stores, and many knives DO get sold at the price that retailers pay for them.

.
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This makes so much sense to me now that you say it. I purchase most my knives on ebay and have always wondered how some of the bigger sellers are able to sell at half or less of msrp, prices I know for a fact most dealers cant even get. Hmmmm, sounds pretty shady. Poor storefronts can only
Hope for loyals or those who are oblivious. They will be extinct soon enough.
 
BladeHQ had a deal with free shipping that I took advantage of. Other than that, you're absolutely right ... This black friday was pretty "Meh" in the knife department. I was expecting discounts of at least 20-30% on big ticket knives - I guess I'm living in a fantasy land. 5% off for black friday is downright insulting :D
 
Some of you sound like a bunch of spoiled children. I deserve this because I want it. Pfft. They give you fantastic prices all year long. Would you prefer they just give you the knives on black Friday? Open your own store and see how that works out for you.
 
I don't know what you guys are complaining about, I saved $1000 this Black Friday by not buying anything. Imagine how much you must have saved!
 
Invective said:
I don't know what you guys are complaining about, I saved $1000 this Black Friday by not buying anything. Imagine how much you must have saved!
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This too lol

If you trampled an old lady and ended up getting an 800$ flat screen for 600$, you didn't save 200$ - you spent 600$. Saving would have been buying a 30" box TV from a thrift store for 25$. As for knives, you guys already have a knife!! You get 30% off a 500$ knife, you just spent a bunch of money on something you already own no matter what the discount! You can't use them both... unless you're a ninja.

The big picture is also this - retailers set their prices all year according to the formula that on Black Friday they can offer a handful of products for wholesale price and it will generate enough peripheral sales that their entire operation becomes profitable for the year. If one year consumers didn't fall for it and let it be known that they would rather spread their discounts over any day of any week, we could avoid this whole Black Friday nonsense.... which is exactly what online knife retailers do come to think of it; they operate at a profit despite extremely low margins all year long, and don't rely on a marketing gimmick on one day of the year to make their business profitable. I just hope complaints are stemming from ignorance and not selfishness or entitlement.
 
A Justice said:
This too lol

If you trampled an old lady and ended up getting an 800$ flat screen for 600$, you didn't save 200$ - you spent 600$. Saving would have been buying a 30" box TV from a thrift store for 25$. As for knives, you guys already have a knife!! You get 30% off a 500$ knife, you just spent a bunch of money on something you already own no matter what the discount! You can't use them both... unless you're a ninja.

The big picture is also this - retailers set their prices all year according to the formula that on Black Friday they can offer a handful of products for wholesale price and it will generate enough peripheral sales that their entire operation becomes profitable for the year. If one year consumers didn't fall for it and let it be known that they would rather spread their discounts over any day of any week, we could avoid this whole Black Friday nonsense.... which is exactly what online knife retailers do come to think of it; they operate at a profit despite extremely low margins all year long, and don't rely on a marketing gimmick on one day of the year to make their business profitable. I just hope complaints are stemming from ignorance and not selfishness or entitlement.
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I own and run a mom & pop Sharpening Custom knife and production knife store and I do the best I can to have low prices year round!
As the previous poster before noted. They keep a higher price most of the time and then spend big bucks on advertising so they can MARK IT DOWN for black Friday so that the masses think they are getting a deal.

The last thing on earth I will ever do is get up at 3am after thanksgiving to fight it out with a crowd, possibly get stabbed, shot, stun guned or pepper sprayed or witness any of these events over a parking place or for any kind of merchandise that you purchase at any store.

Unfortunately, I only see this getting worse every year as the dumbing down of the USA continues and people's sense of entitlement increases.
 
dericdesmond said:
This makes so much sense to me now that you say it. I purchase most my knives on ebay and have always wondered how some of the bigger sellers are able to sell at half or less of msrp, prices I know for a fact most dealers cant even get. Hmmmm, sounds pretty shady. Poor storefronts can only
Hope for loyals or those who are oblivious. They will be extinct soon enough.
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Blue Ridge Knives and Moteng are no bueno...
 
I got alot of emails about sales and looked at these sites very hard and didn't see anything I was really saving much on.......just a few bucks here and there. Ill be doing my shopping on the exchange
 
You want to talk about hype , blade hq hyped it up do freaking much yet there "deals" suck as always and it was just crap they have trouble geting rid of in the first place
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Oh crap! It sounds like you're onto us. Yeah...we got together a couple of days ago and said, "What garbage can we trick our customers into buying with a 'sale'?" Then we went out and hyped it up "do freaking much," just like you said. You (and some of the other folks on here) sound like you have an amazing handle on how to run a business- maybe you guys could get together, start a knife company and show us how to run some real sales!

Geez......seriously? Entitled much?
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I think this sums things up nicely.

No hard feelings ;)
Cam
 
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BladeHQ said:
Oh crap! It sounds like you're onto us. Yeah...we got together a couple of days ago and said, "What garbage can we trick our customers into buying with a 'sale'?" Then we went out and hyped it up "do freaking much," just like you said. You (and some of the other folks on here) sound like you have an amazing handle on how to run a business- maybe you guys could get together, start a knife company and show us how to run some real sales!


I think this sums things up nicely.

No hard feelings ;)
Cam
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why bother feeding the dogs...
 
why bother feeding the dogs...
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I know, I totally took the bait. Sometimes it just feels good to get your hands a little dirty. All in good fun!

Cam
 
neffarious said:
Some of you sound like a bunch of spoiled children. I deserve this because I want it. Pfft. They give you fantastic prices all year long. Would you prefer they just give you the knives on black Friday? Open your own store and see how that works out for you.
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It's "entitled" to want to save money?
What planet do you live on exactly?
 
I think what people like myself mean is there was alot of ads and hype put out there by many dealers about big sales. This got people like us worked up so when sale came around we were let down because it wasnt Big at all just a sale. I agree we get get deals all the time but it was just the way the ads were run that made us think we would be saving big bucks. Yeah it wasnt big deal to me I still bought few knives from dealer who didnt have a sale and even more off exchance Im happy
 
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