Flippers

[shinyedges]

We all deal with those who buy up as many of a knife as they can to tack on their tax and sell them here on the exchange as well as other places. While completely legal, these people take away from the hobby in my eyes. Making it harder for those of us who actually want a knife to use, to be able to do so at an affordable cost.


So, this thread can be used to name them specifically and cast a light on to their shabby practices.

 

[shinyedges]

Like this guy. Just released paramilitary 3s with a nice up charge for the good folks of bladeforums. Tacking on 40 bucks is on the lower end honestly. I've seen worse priced immediate flipping. They are within their right to flip, we are within our right to post them here

 

[HWF]

Happens all the time and it’s really a shame. But it is also the fault of the people who are buying them. If we all banded together and didn’t give in, it’d be better. Unfortunately that will probably never happen.

 

[SeppukuSamurai]

View attachment 978532

Like this guy. Just released paramilitary 3s with a nice up charge for the good folks of bladeforums. Tacking on 40 bucks is on the lower end honestly. I've seen worse priced immediate flipping. They are within their right to flip, we are within our right to post them here

If it's your wish to call them out, why aren't you including the name? It's so thinly veiled, unless you're going to be shut down entirely, just do it.

I think this is a good thing you're doing here. If it's done right and conspicuously, not sparing anyone a direct call out, I think it will genuinely impact their ability to conduct business here.

Good going.

 

[shinyedges]

If it's your wish to call them out, why aren't you including the name? It's so thinly veiled, unless you're going to be shut down entirely, just do it.

I think this is a good thing you're doing here. If it's done right and conspicuously, not sparing anyone a direct call out, I think it will genuinely impact their ability to conduct business here.

Good going.

Good point, a sloppy screen shot on my part. I'll get another

Fixed.

 

[SeppukuSamurai]

Good point, a sloppy screen shot on my part. I'll get another

Fixed.

There we go

Posters should make it a point to actually tag these individuals to this thread. If not, you'd need to actually read this in order to know about it. If they're mentioned by name and not just by picture, this will appear upon a search of their name.

Raymond3

 

[Lapedog]

Happens all the time and it’s really a shame. But it is also the fault of the people who are buying them. If we all banded together and didn’t give in, it’d be better. Unfortunately that will probably never happen.

That is way harder to organize. How could we get a message out to every member that x knife is only worth so much money and not to reward flippers by overpaying for it.

It will just get sold on ebay anyway.

But that is the idea of this thread is it not? To call these boons out?

shinyedges it would be awesome to get a list of names in the first post for lazy members who won’t read the whole thread. That could help gain maximum impact.

 

[shinyedges]

That is way harder to organize. How could we get a message out to every member that x knife is only worth so much money and not to reward flippers by overpaying for it.

It will just get sold on ebay anyway.

But that is the idea of this thread is it not? To call these boons out?

shinyedges it would be awesome to get a list of names in the first post for lazy members who won’t read the whole thread. That could help gain maximum impact.

Ultimately a list is the plan, perhaps the list will raise awareness and maybe just maybe deter flippers. Obviously, this is a monumental task that won't happen overnight or next year, but it's something.

 

[Gastonknife]

Ugh how many times? Same old same old . Hate em, but it's America .

 

[Murphjd25]

Totally agree. I haven’t been able to get my hands on any new sprint Spydercos in a while, then I see them on here marked up very generously. Flippers piss me off, when their is people out there who really want a knife to use and try the steel out. I’m just going to give up on sprints, I have better things to do like go to work, instead of refreshing a webpage every 3 minutes. It would also be nice if dealers would limit sprints to 1 per person and 1 per shipping address. At the end of the day this is still America, but I hate flippers still.

 

[jbmonkey]

good idear Sir. be interesting to see how fast this thread fills up.....

 

[cigarrodog]

As long as there is a market economy, then the only effective solution is to not buy. As long as dealers don’t care or limit the rare release to one per customer, precious little can be done. I have more than once paid far over MSRP to get a knife that I wanted. It’s not a fair world. Don’t get me wrong. I detest flippers, but as long as there is a market economy, flipping will alway be present. They put in the time and effort, while many dealers allow multiple purchases. The “good news” is that there is a thriving caring knife community present. Just deal with them. Placing Scarlet Fs on those who flip will not likely change their behavior.

 

[SpySmasher]

I don't like flippers and while I believe they have a right to take advantage of market prices, as part of this community I think they should be branded the same as any other knife retailer and should pay for the appropriate membership level or be banned. Whenever I come across one, I put them on /ignore.

I love this effort.

EDIT: I looked at my ignore list and I have over 80 members on it. I'm pretty sure that they were all put there because I caught them flipping knives. Some of them have really high post counts.

 

[stonproject]

This is a really bad problem in the balisong community and its not just members doing it. Arizonacustomknives will take BRS balis and HOM designs balis and price over retail price. For brand new HOMs and alpha beasts people regularly buy out stock from BHQ and KC when they get them in and resell them on the secondary market higher.

Half of the issue here is the people buying them over retail price. If the community rejected this behavior and refused to buy the knives from flippers this wouldn't be happening.

 

[shinyedges]

It's true, people paying the price condones the actions of the flippers. The only way to make any effect at all is to raise awareness, which hopefully as people matriculate through the GB&U and see the communities disdain for flippers will slowly cause change.

Perhaps not. Either way, like I said earlier, it's something. If nothing else we can have a huge list of flippers to avoid which will have an impact on some of the main culprits.

 

[stonesell]

As long as there is a market economy, then the only effective solution is to not buy. As long as dealers don’t care or limit the rare release to one per customer, precious little can be done. I have more than once paid far over MSRP to get a knife that I wanted. It’s not a fair world. Don’t get me wrong. I detest flippers, but as long as there is a market economy, flipping will alway be present. They put in the time and effort, while many dealers allow multiple purchases. The “good news” is that there is a thriving caring knife community present. Just deal with them. Placing Scarlet Fs on those who flip will not likely change their behavior.

If you don’t buy it, you can’t be manipulated, or wind up feeling that you didn’t get a fair deal.
Marketing techniques create scarcity in order to drive up the prices, and realize quick sales. Just don’t be a part of it.
If you are a passionate collector of some particular brand or style, you either pay the price, or patiently wait for a better opportunity. If your bank account matches your enthusiasm, then just buy it.
I like to to make purchases slowly, and only buy what is readily available at any given time. All these various flash sales that manufactures like, and flipper controlled pricing, are not something that I would ever participate in. If it’s that scarce or hard to buy, I’d rather let someone else get it.

 

[shinyedges]

As long as there is a market economy, then the only effective solution is to not buy. As long as dealers don’t care or limit the rare release to one per customer, precious little can be done. I have more than once paid far over MSRP to get a knife that I wanted. It’s not a fair world. Don’t get me wrong. I detest flippers, but as long as there is a market economy, flipping will alway be present. They put in the time and effort, while many dealers allow multiple purchases. The “good news” is that there is a thriving caring knife community present. Just deal with them. Placing Scarlet Fs on those who flip will not likely change their behavior.

I beg to differ, the desired effect won't be immediate nor direct but will come from a raising awareness. Enough people in this community read this and feel the same way and change can happen. The one way we absolutely know change will not occur is to do absolutely nothing.

I think something is better than nothing any day of the week. That's just me and ymmv.

 

[cigarrodog]

True...Something is better than nothing, but it feels like it’s spitting in the wind, as long as even haters of flippers support the rights of flippers (free market). I wonder how they would support the concept if it was water or fuel. Then free market would become “Mad Max Economy.” I equally blame those Dealers who allow unfettered. purchases of limited releases, rather than one per customer. Include writing to them in additition to your listing of flippers.

I would also agree with stonesell It is better to let the knife go. I mostly do that, but sometimes, when I give in to desire and impulse, I give myself a mental spanking and swear to never do it again.

Tag the flippers. Let’s see what happens.

 

[shinyedges]

True...Something is better than nothing, but it feels like it’s spitting in the wind, as long as even haters of flippers support the rights of flippers (free market). I wonder how they would support the concept if it was water or fuel. Then free market would become “Mad Max Economy.” I equally blame those Dealers who allow unfettered. purchases of limited releases, rather than one per customer. Include writing to them in additition to your listing of flippers.

I would also agree with stonesell It is better to let the knife go. I mostly do that, but sometimes, when I give in to desire and impulse, I give myself a mental spanking and swear to never do it again.

Tag the flippers. Let’s see what happens.

These flippers are essentially, scalpers. The gas analogy would be more accurate if there was only let's say 500 gallons announced to be left at gas stations everywhere for X amount of time and people rushed there, bought what they could and then resold it to people with no gas for a stupid mark up.

I'm not sure if we can tag them here, that's a question for the mods @Boru13 ?

 

[rycen]

First let me say that I dislike the whole sprint run flipping practice as well. So much so that I’m not even current with what’s going on with one of my favorite knife companies.

Just for clarification we’re mainly talking about someone selling newly released knives in a short period of time?

Edit

I don’t think calling them out here or tagging them is the right way to go about this.