Guess I screwed that sale!

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Dixieblade57

Joined
Jun 20, 2007
Messages
1,361
I had a knife on another forum for sale. It was a replica of an 1800's style Ball grip knife. Here are a few pics of the knife and sheath. This knife was one of the first knives I built when I first decided to go into custom knives and probably is about my seventh or eighth overall, I had reduced the price to what I thought was a very good deal. Anyway here is the description I had with it.

Ball grip belt knife.
This knife is made from the steel of a two man saw, and will hold and extremely sharp edge.
Rawhide over leather sheath, sewn with artificial sinew, brass tacks line the edge of the sheath, down both sides. Blade length of the knife is approx. 6 1/4", overall length is approx. 11". The blade has been acid etched to give it an aged look!
The handle is Maple with cow bone inserts in ball grip. On one side is the engraving of a wolf's paw and on the other a pair of "Indian Prayer" feathers! The handle has some spalt showing, and was pinned with steel pins!

And here are a few of the pics I had with it! Click on the thumbnails and they will open to a larger view.





Now yesterday I get this email message!
It has been edited for names and addresses but you will get the jest of it!
Ball Grip Belt Knife

You still have the knife in your add? Can you guarantee the knife will hold and keep a sharp edge? I am interested in the knife.

This stuck me as a very odd question or should I say chose of words but, this was my reply.

I don't think anyone can guarantee any knife will hold a good sharp edge because no one knows under what conditions it will be used. I will guarantee that this is quality carbon steel and that it should hold a good edge when used as a knife and not a pry bar.
I will also tell you this I have made and sold several knives in the past from this same two man saw and was very pleased with the edge when I wet it up. I sold a skinner to a man on the forum for his grandson and his comments were posted on the forum, as he was pleased and that it was quite possibly the sharpest knife he had ever handled. If you would like to contact him I will email him and see if it is OK with him for you to contact him!
If you decide you want it I will put a final edge on it before shipping it out. The carbon in this steel is such that once you put an edge on it, it usually only takes a few strokes on a stone to put it back to a shaving edge.
I will furthermore guarantee that once you receive the knife I will give a full seven days to examine the knife, if you don't like it, for any reason, you send it back to me and I will, upon examination to make sure knife and sheath are as they were when it was sent to you, I will refund your money fully, including the shipping back to me cost. You must pay initial shipping to you, along with cost of knife.
Thank you for your interest in this knife, and I will be looking forward to hearing from you. I really don't think you will be displeased with this knife.

I have not heard back from the guy so guess I screwed that sale. So how would you all have handled that particular question? Sorry this is so lengthy but I felt you would have to have all the details to make a decision.
 
I guess so, I have screwed a sale a couple of months ago just like that; guy asked a simple question and got a looong answer, he never returned since. A simple answer like "yes" wouldn't be a good approach either. There is nothing wrong about your answer but we tend to answer questions from non-knife community a bit didactical, and that is where I suck the most...
 
I would not worry about it. I think you gave a good reply. Also I do not see anything wrong with the question that was posed to you.

Do not be suprised when the customers you get sound wary or odd. People are people and this is the internet. I think most people sound short and even rude when typing instead of talking. If you plan to do more selling online get used to it. I will tell you now thats nothing in comparison to some of the emails I have gotten. Heck I know I sound like a complete A-hole sometimes ( maybe even most of the time)

By the way I like the knife and sheath very much!
 
I had a similar question the other day, had a customer ask me if a certain knife I had for sale would rust. I gave him the long version, that it wouldn't if he took care of it, but it would take a patina, etc. He never replied back. Better to tell it like it is and lose a customer with unreasonable expectations than to give the short version and have them dissatisfied.
 
Thanks guys I just tried to be honest with the guy. As the reply progressed I then tried to set him at ease with a referral from a former customer that was a member of that same forum, and then even offered to let him speak to that customer if the guy didn't mind. Also felt like I gave him a fairly good guarantee.
I know some of you offer lifetime guarantees but as these knives are what I still consider learning pieces I don't feel I am at that crossroad as of yet. Don't get me wrong, I believe given proper care these knives will last a lifetime. All of the knives I made from the steel of the two man saw are good knives, while this is not an exotic steel these are still quality carbon steel knives and will hold a good edge!
After listening to some recent discussion on pricing on this forum I reduced the price of this knife. The price wasn’t reduced because I had doubt’s in the quality of the piece, because if I had had those doubt’s I would have never offered it for sale at all. Actually I felt like in consideration of the rawhide sheath it was probably too low but, wanted to move it. “A pound of beans, is better than no beans at all, if you know what I mean”!
I have had similar questions in the past and just wondered how everyone else handled such questions!
I think sometimes these questions and requests for information are the internet equivelant of internet window shopping! I had one potential customer recently that I talked back and forth with several emails. Right up to the point of where he was to send me the money and how all the final transaction was to be handled and he falls off the face of the earth. He had the price for the knife and shipping in three emails previous to that. So I figured it was a done deal all we had to was exchange money for the goods, and then nothing. Go figure! I like to price check sometimes but then if I can't afford it or decide I am not intrested I don't pursue it with the client right up to the moment of the transaction!
 
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You can't win em all Dixie, but you may hear from him yet. some folks get cold feet when it comes time to pay up. You did the best you could.
 
I think that person is known as a Tire Kicker. But you never know in sales. They come back and buy sometimes.
 
Dixie, I think you answered correctly. You were honest and I have to agree with the others about saving you a future headache. If you don't hear back from him it may be for the best. If you do ,then he will know what to expect.
 
I probably would have said, "As good as any other simple carbon steel knife."

I really don't think you will be displeased with this knife.
Click to expand...

This sentence has two negatives in it. While it isn't incorrect usage, better usage would have been straight positive. "I really think you will be please with this knife."

Your way sounds like you don't want to sell the knife.
 
I agree that your note was absolutely the correct way to approach this. I do the same thing all the time and a good number of those asking questions do not buy. The big upside is that those that do go forward and buy tend to be repeat buyers a lot of the time.

I even go to the extreme in doing close up pictures of any seam that is a bit wider than I would like or if there is an imperfection in the stone, a close up of that feature.

I do my stoneworks for fun so I do not need any aggrivation from unhappy buyers.

My biggest concern is when I agree to do any specific custom order on a knife provided by the buyer. I really stress over these knives and quite frankly I often think I should stop doing them even though I have only had one concern ever raided and that was when I first started doing custom works.

The upside of that one concern was a HUGE growth in my skill as I had to figure out how to prevent the issue from ever occurring again!
 
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Thanks to everyone who has replied to this thread. It makes me feel like I did the right thing though with my reply!
Even the double negative comment! :D I must agree the english sucked, :eek: however I was trying to stress a point!
I strive with every knife I build to learn and improve over the last one I built, and usually I do gain some knowledge from every knife.
I never had a problem with taking the time to answer any questions. I figure that is all part of the process. However some questions I get, do strike me as odd! :confused: So I always try to look at it from there point of view. In this case that was only way I could figure out exactly how to respond!
 
galadduin said:
I guess so, I have screwed a sale a couple of months ago just like that; guy asked a simple question and got a looong answer ...
Click to expand...


HA! That sounds familiar. I'm terrible with that!
Doesn't even have to be about knives.

Some poor bloke will ask for the time, and I'll provide a survey of horology ancient and modern, segueing to musing on some of the cosmological implications of time and relativity, and finishing with a tutorial on building a clock using only basic hand tools.:rolleyes:
It's kinda pathetic, really.

I'm trying to stop that!:o
 
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