HI on ebay

John Powell

John Powell

Joined
Mar 9, 1999
Messages
1,440
It's finally happened, a nice little HI khukuri has shown up on ebay and of course it's not being sold by Uncle Bill.
Appears to be one of the pretty little Cheasapeake Bay Knife Club specials from a while back.
Check it out...ebay #197 026 865

------------------
JP
 
Bill,

I understand that HI is currently supply-side limited, but if you want to increase sales and enlarge shop two, here is a marketing strategy that might help.

Many businesses are advertising items on e-bay, and providing links back to their websites in their auction. The auction is really an inexpensive form of advertising that reaches numbers of people interested in the vendor’s wares. If you kept an auction running on e-bay at all times you could be pretty sure that anyone looking for khukuris on e-bay would at least become aware of HI and its variety of products.



------------------
Howard Wallace
Khukuri FAQ

 
I disagree with HI going on ebay.
The khukuris produced by HI are so special they should only be available thru Bill.
If they come up as 'after market' and 'used', great, but other importers use ebay as a vehicle and it only cheapens their knives.
Bad marketing? Maybe, but it protects quality.
I didn't bring this up to start a trend. Only to bring the forums attention to the chance at a great little HI knife.
If I misrepresented anything here I apologize to you Howard and Uncle.
 
I disagree with HI going on ebay.
The khukuris produced by HI are so special they should only be available thru Bill.
If they come up as 'after market' and 'used', great, but other importers use ebay as a vehicle and it only cheapens their knives.
Bad marketing? Maybe, but it protects quality.
I didn't bring this up to start a trend. Only to bring the forums attention to the chance at a great little HI knife.
If I misrepresented anything here I apologize to you Howard and Uncle.

------------------
JP
 
At least this Ebay piece IS a real HI.

As to future expansion: we know HI has to grow the Nepalese side, bigtime. More kamis are available for this. My only comment there is, they'll be somewhat better off if they can score a single larger building or expand right next door to Shop2. Why? Because Bura can remain sole foreman of the larger operation, and his obvious skills make him probably close to the ultimate in that department. If they have to open a "Shop3" more than a block or two away Bura would end up splitting his time or they'd need a second foreman. They *might* be able to find a "second Bura" but why risk it
smile.gif
?

That said, by setting up another shop using 50% new guys and 50% "Shop2 veterans" they could copy the new-for-Nepal "corporate culture" of "good blades at all cost". I'm sure they've figured all this out.

On the US side, there's something to be said for using a few high-end-only-type dealers. Forget Ebay, it's a zoo. What Mad Dog did was very carefully select a few "mom and pop type operation" dealers and use them for part of the customer service job. That worked well, there's not a "bad dealer" in the bunch...Bill could do a lot worse than to use those same dealers, in fact - with very few exceptions HI and Mad Dog aren't in competition.

That would make more sense long-term than Ebay. The other option is to grow Bill's US operations into a larger-scale dealer, with paid help doing ordering, shipping, etc. and Bill doing "marketing and PR only", reducing his stress. Gelbu can help with that part too from his Nepalese Internet connection.

Jim
 
No mention of a serial # as was on the CBKC knives. Looks like a shop 1 knife from the stamping, etc. rather than shop 2, so we'd need Bill to recall if shop I made any additional ones. Weren't the CBKC blades stamped with those initials?

[This message has been edited by Rusty (edited 10 November 1999).]
 
I think my CBKC from shop #2 doesn't have HI logo stamp on it! so ... I guess that piece at Ebay must be from shop #1!
 
John, You must think that idea is really bad, to post a rebuttal twice!
wink.gif
I'm not sure I understand your concern about "cheapening." Will you elaborate? Certainly some of the personal touch could be lost. Maybe Bill would like to say, "If you're interested in bidding on this item please call me on the phone and talk with me." A friend of mine recently purchased an old German painting on e-bay, and had an interesting discussion with the dealer about it after he won. So internet auctions don't necessarily preclude personal contact.

To clarify, I was not suggesting moving large quantities of products on e-bay or other online auctions, but rather using the auctions as a vehicle to bring the product to consumer attention. The point of the auction is not to sell the item, but to provide a link to the HI website for anyone who looks at the item. I think most items would sell for reasonable prices, and only a small number of items would be sold this way, so the risk of loss is minimal.

One of my friends is doing web work for a local dealer in antique silver items. They recently began marketing over the internet, and they have had a lot of success with this method of advertising bringing people to their website. I think that the niche this silver dealer fills is similar to the one HI fills. Product quality, and the consumer perception of product quality and dealer integrity, is vital to both businesses.

Jim, I agree that using high quality dealers makes a lot of sense. Perhaps then Bill and Yangdu could take a break from packing boxes. I don't think that approach precludes the online "advertising" technique to direct consumers to the dealers or to HI.

But this form of marketing may not be for HI. I just throw it out as something to consider.

------------------
Howard Wallace
Khukuri FAQ

 
Hi Howard,
I didn't mean to double post for emaphasis. The computer gremlins took over.
Actually I have gotten some very, very good khukuris on ebay, but I just don't think dealers should be auctioning. If you sell a product at a certain price point, stick with it.
I think it's great that HI knives may show up there and their value appreciated.

------------------
JP
 
Right now I am not very interested in selling more khukuris. I am much more interested in getting the supply side up. We have about 100 khukuris on back order. Dasein put us 10 days farther in the hole. We are expanding the physical facility at its present site. This will not take long in Nepal. Brick and cement without a lot of rebar goes up quickly.

I'll make a separate post about the shop 2 upgrade. When we get even with the world THEN I might consider trying to increase sales. But not right now.

Anyway, I can't thank you all enough for your input and concern. We are all brothers, sure enough!

------------------
Uncle Bill
Himalayan Imports Website
http://members.aol.com/himimp/index.html
 
HI khukuris are to be appreciated in its quality, I have no doubt.

Only I'm afraid of one thing, such appreciation acquired through auction mayl take HI khukuris fly out of my budget.... as price tends to follow its excess demands.

 
Shop2 is growing? COOL! That means Bura stays as sole foreman, it means new kamis get exposed to *all* of the old...perfect. Quality shouldn't even hiccup.

Jim
 
Jim, you have been correct on a couple of important considerations. First, you proposed power equipment which at the time was simply an impossibility. That proposal has come to fruition at shop 2 and it has paid off handsomely. We have improved quality and decreased production cost -- the combination everybody wants but almost never gets.

Splitting the shops in physical location was another caution you posed and a very logical one. Having the expansion take place under one roof was the only way to go -- and that's what we did. Bura stays in control and does not have to run from one place to the next and back to do his job.

Demand has gone up and price has come down and that's the way we intend to keep it if we possibly can.

Thanks all for ideas and comments!

------------------
Uncle Bill
Himalayan Imports Website
http://members.aol.com/himimp/index.html
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top