How do they figure out the markup?

SilverFoxKnows · Aug 30, 2003

I was in a store today (not a knife shop) that has a little display with knives. They had an Opinel for $12, fair enough. A couple of liner lock Benchmades for a little over $100, fair enough. A Boker lockblade with real stag for $140, a little steep but not outrageous. A large Boker stockman for $40, pretty good. And some Furys for $70, WHAT??? I just left shaking my head. By the way, the stag Boker was pretty nice.

Frank

Walking Man · Aug 30, 2003

They must have been sadly mistaken.
Why not bring it to the manager's attention.
If it was your store, wouldn't you be thankful if someone pointed out incorrectly priced items?

zer0sig · Aug 30, 2003

if the attitude in the shop is good, perhaps they will be receptive to feedback/haggling. if not, it's not really your problem, i guess, seeing as how you understand what reasonable prices are. vote with your wallet if need be-i'm sure there are plenty of people who would love to sell you knives at reasonable prices.

Keith Montgomery · Aug 30, 2003

There are some Fury knives that I have seen selling for up to $45.00. I wouldn't pay that for them though. I have never seen a Fury knife that even retails for near $70.00. This price is way out of line.

Steven Roos · Aug 31, 2003

The markup in a knife shop shouldn't be any different than any other retail establishment. Stardard markup (or "keystone") is 100% of cost.

stich · Aug 31, 2003

Wholesale on knives is usually a little less than 1/2 retail so "You Save..!" Jewelry is usually a 500% markup which is why you have never seen a diamond that wasn't "on sale" at "fantastic savings".

dullone · Aug 31, 2003

The store in question realizes the obvious; the less people know about knives, the more they are willing to pay for Flashy Trash.
IMHO

Ebbtide · Aug 31, 2003

With his prices set up like that...I think he's fishing.

Dullone is right, alot of people are attracted to flashy trash.
The other knives imply quality. "Judged by the company you keep" comes to mind.

"They're all about the same price, I'll get the pretty one"

Now look at the markup compared to the rest.
Fishin' for spendy folks with no taste.
Fishin' for folks who didn't do their research.

Edited to include:
An 800% mark up on jewelry wouldn't surprise me.
Especially here in NYC.

sharpstick · Aug 31, 2003

This is kinda on the same topic...I sold knives for a short period and learned this about pricing...

In most cases, a knife that retails for $200.00 is sold to the dealer for $100.00. The distributor usually buys it from the factory for around $80.00 (20% less than wholesale).

Wholesale is usually 50% off of retail.
Distributor is usually 20% less than wholesale.

This is not true for all brands, but is a pretty good rule of thumb for most production knives.

Keith Montgomery · Sep 1, 2003

I have seen profit margins in retail that vary between under 10% to over 80%, meaning in one case that if the selling price is $100, the cost is over $90. In the other case a selling price of $100 would mean a cost of under $20.

I have seen cheap crap knives that have an MSRP of $9.95 that cost under $3. This means that very good margin can be made selling these knives for $5.

Most good production knives probably do have around a 50% profit margin from the manufacturer. My guess would be that companies like CRK and Randall offer lower margins than this.

Knives like the fancy looking ones from Fury probably have very good markup and this makes them very profitable for knife stores. These knives will be purchased by the unknowledgeable on looks alone and most will never know they were overcharged. I guess that is a good reason to be an educated knife buyer.