How should Collector Knives sell GEC SFO's

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AlwaysTomboy said:
RE: Ancient Spear TC barlow - On standby at 5:49pm EST. Reservations now closed. Seems like they went fast! Grats to all who got a sure thing. :thumbsup:
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:( How did people know to go to the reservation page?
 
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r8shell said:
:( How did people know to go to the reservation page?
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We didn't.... That was the whole point of not announcing them.

Didn't seem to matter much though as they got snatched up rather quickly. Served the purpose of not crashing the site, I suppose.
 
knifeswapper said:
I have already started blocking ip's for people camping on the ERS page...

Back in the good old days I would get all 3 of 3 or 7 of 7. For the first bit of production the factory would keep serial #1 on many runs; but I don't think they have kept knives back for a long time now.
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I’m sorry, I have to comment here (and we are in the Good, Bad and Ugly,” after all). I was a little shocked to read that CK.net is actually blocking IP address of people “camped out” on the ER page. Mind you, it doesn’t affect me—I was not one of those people. I would never have thought of it and, even if I did, I don’t have that kind of time. But if someone did, what’s wrong with that? They must really want the reserve (and would likely deserve it for such dedication, I guess). Given the timing, I can only assume these people were after the upcoming Ancient TC Barlow.

It just seems ridiculous to make such a rule. “No hitting refresh too many times on the site of a product you really want to buy.”:rolleyes:

But here’s the real point. The only thing more ridiculous than making a rule like that is…NOT making a rule like that and enforcing it anyway!:D I guess those people who got their IP addresses blocked should have had a crystal ball.

But it does not end there. If you visit the site too often in order to try and land a reservation for an Ancient TC, you’ll be blocked. And if you don’t visit the site often…you won’t get a reservation because there was no text was sent on these!

In sum, hitting refresh is bad—you’re supposed to wait for the text if you really want a knife. And then there’s no text—you're supposed to just keep visiting the page if you really want a knife!

I love it.

I actually don’t care what they system is. I just think you should not have to secure a crystal ball to figure it out.:confused:
 
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Pàdruig said:
We didn't.... That was the whole point of not announcing them.

Didn't seem to matter much though as they got snatched up rather quickly. Served the purpose of not crashing the site, I suppose.
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MCar said:
I’m sorry, I have to comment here (and we are in the Good, Bad and Ugly,” after all). I was a little shocked to read that CK.net is actually blocking IP address of people “camped out” on the ER page. Mind you, it doesn’t affect me—I was not one of those people. I would never have thought of it and, even if I did, I don’t have that kind of time. But if someone did, what’s wrong with that? They must really want the reserve (and would likely deserve it for such dedication, I guess). Given the timing, I can only assume these people were after the upcoming Ancient TC Barlow.

It just seems ridiculous to make such a rule. “No hitting refresh too many times on the site of a product you really want to buy.”:rolleyes:

But here’s the real point. The only thing more ridiculous than making a rule like that is…NOT making a rule like that and enforcing it anyway!:D I guess those people who got their IP addresses blocked should have had a crystal ball.

But it does not end there. If you visit the site too often in order to try and land a reservation for an Ancient TC, you’ll be blocked. And if you don’t visit the site often…you won’t get a reservation because there was no text was sent on these!

In sum, hitting refresh is bad—you’re supposed to wait for the text if you really want knife. And then there’s no text—you're supposed to just keep visiting the page if you really want a knife!

I love it.

I actually don’t care what they system is. I just think you should not have to secure a crystal ball to figure it out.:confused:
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I am a bit confused. No text, and no camping out on the ERS page?
Oh well. My tears of disappointment will help patina the blade of my 77 Barlow.
 
I’ll be on the street corner waving $100 bills in the air to see if anyone will sell me something I want. In case anyone needs me.
 
r8shell said:
:( How did people know to go to the reservation page?
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I only knew because someone posted a vague notice in the GEC thread in the traditionals forum and I happened to see it. I wouldn't have known otherwise. It's kinda a shame because I suspect the flippers don't have any qualms about camping on the site and hitting refresh; only the folks who care enough and respect the owner enough to not want to risk crashing the site will abide his wishes.
 
r8shell said:
I am a bit confused. No text, and no camping out on the ERS page?
Oh well. My tears of disappointment will help patina the blade of my 77 Barlow.
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I was already in a foul mood today and finding out I missed these didn't help matters. After talking to Charlie personally about this upcoming Ancient, I was particularly interested in them.

I will trust that the secondary market might prove somewhat forgiving in that small window after release. We shall see though.
 
I checked the ERS about six times throughout the day today. My last one, at just past 5:30pm est got me in when it was at threat level yellow. Way lucky I was. I didnt have any tip offs or a clue when it would pop up for reserve.
 
MCar said:
I’m sorry, I have to comment here (and we are in the Good, Bad and Ugly,” after all). I was a little shocked to read that CK.net is actually blocking IP address of people “camped out” on the ER page. Mind you, it doesn’t affect me—I was not one of those people. I would never have thought of it and, even if I did, I don’t have that kind of time. But if someone did, what’s wrong with that? They must really want the reserve (and would likely deserve it for such dedication, I guess). Given the timing, I can only assume these people were after the upcoming Ancient TC Barlow.

It just seems ridiculous to make such a rule. “No hitting refresh too many times on the site of a product you really want to buy.”:rolleyes:

But here’s the real point. The only thing more ridiculous than making a rule like that is…NOT making a rule like that and enforcing it anyway!:D I guess those people who got their IP addresses blocked should have had a crystal ball.

But it does not end there. If you visit the site too often in order to try and land a reservation for an Ancient TC, you’ll be blocked. And if you don’t visit the site often…you won’t get a reservation because there was no text was sent on these!

In sum, hitting refresh is bad—you’re supposed to wait for the text if you really want a knife. And then there’s no text—you're supposed to just keep visiting the page if you really want a knife!

I love it.

I actually don’t care what they system is. I just think you should not have to secure a crystal ball to figure it out.:confused:
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MCar said:
It's a Goldilocks game. Go to the ER page as much as you can....just not TOO much.;)
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I guess you should ask the question and wait on an answer instead of asking the question - determining the answer - and then getting aggravated. Don't be aggravated. Hitting "reset" or visiting the page dozens of times a day is not camping out. I actually didn't want to give anyone new tools to get in front of those that just like to do things the old fashion way - but there are online tools that will monitor a webpage for changes. And the way it does that is to constantly download the entire page and monitor for changes. Once you get a few dozen of these running for folks, it is very resource consuming. Any blocked ip's are companies providing this service, not individuals.
 
AlwaysTomboy said:
I only knew because someone posted a vague notice in the GEC thread in the traditionals forum and I happened to see it. I wouldn't have known otherwise. It's kinda a shame because I suspect the flippers don't have any qualms about camping on the site and hitting refresh; only the folks who care enough and respect the owner enough to not want to risk crashing the site will abide his wishes.
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The reservations were opened for 45 minutes compared to about 10 seconds otherwise. I watched the reservations come in and recognized nearly every email address as an ongoing customer. I don't know what the final solution is going to be. We are talking 2-3 runs yearly. I am just trying to find the one solution that gets the least complaints at this point.
 
I saw the text notification, figured there would be a drop the next day or two, and pulled up the page and saw the barlows I didn’t pull the trigger because I wasn’t buying, but when I checked again the next hour they were gone. It would still have been easier than getting a Northwoods. Until GEC changes production levels or loses popularity there are some patterns that people aren’t going to get easily no matter how the customer gets notified.
 
In this case, it was simply a matter of not being in the right place at the right time. With no expectations of a drop, too busy to pick up on the "clues".

No complaints here really, it is what it is You win some and lose some.
 
Pàdruig said:
In this case, it was simply a matter of not being in the right place at the right time. With no expectations of a drop, too busy to pick up on the "clues".

No complaints here really, it is what it is You win some and lose some.
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I was in a position to put them on the ERS before anybody even knew specifics on Charlie's run; but I had to give the disclaimer on the SMS or that would have been a bad deal. In the future if we do it this way, it will be before anyone even knows they are coming (at least specifics). I don't really like it this way, because my entire goal in the beginning was to eliminate the constant checking / worrying.
 
Mike, I know you're trying to figure out what works best for both you and your customers, but I have to say, at least with the old mass text and more recent lottery methods, I felt like I had a chance. I know there was some discussion a while back about how the old text method put folks who weren't able to pounce on the website at a moment's notice at a disadvantage (in addition to crashing your server). To me, this feels like that, but worse. I'm not on the forum constantly (much less checking the one or two threads where this was mentioned), and I don't think, "I wonder if the TC reserve is up on CK now?" every half hour or so. So with no notice or heads up (other than the non-notice yesterday, which I obviously didn't recognize as the clue it was), I found out several hours too late that I'd missed out on this.

Hopefully that's helpful feedback. I'm not trying to complain just because I missed out (though I am, admittedly, a bit frustrated at being 0-fer on the new early reserve methods).
 
Meh.... While I missed the secret squirrel early reserve, it was because I was spending time with my kid - no regrets.
 
knifeswapper said:
The reservations were opened for 45 minutes compared to about 10 seconds otherwise. I watched the reservations come in and recognized nearly every email address as an ongoing customer. I don't know what the final solution is going to be. We are talking 2-3 runs yearly. I am just trying to find the one solution that gets the least complaints at this point.
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Mike, I vented earlier about my frustration with the current situation. It's certainly no fault of yours, but I collected with the goal of having gifted one knife for every one I kept. Obviously, that's changed what I can now collect.

To get to the point, has anyone considered taking reservations prior to the manufacturing similar to Randall? You could "short" the reserve list by taking a few less reserves than expected production per cover option to account for any shortage during production, with a disclaimer during the reserve process on the last few reservations taken for each cover option taken. Something along the lines of "Your reservation is among the last 5 taken. In the event your order cannot be fulfilled, you will have the option to accept an alternate or have your reservation forwarded to the next production run".

It's just a thought, and perhaps one that you have already considered and rejected, but I thought I'd offer it anyway. Thank you for all you do for us in the community, you're aces in my book.
 
Don’t forget everyone, there’s other dealers who get the TC’s and take reservations...not just Collector Knives. I buy from Mike, and usually always check his site first but I also like to spread the wealth around to other great GEC distributors. You’ll get skunked more often if you continue to only fish one small section of the stream.

And no, I did not get a reserve for the upcoming TC. Based on previous experience, I’d just sell it down the line when another knife came up that I had to have so there’s no need to be the middle man.
 
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