As long as you guys keep slobbering over a 940-1 that retails for an insane $263.50, Benchmade is going to keep screwing us with their artificially-inflated prices that are not market driven. I would like to own a 940-1 too, but at the price of a CF Sage 1 with S30V ($107 shipped) with a slight premium for the S90V. So basically, you are paying a $130 "up yours" tax to Benchmade for the privilege of letting them sell you a 940-1. So I am absolutely done buying Benchmades. If all of us voted with our credit cards, Benchmade's artificially-inflated pricing would disappear in 3 months. Powernoodle is grumpy!
"Premium pricing (also called image pricing or prestige pricing) is the practice of keeping the price of a product or service artificially high in order to encourage favorable perceptions among buyers, based solely on the price. The practice is intended to exploit the tendency for buyers to assume that expensive items enjoy an exceptional reputation or represent exceptional quality and distinction."
Link.
More people need to speak up with their dissatisfaction with this practice, and make it known that they are buying used Benchmades rather than new ones. Almost all my recent BM purchases have been used.
I am NOT opposed to paying more, but if I am going to pay more, I want more value. By value, I mean more features and better materials than what is currently being used. Something like the M390 Contego from Knifeworks gives some justification to higher pricing with M390 steel and very intricate G10 work. While still expensive, it's using premium materials. But given a standard 710 now sells for close to that, that's not okay and materials do NOT justify pricing as such.
The problem is, given enough time, it just might work. And we'd be naïve to believe that Benchmade's competitors aren't waiting to see if it does.
It won't.
Things like that worked years ago, but not today. Manufacturing quality from other countries have reached a point of being equal and, in some cases, superior to American-made products. If American-made products start demanding pricing that is completely ridiculous relative to others, sellers are going to expand their offerings, new makers will appear, and consumers are going to change brands (and even mindsets).
Kiser Cutlery is just one example of quickly-advancing quality, and if BM's policy becomes the standard from US makers, there will be new markets from new makers underselling American knives. Chinese makers are especially notable because they are increasing quality at such a rapid rate. The Spyderco Sage 2 Ti shows that conventional perceptions about locality of production affecting quality no longer apply.
This happened with the American steel industry (and almost happened to the American cutlery steel industry). It almost happened with the American automotive industry. It is happening to the flashlight industry. It can and will happen here if all American production manufacturers do this.
The mindset that an American product is better by default and can be priced completely disproportionately to competition is toxic to the health of the American manufacturing industry. As I like American knives a lot and prefer them personally, I hope American makers realize this and don't write off international competition by default.
Another reason is if American production makers keep jacking up prices, consumers wanting American-made products will go to custom American makers. Benchmade Gold Class products in Damasteel are often more expensive than Damasteel products made by Brian Tighe. I like BM Gold Class a lot, but it's a laughable comparison to try to compare a Gold Class to a Tighe Stick. Those are not comparable knives.
