Is shopping by price a fundamental mistake?

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wutitiz

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Mar 5, 2008
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Lately I have noticed that posters seeking advice on knife purchases specify what price they are willing to pay. To me this is the wrong approach. Knives are tools, and I remember reading long ago some advice regarding tools (paraphrase): "the pain of not getting exactly what you need lasts a lifetime; the pleasure of saving a few bucks is forgotten after a month."

Of course price is a factor, but it should be low on the priority list when buying a knife. If you spend $200 on a knife that you use for 20 years, that's $10/yr, or 83 cents per month.

If you buy a knife that is not quite what you really want, due to price, eventually you will buy something closer to what you want. This usually results in a drawer full of unused knives. So this thinking does not save money, it wastes it.

The cheaper a knife is, the harder it is to sell on the secondary market should you ever want to do that. The $12 knife may as well be thrown or given away.

If I were to ask for advice on a knife purchase, I would not even mention price. I will probably never buy a $2000 knife, but I wouldn't rule it out if it were exactly what I wanted. Even the $2000 knife is relatively inexpensive if you use it for a lifetime.

What do you think?
 
I think it's important to specify a price range if it's a factor that will limit the buyer's choices. He/she might love to have that $2k knife, but it just may not be a realistic expectation for that person, so why have 20 guys tell you that you should buy it? I'm pretty sure that most people want to buy the best choice that they can or are willing to spend the money on. And if that means staying under $200, then that's the way it is.

I'd love a $100k custom motorcycle, but will most likely look at a bike in the $15k price range. This in no way means that the $15k bike can't do it's job.
 
The best way to shop for any item is to set a reasonable budget, and buy the best you can while staying in that budget.
 
Like it or not, all of us without unlimited funds shop by price. The perfect knife is only perfect if you can afford it.
 
There's a point of diminishing returns on what you get with a user knife, after a price point is reached. Just because a knife has a high price tag doesn't mean you will get that much more use and performance from it to justify paying 10x more than a 200 dollar production blade. Is that 2000 dollar custom really gonna last and cut ten times as long and well?
 
Will a $400.00 fixed blade last and cut ten times as long as a $40.00 fixed blade?
According to Busse owners, yes.
 
I think there's a different buying process for buying a tool that will last a lifetime, and (say) a bottle of orange juice. I'm the type who always has a zero balance on my credit card at the end of the month, but if I could justify the use of credit for anything, it would be a good knife that will last a lifetime. Except in rare cases, even a car lasts about 20 years at most.

I think Jill Jackson kind of supports my point--shop for performance and quality first, price second. If the $2000 knife does not outperform the $200 knife, the choice is obvious. As I said, I'll probably never buy a $2000 knife for the reasons stated by Jill. But suppose that somebody made a super-knife that was tougher than titanium, harder and sharper than ceramic, and more wear resistant than S90V, but cost $2000. If something like that came along, I'd consider buying.
 
hard to spend 83 cents a month for 20 years of performance when there are 8.3 cents a month knives that do the same.

The issue is figuring out how much someone should spend a knife just to have something that reliably cuts. A knife is a tool, a hand tool, and I don't see other such tools in such a wide price range all being deemed the bare minimum for years of service. It's pretty hard to find hammers, wrenches, pliers, or screwdrivers that approach the price of some mass produced knives that are still considered middle of the road.
 
melt said:
Will a $400.00 fixed blade last and cut ten times as long as a $40.00 fixed blade?
According to Busse owners, yes.
Click to expand...

Does this mean that a $4k knife will out cut a Busse by 10x? Jill Jackson has a good point.
 
I still have a very small & young collection (14 knives soon) but already now I have a few relatively cheap knives that are ok on their own, but simply not attractive enough when compared to my better ones. So why did I buy these ? Good looks (based on online pics), a low price, good comments or a combination. This means that I will use them less often, and indeed, I think in hindsight that I should not have bought them and rather saved for something like -for example- a Chris Reeve Mnandi, which seems one of the best gentlemen knives (my preferred kind of knife) to me. Actually I think of focusing more like that in the future, perhaps selling a few of my lower end knifes (for what they are worth, perhaps I can just as well give them away). in my current thinking, I would prefer to limit myself to a collection of maximum 15 really good gentlemen knives, and maximum 5 knives of other kinds.
in general I think that it's better to have not too much "stuff" clutter your life, and while 20 knives may seem a lot for the outsiders, for me I currently think that I can capture the essence of what i am looking for in such a compact knive collection.

More to the original point of the discussion, i agree with other posters that there is a price point above which the extra quality to price ratio begins to really suffer. In my limited experience this tipping point would be between $300-400 and even in this range the products need to be carefully checked on quality/price.
 
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> Never ever buy from spydieguys.com. Ripoff artists.
> Good to know, but kinda random

I think i bought my Spyderco Kiwi from them (from ebay), and I experienced quick service.
 
In shopping I find it helpful to have some benchmark prices. If a Buck 110 sells for $30 then ___________ should sell for $X If a Sebenza cost $400 then a Bradley Alias may be overpriced at $200. If a custom Colin Cox hand forged knife is going for $500 then a similar stock removal knife from a new maker should be much less.
 
Just an observation but when a guy does not mention the amount of money he wants to spend, the first reply is usually, "How much do you want to spend?" Firstly this is important for a lot of people- most people don't have $2,000 to spend on a knife. On top of that there are so many knives out there its like the thread that says "I want a good survival knife"- that narrows it down to a couple million. Also for me I seriously don't need that super knife that lasts forever even when you run over it with a monster truck. I get by fine with my $40 knife, because I don't use them that hard. If you work in something that you need a knife that will take anything then maybe price doesn't matter, but to me I rather spend $40 for a good knife then spend $400 for a good knife that works. Just my opinion. I guess I'm more arguing that not every needs that amazing knife so why buy it.
 
Kaizen1 said:
Good to know, but kinda random:confused:
Click to expand...

Spydieguys.com offers attractive prices but if you ever have a problem they simply choose to ignore you. I ordered a plain edge Salt1 from them in Aug of 06 and They sent a serrated edge in a plain edge box. I emailed several times. With no response. I tried to look up their phone #. At that time they had no phone #. Now they have a phone # but still choose to ignore any type of customer support. NEVER AGAIN. I'll stick with New Grahm or Knife Works.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=467648&highlight=spydieguys
 
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if you dont care about the price and put urself in debt to buy that awesome custom

thén u're having the wrong approach
 
First off, most people....even people on the forum....can get away with using a knife, hatchet and saw with a total cost under 150ish (just a guess on the price). Everything over that price point is simply want. Think about it.

Does the price directly reflect the usefulness of a knife? No. It does, for the most part minus artsy stuff, mean that you get better materials and quality. Which to me is the reason to buy more expensive knives. I want the quality, not quantity. Back to the want part of this knife idea......

.....want, you will be disappointed if you want a high end custom and you "settle" for a SAK, Benchmade, Spyderco, etc. Is the cheaper knives less of a knife? No. But you settled!!! You threw you hands up and said, "that is it, I give up. I'll take this knife, the one I don't have my heart set on." You compromise, don't! Does that mean you should go into debt for the knife? I don't care. That is up to you. People go into debt for lift kits, wheels/tires and all that crazy stuff for their trucks that they will not use. Okay, so that maybe status...even more useless. Maybe that was a bad analogy but you get the idea. But at least you will use your knife.:D Point is spend more on items that you will get the most joy out of and use.
 
Many times I have found that the cheaper/less expensive knives are sometimes the best at doing what a knife is supposed to do. My old sodbuster knives will still cut circles around some of my higher end knives that have the latest steel. I think you have to get by all the hype, tactical bs, etc. A good knife takes an edge without too much problem and cuts like a demon. It does not have to be pretty or slick looking. If it does not cut well what good is it. That is my take on a good knife.
 
What the best way to spend $500? Someone may rather buy a BM Skirmish, a 710, and mini-grip and a para-military, than a Sebenza.
 
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