Knife Prices

I'd be curious to see a breakdown/graph type of deal from a company such as Benchmade who offered knives pretty much across the knife spectrum. Or perhaps Spyderco. They're knife offering spectrum is huge, price wise.

I'm guessing you'd have to go by percentages as I'm sure far less of the higher priced models are produced as opposed to the lower tier pieces.

But for instance, in a given year, 55% of $200 Retail knives sold, as opposed to 77% of $65 Retail knives sold.

I know that as in any business, they're driven by profit and I'm sure they are continually doing cost/profit analysis. It would seem to suggest that if the numbers on the high end knives aren't there, the quantity produced will be constantly trimmed to make producing the cost effective. And the mark up percentage is a huge factor as well.

Just something I've wondered about since the MAP pricing policy went into effect and how many knife sales this actually cost the company. Or if it was barely a blip on the radar.
 
mr_anderson said:
When the material prices go up, so do the knives. Steel prices have gone up, carbon fiber has gone up, electricity has gone up, all that has to be taken into account. It's not like they are just jacking up the price to make more money, well, not all of them.
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Benchmade forced their retailers to remove all discounts thereby increasing to prices to us as customers. But they did not change their prices to retailers at all; which is where cost increases due to manufacturing would be seen. I was told this by the guys at BladeHQ, as I happened to be there the day after the price changes went into effect.

I seriously doubt ZT has recently increased their prices to retailers as well. Those type of increases would be in the neighborhood of $5-10 dollars per knife across the board; just as it was with the skylines this year.
 
Why to use expensive knives? In my opinion they aren`t worth its price. I use knives from EKA, Marttiini, Mora, Victorinox. EKA Swede 8 is about 35 EUR, very good and durable folder. Marttiini Lynxes are about 30-40 EUR price range and Moras are only less than 10 EUR. Vic Spartan, Tourist, Recruit are also under 20 EUR. And they are all very good knives, very well made and very good quality. And all Vic`s come with lifetime warranty. So I can`t understand why I need expensive knife (like 100 and more EUROS). Also I can`t understand how Victorinox and Mora can sell their products so cheap. Have you ever thought what is Victorinox Spartan net cost?
 
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I definitely feel like prices are rising significantly on knives and I know multitools from Leatherman have increased as well. The price hike is one issue, but the main issue in my opinion is not only has quality not increased, but quality seems to be dropping as prices rise.
 
austonh said:
Benchmade forced their retailers to remove all discounts thereby increasing to prices to us as customers. But they did not change their prices to retailers at all; which is where cost increases due to manufacturing would be seen. I was told this by the guys at BladeHQ, as I happened to be there the day after the price changes went into effect.

I seriously doubt ZT has recently increased their prices to retailers as well. Those type of increases would be in the neighborhood of $5-10 dollars per knife across the board; just as it was with the skylines this year.
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I'm sure they have had to increase prices to the dealers, I've seen notes on dealer sites saying that a small price increase was coming so buy now(this was a while ago). We as consumers don't always hear everything that goes on behind the scenes.
 
I definitely agree, but in my experience I would change "months" to "years". It's ridiculous. Knives I used to pay $80 for, and knives of the same quality, routinely go for $150 - $200? I took a short hiatus a while back because my personal life got much too crazy to keep up with the knife game.... The Sere 2K I could get for $80 back then is now $200? What happened? Knife prices have gone nuts.
 
Capt. Spaulding said:
I definitely feel like prices are rising significantly on knives and I know multitools from Leatherman have increased as well. The price hike is one issue, but the main issue in my opinion is not only has quality not increased, but quality seems to be dropping as prices rise.
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Have you played with any of the Spyderco Taichung knives? Or any of the ZT knives? The fit and finish on them keep getting better and better, KAI's knives are as good as some mid-techs.
 
mr_anderson said:
Have you played with any of the Spyderco Taichung knives? Or any of the ZT knives? The fit and finish on them keep getting better and better, KAI's knives are as good as some mid-techs.
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I'm not saying every single company or certain factories are all dropping in quality. I have personally noticed Benchmade and Leatherman. I have personally not seen a drop in quality on any Spyderco knives. I have been drooling over a Techno for some time now. I'm not a ZT guy so I have no idea about their knives. I have never even handled a ZT to be honest.
 
bld522 said:
Is it just me, or does it seem like knife prices have been marching relentlessly upward over the past several months?
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Buy vintage slip joints like the old USA Schrade, Ulster, Imperial, and Camillus. They're excellent knives which can be had in great condition at great prices if you just watch and wait. That's mostly what I've bought in the last year and have rarely spent more than 20 bucks a pop. They were great knives for our fathers and grandfathers, and they are great EDC knives for us. They also make great gifts and GAWs.
 
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I hope nobody takes this the wrong way, but why wouldn't the manufacturers raise prices when most of the people on this forum will buy just about anything they put out, at any price? Just look what happened when ZT announced the cancellation of a bunch of models, people here rushed out and bought a bunch of them, on an announcement! If I was a savvy company guy, I'd lurk on these boards for feedback that I'd hope would generate more sales for sure.
 
^ Best case scenario ZT sold 100 knives because of that to guys on this forum, that is definitely not worth the effort for large manufactures. What a silly idea.

I agree on manufactures pricing themselves out of their intended market, but it does make a Sebenza that much more appealing when a comparable knife from a larger company is going for only $100 less.
 
Oh yeah it's a silly idea to think that the super fans have no influence on business decisions.
 
And you guys in the US still have GREAT prices for knives- you pay 30$ for a RAT-1, I pay 50€. You pay 120$ for a PM2, I (would) pay >200€.
For those prices you have, I'd buy knives all day long (so maybe thats a good thing :p)
 
crom said:
Oh yeah it's a silly idea to think that the super fans have no influence on business decisions.
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When talking about volume and major impacts like pricing across a brand? Yup.
 
EricV, I'd agree for you if I hadn't witnessed the transformation of ZT from niche brand/experimental upper-shelf kind of thing to full blown boutique brand catering to a more free-spending buyer. Of course I know nobody in the company but I suspect this was behind KAI abandoning (not completely but mostly) it's made in USA claim to fame to concentrate money and time into growing ZT. It was a curious coincidence that the Chinese Kershaws started showing up as ZT was ramping up its line. When a manufacturer has a direct ear to the ground (Thomas here) regarding models, preferences etc. it's not so far fetched to wonder about such things.
 
I agree that there is certainly an influence but I think we'll have to continue to disagree with the extent to which its used. KAI has had a love hate relationship with BF but has remained in contact at other locations on the web so clearly they care about enthusiast opinions. I really don't think we're a big enough market percentage to justify big price shifts for most of the brand. I think this also applies to Spyderco, who is probably even smaller than the ZT brand of KAI, and BM has never really been big on official forum presence.
 
On ZT, the image is or used to be, that it's a brand directed at military, LEO's, etc. I have quite a few friends in the military and I have some cop friends, they are pretty much clueless about ZT. So I have to ask, who buys ZT? Nobody I know unless they happen to be knife nuts, I have a few of those as friends.
 
In general, I am surprised at the number of $150+ folders that are being sold at regular market prices. I will pay that if I am really interested in a knife, but generally, I have to really want a particular knife to pay that kind of price regardless of the apparent quality. I wonder where the volume market is? I don't think it exists as much as it seems here on BF.

Prices are going up and continue to go up. At some point, the price becomes beyond the ability of the average knife buyer's wallet and as a result, when lesser priced options are available, they settle for them or they buy them not knowing that there is a quality difference. For some.... a knife is a knife kind of thing. It cuts. That's a knife.

We aren't there yet, but I think that time is approaching for even knife nuts being more choosey and looking at value. There will always be folks that will buy 10 say PM2's and that is the way it is.

As far as customs go, the makers have a different pay scale and time value. I suspect that most custom makers are hesitant to raise prices unless they are offering a knife in a more expensive steel or options. You just make less.... that is happening all over America right now for the average worker. It's a problem and it is not going to change anytime soon. Many people are still thankful to have any job versus comparing one job against another and choosing. Most don't have that luxury.

The China wage scale is similar to what happened in Japan. It will happen everywhere in the developing world relative to the US and Europe. Eventually, production will move back to the US and the cycle begins a new.
 
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