Hey Phil, you sharked both knives I was interested in by 10 seconds. I hope you flip your bike over and knock your two front teeth out!
OBVIOUSLY KIDDING... I'm going to say the same thing I said last Friday. Enjoy them brother. That was some true sharking. You have nothing to apologize for.
This has been an interesting discussion. I wanted to think about it over the weekend and give it some more thought before responding again.
I think some of the suggestions have good potential IF Andy thinks they are necessary.
The one knife per post would certainly help spread the wealth a little bit. And I thought Dave's point in the last sentence below was a very good one.
I'm probably in the minority but I really like the idea that you post for the knife you want. (your priority knife) If you have a 2nd choice then simply post again for it. It's that simple. If you don't get your 2nd choice then obviously that knife was more important to someone else as it was there "1st choice".
The idea of posting the sale pics in a private fotki folder also has some potential (and would be a trip back to days gone by). The pics could be moved over later to a public folder for historical viewing (which many of us would appreciate). It was certainly more exciting in the days before fotki previewing when you really had no idea what was coming. A question is how much the fotki preview and Andy's twitter updates contributed to the formula that resulted in more people coming to Fiddleback Fridays. I could certainly see a contribution because they created some visibility into what will be offered each week and also some predictability on when the sale post will hit (based on when the fotki pics go up). The last one could be overcome if Andy committed to giving a rough ETA on BF or twitter each Friday. (To cut off the "I don't have a twitter account" crowd, neither do I. You don't need one to view a twitter page. Andy has a link to his twitter page on his website. It says "Twitter." Click on it.)
The idea of one knife per member per day is probably too much of a sales deterrent. If Andy or any knifemaker came to me as a friend and said he/she was thinking of doing that, I would probably say "Are you crazy?" (but with more French).
These are all IF Andy thinks any change is necessary. I think the "what if" slippery slope of where things are headed may be a little overblown. If someone says "I'll take everything," Andy will first have the choice of whether to allow that sale. If that person were to start blatantly profiteering, do you think Andy would ever sell to that person again. Or do you think the mods or Spark would allow someone to "play" dealer without a paid dealer membership. Would there be much profit after that. It would only take one report to get Andy's or the mods' attention. I don't know; I just don't see it happening. And I don't see Andy allowing it if it even starts looking like things are realistically headed that way. I think he deserves more credit than that.
I think the shut out of new buyers may be a little overblown as well. You currently have about an hour to grab something on Fridays. And as Bonafide mentioned, there is always some stock at the dealers. You may not be able to get exactly what you want. But you know what, I didn't get exactly what I wanted on my first purchase. But I bought something to try it out. I realized I liked the quality. And I realized what I thought I wanted probably wasn't right for me anyway. If you can't be online on Fridays, try to make friends. This is a great community. I know at least one person who would proxy for me. And there are a few others who I would feel okay at least asking. Likewise, I would be willing to do the same for many here.
I'm fine however this turns out; status quo or changes made. But I definitely see more than one side to this.
