Lets talk GEC!

I dunno, all the 74s that we see posted on those forums are the ones that turned out great. The problem is, what about those that didn't? I have two snakewood 74s on order which were pre-ordered, but I just don't know how they will look. Even if they are fabulous, the buying experience I am currently in is not all that pleasant. As the pressure to pre-order grows and grows, it feels more like a lottery and less like that delicious anticipation when you've picked out a knife that really thrills you.

I think we need for assurance from GEC and its dealers about what pre-ordered knives will look like, and maybe I would feel prepared to trust the process.
 
Camillus, that's a valid concern and one I share. However I think that GEC isn't to blame for that one. They are going above and beyond when it comes to pre final product details. The consumers are what has turned the buying process into work removing a lot of that joy that comes with purchasing and anticipating a new knife. That is the main reason I have slowed down on GEC purchases.
But regarding the mix up with Rob's jigging on the heartland, that, in my opinion, is unacceptable. I will give GEC a lot of slack. They produce an amazing product at a fair price. Mistakes happen. That particular knife though should have been pulled or a memo sent out that the jigging was nothing like the rope knife. I can only speculate, but it seems as though it was a mix up on the production floor. That jigging in no way resembled the rope knife jigging. Had I pre ordered one of those I would have been furious. That would be like ordering a knife in smooth yellow bone but receiving a knife in red bone and then having folks say "that's the nature of natural materials" or "that's just a part of hand made products".
I think we need to be cautious about putting GEC on a pedestal. It's easy to do, but it makes their mistakes that much more painful. They are human and they will screw up a product from time to time. I just wish they would acknowledge their mistakes whether it's here, on Facebook, or some other platform. That is one thing I have yet to see them do, and that kind of irritates me.
Ok, that's my rant for the morning.
 
Is demand purely outpacing production, or does GEC intentionally limit the size of their runs? Wondering why they don't just increase the lot sizes they produce for the hot models. They should have a pretty
good feel now for the models that will sit on shelves a while vs the ones that vaporize in minutes.
 
Makes me chuckle:)

With the scale of SFO production by GEC for these #74's I can see their factory #74's being more sought after...:)
 
mb> said:
Is demand purely outpacing production, or does GEC intentionally limit the size of their runs? Wondering why they don't just increase the lot sizes they produce for the hot models. They should have a pretty
good feel now for the models that will sit on shelves a while vs the ones that vaporize in minutes.
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I could be wrong, but I think the numbers for these SFO's would be determined by the designer/sponsor/end retailer?
 
avoidspam said:
Makes me chuckle:)

With the scale of SFO production by GEC for these #74's I can see their factory #74's being more sought after...:)
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Do you know how many SFO 74's were made all in? You might be right? It's about availability too, in addition to special features, I guess?
 
Tuna Valley came across my radar in this recent search, had never heard of this one and seems like it's from Titusville too.

Enjoying all of your photos and taking notes. Thanks!
 
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avoidspam said:
Makes me chuckle:)

With the scale of SFO production by GEC for these #74's I can see their factory #74's being more sought after...:)
Click to expand...

AShearer said:
Do you know how many SFO 74's were made all in? You might be right? It's about availability too, in addition to special features, I guess?
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Well I don't know. I'm still pretty new at this but as far as the SFO's go that I noticed. The Snakewoods were gone fast. I never seen the smooth oiled bone in stock. The nice camel bones are going quick. There were only 50 Gabon ebony made for Rob. As far as the #74 production runs go I'm seeing all of them in stock at many online retailers and there still coming in. I guess it's whatever blade shape and cover option you want. Just my 2 cents. :)
 
AShearer said:
I could be wrong, but I think the numbers for these SFO's would be determined by the designer/sponsor/end retailer?
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Maybe I'm just mistaken thinking regular runs are preorder sell outs. This must be an SFO thing. I get that. Whatever the order qty is...is it.
 
Shock_ said:
Well I don't know. I'm still pretty new at this but as far as the SFO's go that I noticed. The Snakewoods were gone fast. I never seen the smooth oiled bone in stock. The nice camel bones are going quick. There were only 50 Gabon ebony made for Rob. As far as the #74 production runs go I'm seeing all of them in stock at many online retailers and there still coming in. I guess it's whatever blade shape and cover option you want. Just my 2 cents. :)
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Yep. I had a similar experience to yours. I was just wondering if you had figured out numbers. I got one DLT SFO in autumn leaf jigged, but just totally missed any others.
 
mb> said:
Maybe I'm just mistaken thinking regular runs are preorder sell outs. This must be an SFO thing. I get that. Whatever the order qty is...is it.
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Well I think regardless of regular or SFO, they only make a small number compared to someone like Case. The limits are actually good for me as a collector. At least that's what I tell myself[emoji849]
 
mb> said:
Is demand purely outpacing production, or does GEC intentionally limit the size of their runs? Wondering why they don't just increase the lot sizes they produce for the hot models. They should have a pretty
good feel now for the models that will sit on shelves a while vs the ones that vaporize in minutes.
Click to expand...

My understanding of things:

-GEC limits the number of SFO orders and limits the accepted SFO order totals to 500 units to prevent GEC from becoming an SFO-exclusive knife manufacturer.

-GEC is still a small company, and they don't have much interest in pumping out a few thousand of the same models year round to satisfy demand. They limit production numbers in order to provide more patterns throughout the year.

-That being said, I'm quite certain that this last run of Beer Scouts/15s was the largest run GEC has ever done. This run of 74s seems quite large, as well, which may indicate that they are attempting to meet demand. Look at how many Beer Scouts/15s are still available from this last run (as well as 14s), and it would seem to me that GEC overshot their mark on demand, which is not good for them. They seem to be trying to figure it out, though. As far as "having a pretty good feel for models", Beer Scouts are probably right behind TC Barlows and NF Barlows as far as demand goes, and they are still readily available from every distributor that bought them. I'm sure they thought they would "vaporize in minutes" based off of how quickly previous runs sold out.
 
Wurrwulf said:
My understanding of things:

-GEC limits the number of SFO orders and limits the accepted SFO order totals to 500 units to prevent GEC from becoming an SFO-exclusive knife manufacturer.

-GEC is still a small company, and they don't have much interest in pumping out a few thousand of the same models year round to satisfy demand. They limit production numbers in order to provide more patterns throughout the year.

-That being said, I'm quite certain that this last run of Beer Scouts/15s was the largest run GEC has ever done. This run of 74s seems quite large, as well, which may indicate that they are attempting to meet demand. Look at how many Beer Scouts/15s are still available from this last run (as well as 14s), and it would seem to me that GEC overshot their mark on demand, which is not good for them. They seem to be trying to figure it out, though. As far as "having a pretty good feel for models", Beer Scouts are probably right behind TC Barlows and NF Barlows as far as demand goes, and they are still readily available from every distributor that bought them. I'm sure they thought they would "vaporize in minutes" based off of how quickly previous runs sold out.
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Great explanation Shawn. Thanks for taking the time to write this up. I think it's right on and helpful for all of us to remember these points.
 
AShearer said:
Yep. I had a similar experience to yours. I was just wondering if you had figured out numbers. I got one DLT SFO in autumn leaf jigged, but just totally missed any others.
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If you go by his numbering system it looks like it goes up to 200 camel bones. Maybe 100 of each of the other's totaling 500. I don't know. The autumn jigged bone turned out to be my favorite of the 4 I have. You made a good choice :thumbup:
 
Shock_ said:
If you go by his numbering system it looks like it goes up to 200 camel bones. Maybe 100 of each of the other's totaling 500. I don't know. The autumn jigged bone turned out to be my favorite of the 4 I have. You made a good choice :thumbup:
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Good point. I read somewhere that one of Apostle's runs was 50. In all it could easily be 500 or more.
 
AShearer said:
Good point. I read somewhere that one of Apostle's runs was 50. In all it could easily be 500 or more.
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Rob said he ordered 50 in ebony and 50 in bone.
To my knowledge 2016 was the first year GEC has really limited the sfo orders after a lot of criticism from customers. However, I recently watched a video where Derrick had mentioned that GEC is raising the max orders for SFOs(which I believe was 500 pieces total per order) or the amount of SFOs someone can do in a year(which I believe was 3). I can't remember which, though.
 
SadSappySucker said:
Rob said he ordered 50 in ebony and 50 in bone.
To my knowledge 2016 was the first year GEC has really limited the sfo orders after a lot of criticism from customers. However, I recently watched a video where Derrick had mentioned that GEC is raising the max orders for SFOs(which I believe was 500 pieces total per order) or the amount of SFOs someone can do in a year(which I believe was 3). I can't remember which, though.
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Good to know Erik. Thanks. This may be getting off topic. Maybe not since it's Lets Talk GEC? It's good to know something about how this works. As long as they keep doing SFO's maybe it's good if they limit the number though? Makes it all more exclusive. I realize some guys flip them immediately which is not in the spirit, and some guys don't get one at all unless they pay more for a flip. It's not an easy deal I guess?
 
cheoah said:
Tuna Valley came across my radar in this recent search, had never heard of this one and seems like it's from Titusville too.
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Just to clarify, the Tuna Valley knives are a name owned by the Daniels family, not a knife manufacturer. From 2009-mid 2012 they had their knives produced by GEC, which is in Titusville, PA. From mid-2012 until present, all Tuna Valley knives are made by Queen Cutlery, also located in Titusville, PA. When the Daniels family sold their ownership of GEC, and became the owners of Queen, the manufacturer of the TV knives switched.
 
Wurrwulf said:
My understanding of things:

-GEC limits the number of SFO orders and limits the accepted SFO order totals to 500 units to prevent GEC from becoming an SFO-exclusive knife manufacturer.

-GEC is still a small company, and they don't have much interest in pumping out a few thousand of the same models year round to satisfy demand. They limit production numbers in order to provide more patterns throughout the year.

-That being said, I'm quite certain that this last run of Beer Scouts/15s was the largest run GEC has ever done. This run of 74s seems quite large, as well, which may indicate that they are attempting to meet demand. Look at how many Beer Scouts/15s are still available from this last run (as well as 14s), and it would seem to me that GEC overshot their mark on demand, which is not good for them. They seem to be trying to figure it out, though. As far as "having a pretty good feel for models", Beer Scouts are probably right behind TC Barlows and NF Barlows as far as demand goes, and they are still readily available from every distributor that bought them. I'm sure they thought they would "vaporize in minutes" based off of how quickly previous runs sold out.
Click to expand...

I don't thing they overshot demand at all. It's very beneficial to have that product in a case where customers can see and buy it instead of waiting for the next production run and potentially missing out because there were only a few made.

By the time they do another beer scout run the current one will be all sold.
 
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