Mule Team Project / Will it continue ?

choubbi said:
I'm not looking for help for the mule team shipping anymore, Paul "The Deacon" was kind enough to offer me his help. Thanks again Paul!
This way I'm sure I'll stay in the mule program for some more knives, and if I can, the totality of it.

The "mule only" club sounds like a good idea to me, it would be a good solution for those who don't read the spyderco.com's forum 3 times a day, to avoid missing a mule release.
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hi choubbi, is this like belonging to the Delta Sky Miles club :confused: :yawn: :D
 
Halfneck said:
You misunderstood what I posted. I meant that by the 3rd or 4th run I can see the people buying to instantly flip it starting to lose interest.
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I did misunderstand Halfneck, :o .... my apologies......

The Deacon said:
I mentioned the Collectors Club as it currently exists only to point out that its membership represented a rather significant portion of the sales of the first batch and to note that it's impact on future batches should be considerably less because of its structure and the way future Mules will be offered to its members.

As for the rest, if you can get past the words, "Mules Only" club option in my post, you might realize that what I describe is, in fact, very similar to what you are suggesting, except mine contains no "pre-pay" option. That was an intentional omission on my part. My feeling is that pre-payment would add several layers of logistical issues for Spyderco, foremost being that the price of a given piece may not be known until the batch is nearly ready to ship. Federal and state laws governing how long before shipment someone's credit card can legally be charged for merchandise might also be of some concern.

My thinking, which may very well be flawed, is that everyone, or very close to everyone, with enough interest in this project to participate in it checks their primary email at least once every two weeks. So, in my own way I was "keeping it simple", I would have to conclude from your reaction to it that our idea of simple is just a bit different. At any rate, it was just a suggestion, and, for whatever it's worth, one made by someone with no dog in this fight. I trust Sal to read through all the suggestions made here, adopt any he feels useful, adapt some that might be useful with a bit of tweaking, and politely ignore the rest.

Paul
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You make some very valid points Paul.

And you also make a valid point about checking email....

I personaly am just in a posistion .. because of work ... that many times between the months of March and late August my computer access is very limited.
The opportunity may present itself only every three to five weeks. And I can just see myself missing out :( ...

...And then a grown man [me in this case] would cry.. cause I want them all ..... lol

BUT.... upon rethinking my situation... I realize that is a personal problem that I will just have to figure out.

My apologies if I came across too strong Paul, it was not meant in a personal way....

hardheart said:
Maybe the year's worth of mules could be planned out. Y'know, instead of choosing the next steel, chose the next 3 or so. That way, people could commit earlier if they are basing decisions on the steels, not to just collect all the mules/all the Spyderco fixed blades/all the Spyders in general/etc. If they're air-cooled steels, I would guess that as long as the steel gets delivered on time it would go more smoothly now that a run of the mule has been produced.

Depends on what gets used. I've seen VG-10 mentioned. I don't think I need a mule to form an opinion on Spyderco branded VG-10, and I'd hate to potentially miss out on a follow-up steel by being eliminated from a sign-up for not buying it. People may feel that way about other steels, I dunno.
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Good points also ...... :thumbup:

jaislandboy said:
howdy teacher, yeah it seems the Mule Team project got off to a raucous start ;) the concept to me seems better than "sliced bread" :D and I surely hope this project continues as things get "ironed out" and evolve....like the aforementioned standardization of the pin holes, etc....
I like hardhearts suggestion about selecting the next 3 steels or so to make everyone's life much easier..... it seems like Spyderco hit "this one outta the ballpark" too :cool::thumbup:
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Better than "sliced bread". :thumbup: I like your style .......:-)

Yeah..... I would surely say also..... "outta the ballpark with the bases loaded"... :thumbup:

And to end my little speech..... I just say I totally agree with what Paul / The Deacon said. I am also sure the people of Spyderco will make the proper decisions to keep this going strong .... :thumbup:

Because it really is a good thing......

the end ...... :-)
 
I'm also tickled pink with the whole Mule Team project.
No other knife company has ever done anything this BOLD and I salute Sal & Co. for following through with this far.

I can't wait for the next "interesting" steel to be proposed. It's like Xmas 3-4 times a year ~ ; - )
 
I nearly missed out on the entire project as I do not follow the individual forums much, and only knew about it from the Wilderness and Survival forum. I really like this idea and hope that there is some kind of sign up/update list created. I am not sure that I would get every steel but there are a lot of different variations out there that I would like to try CPM3V, 1080, 5600, Hitachi Blue & White....... Not saying that they are the only steels that I want but it would be a shame to miss out on the chance just because I forgot to check the forum for a while. I wish that USPS was an option here as I can't wait to get fleeced by UPS, but if that is the only option then so be it.
Can't wait until I get mine (hopefully soon).
 
Here in the US, the postal service doesn't deliver to most people's door anymore, we have collective mail boxes.

Our local USPS might or might not put the knife in my box, or it might be someone else's. :eek: I even had someone else's checks put in my USPS box.

Here I'll take UPS or Fed-Ex to leave it on MY doorstep everytime. If they started delivering letters, I'd never deal with the USPS again.:D
 
mine arrived from the Spyderco Factory Outlet via UPS....I'm glad you scored one before it was too late CutsLikeAKris.... at first I only ordered one but I had to pull the trigger on a 2nd after I got one in hand .... luckily before it was too late... I sincerely hope your Mule gets to you soon :)
 
this must be the "Golden" (pardon the pun) age of knifedom if our greatest troubles are missing out on a fantastic new program!
 
This is a great program and I commend Spyderco customer service and the SFO for handling this as well as they did. Kudos to Sal for coming up with the project. And kudos to those who are buying these knives for the intended purpose of using/comparing and giving feedback. Some appear to be buying them to resell which defeats the purpose in my opinion. Nothing like this has been done in the industry before as far as I know. Demand appears above and beyond what was expected from initial replies of interest.

Have there been some kinks? Maybe a few. I am sure like anything else in life, there is a learning curve. Improvements may have to be made to the project as it goes.

The future installments will provide more challenges, will they all be $39.99? Most likely not as material cost will vary. Can they maintain a database for a Mule team "subscribers? Possibly, but at what additional cost to Spyderco?

Again- thanks Sal.
 
UPS rapes us Canuks for a huge fee and even worse it is completely random. My Mule's were only 4$ but my patches from TAD were 40$ which was DOUBLE the cost of the order.
Also UPS does not even deliver here ,it is just a mailman from Canada post. I would really apreciate a USPS option as well.

I like deacons idea but I want the option of 2 knives because I don't know if I could bring myself to use it hard enough for testing if I only had one. 2 is reasonable though.

I think a prepay is the simplest way to go.
 
I've only seen one review so far so IMO there are too many "collectors" buying knives and not enough "testers".

The simplest thing to do is just what they (spyderco) did, put them up forsale at their store and be done with it. If you live some place where shipping is high, decide to participate or not.
 
DaveH,
I think most people, like me, have only had the Mule less than a week. How much testing gets actually done in that time frame?

I'll give it time before I'd make any opinions myself ~ ; - )

I'm still waiting on handle material and a sheath.
 
DaveH said:
I've only seen one review so far so IMO there are too many "collectors" buying knives and not enough "testers".

The simplest thing to do is just what they (spyderco) did, put them up forsale at their store and be done with it. If you live some place where shipping is high, decide to participate or not.
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I can only assume since you are here DaveH you got one.

Which are you.. a "collector", a "tester", or Both ?

How do you like it so far ???
 
I'm waiting for handles for my Mule before I begin the beatdown. :) I suspect there are at least a few more like me.
 
I've had mine at work every day. A week is hardly enough time for me to form an initial impression, but so far it is holding up pretty well.
 
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