People, why do you erase price after you sell a knife?

jeegeet

jeegeet

Joined
Jan 2, 2000
Messages
356
Well, I am wondering, what is the reason for that. Sometimes I want to run a search to figure out how much something would cost and get a bunch of hits with "SOLD" or something like that where the price used to be.

From a buyer perspective it is destroying quite a valuable information. I think that I've seen other forumites being not happy about that as well.

So, what's the deal?

Kris

 
Okay, I'll take a stab. Say that a deal is made and it falls through. I would think that people would start at the re-negotiated price and work their way DOWN. Although people are very good to each other here, I've personally had some rather ridiculous offers and sometimes it can get tiring. All in all, if people could have an oppurtunity to recoup a little more money, don't you think you'd try? This place is greater than ebay, and the community is self-policing and informs each other of not-so-nice individuals.

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"How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child.", King Lear, Act I, Scene 4.
 
Actually when/if I have done it and seen the pricing removed/sold I always figure that the Item was sold... It saves people from asking about the knife that is no longer available.
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If You Abide in Him then,"All His Promises are YES and AMEN"
 
I make an effort to leave the "Sold For" price attached to the pics. However, I think it would be misleading to leave something like just "price" there, and the figure. Costs vary so much for a custom maker, that doing so would give a potential customer the impression that the knife is currently available for the same price. (which is often not true) Knifemakers, like any other businesses, must deal with changing cost, and their porducts must reflect those rising or falling costs. An example.......In June of 00, there was a dramatic price increase in many of the products I use in my shop. Most noteably being the price of propane (my forge fuel), it went from .79 per gallon to $1.80 per gallon overnight! So.....prices on damascus steel increased. The opposite was true with some handle materials. Their price decreased, and so the knives created with that material reflected the decrease in price.
If I had to guess, I would suspect that the majority of folks take the prices off, to avoid confusion, or to avoid an undue amount of effort to keep the figures current. Just my thoughts.

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Ed Caffrey "The Montana Bladesmith"
ABS Mastersmith
www.caffreyknives.com
 
I'd like to first say that I really like it when a maker posts prices on his web site the way Ed Caffrey does. That way, I know what's available (possible impulse buy!) and where the maker's knives are generally priced. Then I can decide: great stuff, but just too expensive for me; or, when I'm ready to buy something, this is somebody I want to talk to.

I think that jeegeet's original post was aimed at the "for sale" forums here (sorry if I'm putting words in your mouth, Kris). It's useful to be able to search these forums in order to figure out what a fair price for a particular knife might be. "Sold," where that price once was, doesn't really help.

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Dave

Let no one ever from henceforth say one word in any way countenancing war. It is dangerous even to speak of how here and there the individual may gain some hardship of soul by it. For war is hell, and those who institute it are criminals. Siegfried Loraine Sassoon
 
I'll second what Ed said. The fluctuation in prices of raw materials has a lot to do with pricing. Propane, good stag, exotic woods, and the list goes on.
But I remove the price of sold items on my site as soon as I can . I do not want cutomers to get pissed with me wondering why a knife that was listed and sold for $175.00 is now going to cost them $200.00.
All currant and avaliable items have prices attached to them. But if I cannot update my site as soon as a item sells I try to hold as close as possible to the old price, while explaining cost increases to the customer.
The biggest problem is in that I only have the time to update my site every 3 or 4 months.

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Robert
Flat Land Knife Works
rdblad@telusplanet.net
http://members.tripod.com/knifeworks/index.html
 
Guys, thanks for the answers.

But I guess I should have been more clear. I meant the posts in the Individual for sale forum. I understand knife makers that don't keep prices for sold pieces on their pages. I think that most of people understand that prices crawl up but it must be a pain in the butt to argue that with those that don't.
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As for the Individual for Sale forum, there are people that mark the knife as sold and don't erase the price. It always seemed to me as clear enough.

Kris

 
jeegeet,
i never have sold a knife on the f/s forums,but i have bought a few.i think the reason the prices are erased is so that people might not see that the knives have been sold,once they see there is no price they might realize the knife is no longer available.
of course,thats how it looks in my book.
MO.

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SOY EL QUESO GRANDE.
 
I write SOLD over the price because when someone commits to buying a knife, it becomes a "private" transaction. The person buying it may even intend on reselling it for a profit if they feel they got a good deal. If you want to know what particular models are selling for, just keep an eye on the new posts and print them out. You could even e mail the person who sold the knife and ask their opinion, I am sure most forumites would be glad to give advice. ...Ed.
 
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