Scott - thank you.
JK - The large round plastic thumb studs, etc, are the Chinese/Taiwan ways of trying to get around Spydercos patents, still keep the designs and try to look as much like Spyderco as possible.
As you have seen, a large part of our problem with "knock offs" are the dealers that would push the "Knock offs" because the profit margins are very high. (buy for $2, sell for $15-20.
And perhaps some these dealers are not telling the ELU the whole truth about the "products" they are selling. "Why it's just as good as a real Spyderco for 1/3rd the price", is the "common chime" we hear.
"Son, they build those things just so they can deceive you out of your money". You are not geting even close to a real Spyderco knife. but you can feel good in the fact that you are helping to support a lot of people. Sorry for taking the opportunity to "b*tch". It's a personal peeve.
sal