Psychology of Black Friday sales

DMG said:
humorless

hyoo͞′mər-lĭs

adjective​

  1. Lacking a sense of humor.
  2. Said or done without humor.
  3. Destitute of humor.
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Whatever. I thought my post was a gentle and humorous way of calling the guy out for posting something that could be considered offensive and racist by some. If this thread hadn’t started out in the Traditionals sub-forum, I would never have seen it anyway.
 
Just Tom. said:
Whatever. I thought my post was a gentle and humorous way of calling the guy out for posting something that could be considered offensive and racist by some. If this thread hadn’t started out in the Traditionals sub-forum, I would never have seen it anyway.
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1. How was his post racist?

2. Are your feelings hurt because I did literally the same thing that you did?
 
Locutus D'Borg said:
I think the preferred term is now Friday of Color. ;)
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Sounds like a lot of sour grapes to me. I've gotten plenty of good deals with the various types of "X day" sales. Watch your email inbox (or Promotions) for communique from your favorite dealers. Put stuff in your amazon wish list and see if it goes on sale at the appropriate time. We aren't talking hard labor or brain surgery here.

Now, you'll never find me going to an actual store and waiting in line for any sort of sale. A top goal in life for me is to avoid lines at all costs.
 
There are absolutely deals to be had on both Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
The real key is to already know what the going retail prices are before the sales start.
In the (recent) past I have seen (and purchased) some pretty great deals on knives from the following brands
Kizer
Civivi
Hogue
CRJB
Mora
Kershaw
WE
Ontario
Cold Steel

And if you look hard enough or are lucky to catch it you can sometimes grab a lesser something from one of the big US manufacturers that get snuck in. I was able to grab a Ladybug Salt a few years back for around $30
 
sgt1372 said:
Black Friday sales strategy is based on the same principle as Prime Day.

A limited one-time only -- you HAVE to buy it NOW -- sales opportunity. Don't believe it. LOL! ;)

Sales use to be limited to just certain times during the year but they are offered all-year-round now.
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I agree that there has been barely any Black Friday knife deals, unless we are talking about $30-50 kershaws. The only deal that I regret not jumping more on is the ZT one some time ago (two years or so?) when a 0562ti could be had for $200 and a 0452 could be had for $160. On this day I still don't understand why KAI did sth like that.
 
Locutus D'Borg said:
FYI to all, I am a person of color. My comment was really meant to point out the evolution of labels in a humorous way (I guess I failed).
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Indeed. Those sort of jokes rarely translate well in this medium, unless all parties actually know each other and in a friendly way. Best to avoid skin color jokes altogether, really.
 
I've found it's generally better to know the market, and pick up deals as they come. Knife pricing is arbitrary. Carbon fiber costs $7/lb. But an ounce of it can add $150 to the cost of a knife. Most decent knives have a 1000% markup over cost.

Buck Knives charges $50-$75 for a S30V upgrade from 420HC, but the service department will perform a S30V or S35VN blade replacement for $15. And even that's a massive markup! I purchased a piece of medical implant titanium alloy--the absolute top grade--enough for 2 folders, for $35. But you might pay $200 for a titanium upgrade.

The pricing has no relation to the actual value of the knife. Buck is one of the most transparent makers, But even it places outrageous markups on customizations. A stock 120 is about $100. One with elk handle, S30V,, brass butt, and distressed leather sheath goes for $350!

And as long as there are people alive who remember, the market supports the high prices. Here's a great example, a perfect condition Tom Brady rookie card sold for $350,000. Whereas a Bart Starr rookie card goes for around $100.00.

Bart Starr was the greatest QB of his era, but with fading memory comes massive price drops. But knives that still work will never Be worth nothing. Under severe conditions, excellent kknives could be worth more than gold.

Alexander The Great was offered a large amount of gold, or the equivalent weight of steel. He chose the steel, because it's utility in 200BC made it more valuable than gold, especially to a military commander.
 
awesome14 said:
I've found it's generally better to know the market, and pick up deals as they come. Knife pricing is arbitrary. Carbon fiber costs $7/lb. But an ounce of it can add $150 to the cost of a knife. Most decent knives have a 1000% markup over cost.

Buck Knives charges $50-$75 for a S30V upgrade from 420HC, but the service department will perform a S30V or S35VN blade replacement for $15. And even that's a massive markup! I purchased a piece of medical implant titanium alloy--the absolute top grade--enough for 2 folders, for $35. But you might pay $200 for a titanium upgrade.

The pricing has no relation to the actual value of the knife. Buck is one of the most transparent makers, But even it places outrageous markups on customizations. A stock 120 is about $100. One with elk handle, S30V,, brass butt, and distressed leather sheath goes for $350!

And as long as there are people alive who remember, the market supports the high prices. Here's a great example, a perfect condition Tom Brady rookie card sold for $350,000. Whereas a Bart Starr rookie card goes for around $100.00.

Bart Starr was the greatest QB of his era, but with fading memory comes massive price drops. But knives that still work will never Be worth nothing. Under severe conditions, excellent kknives could be worth more than gold.

Alexander The Great was offered a large amount of gold, or the equivalent weight of steel. He chose the steel, because it's utility in 200BC made it more valuable than gold, especially to a military commander.
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$7 a pound? Is that the raw materials needed to MAKE carbon fiber? Machining and building something out of the stuff must be tough, because if you think $150 for a slab on a knife is bad, go look up the prices on some Shelby GT350R wheels ($20k on a <$100k car).
Or better yet, the prices Ferrari and Lambo charge for their CF items.
 
awesome14 said:
I've found it's generally better to know the market, and pick up deals as they come. Knife pricing is arbitrary. Carbon fiber costs $7/lb. But an ounce of it can add $150 to the cost of a knife. Most decent knives have a 1000% markup over cost.

Buck Knives charges $50-$75 for a S30V upgrade from 420HC, but the service department will perform a S30V or S35VN blade replacement for $15. And even that's a massive markup! I purchased a piece of medical implant titanium alloy--the absolute top grade--enough for 2 folders, for $35. But you might pay $200 for a titanium upgrade.

The pricing has no relation to the actual value of the knife. Buck is one of the most transparent makers, But even it places outrageous markups on customizations. A stock 120 is about $100. One with elk handle, S30V,, brass butt, and distressed leather sheath goes for $350!

And as long as there are people alive who remember, the market supports the high prices. Here's a great example, a perfect condition Tom Brady rookie card sold for $350,000. Whereas a Bart Starr rookie card goes for around $100.00.

Bart Starr was the greatest QB of his era, but with fading memory comes massive price drops. But knives that still work will never Be worth nothing. Under severe conditions, excellent kknives could be worth more than gold.

Alexander The Great was offered a large amount of gold, or the equivalent weight of steel. He chose the steel, because it's utility in 200BC made it more valuable than gold, especially to a military commander.
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Yea, those are some terrible comparisons.

First, Bart Starr sucked compared to Tom Brady if you just looked at all the quantitative metrics. Look at how much money the league is making now to then, comparatively. The difference in popularity of the sport is literally, exponentially higher now. So yup, the best player of all time who is still playing is going to have his stuff worth way more than some old guy no one cares about.

Next, people need to remember that upgrading materials is not just a matter of swapping the low end stuff out for the high, and slapping a higher price tag on. It is not just material costs, not at all in fact. Every step of manufacturing is measured in terms of cost. Changing anything costs more, especially temporarily. Changing to materials that are harder to work with costs even more. CF is more expensive and a mess to work with.

Of course popular, exotic, niche market collector things like high end knives are going to be expensive, often just because they are popular. Supply and demand, you know? But often times on lower end user knives, prices aren't arbitrary. Upgraded materials aren't just better to use, they add cost to the manufacturing process and are harder to work with. Just like it is easy to say "black friday deals are for suckers". Well, yes and no. Suckers are born every minute whether there is a sale or not. Deals can be had during these holiday sales, if you are looking in the right places and in the market for the right item.
 
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sgt1372 said:
Black Friday sales strategy is based on the same principle as Prime Day.

A limited one-time only -- you HAVE to buy it NOW -- sales opportunity. Don't believe it. LOL! ;)

Sales use to be limited to just certain times during the year but they are offered all-year-round now.
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Seriously. The big knife purveyors will be sending their mailing lists a glut of emails here soon. Pre-Black Friday sales, Black Friday sales, Black Friday Sales are Still Going On All Weekend Sales, Pre-Cyber Monday sales, Cyber Monday Sales, Cyber Monday Is Still Going On Sales, and then it's going to be time for all the Pre-Christmas, BUY FOR EVERYONE ON YOUR LIST NOW!!!! sales, and so on.

Incidentally, my other main hobby is fountain pens and all of those major purveyors will be doing the same thing. RIP my inbox. 🤦
 
Quiet said:
Seriously. The big knife purveyors will be sending their mailing lists a glut of emails here soon. Pre-Black Friday sales, Black Friday sales, Black Friday Sales are Still Going On All Weekend Sales, Pre-Cyber Monday sales, Cyber Monday Sales, Cyber Monday Is Still Going On Sales, and then it's going to be time for all the Pre-Christmas, BUY FOR EVERYONE ON YOUR LIST NOW!!!! sales, and so on.

Incidentally, my other main hobby is fountain pens and all of those major purveyors will be doing the same thing. RIP my inbox. 🤦
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Yeah it's all FOMO. The retail end is worried if they don't have a sale those customers will give all their money away to other people and the consumers are worried if they don't buy anything at all they'll for sure miss a great deal. Even if it's not that great.

At least with the knife folks they're all kind of selling the same thing. The big box stores all list a flat screen TV etc that only they get. That way the average consumer can't easily compare pricing.
 
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