Random Thought Thread

madcap_magician said:
Some of this is just the growth thing. When I first started buying CPKs, a lot of Friday Sales were fairly tame, and I was fast enough to score nearly at will. There was usually only one pre-order, if any, open. But Nathan and Jo's popularity has skyrocketed, as have the frequency of new models, it seems, so all the sudden even though I'm the same speed, I'm often on page 2+ of the post results during Friday Sales.

I think naturally this will result in some people being frustrated because demand for CPKs is going to exceed supply for a long time, and exceed the Carothers shop's supply ceiling, probably. Maybe some of them won't stick around because of how hard it becomes to get CPKs. That's unfortunate, but probably unavoidable.

Nathan gets most of my knife money, but I think some of us who have been around for a few years will just need to adjust our expectations a bit. Nathan has always delivered, and I can't think of another maker I'd trust with full or even 50% deposits on a single knife, much less the three different models I have pending with Nathan right now.
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Back when I was trying to acquire my first CPK and many of the sales were for just 10 knives, I did find it frustrating to keep missing out as I was always on the road for work during the sales on Fridays.

I literally began stopping at different spots along the drive, to find places with the best connection speeds on my phone, as one of the previous times I missed out, I had a terrible connection with something abysmal like 0.5mbps DL and 0.37mbps UL, and I can totally understand newbs getting turned off when they keep missing out (and especially if they see the same names scoring their 2nd or 3rd in consecutive sales while they still haven't been able to get their first).

Kept trying and finally managed to score a CPK (and Jonny/91Bravo was nice enough to grab me an MC at Bladeshow), and am glad I persevered.

But as others have already mentioned, ultimately, the decision has to come down to what's best for the business and the sanity of the people running it.

As CPK's demand has continued to grow, even larger sales of 40 - 50 at a time will still mean some folks will continue to miss out, as we're seeing ~100 posts within the first 60 seconds, but as it stands, while it's a good thing to increase the fan base for CPKs, the sales and preorders show that they aren't exactly hurting for potential customers, compared to their production capacity.

Going back to a simpler model of just Friday sales, simply removes the complication/annoyance of the impatient. Newbs will either have the perseverance to keep trying, or move on from frustration of missing out, but there won't be any issues/aggravation with repeated, "Are we there yet?" queries.

Those of us who've stuck around and been here long enough, know that CPK always delivers, and even when they had some unforeseen complications (as with the K18), Nate was upfront with explanations and updates, but there are always some folks who can't help themselves with the, "Are we there yet?" queries (or the one case of the guy who obviously didn't read the clearly stated, bolded section of a preorder about when the preorder knives would be delivered).

Larger sales could remove that annoyance factor, and for the folks clamoring for customization beyond different handle scales, if Nate chose to, he could always do a special 'Customization' sale, where he could offer 40-50 pieces specifically for folks who want to add swedges, double edged grinds, satin finishes etc., with a clear disclaimer that these customized pieces will take longer to finish and ship than the standard sales.

Doing smaller batches of semi-customized pieces might also potentially be less stressful than dealing with something like a DEK1/2/3 sized preorder with a few hundred knives with different configurations (or it might be the opposite, as Nate switches the machining to do all the double edged versions in a row to expedite production).

Either way, CPK will continue to have a following, abd I don't doubt that following will continue to grow.
 
I think I have a solution to the revenue stream issue.

We get the Carothers registered as a Native American tribe...build a casino on a portion of the ten acre compound reservation...and open up a casino featuring games of chance, liquor, dining, liquor, maybe a babe or two, (sexist, I know, but I'm old), liquor etc etc.

The monies not paid out to the suckers winners gets plowed back into steel, machinery, hand tools, and Abby's college fund. Nathan, Jo and the CPK family solve the pre-order issue and the faithful, (and some of the unwashed), get the knives and products they covet.

Some of us active and retired LE and military types on the sub-forum will run security.

Jo and Ben can perform daring and dazzling feats with their competition cutters and there will be a booth for placing cutlery orders as well as sales of items on hand, at the entrance / exit.
 
Blues said:
I think I have a solution to the revenue stream issue.

We get the Carothers registered as a Native American tribe...build a casino on a portion of the ten acre compound reservation...and open up a casino featuring games of chance, liquor, dining, liquor, maybe a babe or two, (sexist, I know, but I'm old), liquor etc etc.

The monies not paid out to the suckers winners gets plowed back into steel, machinery, hand tools, and Abby's college fund. Nathan, Jo and the CPK family solve the pre-order issue and the faithful, (and some of the unwashed), get the knives and products they covet.

Some of us retired LE and military types on the sub-forum will run security.

Jo can perform daring and dazzling feats with her competition cutters and there will be a booth for placing cutlery orders as well as sales of items on hand, at the entrance / exit.
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All I caught was “babes” and “plowed”, I’m in.
 
Blues said:
I think I have a solution to the revenue stream issue.

We get the Carothers registered as a Native American tribe...build a casino on a portion of the ten acre compound reservation...and open up a casino featuring games of chance, liquor, dining, liquor, maybe a babe or two, (sexist, I know, but I'm old), liquor etc etc.

The monies not paid out to the suckers winners gets plowed back into steel, machinery, hand tools, and Abby's college fund. Nathan, Jo and the CPK family solve the pre-order issue and the faithful, (and some of the unwashed), get the knives and products they covet.

Some of us retired LE and military types on the sub-forum will run security.

Jo can perform daring and dazzling feats with her competition cutters and there will be a booth for placing cutlery orders as well as sales of items on hand, at the entrance / exit.
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dibs on being one of the unwashed
 
Can't talk about any casinos anywhere before talking to me. There was a maxim somewhere in the CPK code of conduct. I believe #69 it was.

Yes, Marc is still a poo flinging depraved hominid. His species have survived over a million years of evolution.
 
Blues said:
I think I have a solution to the revenue stream issue.

We get the Carothers registered as a Native American tribe...build a casino on a portion of the ten acre compound reservation...and open up a casino featuring games of chance, liquor, dining, liquor, maybe a babe or two, (sexist, I know, but I'm old), liquor etc etc.

The monies not paid out to the suckers winners gets plowed back into steel, machinery, hand tools, and Abby's college fund. Nathan, Jo and the CPK family solve the pre-order issue and the faithful, (and some of the unwashed), get the knives and products they covet.

Some of us active and retired LE and military types on the sub-forum will run security.

Jo and Ben can perform daring and dazzling feats with their competition cutters and there will be a booth for placing cutlery orders as well as sales of items on hand, at the entrance / exit.
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"Monies paid out"? Nah, man... it's the CPK casino, you use cash to play the games for a chance to win CPKs.

It's like a Dave and Buster’s, but all the prizes are knives.
 
Okay, we're going to require some seed money up front...

Please leave cash donations in plain brown paper bags under the intersection of I-40 and I-77 in the dead of night for collection by our friendly staff of dedicated professionals who work tirelessly to build the dream.
 
Mori came back for more money. $2,000 for 2 Mb of memory was too cheap. They need more than that. We're up to $2,679.23. For memory.

Fanuc wanted $1,400 for memory for a different Mori but I could look up the chip and buy it new from Newegg for $4 and install it. It's not the cost of the memory, it the cost of knowing which data bit to change. Bastards.
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
Mori came back for more money. $2,000 for 2 Mb of memory was too cheap. They need more than that. We're up to $2,679.23. For memory.

Fanuc wanted $1,400 for memory for a different Mori but I could look up the chip and buy it new from Newegg for $4 and install it. It's not the cost of the memory, it the cost of knowing which data bit to change. Bastards.
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If you can physically locate and remove/replace the chip, try buying the larger chip and clone the exisitng one over? Everything on it is the same, but the new chip has more space.
 
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