- Joined
- Feb 3, 2001
- Messages
- 32,359
Would you rather a company reduce production costs by using cheaper materials to keep a popular pattern/model available or would you rather they just discontinue the pattern making the ones left in the secondary market prohibitively expensive and harder to find?
Some examples of this, SOG Mini Autoclip, came out in BG42 they speed making them on account of the cost to produce them and now they're back at a reasonable price point but with a cheaper steel.
A lot of companies will make mid production changes because of cost or availability of materials to save money and I've seen some just keep using cheaper and cheaper materials taking a moderately priced knife where they made a profit to using very cheap materials from questionable sources increasing their profit margin substantially while flooding the market with cheaper versions before the consumers know.
Personally I'd rather for the most part have them stop making a particular model in the higher price point and have nothing but the original quality available on the secondary market except when it gets to the mid range knives.
When you start talking about knives in the $20-$60 range I think the differences in materials quality is negligible at that price point and would rather have a pattern I like continue to be available with cheaper materials than have a knife I'm afraid to use for fear I can't replace it for a reasonable price tag.
How do you all feel and do you have any examples of knives or companies that just kept getting cheaper in materials to keep a model in production and profitable for them?
Some examples of this, SOG Mini Autoclip, came out in BG42 they speed making them on account of the cost to produce them and now they're back at a reasonable price point but with a cheaper steel.
A lot of companies will make mid production changes because of cost or availability of materials to save money and I've seen some just keep using cheaper and cheaper materials taking a moderately priced knife where they made a profit to using very cheap materials from questionable sources increasing their profit margin substantially while flooding the market with cheaper versions before the consumers know.
Personally I'd rather for the most part have them stop making a particular model in the higher price point and have nothing but the original quality available on the secondary market except when it gets to the mid range knives.
When you start talking about knives in the $20-$60 range I think the differences in materials quality is negligible at that price point and would rather have a pattern I like continue to be available with cheaper materials than have a knife I'm afraid to use for fear I can't replace it for a reasonable price tag.
How do you all feel and do you have any examples of knives or companies that just kept getting cheaper in materials to keep a model in production and profitable for them?