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Spam

I like your idea.

I'd like to note that Uncle Bill in the HI forums has given away 10 - 20 knives to service people as well as set up his site to accept donations toward additional knives to be sent.
 
Depends on where your starting price is. Some dealers (reputable and ones that are committed to customer satisfaction, I can tell you from experience) are already priced so low, that another 25% off would drop them below distributor cost.
 
The issue is not heroism, it's about advertising...

BTW, several makers have already donated (given away... gratis, out of own pocket) knives to soldiers in the sandbox.

As far as I'm concerned, this is just a big sale...
 
AG is the class act when it comes to knife dealers. If he just wanted to increase his sales he would offer a discount to any takers. He has proven time and again that promoting the industry over himself is the way he does business.
 
Originally posted by stjames
AG is the class act when it comes to knife dealers. If he just wanted to increase his sales he would offer a discount to any takers. He has proven time and again that promoting the industry over himself is the way he does business.
Click to expand...

I'm going to have to agree with stjames here.

--The Raptor--
 
Originally posted by stjames
AG is the class act when it comes to knife dealers. If he just wanted to increase his sales he would offer a discount to any takers. He has proven time and again that promoting the industry over himself is the way he does business.
Click to expand...
Couldn't agree more!

Cheers!
James
 
Originally posted by A. G. Russell
Spark:

You are absolutely right....
Click to expand...
And accordingly, I'm absolutely sure that Mr. Russell's dealer membership has now been placed...
 
Offering a discount to the troops is no doubt a good thing, but a lot of dealers do that. Do they all use it as an excuse to spam ads all over the forums? No, only A. G. Russell does that.

This is the third one on this forum. I hate to ban anybody from Bladeforums, but if this goes on....
 
With brave men and women in the field who will, very likely, within days, be putting their lives on the line, it is shameful and disgusting to be trying to use them (and "use" and "exploit" are the appropriate words here) for advertising. Shame on you. Shame, shame, shame!
 
I’m a little confused, A.G. posted this a while back, that was the first time right? Then someone posted an email he received from A.G. and posted it on the forum again, though A.G. did dot tell him to…and then A.G. Suggest that all the Dealers provide a 25% discount to the military, only once do I see it as advertising, the second time was not his fault… unless I’m mistaken, it was an email originally? And this last time really is an apology wasn’t it? With a suggestion? I do agree that he should get a dealer membership to mention this, but he didn’t bring this up recently did he? I recall the original message was posted almost a month ago…and he recently sent the same message to a friend, who posted it on the forum obviously unaware that it was already placed here… so why is he being flamed? I am quite confused! :confused:
 
Well, I don't understand what the "advertising" content was in the original post, so I am a bit mystifed as to why Cougar edited the post.

Regardless, I am going to repeat my earlier post, but more stongly worded. Bottom line, a 25% discount off of your prices is still more than many reputable dealers are charging for the same exact products. So "challenging" them to a 25% price drop is specious at best.

Cougar is right on his point that many dealers already offer discounts to military personnel and don't going blaring away on the forums.

I still don't think AG's post at the beginning of this thread was spam, or advertisting.
 
Architect, Will'em, APM, Raptor, DaveH:

Help me find a way to give 100 combat knives to troops who need them, that is combat troops and we will see where the program goes after the first 100.

A. G.
 
Sh!t,

I started out with a long elloquent letter about the whole thing and it just didn't turn out right so I'll summarise.

-sounds to me like AG was trying to do the right thing
-Cougar I don't understand your motivation
-I have not read AG's origional post
-I do know AG has an awsome reputation so I don't doubt his intentions
-I second AG's opinion of Gollnick in this case
-it's pretty frickin pathetic that we're having this arguement in the first place.

-Have a good weekend.
 
Originally posted by A. G. Russell
Architect, Will'em, APM, Raptor, DaveH:

Help me find a way to give 100 combat knives to troops who need them, that is combat troops and we will see where the program goes after the first 100.

A. G.
Click to expand...

:eek: Wow, this is very generous of you. I think you picked the right guys to get the job done too.
 
Mr. Russell,

Have you yet placed your Dealer Membership with BladeForums.com that will allow you advertising privileges in the Exchange Forum? Without that membership, your proliferation of “A. G. Russell” within BladeForums.com will be censored (and ultimately, you might be banned).
Originally posted by A. G. Russell
Architect, Will'em, APM, Raptor, DaveH:

Help me find a way to give 100 combat knives to troops who need them, that is combat troops and we will see where the program goes after the first 100.

A. G.
Click to expand...
What strikes me strangely with this statement is that you have been in this industry for over 30 years; you must have countless contacts in the industry. Therefore, I know this “plea” is at a minimum, redundant or superfluous. If you wish to give combat knives to our troops in the gulf, use your existing contacts and quietly give them away. Until you sign up for a Dealer Membership, you simply do not have dealer privileges here on BladeForums.com. It is inappropriate for you to act otherwise.

The reason I know you must have countless contacts is that my former employer, Spencer Frazer (co-owner of SOG Specialty Knives), has only been in this industry for 17 years and you take credit for helping him originally cultivate his company. I know that Spencer has so many contacts in the military to whom to donate his knives, there simply is no way he can give to each contact. Your network must be far greater than his must.
 
So Mr. Russell wants to do something nice and his offer "is at a minimum, redundant or superfluous."

Mr. Anderson, I find your comment rather redundant and superfluous.
 
Giving away 100 knives to our soldiers would be great.

Businesses give away merchandise and money for one reason: to buy exposure. (Believe me, I spent a lot of time "selling" exposure.)

If Mr. Russell does this, then he should hype it on his website, put out a press release to the industry publications, etc. In fact, someone (not Mr. Russell himself) might even start a thread here at bf.c thanking and congratulating him for his generosity. All of that would create positive exposure for his business, "good buzz" as we say.

What Mr. Russell has been criticized for thus far is coming here and announcing that he is extending a special 25% discount for soldiers. It's a nice thing to do, to give the discount. But his obvious purpose in announcing it here in the way that he did was shameless self-promotion.

In fact, Mr. Russell concluded the post that started this thread by asking, "Is this an advertisement?" If you have to ask, then it probably is. And why post your announcement and then ask that question as part of the post? If you have a question, if you're not sure, then why not e-mail Spark or one of the Supers privately before you make the post?

There's an old saying, "'tis often easier to beg forgivness than to ask permission." It's often true. But I've found that things often go easier and cleaner if you ask permission first.

This whole public spat could have been 100% avoided if Mr. Russell had taken three minutes to privately ask Spark or one of the Supers about the appropriateness of his proposed announcement.
 
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