Spyderco price increase

M

Magtrucks

Joined
Apr 6, 2017
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What is up with the dramatic price increase on the Spyderco Shaman? I saw it when it first came out, and started to save the money to purchase ($140.00). I called my dealer to order it, and he told me the price just went up $42.00. So needless to say I did not order the knife. I need to know why they did this. Are they that greedy? They are just not in tune with their customer base I guess. Very sad.
 
Magtrucks said:
What is up with the dramatic price increase on the Spyderco Shaman? I saw it when it first came out, and started to save the money to purchase ($140.00). I called my dealer to order it, and he told me the price just went up $42.00. So needless to say I did not order the knife. I need to know why they did this. Are they that greedy? They are just not in tune with their customer base I guess. Very sad.
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I debated getting this knife at the end of December with a 10% off coupon on a site which would have been about $135. I decided against because I had enough s30v. At $192, it’s gonna need cruwear or pd1, or something equally tough before I buy one. I used to buy mainly Golden models, and KW still sells military exclusives for amazing prices, but I can now mainly only afford seki frn spydies. I don’t think it was greed, though; it seems the company puts most of the money back into developing new models with advanced steels.
 
MAP went from 40% to 35% and they increased retail prices on some models on January 1st. We don’t need to beat this drum anymore. They are still worth every penny, who else is doing what Spyderco is doing right now in the Production knife industry?
 
As they say "that's just the way it is". What can ya do. Just means folks who can't make the prices will buy less.
 
Who's, "They?" Spyderco? Your dealer? Both?

Similar price increase happened on Darn Dao back in 12/17-01/18. It started with major dealers like KC, and I believe NGK was the last to go from sub $400 to the standard increase on it.

In late Feb I bought a BK5 (becoming discontinued) for $58 in the jungle. I normally avoid that place, but the price crushed all the dealers. By mid March it couldn't be had for less than $90. :eek:

Those Spydies/prices are announced months before actual release. I can't even begin to imagine all the unforseen price increases for the manufacturer in the timeframe before hitting market (don't mean to sound like devil's advocate). Online dealers too with employees n whatnot.

What I do is I live the millionaires life when it comes to knives. It's what I choose. Meanwhile I drive a '04 Cherokee 4.7L V8 AWD and look after it. Also my choice. Thing prob blue books like $2,000 these days...ya know we bought Alaska from Russia for $7 million? I learned that on a TV show the other night...I'm rambling...
 
Setting aside the reasons behind the price increase, it does make the Shaman a difficult value proposition. The base PM2 has almost the same materials (S30V, G10, stainless steel liners), is within 1/8" of the Shaman's blade length, is an ounce and a half lighter, and is thinner to boot. They're both USA made. But the Shaman is 140% of the PM2's typical retail price.

It's one thing if you really like the aesthetics of the Shaman and you're willing to pay extra for that. But it's a bit of a hard sell at $180 when the PM2, a fantastic knife in its own right that's about the same size and runs all the same materials, can be had for $50 less.
 
cwp said:
Setting aside the reasons behind the price increase, it does make the Shaman a difficult value proposition. The base PM2 has almost the same materials (S30V, G10, stainless steel liners), is within 1/8" of the Shaman's blade length, is an ounce and a half lighter, and is thinner to boot. They're both USA made. But the Shaman is 140% of the PM2's typical retail price.

It's one thing if you really like the aesthetics of the Shaman and you're willing to pay extra for that. But it's a bit of a hard sell at $180 when the PM2, a fantastic knife in its own right that's about the same size and runs all the same materials, can be had for $50 less.
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The Shaman does have contoured handles, which adds some cost.
 
The value of a knife is a two-way road. As the consumer, you have to decide for yourself if a particular knife is worth the price. As the maker of knives, Spyderco must also decide if a knife is worth making. Their decision is mostly objective based on profit whereas your decision is likely much more subjective. My point is only that just as some folks will now choose to buy elsewhere or buy fewer Spydercos than they might have had prices remained the same, that change in and of itself may mean Spyderco is producing fewer knives, or at least fewer models. Obviously, a higher price on a particular knife does not translate into a greater overall profit for Spyderco (for example, if the higher price results in fewer units being sold). I suspect things will balance themselves out over the next year or two.

That said, I suspect that people here generally get used to finding some great deal on the exchange, and pretty soon, they will only buy great deals. They become pickier and stingier. That's fine; to each his own. But instead of complaining that Spyderco is increasing their prices, why don't we instead choose to get only those knives we really REALLY want and let the ones at the margin go the way of the dodo? Just a thought. ;)
 
Spyderco has a lot of knives I wish would go away. Like 80% of what they make. I wish they would focus on higher end like the Slysz stuff and get a real mid tech line of knives. We know they can do it, look at the Slysz stuff that’s almost mid tech. Too much meh and not enough yea from Spyderco. Kershaw stepped up with ZT and I find the Kershaw stuff to be meh stuff. Stores in L. A. Have stopped carrying Spyderco stuff because of the plethora of low end that they make.
 
The Shaman is a knife that I really think I would like but I can't bring myself to pay the price. I was watching youtube reviews yesterday about it. For not much more I can get 20cv and Titanium. With that being said the price hike was old news; I just wish this model was more of a value.
 
Case C. said:
Spyderco has a lot of knives I wish would go away. Like 80% of what they make. I wish they would focus on higher end like the Slysz stuff and get a real mid tech line of knives. We know they can do it, look at the Slysz stuff that’s almost mid tech. Too much meh and not enough yea from Spyderco. Kershaw stepped up with ZT and I find the Kershaw stuff to be meh stuff. Stores in L. A. Have stopped carrying Spyderco stuff because of the plethora of low end that they make.
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That 80% of stuff that they make is what allows them to have the funds to research and develop knives like the Slysz on a production scale. I'd only consider a small portion of that as low end though. Now, if you were saying that 80% of what Kershaw makes is low end, that would make more sense. I'm sure moving most of their production to China freed up capital and manufacturing capacity for their Oregon facility to be able to produce a "higher end" line like ZT.
 
Nowadays I mainly buy dealer exclusives, sprint runs and discontinued models as I find their prices are more affordable.
 
Case C. said:
Spyderco has a lot of knives I wish would go away. Like 80% of what they make. I wish they would focus on higher end like the Slysz stuff and get a real mid tech line of knives. We know they can do it, look at the Slysz stuff that’s almost mid tech. Too much meh and not enough yea from Spyderco. Kershaw stepped up with ZT and I find the Kershaw stuff to be meh stuff. Stores in L. A. Have stopped carrying Spyderco stuff because of the plethora of low end that they make.
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I haven't been around Spydercos since the beginning, but I remember sending them a letter and getting my first catalog when I was probably 12 or 13 in the mid '90s. I've always thought of Spyderco as a nice knife, but a "using" knife. And I don't mean that in a bad way. They are one of my favorite manufacturers for multiple reasons. They were never really the prettiest looking like a pearl handled traditional, but they always worked better than most anything out there. To do away with all the knives they make like that and go to all "high end" would be terrible IMO. The fancy stuff they make is nice, but I'd hate for them to forget where they came from. ( Not that I think they will.) An endura, pac salt, military, etc really say "Spyderco" to me.
 
Case C. said:
Spyderco has a lot of knives I wish would go away. Like 80% of what they make. I wish they would focus on higher end like the Slysz stuff and get a real mid tech line of knives. We know they can do it, look at the Slysz stuff that’s almost mid tech. Too much meh and not enough yea from Spyderco. Kershaw stepped up with ZT and I find the Kershaw stuff to be meh stuff. Stores in L. A. Have stopped carrying Spyderco stuff because of the plethora of low end that they make.
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I agree with you. I'd like to see Spyderco also drop some of the odd ball/funky designs that they have. They're quirky, and just odd. The other thing that bugs me about Spyderco is their limited editions. If it's a good knife/steel combo, put it in regular production. By having all of these exclusive offerings, all they're doing is jacking up the price of said knives on the secondary market. When you have a run of 1000 knives and they sell out in 2 minutes, how is that serving your customer base? Yes, the guys who want them will stay up till midnight and buy right when the clock strikes 12:00, but you shouldn't have to do that to buy a knife.

I'm rambling a bit, but Spyderco has kind of turned me off the last year or so. I've been carrying my ZTs and my old Buck knives as of late.
 
sharkattacksw said:
I agree with you. I'd like to see Spyderco also drop some of the odd ball/funky designs that they have. They're quirky, and just odd. The other thing that bugs me about Spyderco is their limited editions. If it's a good knife/steel combo, put it in regular production. By having all of these exclusive offerings, all they're doing is jacking up the price of said knives on the secondary market. When you have a run of 1000 knives and they sell out in 2 minutes, how is that serving your customer base? Yes, the guys who want them will stay up till midnight and buy right when the clock strikes 12:00, but you shouldn't have to do that to buy a knife.

I'm rambling a bit, but Spyderco has kind of turned me off the last year or so. I've been carrying my ZTs and my old Buck knives as of late.
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Those odd, quirky models are one of the things that attracted folks to Spyderco in the first place. To do away with them would be doing away with what makes Spyderco, well, Spyderco.
 
sharkattacksw said:
I agree with you. I'd like to see Spyderco also drop some of the odd ball/funky designs that they have. They're quirky, and just odd. The other thing that bugs me about Spyderco is their limited editions. If it's a good knife/steel combo, put it in regular production. By having all of these exclusive offerings, all they're doing is jacking up the price of said knives on the secondary market. When you have a run of 1000 knives and they sell out in 2 minutes, how is that serving your customer base? Yes, the guys who want them will stay up till midnight and buy right when the clock strikes 12:00, but you shouldn't have to do that to buy a knife.

I'm rambling a bit, but Spyderco has kind of turned me off the last year or so. I've been carrying my ZTs and my old Buck knives as of late.
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Part of why those sell out in minutes is the fact that they're exclusives and limited. There's no guarantee they will if they were standard catalog models. It is also probably not cost efficient to add those steels to regular production but to instead create limited batches.

Spyderco has lots of designs I'm not too keen on, but that doesn't mean someone else won't like them and also many of their oddballs are quite functional. Even though the price increase is going to hold me back a bit, I'll always be a fan because of the round hole (my favorite method and I think aesthetically pleasing) and the quality of their mass produced knives. My ZT0450 for example was not razor sharp NIB; I've never had a Spyderco that wasn't.
 
Murphjd25 said:
MAP went from 40% to 35% and they increased retail prices on some models on January 1st. We don’t need to beat this drum anymore. They are still worth every penny, who else is doing what Spyderco is doing right now in the Production knife industry?
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Benchmade has some nice knives with spyderhole or with their ellipse hole. I like Shaman design but I've already chosen Mini Loco because it was better deal for me at local dealer, despite Shaman is $10 cheaper in USA.
 
I believe the price hike was two-fold in terms of the Shaman. MAP changed from 40% to 35% off retail and the price of the knife increased. The MAP change is more money for the dealer, not Spyderco. The higher price is more money for Spyderco and I think Sal explained that they underestimated the production cost of the Shaman with all of the milling required for the contouring of the G10.

I wanted to buy a Shaman so rather than getting it new, I bought one second hand. It is a large knife with a thick blade and a contoured handle so after getting one I understand why it is more expensive than the PM2.

I don’t like MAP pricing at all but that horse was beat to death on here a couple of months ago.
 
Hell, there’s no guarantee they’ll sell out even if they’re exclusives or sprints. The last Worker sprint stuck around until it was clearance priced at most places, and I was surprised the Urban K390 stuck around as long as it did.

Looking through various sites, it seems like the Shaman was hardest hit when it comes to price increases. Everything went up a few bucks, but that definitely seemed like the model that experienced the biggest jump.

(Never mind. The previous poster just answered why that was)

It’s funny, but I’ve tried branching out to other brands these last few months, and I always come back to Spyderco. It’s not that the other knives weren’t well made, it’s just that every other method of opening a knife seems inconvenient after using the Spyderhole for so long.
 
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