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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
TechStudio K01 Profile Sharpening System
- Thread starter Ankerson
- Start date
If anyone has any recommendations on configuration for the techstudio setup for starting a sharpening business I'd appreciate it. I'm quite new to sharpening - just stones and by hand with some knives, chain saws and bandsaw blades... but I'd like to be able to sharpen most common items. Looking for something new and have been considering this business for a long time. If anyone has good resources or ideas for a kit configuration that would allow me to do start a small local business that would be so appreciated. I'm ready to take the plunge and get started!
Thank you!
Jason
Thank you!
Jason
WOW - Looks like the profile k02 jumped up in price - the professional kit jumped by $128!!!
Thanks Cody
Maybe the configuration has changed?
The K-02 complete system had several items added to it. The scissor/direct knife attachment, leather blank, digital protractor, polishing paste, 40x magnifier, and the case are all new
You can see what it was and the prices back in March here https://web.archive.org/web/20160307221958/http://tsprof.com/
I believe it is actually US federal law that states a person doing a review has to state whether it is a paid review or if they received the item for free in order to make a review. The maker/seller of the items has no obligations in that regard. I am guessing they had a very large amount of people asking which kit Wranglerstar received so that is why they eventually changed the name of the kit vs doing it the second the video came out.
I believe you are right about federal law.. Im just wondering if this company compensated Wranglerstar monetarily or by giving him a sharpening kit for permission to use his Intellectual property on one of their products, or if he is even aware they are using his brand name.
Hmm if you use old browser IE9, tsprof.com shows russian page with rouble prices. Converted to USD it's 236 base, 290 standard. "Special" price for U.S.?
http://i67.tinypic.com/286l8g.jpg
Interesting, I wonder if using a VPN to get a Russian IP would change the prices as well. If so that isn't something that would instill confidence in a retailer.
Indeed.
If you follow the link TSPROF presented it will take you to a page with this link to a Russian online store called Forest-Home. http://forest-home.ru/product/zatochnoe-ustrojstvo-profil-k02-standartnaja-komplektacija/ It is exactly like the kit he is selling on his American page as the "Wranglerstar Kit" and if you check the rubles to dollars conversion it comes out to $316.67 on the Forest-Home site and $388.00 on TSPROF's American site. http://tsprof.com/?lang=eng
Unless I missed something I think some clarifications are in order.
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2012
- Messages
- 1,104
RobertJ,
I am a bit confused by your references related to an online store advertising/selling a product for a different price than the manufacturer ...?
This is fairly common practice, in my experience. Very commonly mfr. pricing is higher, as a method of promoting sales through distribution channels. Experienced manufacturers typically prefer distribution sales over direct buyers because of many factors (biggie is stocking positions of dist. greatly assist availability & overall production costs).
When you factor in foreign currency conversions, many times the savvy/informed buyer is additionally rewarded. Classic example earlier this year after the BREXIT vote when British Pound devalued vs. EURO & USD (price of items in UK stayed same, but cost in USD was favorable (specific knife related example Spyderco Ray Mears Wolfspyder over-night became significantly less expensive when purchased with USD).
Perhaps I am misunderstanding your position? RE: your closing comment " Unless I missed something I think some clarifications are in order."
Regards,
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2016
- Messages
- 112
I would like to give a comment about some topics discussed in the thread.
First of all about the price difference on Russian and International website. Indeed the prices are different because of additional expenses related to export selling. It's not only about the US, it concerns all countries except of Russia. Only PayPal/2checkout fees is more than 5% + currency control + customs clearance etc. We are working on setting up a relationships with a partners in the US which could allow us to decrease the prices, improve delivery process and customer service.
Sorry for the inconsistency. We are interested in the US market and keeping the prices competitive but unfortunately the difference has an objective reasons.
The second, Cody is notified on using his name on the website and he don't mind. Cody helped us a lot, I would like to thank him and I hope we can be a good partners.
First of all about the price difference on Russian and International website. Indeed the prices are different because of additional expenses related to export selling. It's not only about the US, it concerns all countries except of Russia. Only PayPal/2checkout fees is more than 5% + currency control + customs clearance etc. We are working on setting up a relationships with a partners in the US which could allow us to decrease the prices, improve delivery process and customer service.
Sorry for the inconsistency. We are interested in the US market and keeping the prices competitive but unfortunately the difference has an objective reasons.
The second, Cody is notified on using his name on the website and he don't mind. Cody helped us a lot, I would like to thank him and I hope we can be a good partners.
Interesting. Thank you for your response.
If you are "quite new" to sharpening, you may want to hold off on even thinking about doing it as a business until you are THOROUGHLY versed in the processes and are quite good at it.
One mistake on one good knife can lead to a world of hurt for you as a business owner.
Buy yourself an inexpensive system (an angle-guided system can be had for as low as $20 online) and learn the ins/outs of the processes until you can do it with your eyes closed. Then, start doing it for money after you buy a professional system.
I would like to believe this is true but I find it a convenient excuse that the company just realized these added expenses right after a popular youtuber posted a video and they were flooded with orders. Seems more likely that Wranglerstars video brought in way more orders than you expected, so you raised the price to make as much money as possible. The past few weeks leading up to this video I visited your site many times and the price was always the same. It didnt change price until after the video review. Dont post one price on your site then raise it the minute people want your product and then try to pass it off as necessary "because of additional expenses related to export selling". I understand the supply and demand of sales but since this company is new to the US market I would think you would want to start out with a better image than this. I was very interested in your product and was thinking of buying it even before I saw the video. I know its a quality product but its already an expensive piece of equipment. Add in the fact that US buyers have to pay a hefty shipping fee (approx $75-$85 from what I read) and now your raising the price by another $40 !. This product is more expensive than its closest US competitor the edge pro apex (approx $250) and more expensive than a comparable model wicked edge (approx $425). Both are products which can be purchased inside the USA. This may be a quality piece of kit but I really, REALLY hate it when a manufacturer raises there prices for bogus reasons. A few people I know (myself included) are starting to rethink our decisions to purchase this.
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- Jul 28, 2016
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- 595
I couldn't agree more and couldn't say it any better. I was originally told October ship date then the Cody video dropped and I was told Nov. 25 shipping and the price increase. Just seems like bad business practices. Like you say they didn't just realize the additional charges for exporting. I may cancel my order as well. A more professional way to handle this would have been to announce a price increase for orders after a certain date that is a fair and equitable to all parties involved.
So they told you about the price increase after you placed an order? That's a shady way to do business. They should have to honor the original price. Just another nail in their coffin as far as I'm concerned.
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- Jun 10, 2016
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- 112
The discussion started from the price difference between Russian and International website. It's the separate topic, the reasons is an extra expenses for export selling. We hadn't a lot of customers outside of Russia before and we realized that the approach to units supplied to outside of our country should be different. It's related to additional expenses for replacing parts by warranty. We pay more for shipping parts and the quality of the product should be as high as possible to minimize the expenses and make foreign customers feel comfortable with the product.
The second topic raised is the recent price increase for 10% (Standard Kit raised from 348 to 388$). Indeed, we had to review the prices and the price review is related to the video. But we are not striving to make money using the recent interest to our product. We are on the market for 5 years and we know exactly that the demand increase it's a wave. Today we have the demand increase but tomorrow everything will change. We are look to the future and plan forward. We realize that customers in the US want to buy from US stores and have support from US companies. That is why tsprof should have dealers in the US. Today we have only dealers in Russia and they work for about 20% discount. Dealers in the US wants better discount. Than we have 2 options to become closer to our customers: decrease production expenses or increase the prices. The first way is a long term and the second can be implemented in the closest perspective. We follow both ways. We completely realize the price increase lead to losing some customers and i would like to apologize to everyone who disappointed by the price increase. But we still hope for understanding and doing our best to become closer to our customers providing high quality product and service.
There is no way to increase an order price after it's payed and even if it's just placed. Moreover, for today we sell for old prices if someone asks directly.
The second topic raised is the recent price increase for 10% (Standard Kit raised from 348 to 388$). Indeed, we had to review the prices and the price review is related to the video. But we are not striving to make money using the recent interest to our product. We are on the market for 5 years and we know exactly that the demand increase it's a wave. Today we have the demand increase but tomorrow everything will change. We are look to the future and plan forward. We realize that customers in the US want to buy from US stores and have support from US companies. That is why tsprof should have dealers in the US. Today we have only dealers in Russia and they work for about 20% discount. Dealers in the US wants better discount. Than we have 2 options to become closer to our customers: decrease production expenses or increase the prices. The first way is a long term and the second can be implemented in the closest perspective. We follow both ways. We completely realize the price increase lead to losing some customers and i would like to apologize to everyone who disappointed by the price increase. But we still hope for understanding and doing our best to become closer to our customers providing high quality product and service.
There is no way to increase an order price after it's payed and even if it's just placed. Moreover, for today we sell for old prices if someone asks directly.
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- Jul 3, 2016
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- 537
Maybe. But with the WE and Edge Pro you are buying US products backed by time tested warranties and well known product support. Would like to see how this Russia based company performs business practices for a while before I send my hard earned $$.