The Myth of the Overpriced Knife

pinnah said:
This is an excellent quote. Made glad to be reading the forum. Thanks for posting it.
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This statement is true about Western Civilization's current iteration. I also heard Tyler Durdin, a character in Fight Club say it too.

Control is way more subtle than most people think. (This is directed to the thread) :-)
 
I am 37 so the stuff I thought was the best when I was 13 or 14 is now way cheaper, so I'm lucky to think this way! Now I have all the stuff I ever dreamed of. I mean super steel is really not that great when you think about what the first edge tools were made of so when you think this way 440 steel at some point was the best cutting edge so to speak now it's well I quit looking at super steel when 154 came out although I have a couple knives with s30v but at the end of the day even the cheapest of knives are a landslide better than what they had 150 years ago. I sharpen knives for friends of mine that cost twice as much or more than the knives I have, I loaned out a mini grip last month when a guy gave me his Sebenza to sharpen, he now owns a mini grip and sold his Sebenza lol imagine that, another guy dropped off a really nice knife he paid 350 for I sharpened it while he carried my delica and when I carried his back he wanted to trade me straight up, I said no so can you pay to much yes when you listen to everybody else says, it just be makes you think what you have is not as good but I for one don't buy that crap, when you pay over 200 for a knife you can't afford to tell yourself it's only as good as a 100 dollar knife so keep telling yourself those lies so you don't fell bad it's America and here lately that seems to be the American way


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Let me just add one more thing: when I was 16 a brand new ford truck full size was 13,500 same truck today with inferior parts 35,000 it's crazy but what's even crazier is people that gripe and complain about that price but go and buy one, I sure do wish they would quit buying them for a year. Just imagine how much you could get one for if they didn't sale any new trucks for a year! But people just keep on buying crap they don't need to impress people they don't like!

In the knife world I cannot imagine that material cost varies that much and no doubt a lot of the time you are buying craftsmanship and I respect that but I wonder how many man hours goes into a 400 dollar knife opposed to a 100 dollar knife. If it's hand made from start to finish that's one thing but semi custom give me a break that's just as produced as any other knife in fact some really cheap knives are made on the same machines really expensive knives are made on. I for one think people get ripped off a lot but at the end of the day it's there fault not the knife maker for listening to other people instead of going with their gut. If you paid 400 bucks for it to set in a display you paid to much if it's been in your pocket and used for 15 years you got a deal!


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There is more to an item being "overpriced" than just if someone is willing to pay for it or not. If we are strictly talking about knives here then I wil say that there are enough knives on the market in every catagory of quality that if you know what you are doing you can get a sense of what is a good value and what isn't just by comparing it to not only an individual item at different sellers, but also similar items being sold by different manufacturers using the same materials in a similar quality bracket. I think most knife manufacturers that produce many different models have some that are good value and some that just aren't. I'm not going to get into listing my opinions on what I feel is good value and what isn't because that always turns into a cluster of a thread, but I'm sure we all know of knives out there in the main players "Benchmade, Spyderco, ZT, Hinderer, etc" that most will agree are overpriced compared to what you are getting with another manufacturer. That doesn't mean that people don't still buy them, but comparably speaking there may be more value in one brand for a specific knife that a person wants, while a similar knife from another brand may be priced significantly higher using the same materials for no particular reason at all other than the manufacturer feels they can.
 
The world runs off the response and acceptance of others. Everyone's actions reflect that in some way whether you're conscious of it or not. I say buy what you want, even if you buy it to show off and yearn for the approval of others.

Things are only worth what they're worth.

As long as it makes you happy and others drool over said "purchase" i'm all good with it! :D:thumbup:
 
I think anything other than my favorite phone is an over priced piece of crap and I laugh at people who buy them. Which leads me back on point; if a person has no need or desire for something than any any price on that thing will be to much.
 
Otto Carpenter said:
"You paid how much for that knife?!"

... expensive knives aren't overpriced. They are, in fact, priced just right.
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First thing is first. I can put a knife on a table, invite a dozen people to look at it and each of them will experience an entirely different product. One guy might see it as a tool, another as a status symbol, and someone else may see it as a plug for a hole in their collection or as the perfect gift for that relative who has everything. People buy and trade things for very different reasons. The specifications of the knife, its' appearance and pedigree, may be entirely irrelevant to its selling price. Yes, costs are important, as are profits, yet to a maker facing a liquidity issue it may be more important to immediately recover their sunk investment than to chase either of those things.

Sometimes, the product can be entirely irrelevant to the price. You might buy a $5 million dollar Picasso purely as a status symbol; because it shows that you can and perhaps because displaying the ugly thing in your office may encourage your clients to perceive you as successful and to consequently invest in you. Others, may buy a pricey Rolex or a home to facilitate a monetary transaction, they buy it, they flip it, and it achieves what they want. Conversely, to an uninformed seller, getting $25 for that silly hollow handled Lyle they inherited from a late uncle may seem like a fantastic deal.

The price is ultimately nothing but a reflection of the seller's ability to close the deal. Usually, an average seller and buyer will arrive at an average price point, but that doesn't make it any more right or wrong. And even if we assume that they have established the best price, that price is subject to macro economic forces which are often unforeseeable. A couple of generations ago kids were often given ancient Japanese swords brought back by our GIs to wack trees in their backyards. Those were still selling for around $100 during the late 1970s; who could have predicted the massive value spike of the 1980s, which was due to a combination of Japan's economic growth, a resurgence in their patriotic fervor, and the prohibition on owning swords except for those specific antique blades.

The price is just a historical reference point. Whether a closing price then or the asking price now, it may have little bearing on what the thing actually sells for. As, financial traders usually remind us, past performance does not guarantee future results.

n2s
 
stabman said:
I think that iPhones are overpriced, and secretly laugh at those who spend money on them. :D
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I agree, but there is nothing you can do about it if you want an Iphone or one of the higher end Samsungs (at least for now). Consider this..... it was not long ago that your typical desktop computer ran $3000. Not so long ago that your typical laptop computer cost $1200-$1500. Now you can buy fairly good (practical for use) machines for under $500. Tablets cost as much as laptops. Must be that touch screen glass....

I am told that the harder super steels don't just cost more per unit weight, but are more difficult to work with relative to some of the older carbon steels. That adds cost.
 
Yes... I made some pry tools out of Z-Finit and I killed a couple drill bits and several bandsaw blades.
 
22-rimfire said:
I agree, but there is nothing you can do about it if you want an Iphone or one of the higher end Samsungs (at least for now). Consider this..... it was not long ago that your typical desktop computer ran $3000. Not so long ago that your typical laptop computer cost $1200-$1500. Now you can buy fairly good (practical for use) machines for under $500. Tablets cost as much as laptops. Must be that touch screen glass....

I am told that the harder super steels don't just cost more per unit weight, but are more difficult to work with relative to some of the older carbon steels. That adds cost.
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But Samsung isn't the only maker of high end Android devices and to top it Samsungs Android is an abortion and they actively work against you fixing it. Then there is security updates whenever they feel like it and the creation of their own ecosystem. Apple actually has some things going for it Samsung on the other hand doesn't and is greatly OVERPRICED. [emoji6]
 
Samsung doesn't have "text wrapping" either. LG for me!
 
Life is complicated, isn't it? I'm completely satisfied with my LG 305C, which cost me $9.99 and has the same utility and appearance of the first iPhone. I love many of my less expensive knives as much as I do my more expensive knives. Perhaps Oscar Wilde was correct, when he said that some people "know the cost of everything and the value of nothing."
 
Titanium has a higher price than steel liners and G10. It also wears more on tools needed to transform it into it's final product.
That titanium costs more for a small shop than it does for a large maker that buys in bulk.
The small touches on one-offs and customs take lots of time and skill as well as giving the end owner a one of a kind product, which has value in of itself.
A single guy shop does one piece at a time and hand finishes everything.. that is a HUGE cost in time/effort, compared to a robot assembly line factory.
How much is your time worth? $80 an hour? $100 an hour? See how the price of a custom knife can escalate very quickly, not even considering the materials cost, shipping for materials, energy costs to run the shop, and overhead for space.
 
Buy an Opinel, even a SAK, or Victorinox kitchen knife, and then every knife is overpriced for normal cutting use.

Its the added perceived benefits that we pay over the odds for. Prestige, reliability, newest technology. If we actually need these added benefits is questionable, but we want it so will have it because we can. Objects we own reflect our success and we all want to be successful, or at least look successful.
Olympians might have gold medals to show for their efforts, but we might buy into an expensive knife or high cost car or watch.
 
It's subjective to each person. Maybe it depends on your income, maybe it depends on how important brand names or more exotic steels are. Sometimes it has to do with whether you're buying a knife because you need a tool or buying a knife because you enjoy having some luxury in your life. For me, my most expensive knife is a Spyderco southard. I'm still a bit scared to use it heavily. I felt the same way about my paramilitary 2 when I first got it. But now I use it everyday and beat the crap out of it and I'm impressed with the edge retention.

It really changes. A hinderer with Elmax and titanium scales is more expensive than a zero tolerance with Elmax and titanium scales. It depends on what you're looking for in a knife
 
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