The Store's a Go

bwray

Banned
Joined
Dec 2, 2005
Messages
471
The Valiant Co. Blades USA eBay store has done well enough it's first week to be a clear go. Whew! The worry early on of course is that you find yourself stuck with $2000 worth of Indonesian blades that you don't even have room to store. And your wife is standing there tapping her foot saying "Great idea Sherlock!"

Many thanks to those who took a little time to offer help and encouragement. At the very least, the store will support my khuk/golok/parang habit and severe HIKV infection. That's not all bad.:thumbup:
 
Congrats.

And try to look at the bright side; even if nothing sold, you'd still have one hell of a collection. ;)
 
munk said:
You mean we've encouraged another running dog imperialist lackey?
munk

Does that mean I have to give up my membership in the Communist Party? (Just kidding George):foot:
 
Congrats! I imagine it's quite a sigh of relief once you realize you'll at least break even on your endeavor. Glad to see it work out for ya' from a more selfish point of view also. (I'm in the middle of a similar project myself)

awesome looking blades ya' got in stock! I've wanted a couple from Valiant for awhile but for some reason the shipping distance has always intimidated me....not really logical, but I know alot of other people that tend to feel the same way. I imagine I'll be lining up to buy something eventually myself...:D
 
Bwray ! Congratulations ! I am sure your store will do well. You are offering savings of shipping cost and time to the N.American buyers ! :)

Wish you success !
 
Runs With Scissors said:
Congrats! I imagine it's quite a sigh of relief once you realize you'll at least break even on your endeavor. Glad to see it work out for ya' from a more selfish point of view also. (I'm in the middle of a similar project myself)

Good luck to you! I look forward to seeing your logo in the forum.:thumbup:
 
Kazeryu said:
Glad things are going well. I look forward to making some purchases in the future.

Hi Kaz. Planning a new order soon to restock. Will keep you posted. BTW, as you can see I did a little work on the logo. Blues are darker and font is larger. I tried to make the red less pink, but I'm still not sure I like the result on that. Problem is it works everywhere except in my eBay store, and I have no idea whats wrong. I can get it into "Picture Manager" but Store Logo doesn't like it and it will not load. Previous logo was generated the same way as far as I can remember and it works fine.

Procedure is paste Valiant logo into PowerPoint and creat the text box below it. Save as jpeg and then open in PhotoImpression to trim off the white below the text box. Then I bring it up in Graphic Converter, cut down on the file size and resave as jpeg. At this point anything will display it except eBay logo. Any suggestions?:confused:
 
SWEET!!! :D

I love that damascu Kerambit! I've put you in my eBay favorites. Good luck!

Alan
 
Have you ever handled one of their Damascus Khukuris? I have always wanted to see an actual picture of one.

One suggestion: I'd like to see actual pics of the blades rather than the Valiant illustrations, esp. pics in the hand for scale.
 
I am lusting after all your knives Bill. Good for you that the store is taking off. I can't imagine what the wife pressure would have been like. I keep looking, but haven't bought yet. I'm trying to get an anvil here.
 
hollowdweller said:
Have you ever handled one of their Damascus Khukuris? I have always wanted to see an actual picture of one.

One suggestion: I'd like to see actual pics of the blades rather than the Valiant illustrations, esp. pics in the hand for scale.

Thanks for the suggestion HD. Right now I'm swamped but may be able to provide photos in the future. I haven't handled a Damascus Khukuri. Valiant has so many models (about 140) it will be a long time before I can get familiar with all of them. I do have a "Special Order" policy that I describe in the Store Pages. Basically, I will primarily stock best sellers (plus a few interesting models for variety) and accomodate more specialized interests through the Special Order process.

Have no plan to stock khukuris but would special order if requested. Valiant only makes four khuks out of 140 models, and they are not on the best seller list. Besides, due to my informal association with HI and the forum, I would prefer to avoid even the appearance of competition. So I will content myself with selling the other 136 models that are available. I don't think Valiant Khuks are broadly competitive with HI anyway; they represent more of a niche market.:)
 
aproy1101 said:
I am lusting after all your knives Bill. Good for you that the store is taking off. I can't imagine what the wife pressure would have been like. I keep looking, but haven't bought yet. I'm trying to get an anvil here.

Hi Andy. Thanks for your interest. I must confess to having used a little poetic license. The "wife" I was referring to is really just the stereotypical wife of legend. Fortunately, my actual wife is a real sweetheart.

Cheers
 
Again, thank you all for your help and encouragement. As indicated earlier, I would be more than happy to give anyone considering a similar endeavor the benefit of my very limited experience. Just drop me an email if you want to bounce some ideas around.:)
 
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