Thoughts on WE knives?

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vjb.knife said:
Yeah, Bro, I think so. I am not saying that's what it sells for but the suggested retail price is $800. I could sell you one for $560 if they were in stock.
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I don’t operate off of MSRP. The price the customer ultimately pays is what the knife price should be listed as.
What if I made knives and said my MSRP was $1,500 but they sold on amazon for $200? It’s a $200 knife at that point.
 
craytab said:
I'm not questioning the quality or the time and effort put into the execution. I'm questioning how much that is worth given the communist dictatorship labor practices. You'd think all that theft of humanity would equal a lower price point. Not judging of course. I buy knives from China, but at a price that makes sense to me given where they are made.
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Ah, if your point is supporting the country and government, then I can agree with that. I just think that they are clearly offering a lower price point for what their knives are, regardless of what the money goes to. I'm not thrilled with supporting China, but I don't draw a hard line in the sand about not buying high end from them if that's the only place I can get the item I want. As of now, I just haven't seen anything in the US that touches companies like WE or Reate at a given price point.
 
Hackenslash said:
@fatBatman
Like others have said, the value element for WE has dropped off significantly. One has to justify over $200 for a knife without local warranty and support.
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Maybe something changed, but last I checked they do have US warranty support. I got spare parts from them for free when I requested them a couple years back, and they had someone performing work on knives in the US a while back. They even have an email contact on their site for US-specific warranty requests.
 
marrenmiller said:
Maybe something changed, but last I checked they do have US warranty support. I got spare parts from them for free when I requested them a couple years back, and they had someone performing work on knives in the US a while back. They even have an email contact on their site for US-specific warranty requests.
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My bad then. It’s been a while since I last bought a WE branded knife so maybe things have changed.
 
marrenmiller said:
Ah, if your point is supporting the country and government, then I can agree with that. I just think that they are clearly offering a lower price point for what their knives are, regardless of what the money goes to. I'm not thrilled with supporting China, but I don't draw a hard line in the sand about not buying high end from them if that's the only place I can get the item I want. As of now, I just haven't seen anything in the US that touches companies like WE or Reate at a given price point.
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It's not about supporting or not supporting a government or country. It is that I think given how inexpensive it is for them to operate their economic system with poor humanitarian circumstances backed by a dictatorship, the price should be less. It isn't and the profit isn't going to pay fair salaries in good working conditions. It is going into "company" pockets. It is in fact a cash grab in my eyes, taking advantage of a niche market were people are willing to pay for their items. The value of diminishing returns is working greatly in their favor. They can do better work for much less cost yet still charge the same or more than the competition because of their economic circumstances. That isn't value to me. I don't need the extra 5% in execution.
 
craytab said:
It's not about supporting or not supporting a government or country. It is that I think given how inexpensive it is for them to operate their economic system with poor humanitarian circumstances backed by a dictatorship, the price should be less. It isn't and the profit isn't going to pay fair salaries in good working conditions. It is going into "company" pockets. It is in fact a cash grab in my eyes, taking advantage of a niche market were people are willing to pay for their items. The value of diminishing returns is working greatly in their favor. They can do better work for much less cost yet still charge the same or more than the competition because of their economic circumstances. That isn't value to me. I don't need the extra 5% in execution.
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I'm wondering then how much cheaper you figure they should be. From what I can tell, the materials they use aren't cheap, and the stuff they make seemingly takes lots of machining time, which has a similar opportunity cost as it does here. Their labor is cheaper, sure, but then again I would suggest that claiming they're offering 5% better execution misses the mark quite a bit.

And even if somehow none of that were true and they're really just charging what the market can bear, I couldn't blame them for that.
 
King of the Cheese said:
Let’s not turn this into a political argument please @craytab
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I don't see his argument as being overly political. I'm just looking to see if anybody here actually has any good information on what markups are like by high end Chinese makers vs American OEMs. From everything I've yet seen, it seems like their prices are right on relative to domestic stuff.
 
marrenmiller said:
I don't see his argument as being overly political. I'm just looking to see if anybody here actually has any good information on what markups are like by high end Chinese makers vs American OEMs. From everything I've yet seen, it seems like their prices are right on relative to domestic stuff.
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It’s a thinly veiled political argument if you discuss “poor humanitarian crisis backed by a dictatorship” in your post. My intent is for this thread to be specifically about the quality of the knives in comparison to US made, not a segue into discussing pricing criticisms relative to socio-economic conditions.
 
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