killgar
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2002
- Messages
- 7,504
This is yet another example of how the seller taking a minute to take some good photos of the knife can alleviate all sorts of hassle and forestall disappointment. Take a good look at the knife you're selling, note any and all aspects of it that make it differ from a brand-new-in-box knife, and then take photographs of all these things. Upload them to an imgur album, copy and paste the link into your sales thread, and you're good to go. Not that difficult.
But some people are so nit-picky that no amount of photos will satisfy them, and they'll always find something wrong with a knife. There are a lot of people who, when they get a knife, the first thing they do is look for things to complain about, and they look HARD. And even if the knife is in great condition, they can still find something to complain about, because they NEED to find something wrong, because that's how their minds work.
And if a seller had a hundred professional photos taken, close-up, from every angle, such people would complain about things that can't be photographed, like blade play or a stiff lock, even if the blade play had to be forced in order to produce it, and even if the stiff lock was completely normal. Some people are never happy, and there's nothing you can do to make them happy.
In regards to the knife in question here, the photo provided by the OP is an EXTREME close-up. And when you take an EXTREME close-up photo of a knife, you can find all sorts of tiny flaws. But I wouldn't blame the seller, or question his honesty and integrity because he didn't inspect the entire knife with high-intensity magnification. If I held that knife in my hand and looked at it with my naked eyes I probably never would have seen the edge wear.
The seller said the blade had wear. He didn't describe it as "new" or "perfect condition" or "flawless", so I think it would be out of line to question his honesty and integrity. I'd say his description of the blade was accurate. If I ran my thumbnail down the edge of a blade and found a tiny bit of roughness I too would call that "wear". In my opinion, if a simple re-sharpening will restore the edge, then it's "wear", if the edge needs to be completely re-ground, that's "damage".
Buying anything "used" means you can't expect it to be in perfect, like-new condition. The trade-off for paying a less-than-new discounted price is that you have to accept some minor wear and tear.
I think the seller was very generous to offer a refund or pay for sharpening. Although I don't think he should feel obligated to do either.
I won't say the OP is being ridiculous, perhaps just excessively nit-picky.