AHHH to throw gasoline on the fire!
Mr. Fitzo's philosophy would save me a lot of money. Being a dumbass and therefore honest, I and my wife (AKA Nan the collector) wrote checks and credit cards at Blade, enough to make several sellers cover their table costs. Just think, no more impulse buying! Yipee!!! I could stop getting all that natural handle material that doesn't look good in the catalog. We are all winners.
If it were understood that knife shows are cash and carry, then who are all the dumbasses that bring credit card machines and check verification systems to the shows. The average public is not cash carrying. You can't stuff a wad in a Gucci wallet. You are crazy as hell if you think I am bringing a couple grand in cash to Atlanta or any other urban blight area. As much as I love the Raleigh area, nope, not there either. Some do it sure, but most people won't. It is only the small gun show circuit that seems to live on cash.
At Blade my wife left her purse in the restroom. Some kind soul turned it into building security. We could have covered the checks that were out there, and credit cards are cancellable and dealers repayable. Cash lost is cash lost. We got away with just a good scare. If it had been full of cash would we have been so fortunate??? I would like to think so, but there is this doubting voice in the back of my head....
Royal 7 said himself that he has only been burned once in over 23 years and a 1000 knives. I am willing to bet that he has lost more knives or damaged more than he lost in that one check incident. Ask him how many sales were enabled by accepting checks? Even one bad check is too many. On that I agree. But it has been a small cost of doing business for him. I have been burned in my camera repair business, but overall checks have been beneficial.
Mr. Fisk told us at Uncle Al's to remember that no one out there needs a custom knife. He is absolutely right. All the knife I need is at the soulless Wal-Mart. The knife(excuse me, knives) that I want are on your tables and buried somewhere in my mind. Any barriers you place between the knife buying public and yourselves will only hurt the seller. Wal-Mart is open 24 hrs and takes checks.
Knife making and selling is a business. It is open to all kinds of risk. Cracking in the quench and bounced checks are both risks of doing business. Both break my heart, but they can be minimized. I bet most of us have lost far more in defective material costs, inclusions, our own dumbass mistakes, and poor postal delivery practices. Hammer straight, Grind well, follow the basic rules, and only a few are lost in the quench. Take a few minutes and talk to the customer. If he leaves a slime trail, don't offer the check option. Or get a check verification system. Better yet, as Mr. Fitzo suggests, get at least 2 picture ID's, LOOK AT THEM, and I ask to see the check register. I tell them to cover the amounts, I just want to see that they are keeping track of them. Credit reserve on accounts makes the amount useless anyway.
Shipping knives is not practical for all buyers. Some, like me have been ripped off by the guy in brown shorts enough times. The post office guy only has pickup hours during my work time and I have had several packages that were sent back before I could get to them. Got to work to pay for the goodies. Remember, make a sale difficult and the customer is on to the next table. The postal costs at $7-10 per sale, plus the makers time at the post office will quickly make one or two bad checks look cheap. 1,000 knives X $7.00 = you get the picture.
Artists sometimes feel as if their angst should be a shield from the problems of the world. It is. But you screw it all up by selling, that is business.
<Flame Shield On>
Enjoy, Ken
) but if he doesn't make it right, plaster his name all over.
i got my account credited from the supplier plus fees and sent don a cashiers check with fees.
