when is an offer an insult?

GigOne said:
I've found an excellent way of not receiving "low ball" offers. . . . . . .I don't sell any of my knives. :p :D
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Well, after spitting my morning dose of antidepressants and coffee all over my keyboard I realized your comment takes care of any attempt at lowballing!!!:eek::thumbup::D
 
I'm not insulted by any offers because I know how to say no. Just do it politely. That same person might want to buy a knife from you on down the road. This morning, I sent this quick response:

"Thanks for the offer, but I'll stick with the last discounted price. It's well worth $XXX with shipping and insurance included.

GenericJohn said:
Frankly, Busse (and Case) owners are probably most vulnerable to unpredictable market values. The brand is more about collector models and controlled availability than true market demand. We can't know the true market demand because the models change constantly. Plus, the photos of massive collections shows that the supply is held by a limited number of collectors. If a few of them move to other hobbies or have financial problems then the whole market would suffer.
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I haven't found this to be true with Busse. That's because (a) Jerry only puts out knives in batches, which keeps demand fairly high over time, and (b) he makes a solid product in designs that appeal to a range of people, and (c) Busse's warranty and customer service is among the best in the business (the warranty follows the knife).

I'm yet to take a hit on a Busse knife I've sold. I've let go of quite a few at cost to help people out, but I often have gotten my money and a little more for my time and gas to the P.O. Sometimes, I've made a little money because I was selling a widely sought model. Even with Busse churning out a lot more knives lately and with a slumping economy, I'm still selling the knives I've decided not to keep and use. They're not flying out the door, but folks still want them, and the knives seem to trickle out to various parts of the world. However, I have almost always bought from the source. Anything that I bought on the secondary market for a greater premium, I knew I was going to keep and use.

As for numbers, most people just own one or a few. I can count on my fingers the number of really big collections I know about.

Edited to add:

anythingsharp said:
Don`t get me started on Busse.What can be said about an offer to exchange a piece of unknown steel for a large number of known banknotes?
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INFI's composition is quite widely known. What is guarded is the heat treatment protocol that Busse uses. Also, the characteristics of the steel under use have been widely commented upon.
 
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Correct me if I`m wrong but aren`t Busses semi-custom knives?You can approach Ted Frizzell with your own design and he`ll make it for you for 75-300$ depending on the size and the intricacy,I`ve done this several times to my great satisfaction,also had Bill Siegle make a a superb knife for me.

Take a look at a pair of pliers and at a knife.Which item seems to require more manufacturing steps?You can probably currently buy high quality American made pliers for around 30$.There is no justification for paying 800$ for a chopper knife,unless it was made entirely by hand and required 30-40hrs to make it.

An art folder which takes a month of labor or even longer to create justifiably costs 1000`s of $$.

A semi-production chopper at 800$ or a medium size utility blade for 300$ is an insult to my intellegence.

Just because there are greater fools ready to buy them at 850$ and 325$ don`t make it less of an insult.
 
As for the original post.

Don't forget that sometimes people REALLY want a knife you're selling.

But they don't have the funds to pay for the price you're asking or even close to the price you're asking.

So they lowball you on the idea that "asking doesn't hurt".


It's not an insult, and sometimes not even a means to get you to drop the price and keep a few more of their precious pennies. Sometimes people are just on a budget and trying to see if they can get some more value for their money.

Taking that as an insult is just silly.
 
anythingsharp said:
Correct me if I`m wrong but aren`t Busses semi-custom knives?You can approach Ted Frizzell with your own design and he`ll make it for you for 75-300$ depending on the size and the intricacy,I`ve done this several times to my great satisfaction,also had Bill Siegle make a a superb knife for me.

Take a look at a pair of pliers and at a knife.Which item seems to require more manufacturing steps?You can probably currently buy high quality American made pliers for around 30$.There is no justification for paying 800$ for a chopper knife,unless it was made entirely by hand and required 30-40hrs to make it.

An art folder which takes a month of labor or even longer to create justifiably costs 1000`s of $$.

A semi-production chopper at 800$ or a medium size utility blade for 300$ is an insult to my intellegence.

Just because there are greater fools ready to buy them at 850$ and 325$ don`t make it less of an insult.
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So now you're indirectly calling me a fool. That is an insult. You and your "intellegence" can go get stuffed. :p

Damn bunch of fools just keep buying knives from Busse. Craziest thing.


Edited to add:

Hmmm... a quick Advanced Search shows that anythingsharp has owned, bought, and sold quite a few Busse knives.

Guess that fool finally woke up and saw the error of his ways. :D
 
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This is a good topic.I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who feels this way.

I get ridiculously low ball offers sometimes!(50-75% less):mad:


As frustrating as it is,I never get nasty with them though.I just write a simple "No Thanks" & be done with them.
 
Guyon said:
So now you're indirectly calling me a fool. That is an insult. You and your "intellegence" can go get stuffed. :p

Damn bunch of fools just keep buying knives from Busse. Craziest thing.


Edited to add:

Hmmm... a quick Advanced Search shows that anythingsharp has owned, bought, and sold quite a few Busse knives.

Guess that fool finally woke up and saw the error of his ways. :D
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I don`t sell on BF being a regular member but I did sell a few privately,usually taking a small loss or at best breaking even.I used to own about 10 Busses and got out of that game way before the prices which seemed insane to me then, doubled and even tripled.I could`ve made good money if I continued to play the greater Busse fool game but I guess I wasn`t foolish enough to really profit from the game.The world economy which is based on fiat money is crumbling before our eyes and soon we`ll see much bigger bubbles pop than chopper knives worth a house in Michigan already.
 
I don't mind "low-ball" offers and sometimes offer less when I see an item I might buy. What I do dislike is when I put an item up at lets say $300 and I get an email with a one line message like "I'll do $200" or 'What about $200?"
WTF... at least make it a decent sentence!!!!
 
i wasn't going to post here but just got a stupid low ball offer. he wanted 2 fbm leather sheaths for a $100, shipped with no pp fees. that comes out to less then $40 a sheath (34% below my asking) . well below the $97 each at retail. worse yet, this guy brags about how he can afford randall mades, busse, etc... .

genuine reasonable offers are fine, but taking advantage of anothers hard times suck.

i'm not mad, just glad that i know what an ass he really is.
 
anythingsharp said:
I don`t sell on BF being a regular member but I did sell a few privately,usually taking a small loss or at best breaking even.I used to own about 10 Busses and got out of that game way before the prices which seemed insane to me then, doubled and even tripled.I could`ve made good money if I continued to play the greater Busse fool game but I guess I wasn`t foolish enough to really profit from the game.The world economy which is based on fiat money is crumbling before our eyes and soon we`ll see much bigger bubbles pop than chopper knives worth a house in Michigan already.
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You seem to be choking on bitter, foolish sour grapes. Sad for you, but trolling is for the birds.
 
Rat Finkenstein said:
You seem to be choking on bitter, foolish sour grapes. Sad for you, but trolling is for the birds.
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I`m not choking on anything because I`ve put the money I got by getting rid of most of my knives into infinitely better investments.

The name of this thread is "when is an offer an insult?".If the name was "when is a lowball offer an insult?" my bringing up the ubiquitous offers to buy insanely overpriced knives which are already worth a house in Michigan would be trolling.I choose to perceive this thread as one about any insulting offers and the knife world rarely has ones which are not insulting.

All the knife-related "bubbles" start with people offering us to buy a knife or some other "tactical" or "combat" product.

PS.I won`t post in this thread anymore.Talking about Busse,Strider etc on BF is like mentioning rope in the house of a hanged man.I`m happy I`ve whittled my collection down to about a dozen honest knives.
 
anythingsharp said:
I`m not choking on anything because I`ve put the money I got by getting rid of most of my knives into infinitely better investments.

The name of this thread is "when is an offer an insult?".If the name was "when is a lowball offer an insult?" my bringing up the ubiquitous offers to buy insanely overpriced knives which are already worth a house in Michigan would be trolling.I choose to perceive this thread as one about any insulting offers and the knife world rarely has ones which are not insulting.

All the knife-related "bubbles" start with people offering us to buy a knife or some other "tactical" or "combat" product.

PS.I won`t post in this thread anymore.Talking about Busse,Strider etc on BF is like mentioning rope in the house of a hanged man.I`m happy I`ve whittled my collection down to about a dozen honest knives.
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The original topic of the thread was about people buying knives in the Exchange and emailing or PM'ing offers.

You chose to hijack the thread and raise Busse as a topic because you had an axe you wanted to grind about Busse pricing.

I don't agree with you. The knives are what they are worth if people are paying the prices. More importantly, the knife is worth it to me, or anyone else, if I choose to pay the price and like what I receive as a result. Calling me, and other Busse users, fools for finding such satisfaction is trolling, plain and simple.

I don't buy Busses as investments. Maybe that's how you see knife collecting, but I am a hobbyist who just enjoys using knives. I like the performance I get out of Busses, particularly the $800 choppers worth a house in Michigan. :p

Busse is not "making offers." The company is selling knives. You stretch a topical connection because you want to bash Busse. If that's your goal, my suggestion is that you start a new thread in an appropriate forum. Thank you for promising to stop the bashing in this thread.
 
Allow me to break my promise of not posting here again and add one final clarification before departing to my troll hell.The term "greater fool investing" is not an insult and certainly is not aimed at you personally,this is legitimate economic/investing jargon.

When a guy gives you a lowball offer on your item he is simply offering you too few dollars for your item.

When dealers of Hartsfield knives

(this was the first example used by me in this thread before kicking the holiest of holy,Busse knives.Hartsfield knives probably take the cake as far as overpricing goes.Also notice that you didn`t call me a troll when I mentioned Hartsfield 2000$ guardless chisel-ground tantos.Apparently the term "troll" is reserved only for Busse "deniers")

or Busse dealers offer you their knives at 800$,they are giving you a lowball offer on your dollars by giving you too few of their precious knives for your 800$ (you should`ve gotten about 8 of them for 800$)

Federal Reserve notes,gold and knives are simply commodities.You may not see knives as an investment but the guy who is selling them to you certainly does.

PS.As far as performance goes,there have been far more trees chopped by the US army machetes made by Ontario than by all the 3/8" thick 800$ knives.
 
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I have been forced to sell many of my knives recently and will have to sell many more of them. It has never been my plan to sell them, but it is either selling them or taking them with me to live under the bridge.

I am not offended by low ball offers and I have received many of them. Some are pretty unbelievable and in many cases I know that these same people will turn around and try selling them at higher prices than I originally posted. That is the way it goes! However, it is kind of aggravating.

My reply is respectful and I thank them for their offer. Who knows, that same person has turned around and bought the knife at my original price.

I am thankful for anyone who is interested in my knives for sale and really appreciate those who buy them. It is allowing me to pay my bills and I hope that they will appreciate the knives as much as I have.
 
anythingsharp said:
Allow me to break my promise of not posting here again and add one final clarification before departing to my troll hell.The term "greater fool investing" is not an insult and certainly is not aimed at you personally,this is legitimate economic/investing jargon.

When a guy gives you a lowball offer on your item he is simply offering you too few dollars for your item.

When dealers of Hartsfield knives

(this was the first example used by me in this thread before kicking the holiest of holy,Busse knives.Hartsfield knives probably take the cake as far as overpricing goes.Also notice that you didn`t call me a troll when I mentioned Hartsfield 2000$ guardless chisel-ground tantos.Apparently the term "troll" is reserved only for Busse "deniers")

or Busse dealers offer you their knives at 800$,they are giving you a lowball offer on your dollars by giving you too few of their precious knives for your 800$ (you should`ve gotten about 8 of them for 800$)

Federal Reserve notes,gold and knives are simply commodities.You may not see knives as an investment but the guy who is selling them to you certainly does.

PS.As far as performance goes,there have been far more trees chopped by the US army machetes made by Ontario than by all the 3/8" thick 800$ knives.
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Apparently sour grapes rot your brain.
 
Daniel said:
I have been forced to sell many of my knives recently and will have to sell many more of them. It has never been my plan to sell them, but it is either selling them or taking them with me to live under the bridge.
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I feel for you Daniel. We are on hard times. I hope things get better for you.

I love knives and respect them. I can see how it is easy to confuse a low ball offer as lack of respect for a knife or for a seller. Unfortunately, the community as it exists really can't have any formal nor informal rules to counteract this. One has to respect Cuts Like A Kris' comments that cultural differences sometimes come into play. In the United States - a sale price is a sale price. In most of the world, a sale price is a starting place. One shouldn't get insulted by an offer even if it is lower than asking. It suggests at the very least interest in the product. If you get insulted by this process, maybe you should re-think about making yourself so public as to place on offer in an open medium like blade forums.

Similarly to buyers. A rejected offer is a rejected offer. One of the reasons people like the internet exchange aspect is that is negotiable at all levels. While as a Canadian I sometimes get frustrated at the CONUS only statements, inherently I respect the right of the seller to make that decision. I even respect the fact that they set these terms out front in their seller add.

Making more rules only makes regulating and enforcing rules more complicated. Lets keep BF simple, honest and respectable.
 
anythingsharp said:
(you should`ve gotten about 8 of them for 800$)
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If someone would point me in the direction of a maker, ANY maker, who produces a knife this thick, this long, this well-ground, with this quality of steel and this warranty AND prices it at $100, I would very much appreciate it. I'll take out a loan and buy a gross of them.

Brain rot, indeed.

NMFBMLE2.jpg
 
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