Why wipe out the price you sold it for?

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NeilB

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I don't get it.

You sell your knife on the Exchange and you, yes you, immediately get rid of the selling price.

Why do you do that? Is your wife monitoring your sales? Are you afraid a burglar will know you got an extra hundred laying around the house?

I'm one of those who likes to shop on the Exchange. When I see your knife for sale, I want to compare that price to a similar knife that sold recently to gage the reasonableness of the offer. You guys who wipe out your prices because NSA or whatever aren't helping me and the others in our community like me.

So, really. What's the deal?
 
It bothers me, too, but I think it might have rational origins. Future sellers of comparables may not want to have their sales affected by earlier prices. Those buying may want the privacy of not having their purchase price known. Either way, I would like to know what a given knife went for, especially with the custom knives, one-off knives, and rare pieces. It would be a useful archive.

Zieg
 
I am sure this has been explained somewhere but I dont remember the rationale. Maybe it is to protect or encourage future selling?
 
Honestly, I do it so that I don't leave my footprint in the market.

I don't want anyone haggling someone because of something I sold at X amount. What I need to get out of anything I am selling and what someone was willing to pay for it at the time is our personal business.

That's just my view.
If you need to build an archive then screen shot everything that goes up for sale......
 
JR88FAN said:
If you need to build an archive then screen shot everything that goes up for sale......
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Good point. Next time some asks us our recommendations for an EDC, lets all immediately erase our posts. After all, if he wanted an archive, he could just screenshot everything.
 
I tend to leave mine up for a while b/c I don't like the practice either. The market informs the value of knives being sold, so I think the only reason to do it is to catch buyers thay don't stay on top of forum transactions. If my price and other's stay up I feel like it helps people get a good idea of current values.

But the exchange is full of people looking to make a buck. That's cool, free market and all of that, but your sales threads should reflect how you approach the hobby. I include shipping and paypal goods in my price because I think that's right and fair, and I leave my prices up. We can't control people with different ideas about the exchange, but we can make our sales threads in the image we want to see for the knife collecting community.
 
I do it to underscore the fact that the knife is sold. I've had people contact me months after a sale thread has run its course to ask if the knife is still available. Replacing the price with SOLD and closing the thread just helps eliminate that.
 
NeilB said:
Good point. Next time some asks us our recommendations for an EDC, lets all immediately erase our posts. After all, if he wanted an archive, he could just screenshot everything.
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That's just exactly apples for apples.....but nice try at a "good point"

Sales transactions are the business of the seller and the buyer, anything else on this forum is generally for public consumption.

I am sure we can all respect that?
 
I generally do it as a courtesy to the buyer so they have the freedom to resell at any price they see fit should they choose to. On particularly good deals, it keeps them from being hounded by latecomers trying to buy it off them or haggling them down later down the line. I myself have had the displeasure of buying something at a really good price and then having no less than a dozen people message me, half called "dibs" should I choose to resell it and the other half wanted to buy it outright from me. I ended up asking the seller to remove the price from his listing so I would stop getting messages, as I was still getting them days later.

Heck, I've even had that happen when it has just -looked- like I won the item but had been beaten to it via PM. I've had to edit my posts to reflect that I didn't get it, and even asked the seller once to unlock the thread so I could do so.

I used to have that exact same frustration, OP. These days, I just check eBay and any sales within the last six months. If nothing turns up, I take a stab in the dark at the value and if it sells, it sells - and if it doesn't, I went too high and go lower when I relist or take some offers. If I'm buying, same process.
 
All good points Comeuppance. I can see a different side than I had originally considered.
I will say though that I just don't check the bay. My personal experience is that the market here is far more accurate in terms of knowledgable sellers and buyers. Some of the prices over there are just obscene and intended to take advantage of ignorance.
 
How do you know the listed price is what it actually sold for?
 
I try to not get too mad about posts by strangers on the internet. They can leave the price, write sold, or "HAHA not telling" it will be OK.

Personally, instead of having to respond to emails from months or years old sales threads it's just easier to quickly erase the price and put "SOLD". I guess I could write details like I sold X knife for Y price to Z user on D date. It was delivered on N day by S service ETC. and so on. But I don't mind seeing "SOLD" in a sales thread. Much better than seeing a price. After waiting for a response to hear it was sold long ago and they forgot to update it. I'd much rather just see "sold" than the alternative.
Best of luck.
 
Lots of good, valid reasons already explained.

I'll add- Knowledge of current market value has value. It's earned by paying attention, watching the For Sale Threads and staying active \ current. It's earned through time, effort and hard work. I'm not giving that away to people not willing to put in the effort.

If I'm focusing on a specific maker or model I usually know the current market value. Where it gets interesting is when something uncommon pops up out of the blue and there's no frame of reference to fall back on. Then it gets interesting and stressful.


What I don't like is wiping the For Sale thread clean after the sale but that's another thread.
 
I do it so someone will start a thread every other month asking why:)
When I take the price out it and mark it sold(vs just marking it sold) it usually gets through to everyone that it actually is sold, and I don't get 2year old ?'s -is it still available.
Listed sales price is of little use to anyone. It is often not the final sales price and also doesn't reflect the circumstances behind the asking price.
 
I've bought and sold hundreds of knives and gun parts/accessories over the years and I've NEVER seen anyone ask if something was still available when it was marked sold, even if I left the price up. Use huge fonts, red letters, whatever helps.

And even if they did ask, is it that difficult to delete the email or tell them that it's gone? You'll probably waste more time dealing with tire kickers, lowballers and flakes than you ever will with people looking to buy something that already sold.

If both parties in the transaction have integrity, there's nothing to fear. If you're afraid of being judged for "flipping" knives at a gain or undercutting for a quick sale, you could always stop the practice or find another hobby. Deleting your sale price isn't going to solve your guilt in any way.

At the same time, if something goes wrong with a transaction/negative feedback, people will be able to corroborate claims with the original post.
 
Apec said:
At the same time, if something goes wrong with a transaction/negative feedback, people will be able to corroborate claims with the original post.
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No need to worry there. Mods can see the original post and the edits thereafter.

I do like to see the price on rarer items that I'm not familiar with but don't really care as a whole. Google searches are easier to use than to search through past threads on Bladeforums. Heck, the BF threads will pop up in a Google search and I wont need to sift.
 
Apec said:
I've bought and sold hundreds of knives and gun parts/accessories over the years and I've NEVER seen anyone ask if something was still available when it was marked sold, even if I left the price up. Use huge fonts, red letters, whatever helps.

And even if they did ask, is it that difficult to delete the email or tell them that it's gone? You'll probably waste more time dealing with tire kickers, lowballers and flakes than you ever will with people looking to buy something that already sold.

If both parties in the transaction have integrity, there's nothing to fear. If you're afraid of being judged for "flipping" knives at a gain or undercutting for a quick sale, you could always stop the practice or find another hobby. Deleting your sale price isn't going to solve your guilt in any way.

At the same time, if something goes wrong with a transaction/negative feedback, people will be able to corroborate claims with the original post.
Click to expand...


I have had it happen a few times, and no it is not that hard to respond politely and that is how I handled them, but it is also not that hard to take out the price and add sold-and end it there
 
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