Why wipe out the price you sold it for?

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jdspaw said:
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.
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When I started collecting knives and buying customs many years ago it was a very honorable community. I buy and sell knives but for me it is purely a hobby. But now there are a lot of people here that view knives as nothing but a business and it has become very cutthroat. For all I know the flippers living in their mother's basement sit there all day and do the same thing with baseball cards, expensive tennis shoes and sports memorabilia.

My explanation is this- if you sell a knife today for $100, then tomorrow you won't be able to sell a similar knife for $150, so it limits your potential profits. But if there are no prices listed you might be able to convince someone tomorrow that your rare superknife is worth $175 and you make more profit. So if your goal is to make more profit then you remove the prices. But considering that the few people left that view knives as a hobby like to know what various knife models sell for, if you are interested in serving the knife community of hobbiests you leave your prices in your ads. So which side are you on? Me, I always leave the prices in my ads.

If the rules of the forum said you had to leave prices, people would be forced to do it. The logic is probably that sellers are free to do whatever they want but this site has a long list of rules covering everything else. If it came down to it though I think I would rather have a forum rule that required a seller to post a photo in their ad, a reasonably good photo. I've been on forums that catered to hobbiests that required photos with ads, and if you didn't post a photo they would quickly delete your post.
 
bdmicarta said:
When I started collecting knives and buying customs many years ago it was a very honorable community. I buy and sell knives but for me it is purely a hobby. But now there are a lot of people here that view knives as nothing but a business and it has become very cutthroat. For all I know the flippers living in their mother's basement sit there all day and do the same thing with baseball cards, expensive tennis shoes and sports memorabilia.

My explanation is this- if you sell a knife today for $100, then tomorrow you won't be able to sell a similar knife for $150, so it limits your potential profits. But if there are no prices listed you might be able to convince someone tomorrow that your rare superknife is worth $175 and you make more profit. So if your goal is to make more profit then you remove the prices. But considering that the few people left that view knives as a hobby like to know what various knife models sell for, if you are interested in serving the knife community of hobbiests you leave your prices in your ads. So which side are you on? Me, I always leave the prices in my ads.

If the rules of the forum said you had to leave prices, people would be forced to do it. The logic is probably that sellers are free to do whatever they want but this site has a long list of rules covering everything else. If it came down to it though I think I would rather have a forum rule that required a seller to post a photo in their ad, a reasonably good photo. I've been on forums that catered to hobbiests that required photos with ads, and if you didn't post a photo they would quickly delete your post.
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That's a strange way to look at it, and I can only speak for myself.....

I have NEVER MADE a profit on a knife. (Not even close, and that is by choice)

I am nothing even close to a "knife flipper" yet I don't leave the price I sold a knife for....

I think your wrong.

It has nothing to do with the integrity of the knife community as a whole...you can never package everyone into the same box, things don't work that way.

While I agree that things in the community have changed, and not everything for the better, I have a hard time connecting the removal of prices in listings as a "sign" of those changes...
 
bdmicarta said:
When I started collecting knives and buying customs many years ago it was a very honorable community. I buy and sell knives but for me it is purely a hobby. But now there are a lot of people here that view knives as nothing but a business and it has become very cutthroat. For all I know the flippers living in their mother's basement sit there all day and do the same thing with baseball cards, expensive tennis shoes and sports memorabilia.

My explanation is this- if you sell a knife today for $100, then tomorrow you won't be able to sell a similar knife for $150, so it limits your potential profits. But if there are no prices listed you might be able to convince someone tomorrow that your rare superknife is worth $175 and you make more profit. So if your goal is to make more profit then you remove the prices. But considering that the few people left that view knives as a hobby like to know what various knife models sell for, if you are interested in serving the knife community of hobbiests you leave your prices in your ads. So which side are you on? Me, I always leave the prices in my ads.

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That pretty much sums up what I think about this: Most people here being in favour of removing the prices is exactly why I have never and will never buy or sell knives on the exchange...

I particularly like the "Do your own research" comments... I give away my unwanted $1000 customs (that does happen often) to non-knife buffs, sometimes not even giving the recipient a clue as to the real value (so they do not feel indebted), and still get a much better feeling in return... That is the kind of price-hiding I enjoy...

Gaston
 
bdmicarta said:
So which side are you on?
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latest
 
Gaston444 said:
That pretty much sums up what I think about this: Most people here being in favour of removing the prices is exactly why I have never and will never buy or sell knives on the exchange...

I particularly like the "Do your own research" comments... I give away my unwanted $1000 customs (that does happen often) to non-knife buffs, sometimes not even giving the recipient a clue as to the real value (so they do not feel indebted), and still get a much better feeling in return... That is the kind of price-hiding I enjoy...

Gaston
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I'm in favor of people following the rules in place on the exchange. I'm also in favor of individuals figuring out what price they want to ask for their own item. Using listed prices on the exchange is a horrible way to determine what you want to charge for your item. Like was said earlier, how do you know the listed asking price was the price paid?

What gets tiresome is people whining about prices being removed....
 
The final sales price is determined by the motivation of both the buyer and the seller. What Bill would sell it for (since he has rent to pay) may not be what Joe would sell it for. On the flip side someone who can't wait for a better price will pay more than someone who really doesn't care if they buy it or not. Granted if you had a large enough recent sample of prices you could find a reasonable range, throwing out highs and lows. In the end though it all comes down to what one guy will pay and one guy will sell for and those people are changing all the time. The only danger is that someone will sell a little low. If they price too high they will most likely have to come down to sell.
Every time I have ever given price range estimates, the seller has priced the item at the top price, and then seems surprised it doesn't sell quickly.
To sum it up-I don't think sold prices are that useful other than to give you a broad range that it most likely would sell in.
 
Countless threads on the same subject already exist. Nothing new here.
 
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