>> At the peak, Benchmade was back-ordered over 5000 pieces on the 42. This was one of the most successful new product introductions in their history.
According to the Benchmade, they were having quality control problems with the machinery they use to make Balisong Knives with, and needed to retool. But I noticed at the same time, they were getting into making Automatic Knives. It looks to me like Benchmade decided to invest in making Automatics, and the result was, they were delayed in retooling and had to stop making the production model Balisong for a short period of time. Even though they continued to make the custom Bali's. So, this created quite a backlog of people who were wanting the Benchmade Production Model Balisong Knives. 5000 is not a very high number when it comes to Balisong Knives. Just one importer of the China made knife that I know of, had 8000 of each color in stock. Six month later they were just about sold out, so just this one importer sold at least 50,000 butterfly knives. The bottom line is the reason Benchmade is selling in the tens of thousands, instead of the hundreds of thousands, is the price. There are a lot more people willing to pay $10 for a knife, then there are people who are willing to pay $100 or more for a knife. A shortage of supply can push up demand and price. If you have one knife, and 100 people who want that knife, then maybe 5 of them would be willing to pay $100 for it, and 5 of them would be willing to pay $5 for it, and everyone else would fall somewhere inbetween that. China butterflys would be selling for $25 each, if there were a shortage, but when there are plenty of them, you can buy them for around $5- $10 each. When Taylor was importing Japan made butterfly knives, I was selling them in the $12 to $15 range. Now those same knives are selling for a lot more than that, because there is more demand than supply. People ask me why I sell the Batangas Balisong's so cheap. The reason is, that I have had hundreds of them to sell. But then the people who buy them from me, if they decide to resell them, only have a few, so they can afford to wait around for someone who is willing to pay the higher price. I have not seen to many of you, reselling the knives you have been getting from me recently, so you must be wanting to hold onto them for now
Thanks JohnR7 (on Ebay)
www.BalisongKnife.Com.
