Wow, haven't looked at knives for a couple years. Prices seem insanely high now.

[Zero_Time]

I'm just glad I could finally buy Hinderers for retail, recently. There's a lot more nice knives available this year for what I consider decent prices.

What are you looking at Jill? I've honestly reached satiety, by and large, so I haven't kept up with things recently.

Zero

 

[jill jackson]

I bought an XM-18 and 24 brand new at retail. They seem to be available pretty much for that, these days.

 

[Cobalt]

Sure wish my salary had increased even half as much as knives have. Seems nuts to me. Maybe it's really time to start rollin my own.

I think overall, knife prices have stayed low and quality has gotten better, so no I don't think so.

 

[A.L.]

I don't think that the prices have gone unreasonable per se, but the issue comes with hoarding. Say if you wanted to invest to good knife, it isn't really a problem if you do it once or twice, but with ten or twenty times...

 

[Nellem]

(I can't read all the comments up to this point so if I say what has already been said then see this as support of this argument ... )

A universal principle of owning/running a manufacturing business is to sell products for as much as the market is willing to pay for the products. Not a cent less or a cent more. The challenge is to know where this tipping point is and it's often a push-till-it-breaks testing process to find this point. Knife makers will sell their knives for what they deem to be the optimum price point and the higher this optimum price point is above the actual total input cost the better. It's called making a profit. If you charge too much the market will go elsewhere. If you charge too little you are not doing yourself any favours.

So ... knife prices are what they are. If too high in general the market will react and force prices down. If too low market forces will pull them up. It is what it is. To expect it to be different is to believe in a Santa Claus that uses his personal resources to fund the manufacture and worldwide distribution of toys for pure altriustic purposes with no strings attached.

But I'm sure I'm stating the obvious.

 

[zippin44]

(I can't read all the comments up to this point so if I say what has already been said then see this as support of this argument ... )

A universal principle of owning/running a manufacturing business is to sell products for as much as the market is willing to pay for the products. Not a cent less or a cent more. The challenge is to know where this tipping point is and it's often a push-till-it-breaks testing process to find this point. Knife makers will sell their knives for what they deem to be the optimum price point and the higher this optimum price point is above the actual total input cost the better. It's called making a profit. If you charge too much the market will go elsewhere. If you charge too little you are not doing yourself any favours.

So ... knife prices are what they are. If too high in general the market will react and force prices down. If too low market forces will pull them up. It is what it is. To expect it to be different is to believe in a Santa Claus that uses his personal resources to fund the manufacture and worldwide distribution of toys for pure altriustic purposes with no strings attached.

But I'm sure I'm stating the obvious.

Absolutely. Prices are a reflection of what people are willing to spend. Like any auction, upward prices are in search of sellers and downward in search of buyers. My original statement could be reworded to something like this: I'm shocked at what people are willing to pay for knives these days.

 

[ArchVV]

I'm shocked at what people are willing to pay for knives these days.

While I did not entirely agree with your initial sentiment, I think this encapsulates the knife market much more accurately and succinctly. It has surely caused introspection on my part lately and led to reassessing my approach to the hobby.

 

[K.O.D.]

I think the brand's who have increased their prices by a larger amount than most are heavily relying on brand loyalty. However, when they are raised higher than reasonable, even the loyal start looking elsewhere.

 

[leghog]

Last new knife I bought cost me 39.00 CHF which equates to about $38.75 USD. And that wasn't long ago as it was delivered just yesterday. So, no, prices aren't all insanely high. Just depends on where you look and what you are looking for. If you are after the flavor-of-the-month so many knife knuts are currently drooling over, you'll probably pay a premium. Wait a while, and you'll likely get it much cheaper on the secondary market.

 

[Cosmic Superchunk]

Things cost what they cost. There are a lot of budget priced knives that are quite usable. Granted, the steel quality, materials, and overall fit and finish will be inferior to that of higher end knives, but it's to be expected. In most cases, you get what you pay for. For example, you can't expect a $30 Chinese made Kershaw to compare to a $200 American made ZT. The difference between the two are as night and day. Heck, there's even a big difference in quality between low end Chinese Kershaws and mid-priced American Kershaws like the Blur, Knockout, etc. , but if you as a consumer are happy with the value and performance of that $30 Kershaw, then that's all that should matter to you.

 

[jill jackson]

Metals have increased a lot in the last five years. When we built our fence it was as cheap to use all treated wood posts, without any metal at all. Used to be that would have cost a lot more.

 

[22-rimfire]

I think the brand's who have increased their prices by a larger amount than most are heavily relying on brand loyalty. However, when they are raised higher than reasonable, even the loyal start looking elsewhere.

I believe these are true statements. I have pretty much stuck to my preferred brands; BUT I am buying fewer knives. The same applied to firearms.

On another forum, someone started a thread asking if the average person can tell a high quality revolver from a lower priced "economy" type revolver? As a supporter of the knife hobby, I wish people could see beyond size and shape, but that is where the hobby starts. It is a learning by baby steps kind of thing. I do choose based on size and shape, but take into account brand, my experience with the brand, steel used, and my impressions of fit and finish.

 

[ToddM]

It's not just knives, everything is getting more expensive, and people are spending more $ on things, or at least people are more willing to spend a much higher % of their income on an item. 20 years ago you never saw a swarovski/leica/etc. spotting scope, etc. at the range, now it's fairly common, even though they are $3000+ items. People don't even blink at spending $40-$50K on a car/truck these days.

I think it goes both ways, there are some really great knives available now days with high end blade steel for prices you'd have never seen 15 years ago. A good example is the Lightweight manix 2 in s110v, I'm personally not a fan of the handle material but getting S110v in a knife you can find under $100 is pretty impressive. I think overall the production knife quality has increased, and there's some really great knives out there for under $200.

That said the last few years the trend of "mid-tech" knives where everyone and their brother is bringing out $400-$1000+ production folding knives by farming all the work out isn't impressive to me. Especially when most of them don't seem to be using high end steel, and their fit/finish is not that much better than production knives from the big names, just 2-3x the cost. For those makers that really are doing a lot of the work themselves on mid-tech's this doesn't apply to them. The current trend is everyone is jumping into that arena and most of the examples I see are not that impressive. Knives have become more of a fashion statement like watches now, anything limited or tied to a custom makers name brings big $ regardless of it's quality and blade steel. It's about profits for companies/makers (and there's nothing wrong with that!), that's why S35VN is so popular now, and it's why the liner/frame lock continues to be the standard. Don't get me wrong it's a very good blend of edge holding and toughness but it's real allure for makers is it's available and easy to grind, heat treat, etc.

At the end of the day though it's the consumer that creates these issues. If no one was willing to pay the prices these companies were asking for their products, the market would have to change. As long as people are lining up to buy them, it not only means that it will continue but with the crazy reactions we see to buy sprint/limited edition production knives and "mid-techs" the prices are only going to go higher.

 

[powernoodle]

At the end of the day though it's the consumer that creates these issues.

I would characterize it as consumers allowing it rather than creating it. We aren't giving any push-back when MSRPs keep going up and up and up. And then when a cool new production knife is announced, even at what I consider an exorbitant cost, most of us soil ourselves like an excited Chihuahua when momma comes home from work.

I can't link to it because its not a Bladeforum supporting cutlery shoppe, but a Spyderco Stretch with blue FRN and ZDP-189 had a street price of $91.75 a few years ago. The identical knife with brown G10 today has a street price of $216.95. That's total bull hockey. A rip off, really. We buy into the notion that G10 and ZDP are more precious than gold and silver.

But I guess that if the market will sustain a certain price point, it is by definition the "right" price. Even if I cry about it.

 

[ToddM]

Yep I could have phrased that better. Consumers don't create the issue, but they do support and encourage it to continue as long as they spoo themselves every time a new knife comes out. The ZT and Spyderco limited editions are a perfect example of this. Limited editions are so in demand now that we have knife makers selling annual subscriptions to their fans now so they can get to the front of the line. As long as that keeps going prices will only go up. On the plus side there is now a ton of selection in the "mid-tech" market I guess, most of it not that impressive to me, but there's something for everyone now in that price range.