Charr- there are way too many other knives that I would rather buy right here on the exchange, than deal with this type of B.S. Until ZT changes the way they treat their valuable customer's (with L.E. releases like this), I'll buy elsewhere.
FWIW: after all the hype with the first release of the 0392, my feeling is, this knife is way over rated, & over priced. Besides- I'm not into the gaudy/ugly looking gold hardware on this release anyway, so that would have been a deal breaker for me, anyway.
I wish somebody would do a poll: how many member's on BF, who purchased the 392 on the first release, flipped them in our faces for big fat profits, right here on BF?
Keep your eyes peeled for a glut on these to be coming soon on our very own exchange...just be prepared to pay some ridiculously inflated prices.
I personally liked the bronze hardware, but only really because I like the sheen of it in contrast to the black handles. I know you and I have our differences in taste though, and that's more than alright
Keeps us from going after the same knife and getting in each other's ways too often as well
The sad thing is that anything that is limited in quantity and not limited in buyers will become apt for "scalpers" who want to make a profit off of the public desire for the product/service. Most of us here feel that pain when we get any custom knife from a popular maker, even here on the forums, since the price can exceed double what the knife actually sells for new. If people are willing to pay it, then it won't stop either.
I feel that same pain whenever I am trying to find a Shirogorov that I really want as well. They're on a waiting list that is currently a couple of years long over in Russia, and the few retailers that do manage to get them usually have to mark up the prices in order to maintain proffit, but it is also because they know that people will buy them. I know several excellent memebers here that do their best to get Shirogorovs to the States so that people here who want them can enjoy them, and they largely do it with a minimal profit on their part, and I certainly would never accuse them of any of the same type of actions being committed with these LE ZT models, though the situations are not that far apart in theory, and there is still the possibility of exploit.
The issue is that Shirogorov is constantly producing, much like CRK, Strider, and Hinderer, allbeit at rather low speeds compared to larger manufacturers.
ZT has decided to either make these a one-time run, or has purposefully witheld information of how many of these will actually be produced and in what varieties, as the 0392BRNZBW shows, since most people would have thought that the standard 0392 was the only model they were going to produce based on their initial marketing.
Since they are making these seem like a very rare model, much like their other limited editions of their models, they have created what cold very well be an artificial condition in the market, and they will use it to make absolutely sure that each subsequent run of this model sells out completely the day that it is released. This will then guarantee that their will always be people who will attempt to exploit this system, and make a profit for themsleves.
Sad, but true. They scalpers aren't going away, but they will likely start to become more rare on the Exchange here, given the massive amount of negative response they usually get.
I'm not saying that this is what you are doing, KELAMA, but I will say that it feels like some people in this thread are trying to convince themselves that they didn't need/want the knife after "missing out." I'm sure I've done that, at times, to deal with disappointment. However, I missed out on the 0392 because I hesitated and didn't realize how quickly that they would go. But I didn't then take the time to tell those who did get one that the knife is stupid and ugly.
I did hope that some of those folks who got one but decided that they didn't like it would sell it at a "reasonable" price. But I've only seen one sold for less than $500 here, even though the original price was $375. In one sense, if we don't want people to do that, then we cannot reward that behavior by buying them! But every single one that I saw posted here was purchased at $500 or more. I personally refused to pay more than $450 for the 0392 on the secondary market, which is why I don't have one. If people decide to pay the exorbitant, secondary-market prices, then people are going to post the knives at those prices.
I did happen to get one of the 0392BWBRZ, because I do like the look of it, and because I wanted to at least hold one in hand to decide if it "fits me" or not. We'll see, I suppose. In any case, I do agree that we will start to see these posted for $600+ on this forum this weekend. To me, it doesn't really matter if you intended to keep the knife or not. You're a "flipper" or "scalper" if you ask $600+ for the knife just a few days/weeks after paying $400. Ask a reasonable price for the knife (that covers PP fees, shipping, insurance...and dinner), or be willing to trade it for something else that maybe the other person was able to snag at a good price (to even the exchange and benefit both of you). I will never forget when @poolhustler sold me my 0801USN at a remarkably reasonable price because he knew I would give it a good home and wasn't just looking to flip it.
I generally agree with you as well, Hannibal. I will say that I don't really tend to rationalize the chance I lost too much myself, but it isn't without reason to say that others would. Certainly not going to say that's what John is doing though. I have know him practically since day 1 of my time here on the forums, and I do know that the 0392 would likely be more his style in blue or some other color than the bronze hardware. I prefer the bronze myself though to most other colors
But I knew from the get-go that I had a low chance of getting this knife, and it really wasn't going to be anything revolutionary in my collection, as I have several knives that will hands-down blow it out of the water in terms of construction, materials, and perfromance, but i just wanted to get my hands on something that was a little rare, a little cool, and a lot of good looking if I could
Basically, I am not too torn up that I missed out on this, because it let me have an opportunity to get a hold of a knife I have wanted much longer, and I have a custom order that will be
very cool on the way now too
I do wish we would see less of this baltantly exploitative behavior on the Exchange though. It is sad, but the fact of the matter is that it only takes one person who wants the knife badly enough to pay the unreasonable prices to encourage everyone else to post the same or even higher prices. No matter how many of us openly acknowledge that this is not right, there will always be one person who is either unaware of our discussion, or simply wants the knife badly enough and has the money to spend.
