Exclusives - Need "Thought- to- share"?

I've made the suggestion before that Spyderco should offer a few models as catalog items in some of the more popular super steels. For instance there should ba a factory Manix 2 and/or PM2 in a steel such as 4V/Rex45/K390. Maybe a Military in Cruwear. That type thing. I'm interested in the exclusives because of the steels, not so much the colors. If I could buy a new PM2 in Rex45 then I wouldn't feel so bad about missing the 4V exclusive. I think it has been great that there are still catalog models available in S110V, which is pretty hard to beat unless you reallly like carbon steel, and I have PM2 and Manix2 versions of those.
 
I want to buy new from the dealer because I won't support flippers

You must not want it very bad, otherwise you'd just pay the fair market value. And the dealers' prices really ARE the fair market value, as evidenced by the other customers who pay the price. People who want to pay less than fair market value need to be patient and wait until some patsy comes along who doesn't know what his product is worth.

I have several sprints and exclusives sitting here on my desk. If I was to sell them to you for less than the dealers are getting, then I would be a fool.
 
By the way, in a parallel front, the new Sony PlayStation 5 Game Console went on sale on Thursday at $500 a unit and quickly sold out. Now, they’re on eBay selling for $1,000-$25,000! Pandemic lockdowns and work from home has made gaming more popular than ever. Disappointed gamers blamed both the retailers and the manufacturers for the new console shortage (Microsoft rolled out its Xbox Series X|S at around the same time).

“The PlayStation 5 debuted exclusively through online retail sites such as Walmart.com and BestBuy.com, allowing bots to swoop in and make purchases in milliseconds ahead of actual human consumers.”
 
S30v and black g10 work fine for actual use. Maybe not great for instagram pics. Just keep doing what you do however you would like.

ETA in my opinion you make the best product at its price. I dont need the latest and greatest steel or pretty colors. Just a functional tool, which you make very well.
 
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The idea of custom shop may not be a good one, for almost everyone involved. For ELU, I suspect the prices of custom shop knives would actually be higher than current exclusives/sprints, plus the knives would no longer be rare. For dealers, they would basically be eliminated (i.e., they'd limited to selling regular productions), so no such money to make for them. For Spyderco, it would not get the pre-payments as how/what it gets from dealers in order to start making exclusives, plus cutting ties with dealers would not be something that Sal does AFAIK.
 
Exclusives are fun, and part of the fun is their exclusivity. I’ve missed out on plenty, but there are always more. I wouldn’t enjoy it if I got every one, and also, I would be impoverished.
 
I have nothing against exclusives

my only suggestion would be to have the unlimited models updated for 2020 with respect to materials.

Black G10 and S30V are a bit boring.

I think that if you offered updated materials on non exclusives, it’s a win win for everyone

If you have already done this, forgive my ignorance as I don’t keep up with all the new releases like I used to.
 
Howdy Sal,

As always, thank you so much for the community engagement and soliciting of our thoughts and opinions. It's an exceedingly rare opportunity and I hope everyone appreciates it.

First, these knives, exclusives especially, are overwhelmingly just wants for most of us. They are not needs.

My only personal gripes with exclusives are:

1) Sometimes the configuration I like is being sold at a dealer I don't. But that's my hang up not Spyderco's.

2) I wouldn't want exclusives to inhibit regular production variety. Surely, I don't expect Spyderco to carry Manix 2's in 10 different steels and thirty different color combinations. That's obviously ridiculous. So from that perspective exclusives make sense. But, if say, I don't know orange or red or whatever is "allocated" to a particular dealer so those colors don't or won't in the future ever be available in production models so as to preserve that dealer's exclusivity, that's a bit of a bummer. But, it's a pretty minor one in the grand scheme.

I've never understood the "flipper argument". Yes, flippers are scumbags but if people didn't buy from them, they wouldn't exist. And if people are willing to pay incredibly inflated prices, then so be it. Who am I to tell them how to spend their money? I can think they're nuts, but it's their money. I just don't have to participate. And if I miss out on something, well, that's the choice I've made and all my current knives will still cut stuff really good tomorrow. :)

Spyderco arguably offers more variety, be it standard production or limited runs, than any cutlery company on the planet. If you didn't, none of this would even be a topic as we'd just have XYZ to choose from, take or leave it. In my opinion, this all really boils down to the want-level of each consumer. Each of us will decide how badly we want something and if that limit is exceeded, then we've made a conscious choice to go without that thing.
 
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Maybe a bridge from exclusives to custom shop can be limiting the time a dealer can have an exclusive to a certain term. That term extends through the fulfillment of the dealer exclusive order and then some to account for time to make a subsequent order, maybe a year. If no subsequent order is made then it becomes an available option in the custom shop and costs more than the dealer exclusive just by virtue of it being a one-off order and needs to for the extra expense Spyderco takes on to provide the custom shop pieces.

This maintains an amount of exclusivity for the lucky ones and isn't excessively long to wait for one you really wanted but missed.
 
Maybe a bridge from exclusives to custom shop can be limiting the time a dealer can have an exclusive to a certain term. That term extends through the fulfillment of the dealer exclusive order and then some to account for time to make a subsequent order, maybe a year. If no subsequent order is made then it becomes an available option in the custom shop and costs more than the dealer exclusive just by virtue of it being a one-off order and needs to for the extra expense Spyderco takes on to provide the custom shop pieces.

This maintains an amount of exclusivity for the lucky ones and isn't excessively long to wait for one you really wanted but missed.

I like it the concept of timing. The cost thing should be based on business costs though, but of course it would be a premium regardless.
 
What if some dealers were to offer preorders for their exclusives? That wouldn't be adding risk of left over inventory, but it would give people who aren't super fast a chance to grab one.
 
What if some dealers were to offer preorders for their exclusives? That wouldn't be adding risk of left over inventory, but it would give people who aren't super fast a chance to grab one.

Back in September 2020, KnifeWorks sold some of its Exclusive Delica4 CTS-204P Forest Green FRN (C11FPDGR) on pre-order and the rest later at a set date & time.
 
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Back in September 2020, KnifeWorks sold some of its Exclusive Delica4 CTS-204P Forest Green FRN (C11FPDGR) on pre-order and the rest later at a set date & time.
That seems like a good compromise. As long as enough stock can be made to match all the preorders plus extra
 
That seems like a good compromise. As long as enough stock can be made to match all the preorders plus extra

I doubt if Spyderco can really force a dealer to abide to some guidelines when it comes to Exclusives except for not selling below MAP. Most dealers want to recoup their capital investment in an Exclusive ASAP. This means different things like ordering the least possible quantity from Spyderco, not limiting customers to one per household, selling at MAP (some sell above MAP and below MSRP), etc.
 
It’s a no win situation. On the one hand, it would be great if dealers didn’t announce an exclusive release date. They just put them in stock and word of mouth gives everyone a better chance to get one before the flippers find out. Limit the quantity to one or two.
But on the other hand, having thousands of dollars invested in a single product without advertising is taking a huge risk. I know I wouldn’t want to take that kind of a risk.
Thank goodness the discussion is about missing out on a limited number of knives. Hell, the hunt is half the fun regardless of where it’s procured from.
Me, I have to hunt on the secondary market. If they’re stupidly too high, it’s a pass. If after some time prices don’t get reasonable ( IMO, which they do ), then I just won’t own that particular one.
 
Random thought: if there were enough exclusives for everyone they wouldn't be exclusive anymore.

Of course rarity leads to speculation as with anything for which there is less offer than demand, but if these were mass produced, would collectors still want one so much? I don't think exclusives are a bad thing or there is anything wrong with the way they're distributed. That's just how that market segment works.
 
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