Did that last year and it was disappointing for me. The current way is the best in my opinion. Last year was a ton of work for little payout. You still had to be ready to go to sign up for the lottery because just like other knife lotteries they are open for a fixed (short) time.
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Great Eastern Cutlery Availability, Dealers, "Drops", Etc.: A Place for People to Vent
- Thread starter stevekolt
- Start date
Did that last year and it was disappointing for me. The current way is the best in my opinion. Last year was a ton of work for little payout. You still had to be ready to go to sign up for the lottery because just like other knife lotteries they are open for a fixed (short) time.
Exactly. Same race, same pace just to get a chance at the lottery! Then some got 3 or 4, some got none. Seemed like a lot of work with no clear advantage. This time was the best so far, IMO, even though for some reason I didn't get a notification...It's all good.
I know some peeps hate “Pre Orders,” but I’ve had good luck in the past. Place an order, put down a small deposit, get an email when your knife is available, pay the balance.
If you don’t pay the balance...you lose the deposit and it becomes available to everyone.
Would they rather sell 500 or 1000?
If you don’t pay the balance...you lose the deposit and it becomes available to everyone.
Would they rather sell 500 or 1000?
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Agreed. And there is a danger for the buyer. Collectibles are a fickle thing. GECs are collectibles. Period. Buying collectibles is silly unless it gives you pleasure equal to the cost. They are not an investment. Twenty years from now, GECs could be gold or they could be dreck. Flip a coin. Remember how you couldn't lose money buying real estate? How did that work out for you so far this century? And real estate isn't even a collectible, but an actual investment. How about Beanie Babies? Or cars? The market for Model As and Model Ts has fallen through the floor as the guys with nostalgia for them die off. Now muscle cars are hot. My sister collects dolls. Those she likes peaked a few years ago and are now plunging in value. Fads come and go. This too will pass. I'd rather buy a custom and have the money go to the maker than pay out the nose to a flipper. But I can't justify pissing on the flippers. They're just doing business. The people I should be annoyed with are those who pay those prices and reward the flippers. But I even have a hard time doing that. Collecting is a hobby for the rich and the rich have money to burn. Perhaps I should instead be whining about not being rich? That's silly. We're all rich. We take things for granted that kings and queens could not buy a hundred or more years ago. The poorest of our poor have a problem with ... obesity. You want a knife for EDC? Victorinox SAKs are better than GECs in every way save for looks, they cost a quarter as much, and they're widely available. If my grandfather was alive, that's what he would buy. And he would only buy one. There are plenty of nice knives out there and not scoring the latest object of desire will affect my life ... not at all. Actually, that's almost true. It won't annoy Mama. And if Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy... So I'm better off without. I'm almost convinced.
I thought about your post for a while. It seems to criticize buyers who will pay more than retail for a GEC. I’m sure that those who do that get pleasure equal to, or greater than the cost or they wouldn’t pay.
Yes, collectibles are “a fickle thing”, but only in terms of value. Not all collectors are concerned with resale value. But, GECs can also be considered an investment. Not all investments produce profits. That is the nature of investments.
No disrespect intended. I merely wanted to reply to what appears to be your core argument with a different perspective.
I was not intending to criticize anyone. Just kind of talking my way around the subject. I suspect that there are folks who think they can't lose money buying GECs and may overextend themselves as a result. I don't know that. I hope there are not. Are collectibles an investment? That gets down to nitpicking about the definition of investment. I could argue that me buying ice cream is an investment. The fat I build up might carry me through a period of starvation. Or it might give me an opportunity as a plus sized model. If ice cream can be an investment, pretty much anything you spend money on could qualify. I think there's a better definition. I think of collectibles the way I think of tulip bulbs, as speculation. The only value(as an investment) is the belief that someone down the road will pay more for it than you did. You're basing that on current experience with the market, not on some fundamental measure of value. You're speculating what will happen, hence the name. With real estate, stocks, bonds, etc. you earn an income stream from rent, dividends, interest, and so on. There's cash value based on that income stream. If a company grows, as good ones do, and you own their stock, the value goes up since the company earns more money. There may also be gains from speculators, but that's gravy if it happens, not the main purpose. People forgot that about real estate and we had a housing bubble in which many people went broke and others lost their jobs. Not good. Fortunes have been lost buying into a frothy market in the hopes that it will go on just a bit longer. The only real value a knife has is that it cuts stuff. Let's call it $20, since you can buy a perfectly good knife that cuts well for that amount. If the joy you get from owning a $600 knife is worth $580 dollars to you, then buy that sucker. If you buy it hoping that someone else will pay you $900 for it in a few years, maybe you should think twice.
knifeswapper
Knife Peddler
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2004
- Messages
- 3,299
No, the "Submit" button does not come active until something is changed on selections. My guess is that you submitted a "Sure", then being a bit confused changed to "None" and submitted again. If you want me to check, send a PM/email with your email address. But there was a ton of craziness going on. Had some folks submit the same setting 10 times thinking they were getting 10 reservations.
Hi Mike- if I very quickly selected a sure and submitted it but then hit submit again (when I thought it didn't go through) which sent me a "reservation updated" email, did that cause me to lose my original place in line?
Also, I'm not sure if you already answered this but is this limited to one single knife per person? Or if all cover options are still available when it is our turn in line, we can select one of each cover?
knifeswapper
Knife Peddler
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No. If you didn't change anything, nothing was changed. Since the system was completely pegged, in this scenario the second submit came back as "standby" which it wouldn't normally. But the status on the My Account page will be accurate.
There will only be one per person. Otherwise all the options would have been on the reservation.
No. If you didn't change anything, nothing was changed. Since the system was completely pegged, in this scenario the second submit came back as "standby" which it wouldn't normally. But the status on the My Account page will be accurate.
There will only be one per person. Otherwise all the options would have been on the reservation.
Thanks Mike, I appreciate the quick response!
No. If you didn't change anything, nothing was changed. Since the system was completely pegged, in this scenario the second submit came back as "standby" which it wouldn't normally. But the status on the My Account page will be accurate.
There will only be one per person. Otherwise all the options would have been on the reservation.
In the 'good ole days'
(back when there were up to 5 cover options, in single and double blades) I was fortunate enough to be able to buy one of every option. -------------I would do that now if I could. Having said that, I agree 100% that at this point, it should be 1 knife per household even though that goes against what I personally wish for.
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knifeswapper
Knife Peddler
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2004
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- 3,299
It is much cheaper on me (shipping, etc.) to allow people to buy multiples; but then 200 folks get to partake instead of 500. And it is aggravating when you immediately see posts looking to trade the reservations for knives not wanted but reserved for trade fodder. Not to mention, flippers showing up with one of each on eBay.
I wasn’t being judgmental, just expressing where my head is at today. It’s probably has no relevance in a thread like this, but I didn’t see any harm in saying it.To each his own.
I passed many of them on to other good folks. (at cost)
In fact, more than I care to remember.
In the 'good ole days'
Having said that, I agree 100% that at this point, it should be 1 knife per household even though that goes against what I personally wish for.
I was thinking the same thing. At one point in time I could pick as many as I wanted.. I'm pretty bummed it's only 1 per person. I wish it was 2 per person.
Mike Latham is definitely one of the good guys. I've had nothing but stellar service with him over the last decade.
He's gone to great lengths to make sure that his reservation system is one of the best and most fair of all Great Eastern dealers, imo.
He's gone to great lengths to make sure that his reservation system is one of the best and most fair of all Great Eastern dealers, imo.
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In the 'good ole days'
Having said that, I agree 100% that at this point, it should be 1 knife per household even though that goes against what I personally wish for.
I'm kind of with you on this - kind of.
I am in full support of Mike's decision with limiting it to one per household. That said, it comes with inevitable side effects that I am considerably less excited about. The collectors in us all will undoubtedly be keen on obtaining more than one variant from this run which means we have, with some certainty, been forced to pay inflated secondary pricing.
Does this practice curb the flippers? Perhaps. But perhaps not. I am sure there will be plenty of folks seeking to offload their single selection for a healthy markup as soon as they get it in hand. Unfortunately, it is the nature of the beast at this point and there is naught that anyone can really do, including Mike, to genuinely hamper these practices. The folks in question care nothing for the knives themselves or the community, you can't really fix that.
It is nice to say that one per household is for the good of the community and perhaps, in spirit, I can agree. But I know the reality of it. Look at how many dealers limited the 93s to one per household and then look at how many were immediately posted for ridiculous markups afterwards. It feels nice to say, "one per household, fair shake and all", but it hasn't proven to work like that.
I think the best Mike could do is limit his SFO to a single cover variant and THEN limit it to one per household. Less desirable for a collector perhaps but it gets the knives into more appreciative hands nonetheless.
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