High Prices on New Randalls

[NFA]

I suggest that anyone that pays more than Randall catalog price for a new current production model is crazy. Yes, I know that wait is said to be 40 months. Well, it is 40 months if you order the knife directly from Randall. Yadda, yadda, yadda. The secret is that the wait is actually 12-14 months if you can find a Randall authorized dealer to order the knife you want in his regular allotment of knives from Randall. Most authorized Randall dealers (the truthful ones anyway) will gladly order your knife and will charge you only the prevailing catalog price at the time of delivery. A number of these Randall authorized dealers advertise in the back of the Randall Knife Society Newsletter. I joined the RKS in the first year of its existence. The annual dues is only $20.00. www.randallknifesociety.com

I introduce this discussion topic for the information and benefit of all of those regular readers of this discussion group.

The unscrupulous prey on the uninformed. The next time a huckster of a new Randall justifies an absurd premium price to you with, "The current wait is 40 months." You can reply with, "BS." Caveat emptor.

 

[NFA]

An illustration of my point above.

Cruising the internet I found the knife pictured below for sale. A standard Randall Made Model 1. Leather handle and tool steel blade with an optional wrist thong. The seller wants $379.00. The current Randall List Price for this knife with delivery is $270.00.

 

[sepcat]

Yes,

A little patience can save a lot of money and in the mean time use what you have or pick up what you need for cheap.

I ordered mine from the shop and back then it was 25ish months or so and in the mean time until I receive my Randall, I've been and will be using my Grohmann which does everything quite well.. And at the time if I was aware of the authorized dealers who don't over charge, I would have went with them.

Cheers.

 

[Rhett Stidham]

This is Rhett Stidham of the Randall Knife Society and Stidham's Knives. On the subject of high prices, it all depends on where and when in the selling chain you purchase your Randall. I do not have a Randall dealership and most likely never will. Recently I traded for about 20 Randalls at the escalated prices. In fact, the knife pictured here, I traded for a similar one at $395.00. All of the knives were similarly priced as the fellow I traded with was not a Randall dealer either( he did have a very high priced over-head with his store being in a high rent Connecticutt town). I justified these prices because I was trading knives I wanted to get out of my inventory. So when I priced them for show selling I priced them at these same elevated prices as what I put into them in trade. In the last 45 days almost all of these knives have sold at those prices. Each buyer was told he was paying an elevated price and I told them approximately how much. I did miss some sales, but most people did not seem to mind. And yes, I did use the 40 month wait psychology.

What some buyers do not think about is, how much it costs the seller, at a show to do business. My yearly business expenses in 2000 were over $80,000.00 in doing just over 20 shows. Another dealer, that also has a cutlery store, told me his expenses were over $200,000.00. Some show table fees are as high as $750.00 per table. So as you can see there is more to the price of a knife than the actual purchase price.

A lot of dealers, sell most of their knives to their old customers, so it is hard to get into that buying frame with only a 12-14 month wait. Also, since dealers only get a 25% discount from Randall they are not making a lot of money either. So, when some of them sell above the Randall list price don't hold that against them. If you don't like the price, just pass on the deal.

It is a great way to make a living though. Regards, Rhett Stidham

 

[Melvin-Purvis]

...the first of course being...

"Any item, Randall knives included, only has monetary value at a very few momments during your ownership of it...when you buy it, when you sell it, and/or if you need to file an insurance claim against its loss"

(Seemingly tired cliche's are these random thoughts, but true nonetheless...)

"People will pay top dollar for something if, A: they want it now, B: they can afford it, or C: a combination of A & B..."

"Price paid will pale in comparison to quality over time..."

Yadda, yadda, yadda...

The bottom line here is that the perception that people are paying 'too much' for an item, any item, is based on the perception of the person formulating the thought...

A few other thoughts...I don't mind paying a purveyor such as Rhett, TAD, nifeboy, et al. 'More than the going rate', because, and simply because, they bring the knives I want to the table...their table, their cost...my cost, and I'm thankful that they do.

Also, if you 'just have to have it' at the lowset cost, we'll all be shopping at Wal-Mart someday, because all the independants will have gone under.

Lastly, I've bought, traded, or sold, some 50 RMK's over the last two years, many at 'More than the going rate', and have yet to lose a nickel in a fair trade or sale.

I dunno, like Rhett said, paraphrased, "If it's 'too much' for you, then keep walking...no harm, no foul..."

Mel

 

[NFA]

I pass on 99% of Randall offerings because I refuse to pay more than Randall List Price for new current production RMK knives. I am very surprised to learn that Rhett Stidham is not an authorized Randall dealer. He has done more than anyone else through the Randall Knife Society to promote the collecting of Randall knives. I think that an appropriate gesture by RMK to recognize Rhett's contribution would be to designate him to be an authorized Randall dealer.