It's raining Slysz Bowies Halleluyah!

I know. My jaw practically fell open. Of course it was someone with 0-0-0 feedback who bit at that price.

I had a Slysz and sold it. Liked it but didn't understand all the hype. (Maybe I'll try it again sometime, though.) Someone just sold one for 300, but before biting, I asked him for more info, at which point he said he bought it new from a retailer 6 months ago, which doesn't make any sense. (They were discontinued significantly before that, if memory serves.) Of course, on the exchange, it sold in 2 minutes, with a traffic jam behind it. I'd only buy a Slysz now knowing the history of where the knife came from originally.
i had zero interest in one until recently. I bought a spydiechef and love it. I didn't have much interest in the chef, but the buzz around it finally caught my attention. So now the bowie buzz kinda gets me a bit. Not at the current asking price tho.
Im not sure about the bowie still being at retailers, but to be fair, bentobox still has a grey g10 sprint lum tanto for sale. How long have they been discontinued? So there may be some way over priced bowies still sitting on a shelf somewhere.
 
I'm starting to feel like a real dunce for just selling mine for original msrp :eek:

They're nice, but come on.
 
They are the sebenza of spyderco.

That probably explains while I mostly feel the same way about the Slysz that I do about my purchased Sebenzas. When I have one in hand I'm deeply impressed by how really, totally, I mean completely okay they are. I feel nothing beyond that.

The stupid thing is that I keep selling them off (I gifted one to a relative) and after a year or two of all reading all the cultist praise I find myself thinking "I should give it another chance" and buying another one. I've never managed to get myself remotely interested in keeping one, though.
 
That probably explains while I mostly feel the same way about the Slysz that I do about my purchased Sebenzas. When I have one in hand I'm deeply impressed by how really, totally, I mean completely okay they are. I feel nothing beyond that.

The stupid thing is that I keep selling them off (I gifted one to a relative) and after a year or two of all reading all the cultist praise I find myself thinking "I should give it another chance" and buying another one. I've never managed to get myself remotely interested in keeping one, though.

THIS! ^

I had a Sebenza and just wondered, what the hell is all this hype about? It's OK, but what am I missing here? N. Shabazz waxed poetic about its hydraulic smoothness, but all I could do was shrug and sell it off. I get too influenced by the damned hype. And like you, I get infected by it again and again with the same knives! I think I've tried an Arius three times, already, and I *still* look at every friggin' Arius ad. There should be an Anonymous group for getting swept up in the same hype again and again; makes me feel like such a sheep-person.
 
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The sad thing is some dumbass will buy one at over 500 and not take a dime less or have to sell lower if no one bites. But yea if they keep buying them at high prices it's going to be a trend where people are just going to loose money on them when they sell.

And they are not a knife for everyone.

Of all the knives I have I put my sebenza in the top 5 for users. But others like fidgeting and action of other knives better. Cause that's half the market. Art knives and fidgeting.
 
Wait, what? If they're going for that much it's going to rain another one on the Exchange soon.
I just did a quick google and saw a few for sale on ebay for ~500, and some youtube video mentioning $600. Didn't check this site.
 
The Slys himself has designed what he would like to be the 2nd iteration last year. Unsure if it's going to spyderco yet or more prototypes. And once it goes to spyderco there will be more prototypes. So it may be a few more years before we see one.

Hey Mo2 Mo2 , did Slysz released any images of that prototype, or was it just an annoucement?

I think now I am old enough to buy a Spyderco titanium framelock......so maybe the Bowie 2 (if it ever comes to life) would be a good choice.
 
Of all the knives I have I put my sebenza in the top 5 for users. But others like fidgeting and action of other knives better. Cause that's half the market. Art knives and fidgeting.

I don't know that it's fidgeting and action exactly--I carry small fixed blades, lockbacks and slipjoints some of the time, none of which feature offer much in the fidgeting and action department.

It may be more of a different strokes for different folks kind of thing, I don't know. I've bought CF sebenzas, Insingo blades, and micarta inlays, and all I've figured out is that I like CF + Insingo best of the bunch, but they're still not my cup of tea.

They do have one great feature I love, though--it's easy to resell them and they hold their value well. Even with my lazy efforts at pricing and shipping fees and whatnot my various Sebenza trials have cost me relatively little.
 
That probably explains while I mostly feel the same way about the Slysz that I do about my purchased Sebenzas. When I have one in hand I'm deeply impressed by how really, totally, I mean completely okay they are. I feel nothing beyond that.

The stupid thing is that I keep selling them off (I gifted one to a relative) and after a year or two of all reading all the cultist praise I find myself thinking "I should give it another chance" and buying another one. I've never managed to get myself remotely interested in keeping one, though.

Crks are knives that get nicer with time and use. They aren’t really designed to have out of the box WOW factor so many people like these days.

I understand they aren’t for everyone.

450$ for a Slysz bowie cause Nick said they were cool? No thanks Just buy a CRK if you want a Ti slab knife.
 
Ok, what follows is an opinion statement...

This is a powerful case of the influence of a YouTube reviewer. The Slysz Bowie was a moderately received success for Spyderco but the high cost of manufacturing caused it to not be much of a money maker. I believe Spyderco was driven to discontinue it because they could churn out two knives in the time it took to make one Slysz Bowie. It sold OK without generating significant margin.

When Spyderco announced the Bowie was being discontinued, it was met with a general "yawn"; most of those who loved the knife at first sight/touch had already purchased it. It was at this time that Nick Shabazz revisited the Slysz Bowie. His first review, released near the time the knife shipped, had been good. It was a Gem but only a gem among many Gems. His second review was much more gushing in nature and praised the design in numerous superlative ways. That's when available stock of a discontinued knife flew off the shelves faster than bottled water before a hurricane.

As the store shelves cleared, people turned to resale. Curiously enough, some of the last retailers selling new, old stock were pricing the Bowie at or above the MSRP.

Since then, Nick has revisited the Bowie at least twice. Once for a "knife of the year" video and again in his more recent "1 knife for the rest of your life", which the Slysz won incidentally. This has only kept Bowie fever alive and burning. You can hear the conflict in Nick's voice as he knows he's laying out a knife that can no longer be found for an appropriate price. It's a tough call; is he going to say what he really feels or is he going to temper his review for the "good of the industry"?

Nick is my favorite online reviewer. I really appreciate his perspective, although his isn't always mine. I think as knife reviewers gain followers and influence, they need to be aware of what they put on the table. Perhaps knives that are no longer available shouldn't have a place, especially when presented as the best knife ever. With great power comes greater responsibility. Of course, there will always be a place for the Z-Hunter.

Either way, one reviewer's influence has largely driven the whacked out resale pricing for a very nice, discontinued production knife. It's been an interesting spectacle if nothing else. And yes, I own a Slysz Bowie that I won't ever sell but rarely carry.

EDIT: In fairness I wanted to add that Nick has done a video clearly stating that the Bowie IS NOT worth the $400 price tag we're seeing in the open market. Also in fairness, based on the post date, his re-review of the Bowie was done before the knife had been officially discontinued by Spyderco. I was wrong on my timeline of events.
 
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Crks are knives that get nicer with time and use. They aren’t really designed to have out of the box WOW factor so many people like these days.

I understand they aren’t for everyone.

450$ for a Slysz bowie cause Nick said they were cool? No thanks Just buy a CRK if you want a Ti slab knife.
Nick openly admits you shouldn't buy one for 500+ and they are not worth that coin. He's said this in many videos. Yes he preaches them as one of his favorites. But yea. The knife community that follows him is crazy with fads and trends when they see his videos. It's pretty sick but what can you do.
 
People thought they were too high at 300. At least enough did that they weren't selling well enough for Spyderco to keep them in production. Now people are going crazy to own them just because of someone else's opinion.
 
This looks like it happens regularly with the Spyderco collaboration knives. A knife is released and everyone says meh to expensive etc.

Then it's discontinued as most if not all of these are single run blades and folks suddenly want what they can't get.

Most of those knives don't really do it for me. Marcin Slysz does make really nice knives though and I'm waiting to see what the Swayback translates to if/when in production.
1422900578244
 
People thought they were too high at 300.

I was one of them.
Nice knife no doubt, but meh...it never really did it for me.

There were other things that interested me much more at the price...even at the OLD Exchange price.
 
I was never that big on the bowie and probably because it was so heavily compared to the Sebenza that I also wasn't big on either. I am not sure I ever say the bowie as being worth it for me at it's original price but we each have our on view on somethings value and it doesn't mean it isn't worth a given price. I hope people buying this knife for some of the currently inflated prices do so knowing full well what knife they are getting and how much they can or will enjoy it.

Then there is this...
This looks like it happens regularly with the Spyderco collaboration knives. A knife is released and everyone says meh to expensive etc.

Then it's discontinued as most if not all of these are single run blades and folks suddenly want what they can't get.

Most of those knives don't really do it for me. Marcin Slysz does make really nice knives though and I'm waiting to see what the Swayback translates to if/when in production.
1422900578244
That thing is an absolute beauty I want that knife so badly as I have a love of the swayback style and look.
 
Hey Mo2 Mo2 , did Slysz released any images of that prototype, or was it just an annoucement?

I think now I am old enough to buy a Spyderco titanium framelock......so maybe the Bowie 2 (if it ever comes to life) would be a good choice.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bp2Rtp9hju8/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=22ejf96h3tqd


Wait... Don't click that.. It's this one.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BfyccjMByhp/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=4othfd0ch3nb
Says spydie chief 2.

I forgot that they ment SC2 not Slysz bowie. My bad guys. Look at first link now. I'm that.
 
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