Knife sales

A

ASBOB

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Feb 8, 2008
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In an earlier post, Baronyx said knife sales were up 5x; he's inundated. Some questions come to mind:

--does anyone know if this true: across the industry? For some specific firms? Or just this one?

--if it is industry wide, why the largesse? Gun sales are skyrocketing, but my sense is that's fueled by fears of social breakdown, and possible shuttering of gun stores by virus restrictions. In the case of knives, would this boom be caused by: a desire for self-defense? Hobby-minded folks shut in looking for outlets? Other?
 
My initial answer is "It's none of our business why people spend money the way they do."

That said, something for you to consider might be that people using their "largesse" to buy knives, might be using money that was meant for other things like a vacation that right now is an impossibility (and will be for the foreseeable future). Gun sales ARE skyrocketing, but for reasons that would get this thread moved to the Political section to discuss fully. Knives aren't really the same because the number of people buying knives for defense is probably quite small compared to the number of people buying knives because they are users, collectors, or users who collect. Pretty simple, really.
 
Good. Considering so many small (and big) businesses have been getting hammered the last few months with the covid and lack of foot traffic, sales, etc. It is nice to hear some good news on the small business front.

ASBOB said:
Gun sales are skyrocketing, but my sense is that's fueled by fears of social breakdown, and possible shuttering of gun stores by virus restrictions. In the case of knives, would this boom be caused by: a desire for self-defense? Hobby-minded folks shut in looking for outlets? Other?
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I would agree with your statements too ^.

After watching the scare of people fighting over toilet paper, I can only imagine how many bug out, SHTF, get home bags have assembled in the past few months. I imagine the "prepping" related items have sold well the last few months.

As Quiet Quiet said, money for vacation is being spent else where.
No such thing as an open house now. Not many people buying new houses atm.
Everyone is sitting on a ton of car inventory (new and used).

So money for the usual "big" purchases are being delayed.

More people are sitting at home on the internet now too. You probably had more "impulse" buys on knives in the last few months then you did over the last few years combined.
 
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The only "prepping" I've been doing since Feb 20th is a crap load of stock market investing in my brokerage account. When the market as a whole was down 38%, that is screaming free money!
 
I would guess mostly Hobby-minded folks looking for other outlets. I think people have more free time to collect, combined with having money from not taking vacations / eating out as much etc.
 
There’s “free” money available with nothing to do and no place to go. Knives and guns aren’t affected by social distancing. I’ve made a conscious effort to set aside money not spent on going out; that could easily roll into a lot of new knives.

I also think most folks are feeling like we’re in for a significant “policy“ change at the federal government level. The rush to buy knives and guns will grow as we get closer to the November elections.
 
Mark at chefknivestogo has said sales are way up. They've had trouble boxing them up and are now only shipping to a few countries out of the US - there is associated paper work when shipping to other countries. USPS being flooded hasn't helped deliveries.
Of course that is specific, people who were now cooking during the pandemic instead of eating out, knife nuts with even more time on their hands.
 
When I get bored I’ll invariably start browsing online:oops: and I’ve honestly lost track of how many knives I’ve purchased from dealers, here and on the bay since this all started. Most have been ones that I actively searched for but several have been impulse buys. I’ve also sold quite a few here as well.
 
JAB said:
When I get bored I’ll invariably start browsing online:oops: and I’ve honestly lost track of how many knives I’ve purchased from dealers, here and on the bay since this all started. Most have been ones that I actively searched for but several have been impulse buys. I’ve also sold quite a few here as well.
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This. A thousand times this. I start looking around and think, "oh I gotta have this limited sprint run from Kershaw" (and then Kershaw proceeds to make multiple sprints, which I also have to have.) Then there is "well that carbon fiber Sebenza is slick" rapidly followed by a "I really need a large carbon fiber Sebenza to match the Small". And of course "I've always wanted a damascus Mnandi" with a "while I am waiting on that Mnandi, I've really wanted to try Spyderco's M4 steel". And most recently, "that's a really nice small Classic Sebenza" and "I'm never going to have the opportunity to buy both size Doppler Sebenzas at the same time again." And like several in between. (Not like I've had a ton of things to spend my money on the past few months anyway other than ribeye, bourbon, and knives...)

I'm going to have to start wearing cargo pants or something.
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A lot of knife guys I've talked to feel like they're on the losing side of a cultural revolution right now. Many are burrowing into hobbies to cope.
 
A lot of people have been straight out busy during this time. High risk, high stress jobs, saving lives and other essential things.

treating yourself to a new knife or anything else, is a nice reward.
 
I understand the stress thing. The whole situation now reeks of some Twilight Zone episode. It doesn't make me want to spend more money on knives or anything else, just p!sses me off.
 
pnsxyr said:
This. A thousand times this. I start looking around and think, "oh I gotta have this limited sprint run from Kershaw" (and then Kershaw proceeds to make multiple sprints, which I also have to have.) Then there is "well that carbon fiber Sebenza is slick" rapidly followed by a "I really need a large carbon fiber Sebenza to match the Small". And of course "I've always wanted a damascus Mnandi" with a "while I am waiting on that Mnandi, I've really wanted to try Spyderco's M4 steel". And most recently, "that's a really nice small Classic Sebenza" and "I'm never going to have the opportunity to buy both size Doppler Sebenzas at the same time again." And like several in between. (Not like I've had a ton of things to spend my money on the past few months anyway other than ribeye, bourbon, and knives...)

I'm going to have to start wearing cargo pants or something.
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I only wanted a carbon fiber Bareknuckle... I got a carbon fiber Bareknuckle!

I've bought many other knives as well though so...
 
I know for me having missed my vacation over memorial day weekend opened up some spare cash. Which I used on a Para 3 Spy27 lightweight and a Spyderco Smock.
 
I typically pick up extra shifts each summer, so every tyear I get some extra "play money" for trips to Vegas, down payment on car, etc.

None of that now... So my hobbies are better funded than normal. Not only knives, but other money sinks as well.
 
We have another storm forming in the Caribbean, so I decided to fill up my gas tank. I was down to half a tank; but I have been working from home since March, and haven’t had to purchase gas in 4 months. Quite a change from burning a tank and 1/2 per week. I am sure that some of the extra money has gone into knives. Having those little boxes arrive periodically helps me to appreciate the passage of time; otherwise it would be hard to keep track of the current month.

n2s
 
A lot of people are going to be struggling once their unemployment not only gets cut, but doesn't get extended after their 6 month term runs out. This fiasco could run through all of 2021 as well. Since no one wants to stay at home and rather keep getting infected. Even if the government extends it, like 2007-2009 they only extended it omce. So you could collect unemployment for one year straight. But this time there are over 20 million people competing for jobs. It's best to have a big emergency fund cause this is a once in a lifeine scenario. 2007-2009 doesnt have anything on this one. People laughed at me back in January when I told them what was coming. Wonder if they're still laughing??
 
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