Opinions on buying knives through lotteries?

[Bob Denman]

Good info: Thanks!

 

[RousingRabbles]

One thing I thought of while reading this was that I prefer a lottery way more than the auctions that some makers do. I immediately lost interest in a makers work when I saw how much some of his pieces were going for on his Instagram auctions. Just seemed like he was cutting out the middleman scalping his own knives for a premium price. The lottery’s seem to be more honest in a way because the maker is transparent about their pricing and isn’t trying to squeeze out the max amount of profit.

 

[Quiet]

One thing I thought of while reading this was that I prefer a lottery way more than the auctions that some makers do. I immediately lost interest in a makers work when I saw how much some of his pieces were going for on his Instagram auctions. Just seemed like he was cutting out the middleman scalping his own knives for a premium price. The lottery’s seem to be more honest in a way because the maker is transparent about their pricing and isn’t trying to squeeze out the max amount of profit.

....what? I mean, first of all, a knife is worth whatever a maker can command for it. Seems to me that you'd want the maker to be the one making an actual profit from his work, instead of a flipper. So, I'm not sure how a maker is "scalping" his own work, unless by scalping, you mean "setting the value for what his time, energy, skills, and effort are worth". If you don't agree with that valuation, don't buy the knife. Seems to me, you wanted the knife, but didn't want to pay the maker what the market says they're worth. Understandable, we've all been there.

 

[madcap_magician]

I don't mind lotteries, I think they're fair. I really hate raffles, though. Really, really. Unless it's a charity fundraiser.

 

[Danke42]

....what? I mean, first of all, a knife is worth whatever a maker can command for it. Seems to me that you'd want the maker to be the one making an actual profit from his work, instead of a flipper. So, I'm not sure how a maker is "scalping" his own work, unless by scalping, you mean "setting the value for what his time, energy, skills, and effort are worth". If you don't agree with that valuation, don't buy the knife. Seems to me, you wanted the knife, but didn't want to pay the maker what the market says they're worth. Understandable, we've all been there.

& then we all stopped buying Emersons.

 

[RousingRabbles]

....what? I mean, first of all, a knife is worth whatever a maker can command for it. Seems to me that you'd want the maker to be the one making an actual profit from his work, instead of a flipper. So, I'm not sure how a maker is "scalping" his own work, unless by scalping, you mean "setting the value for what his time, energy, skills, and effort are worth". If you don't agree with that valuation, don't buy the knife. Seems to me, you wanted the knife, but didn't want to pay the maker what the market says they're worth. Understandable, we've all been there.

That’s a fair take. I definitely prefer the maker to receive a good profit for quality work. Not really an issue in being able to afford it or not wanting to pay the maker what they say they’re worth because they’re not doing that in this case. They are letting the potential buyers outbid each other, which is essentially the same as a highly inflated secondary. Ultimately, I say more power to the maker for getting more money for their work, I’ve just never bought into hype pricing and won’t pay much more than table for any knife.

 

[King of the Cheese]

Lotteries are necessary if an item has unusually high-demand or is part of a one-off. It’s 2021, and there are tech advancements that allow people to click-to-buy in fractions of a second. I think lotteries keep the bots from profiteering and allow a good cross-section of the interested market a chance to buy.