As a potential customer, I'll be honest. I'm put-off by the Friday speed sales. It's a game I have no interest in. As CPK has no problem moving their knives, it seems to work well for them. Not so much for the customer I'm afraid.
I have no problem being patient. I have custom guitars I've waited over 3 years for, and a custom amp that took almost 2 years. (interestingly- it was finished when promised, to the day!) All required thousands upfront.
Why not give potential customers the option of waiting in an orderly queue? Make them pay in full upon ordering if it helps.
Forcing clients to make a frantic purchase in a seconds long time window is what my father would have called a "Mickey Mouse" way of doing things. It's not businesslike.
Sorry if that sounds harsh, but you asked.
Regarding your comment, "Micky Mouse way of doing things - It's not business like". This needs some rebuttal because the dizzying fast pace ways of Fridays sales were not designed in that way yet have morphed into how things have become. Before there was even a Carothers Performance Knives (
a subforum and nomenclature which only dates back to June 2016) as an entity or a even trading name, Nathan used to produce a bucket full of knives (
his words) every couple of weeks, run a sale on Fridays and have Jo contact claimants the following week ... Lather, rinse and repeat. In other words, things were pretty chill and relaxed with some sales not selling out for hours or even for days! All you have to do to verify this is to go back and check the pace of Nathan's sales from say 2011 to 2015. Nothing unbusinesslike about any of this as they seem to have preferred a slower pace, maybe less headaches (
because knives were already made and ready to ship) and perhaps even a better quality in their personal lives. Lest we also forget that knife making was not even Nathan's main business staple 6-7 years ago!
Today's CPK has grown from words of mouth backed by awesome quality knives offered at great values as compared to their peers (
IMHO they are peerless for how they are and for what they are but I'm very biased). Nathan is actually terrible at the marketing game and gimmickry! His website is antiquated, unfinished and the Webmaster is overworked already. CPK has never used outside social media influencers and just marches to its own beat. There is no doubt in the fact that as CPK grows Nathan will have to rethink and revise his antiquated sales method but then again, he's a technical guy (
not a marketing guy) with plenty on his plate already. I don't think that the way his Fridays sales go down is entirely pleasing to him but he also counts on the CPK patrons and crucially the CPK veterans to display modicums of respect and restraint. Honestly what turns some people off, specially the pedestrian type of potential customers like you, emanates from the conduct of some people SUCH AS ME AND MY ILK than what Nathan condones or even sanctions. I feel that it is high time that some of us / most of us clean up our acts because we are clearly imprinting a bad reflection on CPK. I have become more introspective about this and hope that some of the others who read this and feel the resonance will also follow suit.
In closing, I'm still a nobody with no pull and no real clout in the grand scheme of things, but I'm the first on Nathan's speed dial when he needs to hear lullabies.
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