Prices losing touch with reality?

There are terrible knives coming out of China as well as very high quality ones. My issue with China isn't about quality. It's a about labor practices, pollution, and institutionalized theft of intellectual property. I don't want to support lower prices for products coming from a place where they're made with practically free labor, where workers have no rights, and there's no disincentive for stealing protected designs and engineering.

This is obviously not true of all producers (like Spyderco), but I'm inclined to buy items made elsewhere when I can.
 
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However, when you hold the product (recent Taichung Spyderco knives), you can see and feel a vast difference from decades gone by.

Why do people keep making this point when nobody has been disputing it? As has been explained in this thread multiple times already, the people who have brought up Taiwan were never saying the quality was bad.
 
There are terrible knives coming out of China as well as very high quality ones. My issue with China isn't about quality. It's a about labor practices, pollution, and institutionalized theft of intellectual property. I don't want to support lower prices for products coming from a place where they're made with practically free labor, where workers have no rights, and there's no disincentive for stealing protected designs and engineering.

This is obviously not true of all producers (like Spyderco), but I'm inclined to buy items made elsewhere when I can.
I suspect the very same labor is used to make Chinese Spyderco knives. People had the same complaints about Japan in the 60's through 80's. The only "thing" I have about China is the theft of intellectual property issue. They will deal with their other issues. There is an evolution to things of this sort in industrialized societies and I don't expect them to be the US or France.
 
I suspect the very same labor is used to make Chinese Spyderco knives. People had the same complaints about Japan in the 60's through 80's. The only "thing" I have about China is the theft of intellectual property issue. They will deal with their other issues. There is an evolution to things of this sort in industrialized societies and I don't expect them to be the US or France.
As somebody who has been there over the last 25 years, I don't see any improvement. There's no financial incentive for them to have labor laws or give workers any rights. I can't say how workers making Spyderco products in China are treated. I would guess they are not Spyderco employees.
 
That incentives become a political issue much like in Japan. It takes time. But I am not holding my breath on that issue at all.
 
The upper end Spydercos (and Benchmades, for that matter), are just a sort of "relief valve" for folks that are walking around with too much disposable income. I say that as a guy who has... (hold on, let me go check, BRB) more then two or three Spydercos:
BYRD CARA-CARA(x2), BYRD RAVEN, CENTROFANTE, CHINOOK, COPILOT, DELICA OD, DIVERS PROBE, DRAGONFLY, ENDURA, HARPY, HUNTER, JESS HORN MICARTA, JESTER, LG DYAD, LUM FOLDING TANTO, MARINER, MASSAD AYOOB,
MICHAEL WALKER LTWT, MILITARY, MINI-POLICE NECKLACE, MORAN (x2), POLICE, Q, REMOTE RELEASE, MOKI SILVER FEATHER, SNAP IT, SPUR, SPYDERCARD, SPYDERENCH (EARLY), STANDARD SERRATED, STANDARD PLAIN EDGE, TOAD,
WORKER

I lean towards the older models, and fully realize that I would probably have to sell every one of them to buy a pair or three of Spydercos modern, top line offerings. (But I doubt I will!)
 
The upper end Spydercos (and Benchmades, for that matter), are just a sort of "relief valve" for folks that are walking around with too much disposable income. I say that as a guy who has... (hold on, let me go check, BRB) more then two or three Spydercos:
BYRD CARA-CARA(x2), BYRD RAVEN, CENTROFANTE, CHINOOK, COPILOT, DELICA OD, DIVERS PROBE, DRAGONFLY, ENDURA, HARPY, HUNTER, JESS HORN MICARTA, JESTER, LG DYAD, LUM FOLDING TANTO, MARINER, MASSAD AYOOB,
MICHAEL WALKER LTWT, MILITARY, MINI-POLICE NECKLACE, MORAN (x2), POLICE, Q, REMOTE RELEASE, MOKI SILVER FEATHER, SNAP IT, SPUR, SPYDERCARD, SPYDERENCH (EARLY), STANDARD SERRATED, STANDARD PLAIN EDGE, TOAD,
WORKER

I lean towards the older models, and fully realize that I would probably have to sell every one of them to buy a pair or three of Spydercos modern, top line offerings. (But I doubt I will!)
I think you have a few on your list that would now be par with modern fancy knives. But don't sell them.
 
Since getting into knives I'm a bit amazed at how quickly my transformation was in terms of price comfort zone, for example I don't bat an eye at a $200 knife anymore. If I buy a knife and like it then I'm happy and don't fret over the cost, even though I figure we are always overpaying, especially for knives made in countries with cheap/sketchy labor.

That said, I am very interested in how much a knife, any knife, actually costs (as a component of the whole process, production, marketing, transportation, infrastructure, wages, the owners' deserving a good income for their efforts/innovation, etc.). I would never expect a maker to divulge this information, but I do wonder.

For example, I like all my Spyderco knives but when I hold say my Delica in my hand I wonder, "what makes this a $100 CAD knife"? It's a great slicer and working knife and I enjoy them immensely, but it has a very utilitarian, mass-produced, plasticky feel to it, and the components/mechanisms are by no means exotic or expensive. And given its history, it is likely very efficiently produced. I understand there is far more to a knife than the materials, but I also think that the surge in knife gearheads/aficionados is pushing the prices up simply because we are willing to pay $100 for a $40 knife. Also, it's a bit of a paradox, but it seems that the more you spend on something the more you are critical OR more accepting/enthusiastic about it.

But these are luxury items, pure and simple. I sometimes think how absurd of a hobby this is - imagine there were people collecting elaborate, exotic EDC hammers or pulleys in this fashion? You never know when you might need efficient leverage, so why not carry around a S30V pulley with G10 inlays and great bevel geometry?
 
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I don't know. But what I've determined about myself is I lose total interest when the price:diminishing returns goes exponential.
 
It's a good point.. Diminishing returns are part and parcel of incremental improvements in every interest or hobby I've had. That includes watches, firearms, clothing, shoes, cars and knives, both fixed and folding. Only the buyer can decide when it is worth continuing to upgrade. Or good is good enough. It's a reasonable decision to make at almost any point. The buyer will quickly know when they've been priced out.
 
Naturally. All I'm saying is when it goes exponential I'm out. If it's not demonstrating a tangible difference hundreds of dollars up the price spectrum it's not my jam. I'm not about conspicuous consumption.
 
I'm not about conspicuous consumption.

Applying your personal definition of conspicuous consumption to what others perceive as value may not be the best way to publicly critique a product.
 
To the contrary, the aegis of this conversation is public criticism.
 
May I gently suggest you are no longer criticizing the subject at hand but have now crossed into criticism of people who buy more expensive items than you personally care to or can afford?

I now have little doubt you would scorn my purchases of higher end knives than you personally approve of. To each his own. That’s why they exist.

Take Seiko for instance. They market watches with mechanical, quartz, electronic and hybrid movements from $100 to over $100K when considering all of their sub-divisions, from Seiko 5 and Prospex to Grand Seiko and Credor. They all tell time. Where do you begin to tell people which ones to buy and which ones to avoid?

Or because the Beretta 686 is arguably the perfect shotgun action, why should Perazzi or Fabbri exist? Your argument is specious.

Spyderco has every right to reach every market they choose to.
 
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Never said they didn't.

I don't care what other people do with their money, and I'll thank you to not put words in my mouth.

All I did was offer my opinion from my perspective and in the spirit of the thread. You don't have to agree or even like it.
 
I didn't put any words in your mouth. You launched a polemic at anyone who buys a knife at a price higher than you personally deem reasonable as conspicuous consumption. That is "dunking" on total strangers in this thread.
 
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