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Removing sold prices

MaxFactor said:
This has been covered before but there is a discussion and poll currently on reddit's main knife sale subreddit, r/knife_swap, on the topic. Yes, it's a different site but many forum members buy/sell there as well. I have also noticed an influx of new members buying/selling using the grading system and terms found on r/knife_swap. BladeForums, The Cove, r/knife_swap, the various Facebook groups, and ebay are all part of the community whether we like it or not and have an influence on The Knife Exchange.

I'm most curious to hear from people that have been around for a while and have a lot of feedback. Anyone know where the practice of removing sold prices came from? Seems like it has always been a thing; but that's never a reason to keep doing something.
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As - compared to some of you - a relatively new member, who bought quite a few knives here, and just started selling a couple, let me say this:

- there is a reason I buy/sell knives here and not on FB/reddit, etc. I don't think all these social media platforms are the same; neither do they form a single community.
- when I joined in 2018, the knives that I bought back then were sold for new price, minus what felt like a "BF discount". Obviously this has changed somewhat, but I still see it occasionally. I'd like to think that's still a good way to determine a price for an exchange in this small community.
- When you see, for example, Hinderer tabs just bought at Blade for $25 being sold here 2 days later for 100 bucks, the latter is - in my naive and optimistic mind :) - not the right used value. True, somebody bought it and for him/her the price was right; but: leaving the inflated price up is a useless reference for future sales. We all can find out quickly what new prices are/were, and can check on ebay how much used knives went for in the past.
- and finally, even if the sales thread is locked, if the price stays in the listing, low-ball offers keep coming in by PM for several days.

Currently, deleting or leaving the price is a personal decision, and that's OK, IMHO.

Roland.
 
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My oxymoronical stance is:
I prefer the seller to leave the listed price if I am not involved in the transaction.
If I am the buyer, I prefer the seller remove the price, but do not request it.
If I am the seller, I remove the price.

Off topic:
I have learned from posts in GB&U not to post the buyer's name unless the posted in the thread that they would take it. (Luckily I was not involved in that thread.)
 
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Vaporstang said:
My oxymoronically stance is:
I prefer the seller to leave the listed price if I am not involved in the transaction.
If I am the buyer, I prefer the seller remove the price, but do not request it.
If I am the seller, I remove the price.
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I understand your stance. :)

If you prefer your seller to pull down the sales price when you buy something from them, just ask...nothing to be hesitant about, imho.

I do it quite often for members who assume the lease on the blades I'm tired of "renting." :p

If the dude/gal gets offended somehow, that's their problem...take it under advisement and file it away for future reference.
 
For me it was more "monkey see monkey do". I came on here a few years ago, saw how other sellers did things and assumed it was proper etiquette to remove selling prices.
Also since non paying members can't ask for prices, I thought removing prices was meant to encourage people to contribute to the site by getting memberships. I might have interpreted it wrong though but that was just my reasoning that eventually turned to habit.
 
I used to leave the prices up. About a year ago I stopped doing that, just because it was easier/more convenient (as a seller) than when I kept them available to view, for reasons others have already outlined in this thread and others. That said, I do appreciate it when others leave the price up as it's something to gauge what something is worth - it's not accurate or definite, but it's better than having nothing to go off of for sure. Doubly so for customs, which I generally stick to these days.

I might change this and go back to leaving them up - something I'll consider.
 
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I always edit my for sale Threads once it has been finalized, the Buyer doesn't always want to have it public Knowledge of the Price paid, and its nothing at all negative as to why I erase the information, the Thread is done, the only reason why people don't like it is because their curiosity isn't satisfied.

You cannot gauge market value or "going rates" for what a knife sells for here on BF, knives generally sell for more $ here than on the aapk site, just as you cannot gauge true values from e-bay selling prices, the range of Audience being wider will command more traffic and hopefully more competition within the buyers for the seller to get a better price. The price will always be what the buyer wants to pay

People who demand the prices to stay up have absolutely no right whatever in any way to ask this, its none of your business, this goes for anything outside of the Knife world like a nice Car, Home etc - I would not have the cheek to ask a seller to tell me what he sold it for- nor would I disrespect the buyer doing the same, unless I am close friends with a fellow Knife Knut and we are having that discussion.
 
I've encountered some interesting people in the Remover group. Just a few examples:
- there was a knife I'd been interested in, and came across a week old ad that had just been marked sold the night before. I PM'd the seller, apologizing for the intrusion, and asked if he'd mind telling me what he'd posted as an asking price. His response: That's none of your business.
- I saw an ad for a knife I owned, but had never used... It was posted, claimed, and had the price removed within 10 minutes. I messaged the seller acknowledged the quick sale & inquired about the asking price. A moment later, I received the response "I don't remember". Total time from ad submission to amnesia: 15 minutes.
- I contacted a seller, staying I would purchase at his posted price. I didn't get an immediate response; so I went about my business. A few hours later, I received an affirmation and his PayPal address. (As I entered the price on Paypal, I had a fleeting thought about whether the price was $xx0 or $xx5.) I went back to the ad to confirm the price, and it was already gone. I immediately sent the seller a message; and he came back with a price that was $35 higher. (I pointed out the increase, and told him it was a deal breaker.)

The rules say it's the seller's choice, and I'm fine with that.
 
I don't have nearly the number of transactions as many others, but I simply strikethrough the price and put SOLD next to it, and no one has asked me to remove it. In many cases the actual sell price ended up being different than the posted price, but I don't go back and edit it...I just leave the posted price and add the strikethrough.
 
The Internet is a tool for making information on a virtually any topic more accessible. Bladeforums is a small community of like-minded enthusiasts who share their love of "everything knives"ā€”edges, designs, steels, how to identify clones, etc. Why can't we share pricing information on the sale of knives? We talk about pricing all the time. "What is DLT going to sell the XXX for?" or "Buy from these guys, not those other guys who have higher prices" or "Wow, you got a GREAT deal on this knife straight from the maker" or even "I know you love Randall knives and this is a beauty for sure, but you should educate yourself a bit on them bc you paid about twice what the knife is worth by most folks' standards." It's just a sharing of one aspect of something we love, just one more bit of information. It's not a trade secret, someone's medical history, or a detailed account containing the minutiae of someone's financial position and history.
 
on_the_edge said:
The Internet is a tool for making information on a virtually any topic more accessible. Bladeforums is a small community of like-minded enthusiasts who share their love of "everything knives"ā€”edges, designs, steels, how to identify clones, etc. Why can't we share pricing information on the sale of knives? We talk about pricing all the time. "What is DLT going to sell the XXX for?" or "Buy from these guys, not those other guys who have higher prices" or "Wow, you got a GREAT deal on this knife straight from the maker" or even "I know you love Randall knives and this is a beauty for sure, but you should educate yourself a bit on them bc you paid about twice what the knife is worth by most folks' standards." It's just a sharing of one aspect of something we love, just one more bit of information. It's not a trade secret, someone's medical history, or a detailed account containing the minutiae of someone's financial position and history.
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Exactly, not to mention that the asking price was public record before they went back and removed it...this has absolutely nothing to do with privacy and everything to do with greed.
 
I am firmly in the camp of leaving the price available in the thread. Most of my fun browsing the sales section is not even to buy, but just to see the awesome stuff that has sold. Seeing the price removed takes away some of the fun browsing the sale forums.

If I could mind control Spark for a day, I would make it a rule that price needs to remain public after the sale, just as the price needs to be posted before the sale.

When I have bought on the exchange in the past, I would quote the original sales thread, or simply say "I will take it for $X as posted", that way the price will still be available regardless of what the seller does. Quoting the original post is the best tool any of us have for keeping the price public.
 
WValtakis said:
That's how I remember it starting too...šŸ¤¬ Liu Kang.
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Yep, I remember that too. Mostly helps flippers. No one expects prices to stay constant over time and ofcourse final agreed upon prices are not known, most understand this. Flippers on the other hand don't like to have to explain why they are increasing prices over a short period of time.
 
Removing the price from a completed sale " has... everything to do with greed." Hmm :rolleyes:I think that's a bit harsh, brother Chip. I've done both, though I'm inclined to do the strikethrough these days. Often, as has been stated, the sale price is different than the asking price. Out of respect for the buyer I have, at times, deleted the price after a sale, as it did not reflect the true sale or other behind the scene activity.

Admittedly, that might be delusional on my part but in the end why is it anyone's business to know? Certainly no reason to get bent about the fact the the price is gone. Having said that, I have been wicked frustrated over the years trying to price a knife without any BF comparables but I could only shrug. I didn't think I was entitled to that info - which after all - is a moving target in any case. My 2Ā¢.

The "flipper" stuff is just wrong and they will cheat one way or the other, no matter the rules. I don't believe that leaving the price up keeps out devious behavior.
 
The only way I see the price remaining and not deleted is if there is a box or section in the headline or something that the price goes into and that can't be changed. I will never be one to argue for more regulations however.

Some feel there is no upside to leaving the price up.

I have gone back to the email alerts to look at prices that have been deleted as they are still in the email alert. Some have figured out that if they don't put it in the original post they save, then it won't show in the email alert. They then edit the post to put in the price and then delete it after sale.

This seems like a herding cats situation to me.
 
Fire King said:
The only way I see the price remaining and not deleted is if there is a box or section in the headline or something that the price goes into and that can't be changed. I will never be one to argue for more regulations however.

Some feel there is no upside to leaving the price up.

I have gone back to the email alerts to look at prices that have been deleted as they are still in the email alert. Some have figured out that if they don't put it in the original post they save, then it won't show in the email alert. They then edit the post to put in the price and then delete it after sale.

This seems like a herding cats situation to me.
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See when someone goes to these extents to delete prices that just makes one think they are doing something wrong, regardless if they are or not. Even though the final price might not be the original listed price it is somewhat close to it in most cases. I doubt a $220 knife will sell for $110 after negotiations, so it still gives community an idea of prices. No one is asking to keep the negotiated price public, just the asking price. How does it hurt the buyer that paid $200 after negotiation to leave the original $220 price up?

The example of market crashing because of an avalanche of lower prices because someone drunk sold something is an amusing story, but would never happen in reality. There could be a tiny, very short lived dip, but it would get corrected very quickly as most sellers would not be willing to loose that much on the resale, so prices would go back to "normal" rather quickly. If Exchange is part of the community then leaving prices is beneficial to the community as all information is. If it is an animal unto itself then sure deleting prices is the way to go as it makes it easier to resell knives for more. There are no privacy issues for items listed publicly, so that argument doesn't stand. This whole idea that asking the price of a sold item being insulting is rather bizarre. Try to sell or buy a house without comparables, previous sold prices are preserved and are known, yet noone expects to pay same price for a house today that it sold for 10 years ago.
 
I've definitely cross checked prices on the spot to make sure I wasn't getting beaten to death on prices which has lead me to miss out on knives as they sold quickly.

I don't have a problem with either method but it's always nice to see a reference on the listed price, regardless of what it ended up being sold for.
 
New to the forum and new to collecting knives, so I really donā€™t know much about the secondary market. For me, if there is a particular knife Iā€™m looking for and I see a listing that I just missed out on (itā€™s happened a couple times) I find it helpful if a price is still showing so I can get a feel for what I should expect to pay. When prices are removed l, I have no such reference point. Just my nobody 2 cents.
 
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