^^ In response to a couple of the International member's above:
My sincerest apologies if I've offended anyone here in the International community, but I
do, paint with a
very broad brush; especially when I'm transacting with random stranger's,
on the internet! I mean who of you here, do I actually, really know? I've been fortunate to meet a few member's/Dealer/Custom knife maker's. here in SoCal (face to face), but those exceptions have been few & far between.
Just because someone's a member here, & may use a famous action movie star's picture, or perhaps a really stupid, smug looking profile picture; how do I
really know, that that stupid looking profile picture, is truly the person, pictured in that profile picture???
I witnessed a situation on a social media site a year or 2 ago, where a couple of people were scammed, simply because the scammer was very creative. He used fake pictures successfully creating a fake make believe family. He then used these illusions of grandeur (portraying himself as a very successful, loving father/husband, posing with his beautiful lovely wife, smiling children, & expensive cars...as well as quoting Scripture), to lure in his prey. Heck, I even put my guard down, because that fictitious wife he chose, was smoking hot!
And then this person, was even more creative, taking the the time to create & groom other fake accounts, which he used to validate the one he used to scam with.....& then he just disappeared with his cache of stolen knives...never to be heard from again.
Truth be told, I'd really like to transact with everybody here, but the culmination of reading so many BAD GBU stories & then factoring in how unpredictable Customs can sometimes be, along with the increased chances of loss/theft on the long journey abroad, I just don't feel like taking the the chance of dealing Internationally, any longer. It's risky enough dealing with people
within the U.S. 50.
As for the the OP here:
He absolutely seems like a very nice, respectful young man.
I just took exception with the way he dealt with this situation (creating a GBU thread). These are the potential communication breakdowns, all people face when they choose to deal on the internet & with their tech devices. I have no doubt, that had Ryan had ability to meet Mr. Coats in person at his shop, they'd probably be good friend's today.
I'm really looking forward to seeing this knife!