I've thought about this for a few days and this will be my first comment.
Spyderco had to have watched and noted the BF reaction to Benchmade when they made this move and saw how people took it. No doubt they knew there would be a lot of pushback from this.
That means they really feel this is in their best interests long term to safeguard their businesses future. I can understand them not wanting to have so much of their business relying on so few dealers in the long term.
I understand but I still won't put myself in the position to think I know what is best for Spyderco and their business model. I have asked for certain steels and models I wanted them to make a run of like everybody else does but only from the position as a customer and not a guy trying to give them advice. I have to do the same here and not place myself in the position of thinking I know what is best for them.
How will it affect me? I've thought about this after getting past any emotions I might have felt at first. (
not really. I never felt the anger some seem to have shown and can't understand it to be honest.)
It won't affect me at all, to be honest. I will still look at each purchase and decide on it's merits just as I do now. There is no difference in how I do it now. I still will only buy what I want so in that respect I see no changes. If I'm going to have anger it's going to be over the products I must buy that have got so expensive. Luxury items aren't the same as food or fuel.
I have enough knives to last the rest of my knife as well as my son's without ever buying another. I don't see myself buying too many more $250 to 300 folders in regular steels no matter how sexy they look. I do see myself buying every mule that is released as well as the Sprints like the current HAP 40 Endura and upcoming stretch as well as the future 52100 millie.
I would probably even pay more for them if I had to due to their uniqueness but hopefully I won't. I can't see the future and predict how they will fare on $300 runs of titanium and S30V. I'd guess they won't match the numbers of Enduras or Manix's sold but not many knives they can produce will TBH.
It's a shame they had to go to the trouble of applying a policy they knew would cause hard feelings with some percentage(?) of their customers. It must be important so I say good fortune and future to my favorite knife makers . I'll remain a customer.
joe