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Thoughts on authorized dealers raising GEC prices above the minimum sale price.

Fixall

Brian
Dealer / Materials Provider
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We've been seeing this more and more. Several authorized GEC dealers have recently been raising their prices above the minimum set by Great Eastern Cutlery.

For example, the recent thread brought attention to Triplexxxcutlery posting knives on ebay for double the minimum price set by GEC. Now non-ebay dealers are getting into the mix.

GPKnives is currently selling the GEC #19 Little Rattler in Micarta for $99.95 and Gunstock Jack is selling it for $89. DLT and KnivesShipFree choose to sell these knives at the minimum price of $69.90. That's a markup of $30 for GPK and $20 for Gunstock Jack above the standard markup. It was the same thing with the GEC #74. Both Gunstock Jack and GPK were selling the #74 for $20 - $40 more than I paid at KSF.

Thoughts?

Personally, I'm a bit torn. On one hand, when the dealer sets a higher price it leaves less profit for scalpers which makes them less likely to buy them to resell... And if someone is going to make a little extra money off of the sell, I would prefer it to be the dealer who put in the work, rather than a reseller who snapped a couple pictures and posted the knife on a forum/ebay.

On the other hand, paying 40% above GEC's minimum price leaves a bad taste in my mouth... Especially when other dealers like DLT and KSF are still selling them at MAP.
 
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Some of these dealers charge sales tax based on the state where you live and a shipping fee. The #19 I bought from DLT ended up costing me $81.82. KSF does not charge me CA sales tax and no shipping fee. Trust me I would have purchased from them if I’d had the opportunity. The other two dealers don’t charge me sales tax but have shipping fees. At this point if is a knife that I want the difference in costs is pretty much a wash for me.
 
Some of these dealers charge sales tax based on the state where you live and a shipping fee. The #19 I bought from DLT ended up costing me $81.82. KSF does not charge me CA sales tax and no shipping fee. Trust me I would have purchased from them if I’d had the opportunity. The other two dealers don’t charge me sales tax but have shipping fees. At this point if is a knife that I want the difference in costs is pretty much a wash for me.

Funny you bring that up. On the last order from Gunstock I was charged a $5.50 shipping fee and $9.45 WA state tax ON TOP of the 30%+ markup.

So a knife that would cost me $69.90 at DLT or KSF would cost me $102.33 at Gunstock Jack's (and the markup on the Sambar stag GEC #74 was even bigger). Even if I add tax and $5 shipping to the DLT/KSF price I only end up at $81.
 
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Funny you bring that up. On the last order from Gunstock I was charged a $5.50 shipping fee and $9.45 WA state tax ON TOP of the 30%+ markup.
Yeah, the last knife I bought from him I was charged for shipping but not for CA sales tax, go figure.
 
I guess in the grand scheme of things I would rather pay an authorized dealer the markup than a scalper. What bothers me the most about this is that GPK's prices have always been very competitive to the best of my knowledge.

I don't necessarily blame them or any dealer for taking advantage of the demand. It's just that this one kind of snuck up on me. GPK is one of the dealers that I least expected to see this from. I'm no less shocked to see this from GPK than I would be if DLT had done it.

I have a GEC #19 on the way that should arrive tomorrow. I paid $88 for it with free shipping and no tax from an authorized dealer because I wanted to make sure I didn't miss out and I didn't think the markup was excessive.

I guess I'll just have to keep an eye on this. I've never really bought a lot of GEC knives in the first place. I suppose I could write them off altogether if things get too out of hand.
 
Well it's a popular comment that if the prices are higher the flippers will be dissuaded. Let's see what happens.

I guess in the grand scheme of things I would rather pay an authorized dealer the markup than a scalper. What bothers me the most about this is that GPK's prices have always been very competitive to the best of my knowledge.

That's the positive I'm trying to take from this too. I'd much rather see the businesses with overhead and who put in all the hard work get the profits. Still stings a bit I suppose though.

I was very disappointed to see GPK taking part in this too as they were one of my "go to" sites. I have been noticing that the discontinued Boker's I've had my eye on are consistently $20 - $30 more expensive at GPK than they are at BladeHQ though. That really surprised me.
 
Sidebar; we don't really have any GEC dealers here in Canada anyway so for us folks it's business as usual.

Thanks for putting that a bit in perspective for me. We do have it pretty easy here in the states when it comes to getting a knife you want at a reasonable price. Now if my dumb state would just legalize automatic knives, lol.
 
That's the positive I'm trying to take from this too. I'd much rather see the businesses with overhead and who put in all the hard work get the profits. Still stings a bit I suppose though.

I was very disappointed to see GPK taking part in this too as they were one of my "go to" sites. I have been noticing that the discontinued Boker's I've had my eye on are consistently $20 - $30 more expensive at GPK than they are at BladeHQ. That really surprised me.
My opinion would be though that it's a faulty theory. If flippers are buying knives for $70 and flipping them for $140 then if the knives are $100 they'll carry on and flip them for $200 and actually increase their margin.

If something is hot the flippers don't have a line where they nope out.
 
My opinion would be though that it's a faulty theory. If flippers are buying knives for $70 and flipping them for $140 then if the knives are $100 they'll carry on and flip them for $200 and actually increase their margin.

If something is hot the flippers don't have a line where they nope out.

Definitely a possibility. Rather than the flipper noping out... I'm kind of hoping the buyer/collector nopes out and hurts the profits of the flipper. But then again... If a buyer is willing to buy a $70 knife for $140, they probably would have no issue buying that same knife for $200 if it originally sold for $100.

You'll just switchblade your eye out

Pretty likely, lol.
 
A Dealer would be stupid to not get fair market value. MSRP is just a benchmark for comparison. This is a Capitalist economy, not a “to each according to his needs” economy. Plus no one needs a GEC :)
 
A Dealer would be stupid to not get fair market value. MSRP is just a benchmark for comparison. This is a Capitalist economy, not a “to each according to his needs” economy. Plus no one needs a GEC :)

Did you just call KSF and DLT stupid? :p

I get what you're saying and agree to an extent. I just think there is a fine line between leaving money on the table and driving off your customer base. GEC's fetch a premium on the secondhand market because the masses want them and there is limited availability for most models. Raise the price too much and I think the masses will lose interest. Heck, after I sold my Elderberry GEC #97 Eureka Jack I had some regrets and looked into picking up a Sambar Stag #97. After seeing the secondary prices I decided to pick up a Case/Tony Bose Eureka Jack instead because why the hell wouldn't I when the prices are similar.
 
A Dealer would be stupid to not get fair market value. MSRP is just a benchmark for comparison. This is a Capitalist economy, not a “to each according to his needs” economy. Plus no one needs a GEC :)

A dealer setting a price way above MSRP on a brand new release is not asking fair market value, they’re charging what they think that value is or should be, much akin to price gouging or flipping.
 
I bought a mustang Ironwood from Knife Connection and it was about 30 bucks more that than his first batch. I was more than happy to pay that. Yah know why? Because he put out an email saying he got this second batch from a dealer and there was a markup to pass on. That is class!! He even puts out an email saying when he will drop them. I like that a lot. I know DLT and GP do not. Neither does KSF except for Northwoods and Waynorth.

I wish more dealers would give a shout out to when they will drop, to give everyone a fair warning instead of maybe some of the select few getting insider info.
I called GP and asked if they would consider doing an email to let us know when they will drop. Nope. And he really did not care what my thoughts were on it either. It is what it is. So if they are raising their prices like that then I that is a double whammy for me. No more GP for me.

The other dealers that sell at fair prices that still do not give notifications, I will still try them if I am at the right place at the right time.

Having said all this, there are still a few smaller dealers that I give the bulk of my business to. They are fair. They are a one man show. They tell me like it is. Gary at Northwest told me flat out that he could not get me an Ironwood mustang but he got me a brown micarta. Great! And he is prompt with emails and is always thankful for the business. Gary is a class act and I will always give him my business. When I hear about a release, I immediately email him and he puts me on his list and I let the chips fall where they may. They are doing it for the love of the hobby and a making a few bucks here and there. They want to pass the hobby on to others and not gouge people. Also, maybe guys like Gary will get more business by selling at fair prices. More sales at fair price at the end they make more profit that these guys that are gouging(Gouging=losing business).

In my opinion, I am disappointed at Barry Gunstock. I know a lot of Forum members probably buy from him. I just feel he is kind of sticking it to us. Just my opinion. And he is a Waynorth dealer too, and handled a Charlie Forum knife a few years back. I think the last Waynorth drop, there was some rumbling about jacked up prices. I just think being a Waynorth dealer is another level of integrity, since MANY Forum members really support Charlie. Again, just my opinion.
 
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There may be a time when the GEC releases cool down or the economy goes down the toilet and people remember what dealers were screwing them and which ones were not.
For sure. This is a luxury, not a necessity. And many people are hurting financially at this very moment.
 
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