why?

[willrise]

Thoughts on why its hard to sell knives, even at well below list prices.

 

[Matteo Escobar]

Care to elaborate?

 

[Kohai999]

1. It needs to be a "name", not like "Loveless", but at least "Pardue" or "Gaston", or "Crawford".
2. The model being sold must be a popular model. You can sell a Crawford Pointguard much more readily than one of Pat's subhilts, even though Crawford fixed blades are much more rare.
3. The timing has to be right. This is not a great time to sell knives. Kids are back in school, summer is over, football season just started and hunting season is around the corner. In other words, you are competeing with a lot of other people for the almighty dollar right now.
4. An educated consumer is your best customer. If you are selling a lesser known maker, with models that do not represent the hottest sellers, and it is the wrong time of the year, than you had better write a book explaining why this is such a good deal, and the history of the maker, and why now it the time to BUY. In other words, actually SELL the knives, instead of putting a blanket on the table, and a sign that says how much they cost.
5. Clear pictures identifying knives for sale, and what they are, is a MUST. The picture ( I scan the knives on a flatbed) must show the major features of the knife, and the text should point out what these features are.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson

 

[Les Robertson]

Willrise,

What are you trying to sell that you are having such difficulty moving.....at well below retail? You are speaking of custom knives aren't you?

 

[willrise]

Thanks for the imput so far
Yes custom knives.
It suck cause most of us here do not like to sell our knives but sometimes you have to, the longer they sit the harder it is to sell, but they have to go.

 

[fulloflead]

It's like fishing. You can have the most yummy bait at exactly the right depth, but you STILL have to wait for the fish to swim by and see it.

.

 

[Walking Man]

Will, I feel your pain. It's just that lately there's been a proliferation of big, tough strong knives in megasteels, and if I'm correct, the ones you're trying to sell probably have a lot more competition than they did before. Try eBay. Oh, and about that mistress, if it hasn't sold in a few days, I'll be the one taking it.

 

[Keith Montgomery]

I think you are running into the problem of selling knives from a maker that is not that well known by the members of Bladeforums. John Dervish makes good knives, but he is not one of the makers that you see mentioned much, if at all. It is always easier to sell knives from the well known, "hot makers".

 

[Planterz]

One problem you might run into is that a particular piece a custom maker might have grabbed you, but simply doesn't grab anybody else. You saw it, you had to have it, you bought it, but now you're forced to sell it, but nobody feels the same pull towards the knife that you did.

This would also be true if you had a knife made to your particular desires and specs.