Mule team - preorder

[pantagana23]

Frustrated by losing another Mule, and this time was really interested, I come to the logical question - why doesn't Spyderco allow pre-order for a specific Mule batch?

So far it's always been a massacre when the sales start - page blocked for an hour, and when it finally starts working - SOLD OUT.

Come on!

There have been over 500 possible orders just from this forum for the Magnacut mule according to the pole.

All those people would buy, and now I see this guy who lost MT01 now losing this Mule also.

Please Spyderco crew - let us preorder a Mule team.

Limit preorder until a certain date before you buy the steel.

I can not say for sure, but I believe that people from this forum would preorder and wait patiently, as they have for numerous reveals.

I can definitely say that I would.

Stop the madness - start with preorder option.

[pantagana23]

Frustrated by losing another Mule, and this time was really interested, I come to the logical question - why doesn't Spyderco allow pre-order for a specific Mule batch?

So far it's always been a massacre when the sales start - page blocked for an hour, and when it finally starts working - SOLD OUT.

Come on!

There have been over 500 possible orders just from this forum for the Magnacut mule according to the pole.

All those people would buy, and now I see this guy who lost MT01 now losing this Mule also.

Please Spyderco crew - let us preorder a Mule team.

Limit preorder until a certain date before you buy the steel.

I can not say for sure, but I believe that people from this forum would preorder and wait patiently, as they have for numerous reveals.

I can definitely say that I would.

Stop the madness - start with preorder option.

Edit:
Anyone who didn't get one today and/or think this is a good idea, please support.

[Fireman]

I would definitely pre order but I think the pre orders would have the same issue. The demand exceeds the supply. If Spyderco did a second batch of another 2,000 pieces they would go pretty quick too. I wonder if Spyderco would entertain the idea of a second batch? I think a pre sale to forum members might be an option worth considering.

[pantagana23]

I would definitely pre order but I think the pre orders would have the same issue. The demand exceeds the supply. If Spyderco did a second batch of another 2,000 pieces they would go pretty quick too. I wonder if Spyderco would entertain the idea of a second batch? I think a pre sale to forum members might be an option worth considering.

Preorder is only problematic if it does not have a limit.

If they limit preorders to a certain date, after which they close it, and order the steel after this, it would not present a problem.

[aicolainen]

I would definitely pre order but I think the pre orders would have the same issue. The demand exceeds the supply. If Spyderco did a second batch of another 2,000 pieces they would go pretty quick too. I wonder if Spyderco would entertain the idea of a second batch? I think a pre sale to forum members might be an option worth considering.

Preorder is only problematic if it does not have a limit.

If they limit preorders to a certain date, after which they close it, and order the steel after this, it would not present a problem.

Assuming you can buy as much steel as you want.
Doesn’t always appear to be the case.

[RustyIron]

Stop the madness - start with preorder option.

Dude! There WAS a pre-order! You missed it? It started at 9:00 a.m. this morning. You pre-order, and then they'll ship it out to you in the next few days.

How would your idea be any different? Maybe Spyderco could go live with your "pre-order" six business days before they're ready to ship? How exactly would the server load be any different?

[ladybug93]

i've thought about how it would be nice to have a quiet release to forum members or a way to give active forum members guaranteed orders before the drop. realistically though, that's just going to bring a lot more people around here that don't really want to be here and the vibe on the forum will go south real quick. getting my hands on whatever knife i want isn't worth that trade-off. we've seen some pretty ugly negativity around here already lately... can you imagine if all the flippers knew they had to spend time here to be considered for early access? it would probably make this place unbearable.

[nmtminer]

Pre ordering just shifts the massive server load to an earlier point in time. Making pre-orders available to forum members probably wouldn't work well either since the vast majority of orders come from forum members anyway. What really needs to happen is Spyderco needs to invest in scalable web hosting services like AWS so that even if the knives sell out in 10 min we're not waiting around for the 1 hr 20 min refreshing the webpage hoping we get one.

[Fireman]

I think it would be cool if Spyderco hand pics people they know will use the knife as product research as intended and invite to pre sell to them so that Spyderco gets the feedback they want. Spyderco hands out patches to their elite mule team members (waiting for mine lol). If there was an elite team membership with a secret code or team member number, that could benefit the devotees and spyderco.

[pantagana23]

Stop the madness - start with preorder option.

Dude! There WAS a pre-order! You missed it? It started at 9:00 a.m. this morning. You pre-order, and then they'll ship it out to you in the next few days.

How would your idea be any different? Maybe Spyderco could go live with your "pre-order" six business days before they're ready to ship? How exactly would the server load be any different?

Example:
Spyderco announces Vanax MT.
Puts preorders Feb 1st - Mar 1st.
Orders Vanax steel plates Mar 2 or later.
Production time....
Mule starts sale at April/May/June/July/August... whenever.
I preorder between Feb 1st - Mar 1st without any compulsive clicking and wait for a few months.

Does this sound ok to you?

Edit: Wrong date of order

[yablanowitz]

Currently there is a two year lead time on steel aquisition and production of a Mule. Maybe more, depending on the steel. Not many people in this day and age have the patience to wait quietly for two to three years on a pre-order.

[standy99]

Pre orders just mean people would moan if they missed out on a pre-order…..


This was always going to happen with this steel….

PD1 sat around for nearly a year, and everyone wanted it when it was gone.
I was able to buy number 23 and 27 mules for months.

[pantagana23]

Currently there is a two year lead time on steel aquisition and production of a Mule. Maybe more, depending on the steel. Not many people in this day and age have the patience to wait quietly for two to three years on a pre-order.

From what I've seen with Magnacut, it was not even close to 2 years from, not order, but the invention of the steel.


But I can't speak of production steels, even if reason tells me that lead times should be even less.

Ok, now in the time of the pandemic, all lead times went to ****, I know.

Products previously having lead times up to 4 weeks (talking about complete engines or generators) now have lead times 40 - 80 weeks.

Anyway, to get back on track, I would rather preorder without any fuss, forget about it for the next year or two, and get a smile on my face when I see I got a mail from Spyderco that my order is shipping than not being able to order at all if I don't manically refresh page for an hour or two.

[superpog]

I bet this is the case, the amount of steel can be got is limited, so I would expect a preorder simply just shift the congestion to whenever the pre-order is set...

I would definitely pre order but I think the pre orders would have the same issue. The demand exceeds the supply. If Spyderco did a second batch of another 2,000 pieces they would go pretty quick too. I wonder if Spyderco would entertain the idea of a second batch? I think a pre sale to forum members might be an option worth considering.

Preorder is only problematic if it does not have a limit.

If they limit preorders to a certain date, after which they close it, and order the steel after this, it would not present a problem.

Assuming you can buy as much steel as you want.
Doesn’t always appear to be the case.

[nmtminer]

Currently there is a two year lead time on steel aquisition and production of a Mule. Maybe more, depending on the steel. Not many people in this day and age have the patience to wait quietly for two to three years on a pre-order.

I very well maybe be in the minority on this one, but waiting two years for a preorder mule to be made is a better than what I went though this morning. My ADHD self would probably forget I ordered the knife and then get an email saying it shipped and it would be like Christmas in 'insert month here'!! Heck doing preorders would probably cut down on scalping as you'd really only gut buyers who were in it for the steel not for the quick buck.

[pantagana23]

Currently there is a two year lead time on steel aquisition and production of a Mule. Maybe more, depending on the steel. Not many people in this day and age have the patience to wait quietly for two to three years on a pre-order.

I very well maybe be in the minority on this one, but waiting two years for a preorder mule to be made is a better than what I went though this morning. My ADHD self would probably forget I ordered the knife and then get an email saying it shipped and it would be like Christmas in 'insert month here'!! Heck doing preorders would probably cut down on scalping as you'd really only gut buyers who were in it for the steel not for the quick buck.

[nmtminer]

Currently there is a two year lead time on steel aquisition and production of a Mule. Maybe more, depending on the steel. Not many people in this day and age have the patience to wait quietly for two to three years on a pre-order.

I very well maybe be in the minority on this one, but waiting two years for a preorder mule to be made is a better than what I went though this morning. My ADHD self would probably forget I ordered the knife and then get an email saying it shipped and it would be like Christmas in 'insert month here'!! Heck doing preorders would probably cut down on scalping as you'd really only gut buyers who were in it for the steel not for the quick buck.

Well thats two people, how many more can we get!?

[Dane]

I dont support preorders on forums for sure.
What would stop reselers on ebay to create severals accounts (on family members, neighbors, colegs from work) and they would have a lot for resele on secondary.....there would be no way to prevent that.

Today was hard drop, i wait 75 minutes and get mine 2.

[PBWilson]

I like the idea of a pre-order but if the lead times are years down the line, it may not work as intended.

I wonder if registering here, expressing specific interest in a given steel, giving a non-refundable deposit and then being willing to wait would be an option.

I've thought about this and read MANY ideas and may just be spewing old ideas that wouldn't work for a reason that I don't see just yet. Mule teams most likely are a tiny drop in the bucket for Spyderco and I can see that devoting time and people-power to that end might not work.

Anyway, Sal asking for specific interest in the MagnaCut Mule a while back is a step in the right direction and I'm glad that Sal and others at Spyderco take the time to drop in and rub elbows with the masses every now and again.

[nmtminer]

I dont support preorders on forums for sure.
What would stop reselers on ebay to create severals accounts (on family members, neighbors, colegs from work) and they would have a lot for resele on secondary.....there would be no way to prevent that.

Today was hard drop, i wait 75 minutes and get mine 2.

Today definitley was a tougher drop. Hopefully the company will make changes to accommodate high traffic events like this in the future. But to answer your first question, honestly what stops scalpers from doing something like you predict is the fact that they'd have lots of money tied up for a long time and scalpers generally are in it for a quick buck. Keep in mind this is a niche product so if Spyderco allows people to preorder Mules and then makes their purchase of material to fill that order plus some for a couple hundred more that go on a normal drop, then most people who are interested in the knife already have one so there would be little demand for knives, especially at scalper prices.

I realize I sort of refined the idea of the preorder program there, to specifically deal with the scalpers you proposed. And in truth no matter what type of program they roll out there will always be scalpers of some kind.

I don't blame scalpers for what happened today, I don't blame the people who bought two knives (I was planning on buying two myself). Today was a calamity simply because Spyderco seems to not want to make the investment into website infrastructure that they need to handle so many people. If they didn't do preorders I be more than willing to pay a couple of extra bucks to help pay for a temporary boost in server capacity during the drop so that I don't waste over an hour of my time stressed out. Does that mean it Mules sell out in minutes, yes but they were doing that before anyway.