Why the torture Spyderco?

[Blueboost]

As a 30 year customer I've got to say..
C'mon guys, WTH?!? These sprint and exclusive knives are getting on my nerves now. I get an email from BladeHQ today, open it and all the pm2 tantos are already sold out... Again. This only compounds the frustration that the only other tanto is the Lum c46 folder which is also a limited/sprint spyderco.

I don't understand why, with all of the whacky kooky styles and blade shapes Spyderco makes, that it's like trying to pull teeth in an alabama trailer park to get ahold of what should be a pretty standard blade shape.

I LOVE Spyderco but you guys don't want my money. My last three knives were a cold steel recon tanto folder (you guys have done this so much better aka C46), a benchmade super freak, and today I ordered a microtech ultratech after I couldn't spend that money on a spyderco yet again. Same thing happened with several other exclusives. I mean I feel like I'm not part of the :spyder: club now.

Why can't you guys just make these cool knives for everyone and stop with this BladeHQ exclusive nonsense? The same people always buy them up and then flip them for profit.. I have #683 of the original C46 lum tanto and I carry it. No use waiting for something better to come out, no use sitting in a safe anymore. Me and my old ATS-55 tanto will see ourselves out now...

[Evil D]

You can't wait for an email, they sell out too fast. It's not a Spyderco problem, it's a supply and demand problem. The only solution would be to heavily increase production, which would also (in some cases) also limit interest and demand.

[JRinFL]

<clip>

The problem with Exclusives is that the buyer, in this case BladeHQ, has failed to order enough to go around. Spyderco makes the quantity ordered and delivers them to the seller.

Sprints, on the other hand, are all Spyderco. Demand is such these days that Spyderco had to greatly increase sprint run quantities in the hopes of meeting demand. I think the as yet not released Z-Wear Shaman will be the first with the larger quantity. We'll have to wait and see if there will be enough. I have my doubts.

Just a comment about these limited quantity releases by all makers & exclusive sellers, across all brands. It might be time to re-think the policy as it seems to be creating more negatives than positives at this point.

[TkoK83Spy]

You've been around long enough to know how the game goes. NEVER count on an email for when a sprint or exclusive drops, that's like rule #1 of the game! It's not Spyderco's problem with these exclusive drops, that falls on the distributor.

[RustyIron]

BladeHQ, has failed to order enough to go around.

Did BHQ really fail to order enough?

Let's not forget that their purpose for existing is to make money. Suppose they ordered 1,000 knives because they knew they could sell them right away. They ordered them, sold them, and made some money to pay their employees and keep the lights on for another week. But suppose they ordered 1,200 knives, and only sold 1,100. They would have the capital for 100 knives just sitting there on the shelf, gathering dust. If too many unsold "exclusive" knives start piling up in the warehouse, there will be less incentive to do more exclusives in the future.

[bearfacedkiller]

If there is any blame (I don’t think there is) it falls on BHQ. They ponied up the cash for a 1200 piece run. If they hadn’t then there would be zero of these knives. I guess that 1200 is better than none unless we are just bitter and don’t want anyone else to have one if we cannot?

In the end dealers put up the cash and they are their knives and they can do with them what they wish and they can order as many as they wish.

We have all been upset because we really wanted a knife. Oh well. There are lots of other great knives out there.

[curlyhairedboy]

The fact of the matter is the scarcity is the point for many buyers. Unfortunately, it's not just appearance or less-functional-in-collector-use variables such as composition, but geometry this time. You'll see a big difference in how this cuts vs a normal PM2, regardless of steel type.

For those of us who have been hankering after a beefy tip, this does represent the biggest difference in a while. It's interesting that the initial s30v drops stuck around much longer.

The difference in cutting performance between tanto and leaf geometry is much more noticeable than any difference in steel within the grind types.

[Matus]

Gentlemen, Blueboost is not complaining about not being able to snatch one pice of a limited sprint run, he is (and rightly so IMHO) frustrated about Spyderco not offering normal, non-limited models with a tanto blade. I would love to get something like the aforementioned Lum too, but hey - there is nothing. Maybe they could do a Gayle Bradley 3 as a variation of the 2 with a tanto blade. I would sure get one. Or ... just pick any other nice user knife and give it a tanto version.

[TenGrainBread]

Spyderco has nothing to do with your suffering.

They don't decide what their distributors order and they don't decide how many crazy people are willing to mash the refresh button to get one of their knives.

Their job is to design and manufacture great knives, which they do. The fact that there is high demand and you are unlucky or unwilling to do what it takes to get one doesn't reflect anything on Spyderco. If this situation is truly "torture" as you describe, you would be willing to pay secondary market prices to get what you want. But the reality is it's not torture - it's you not getting what is essentially an adult toy, of which you already have many others. So...

That's my perspective at least.

[JD Spydo]

You can't wait for an email, they sell out too fast. It's not a Spyderco problem, it's a supply and demand problem. The only solution would be to heavily increase production, which would also (in some cases) also limit interest and demand.

MY friend EVIL D has hit the nail squarely on the center of the head like he often does It is absolutely a "Supply & Demand" problem. And that's the only critique I can cast against the Great Spyder Factory at this time.

For instance take the upcoming C-60 Ayoob Sprint that is about to become reality sometime this year. The thread we had that convinced Sal & Co to give the C-60 model another run pointed out to Spyderco the great selling points that model had from the "Get-Go". And it appears that Sal & Co. heard us out and we are going to get plain edged units as well as a good percentage of Spyderedged units as well.

I think it even surprised Spyderco how popular the SE version of the C-60 Ayoob model had become since being discontinued.
This has been a problem with so many discontinued past models. I think the same can be said with many of their great sharpening tools as well.

[Wartstein]

Living in Europe it would not make a lot of sense to participate in the "exclusives game" anyway (and I am happy with the regular production knives and the two HAP 40 and one REX 45 Sprint I got easily)

But I think perhaps there is another aspect to this: In a way BHQ took the financial risk to test how popular Tanto Spydies (well made and on a well liked model) really are or not...the result could lead to Spyderco doing some regular production Tantos - ?!

[koenigsegg]

Pm2 black blade with jade is gonna go quick there should have been more.
I'm wondering how they deal with the bots. Can't buy anything these days without a bot. Not just Spyderco.

[JRinFL]

BladeHQ, has failed to order enough to go around.

Did BHQ really fail to order enough?

Let's not forget that their purpose for existing is to make money. Suppose they ordered 1,000 knives because they knew they could sell them right away. They ordered them, sold them, and made some money to pay their employees and keep the lights on for another week. But suppose they ordered 1,200 knives, and only sold 1,100. They would have the capital for 100 knives just sitting there on the shelf, gathering dust. If too many unsold "exclusive" knives start piling up in the warehouse, there will be less incentive to do more exclusives in the future.

Yes, of course they did not order enough. If there is one customer who could not get one, then they failed to order enough. That does not imply that it is easy to guess or gauge how many will be sold at least year in the future. Smart business is to order just enough, of course. Too bad that is almost impossible, so they undershoot rather than overshoot so as to not be left with excess inventory.

The OP just wants the tanto blade and not an exclusive. Spyderco chose to not make it a stock item, so now we are were we are.

[eRoc]

BladeHQ, has failed to order enough to go around.

Did BHQ really fail to order enough?

Let's not forget that their purpose for existing is to make money. Suppose they ordered 1,000 knives because they knew they could sell them right away. They ordered them, sold them, and made some money to pay their employees and keep the lights on for another week. But suppose they ordered 1,200 knives, and only sold 1,100. They would have the capital for 100 knives just sitting there on the shelf, gathering dust. If too many unsold "exclusive" knives start piling up in the warehouse, there will be less incentive to do more exclusives in the future.

I mean...that's how any business selling goods works. A shop owner takes a chance on buying any inventory from a distributor, puts it on the shelf and sells it. They buy more of what sells, and less of what doesn't. Depending on the agreement the distributor can buy back what doesn't sell, or the seller can sell it at a discount.

After x days, allow dealers to mark it down to get rid of inventory, or buy it back and sell it at the Spyderco storefront. However, this might degrade the ability to prey on FOMO, or might degrade the "exclusivity", which may be what Sypderco doesn't want.

If one of BHQ's goals is to make money as a business owner, yes, BHQ failed to order enough supply for this particular product. You've allowed others to capitalize on the 2nd market profits that could have been yours.

Does it really matter to BHQ? Not really. Make another tanto in Cru-wear and we'll all run this race over again.

[Danke]

Blade HQ is pretty good about their exclusives and they really push the drop time and details all over their social media.

I've been able to get their Lum Tanto, the copper PM2, the Jade/M4 Dodo and PM2. I'm up in Northern Bugtussle and have no bots to assist me when a release is going live.

I think but I"m not sure those would also be offered via the collector club for anyone with FOMO?

Blade HQ did the legwork on the tanto PM2 so that blade shape is still exclusive to them.

From extensive reading it seems like Spyderco tries to balance a dealer ordering too small a run of a hot exclusive but also caps the max. Because if all they did all day was make exclusive runs they'd have no time to produce the regular blades.

I'd have to guess at some point the tanto blade shape will be made for other folks. For now paying attention to here and to the Blade HQ social media is going to be the best route to getting one.

[sal]

We are encouraging our Exclusive customers to make larger quantities.

sal

[JRinFL]

We are encouraging our Exclusive customers to make larger quantities.

sal

Thank you Sal!

[ChrisinHove]

I think the forthcoming production cruwear micarta PM2 shows Spyderco is not entirely unaware of this issue.

It’s a difficult balance between scarcity, collectibility, desirability and profitability.

As much as I would love my pick of these exclusives, I am (almost) as happy that their existence, even out of my clutches, helps support and maintain Spyderco as a company, and to produce the ones I *can* get.

[StuntZombie]

Meh. I pretty much ignore sprints and exclusives now. Spyderco has enough variety within their regular production that I don't see the need to venture outside of that.

[Notsurewhy]

I'm not complaining (I don't even like tantos), but it does seem odd that Spyderco, for all of the extensive variety of knives they offer, have no current regular production tanto knives.