yet another "price increase"

[ladybug93]

i think people complain because we don’t all have disposable funds to buy all the knives we want and some of us only get one or two a year if not fewer. to those of us in that situation, it feels like running a marathon and watching them move the finish line as we’re nearing the end. it’s not that the knives aren’t worth the money. it’s that it gets less worth it to keep going after the finish line when it keeps moving faster than you can run. this is especially true when we already have great spyderco knives. it gets harder to justify buying more knives we don’t need just to have them in a rotation.

first world problems... i know.

[Doc Dan]

[Slash]

no-OP-e cold steel fanboy trying to use the force against us to buy CS knives...
The Force is NOT strong with this one.
Last I checked CS has had price increases as well.

I can remember when I could get 2 McDonald's cheeseburgers for $1, now they're $1 each. Gas for under $1, now it's over $3 gallon, etc...

P.S. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all

[Joey]

And full sized candy bars were 5/$1.00. Now they’re $0.79 each, and 5 will cost $3.50. Prices increase everywhere, some things get a much bigger price increase than others. At least Sal is open about it (not to mention “open” about nearly everything except trade secrets) try getting other brands to be this open, or even half as involved. Spyderco gets my $$$

[blues]

I don't get all the consternation.

You have a certain amount of money available for purchases, essential and non-essential.

You get to decide if something represents good value for the money to be spent or not. Nobody else compels the purchase.

A little forethought and discipline goes a long way, and you get to vote with your wallet.

Here endeth the sermon.

[ThePeacent]

d'uh...a few things :confused:

a. Why didn't hang on to and keep your old Spydies? It's not like you're paying a yearly fee or insurance for them after purchase, and not only have you already paid for them they are more valuable now! :o

b. Cold Steel, Benchmade, ZT and many other brands have increased costs and rices like Spyderco has these last years, oftentimes without previous notice or justification unlike Sal's company :cool:

c. you ditched all your Spydies in 2016, to go all Cold Steel. Well, I went Cold Turkey on Cold Steel, and bought 5 of them in 2016, 4 o them in 2017 and 2 of them in 2018, while I purchased 4 Spydies in 2016, 7 in 2017, and 9 in 2018 :D

d. The "Disappearance of Maxamet" has been covered on several threads, it' returning, and better than ever, it just went away to be refined in it processing and perfected in it manufacturing, because Spyderco cares, instead of being content with delivering a defective product :rolleyes:

e. You could've made a reflexive, greatly worded and nicely presented poist that would've made many of us think and give it some thought, but your condescending tone, insulting expressions, off-putting tone and childish tantrum accomplished nothing, but your ridicule. I wish you a Merry Christmas to you too...nope

[JRinFL]

OP, the correct order is think, post, drink and NOT drink, drink, post. Have a better New Year.

No one likes price increases, but it is a fact of life. Many of us struggle with the hobby because our wages do not see the same yearly increase. At least Spyderco is not selling us mostly empty boxes like the food makers do in an attempt to fool us in to not noticing the decreased quantity sold for a higher price.

[James Y]

Yes, price increases suck, but unfortunately, that's how the world works. Prices cannot remain the same year after year after year. Any company that tries will be out of business in short order.

Speaking for myself, it affects me less, because I hardly ever buy knives anymore, even ones I don't have and might be interested in. Ten or more years ago, yeah, it would have sucked more for me, because I was buying lots of knives. Today, for example, a standard Military costs over $40 more than it did only a few years ago. Even if I bought another one, it wouldn't affect me that much, because I'm not one who cares about collecting sprint runs or every steel variation of it. I buy knives very sparingly, and I can go for years without purchasing any knives.

But for those who are collectors, I can understand the hardship.

Jim

[Pelagic]

We have an expensive hobby. That's reality.

A $200 knife is insane. I don't care if it's a REX 121 Nirvana sprint. $200 is a lot. And since I'm occasionally willing to buy one at this price, that makes me a little nutty. We're all in a similar boat here. Spyderco is nowhere near the most expensive brand. Am I mad because I'll never own a Rockstead? No! Would I like to own one? Sure! But at some point you must accept reality. It's supply and demand. No one is forcing you to buy anything, and complaining helps nothing. Every time I come back to this thread I laugh. I agree with pretty much every response.

[zhyla]

A $200 knife is insane.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this. This is probably a better topic than OP posed. I understand why a USA-made Spyderco knife can retail for $200. Makes perfect sense. And I'm not hurting for money, so I could buy one if I needed/wanted one. What I don't understand is why people buy dozens of them. Same with firearms -- I understand coughing up $1k for a decent rifle, but I don't understand buying one after the other. Same with cars.

I should clarify. I understand wanting to accumulate wonderful things. I just don't think it makes much sense.

At least knives are small and easy to trade.

[Naperville]

Hopefully you go out of business by so obviously pricing yourself out of the market. Something tells me the "super steel" marketing scam has a low ceiling, like the disappearance of Maxamet, the dramatically slowed sales on ZDP-189, S30V, and all the premium models above VG-10, and the explosion in activity on ebay with 50 or more watchers hovering on any given $100 paramilitary.

Oh jeeze cry me a river. I collect a lot of knives from a lot of different manufacturers and Cold Steel screwed the pooch when they moved from CTS-XHP to S35VN. They should have sourced the steel for several of their knives and then used other steels such as M390/20CP/204P to fill in where they could not get their hands on XHP. I like Cold Steel but they downgraded their line.

Maxamet isn't going anywhere according to Sal, and I eagerly await the NEW 2019 Maxamet knives.

Super steels are not a marketing gimmick. It is the base, the floor, for whatever comes next. Nobody needs a crystal ball to see that as time marches on better steels become available. Spyderco is #1 globally in blade steel. My only wish would be that they expand their horizons and make more fixed knives with std blade shapes, brass/nickel hilts, AND super steels....don't waste all the runs on leaf shaped blades, but they have high demand in that area.

Spyderco is definitely the co to watch. If they started to punch out knives in super steels that looked like Benchmades, I think they would eat Benchmade, and I'd have a heck of a lot more knives!

[Evil D]

Sold them all in 2016 but still joined 2 years later just to "stick it to the man" huh?

[bearfacedkiller]

Sold them all in 2016 but still joined 2 years later just to "stick it to the man" huh?

Or rejoined after being banned in 2016? I have a hunch I know who this poster is.

[bearfacedkiller]

This isn’t that complicated. If they are priced too high then the market will sort it out. That is how our economy works.

The truth is that most folks who are upset about this already have more folding knives than they need. This is about wants and not needs and thus it is trivial.

Remember, desire is the root of suffering. Appreciate what you do have instead of lamenting what you do not. If you don’t have that figured out you aren’t likely to be happy either way. :)

[Crux]

I have a ton of Cold Steel including many swords. I like them but I like Spyderco more. Sure they are expensive but they are very high quality and can always be sold for at least what you paid for it if it's unused. Everyone is entitled to an opinion but this seems to be a bad case of sour grapes. I do hope you have a better 2019.

[nope]

d'uh...a few things :confused:

a. Why didn't hang on to and keep your old Spydies? It's not like you're paying a yearly fee or insurance for them after purchase, and not only have you already paid for them they are more valuable now! :o

b. Cold Steel, Benchmade, ZT and many other brands have increased costs and rices like Spyderco has these last years, oftentimes without previous notice or justification unlike Sal's company :cool:

c. you ditched all your Spydies in 2016, to go all Cold Steel. Well, I went Cold Turkey on Cold Steel, and bought 5 of them in 2016, 4 o them in 2017 and 2 of them in 2018, while I purchased 4 Spydies in 2016, 7 in 2017, and 9 in 2018 :D

d. The "Disappearance of Maxamet" has been covered on several threads, it' returning, and better than ever, it just went away to be refined in it processing and perfected in it manufacturing, because Spyderco cares, instead of being content with delivering a defective product :rolleyes:

e. You could've made a reflexive, greatly worded and nicely presented poist that would've made many of us think and give it some thought, but your condescending tone, insulting expressions, off-putting tone and childish tantrum accomplished nothing, but your ridicule. I wish you a Merry Christmas to you too...nope

A: I got rid of them out of principle, because I don't support shady companies that suddenly start doing annual and substantial price hikes once they suddenly get recognized, certainly not companies that depend exclusively on disposable income. The initial price floor to protect against Amazon bottlenecking you is understandable, the subsequent ones are BS.

B: No. Cold Steel has never implemented a price floor or done an annual price hike. The only time prices increased was back in 2015 when Thompson started using modern PM steels and BD1 in his folders instead of AUS-8. That is an obvious and transparent change.

D: It's not just Maxamet, all of Spyderco's sales on premium knives have fallen since 2015. But yes, Maxamet straight up disappeared because even Spyderco knew it was absurd. If you depend that much on your China knives to stay afloat that steel tarrifs start upending your entire company, then you have serious problems.

C: I own two Cold Steel knives in total, an American Lawman and Recon 1, and no other knives from any brand. Know why? Because the whole knife thing is consumerist waste and the "super steel" marketing scam is a fraud.

[nope]

This isn’t that complicated. If they are priced too high then the market will sort it out. That is how our economy works.

The truth is that most folks who are upset about this already have more folding knives than they need. This is about wants and not needs and thus it is trivial.

Remember, desire is the root of suffering. Appreciate what you do have instead of lamenting what you do not. If you don’t have that figured out you aren’t likely to be happy either way. :)

Sure, some folks. I'd say 99% of the people who post here given the slavish sycophancy on display.

Some just dropped out of the fraud because they realized that it's a fraud, regardless of money. I own two folding knives, one to carry and one as backup in case I lose my other one and until I find it again. They're both Cold Steel because Cold Steel offers objectively the best value, most secure lock, and good steel.

I actually don't care about Sal, his job is to steal from your wallets, I just enjoy laughing at you people and saying "told ya." You know, the same people who say Cruwear is like CPM-3v toughness but REX 121 edge retention so pay $250 for that military on bentoboxshop LOL. Epic steel dude, you sure showed S30V with that cardboard test.

Good to see you're still here with that brown stuff still all over your nose.

[RobDigi]

Being able to afford a good knife is not even a question ..
like someone said the Cara Cara 2 is about as good a knife you could get at great value.

Ain't nobodys bizness how much I choose to indulge buy/pay...so I don't care what the OP said...
in other words back up.

[FCM415]

*Talking to myself*

I never had a problem with the 5% yearly increase to keep up with set margins.

But please don't increase MAP anymore. It won't bring back Blockbuster...or JC Penney...or Woolworth. Only winners are customers who live within 200 miles of a fully stocked Spyderco dealer who gets to build relationships and purchase at well below MAP.

[nope]

*Talking to myself*

I never had a problem with the 5% yearly increase to keep up with set margins.

But please don't increase MAP anymore. It won't bring back Blockbuster...or JC Penney...or Woolworth. Only winners are customers who live within 200 miles of a fully stocked Spyderco dealer who gets to build relationships and purchase at well below MAP.

They're the same thing, the "5% yearly increase" and the MAP. They're the same thing.

and this only started in 2015 once Spyderco began getting really popular.

boycott the company and force the prices back to a reasonable level.