Prices OMG Seriously?

[Enactive]

Part of what I like so much about Spyderco is that they are a research and development company that makes and sells knives. They fully subscribe to CQI as a theory and implement it well.

As a lifetime learner, highly driven by curiosity, I approve.

[TkoK83Spy]

There's also other ways to help soften the blow of buying an expensive knife you really want, that you think is out of your budget. How many people make a daily morning stop at Dunkin, Starbucks, some gas station?? You could always buy donuts/muffins/coffee from the grocery store for cheaper. Or even make your own donuts/muffins at home and bring them with you. Cut back a bit on alcohol/tobacco/other newly legal things. Go out for lunch a little less, sell knives you don't really use very often, cancel some streaming services...my point is there are endless ways to save money. These don't seem like a big deal, but add up some of those costs over a couple months or more and you might find that Rex 121 Sage 6 not as unattainable as you first thought.

[Aladinsane]

There's also other ways to help soften the blow of buying an expensive knife you really want, that you think is out of your budget. How many people make a daily morning stop at Dunkin, Starbucks, some gas station?? You could always buy donuts/muffins/coffee from the grocery store for cheaper. Or even make your own donuts/muffins at home and bring them with you. Cut back a bit on alcohol/tobacco/other newly legal things. Go out for lunch a little less, sell knives you don't really use very often, cancel some streaming services...my point is there are endless ways to save money. These don't seem like a big deal, but add up some of those costs over a couple months or more and you might find that Rex 121 Sage 6 not as unattainable as you first thought.

Yep! That’s exactly what I do! Very “Sage” advice!

[Skywalker]

Not just Spyderco getting more expensive faster than I can increase my paycheck. As others have said, I'm buying fewer knives overall and they tend towards more budget-friendly lightweight FRN/FRCP and less G10/CF/Ti these days.

Fortunately, Spyderco's lighteweight models are in my experience excellent and I love that they're offered in so many upgraded steels - if this is Spyderco's strategy to keep some prices lower on US/Japan/Taiwan models, it's working for me.

My 2025 pickups, for example. 3/4 lightweights, but all in what I would consider premium steel.

[8th_Note]

Interesting thread.

On pricing, one can lower the quality, or one can lower the material cost, or one can make knives in China. You might also suggest other ways to lower prices. What would be your preference for Spyderco to make less expensive knives?

I keep seeing comparisons to Chris Reeve's knives; What do they charge for their REX-121 models?

sal

I have a Chris Reeve Knife (plain jane Sebenza 31), and it stays in my drawer. Spydercos are much, much better EDC knives IMO. They are a pleasure to use and I love the endless steel choices and variations of models (not to mention the ever expanding number of different models). To me CRK knives are like Buck knives, in that they both created revolutionary designs (Buck in the 60s, CRK in the 90s) and have coasted on reputation ever since with very little new innovation. Spyderco creates new revolutionary models every few years.

Between the constant innovation and the constant CQI, I think the prices they charge are fair. R&D and tooling are expensive, now more so than ever. Yes, some models are outside of my budget at times. But there are many many exciting models that are affordable. 95% of my knife purchases these days are Spyderco and I don't see that changing any time soon

[abbazaba]

I think the topic is just polarizing because of the big price difference between the Sage 5 and 6 both in the same steel, the MSRP increased $170. Spyderco do an awesome job at being transparent, maybe this is where you come out and say "listen, the price went up because ______", because people will always fill in the silence with answers of their own until they're given one, even if the answer is "Rex 121 is going extinct and this is the cost of rarity".

I think this is where I'm at, especially as someone that owns all the Sages. This will be the first one I skip.

This month was expensive for sure with some exceptionally high priced purchases - S90v Bodacious and 121 PM2. I'm going to skip the 121 Sage, and the 121 Chap unless they show up on deep discount eventually. Hopefully we see a FRN Chap with a more affordable tool steel like M4 or K390/10v.

[sovereign]

The street price of the Sage 5 REX 121 G10 is increasing from $300 to $412.50, so that button is only going to cost you an extra $15.

New prices are already up at Knifeworks. Most other increases are @5%:

https://knifeworks.com/spyderco-sage-5- ... query=sage

[MrGibson]

I keep seeing comparisons to Chris Reeve's knives; What do they charge for their REX-121 models?

sal

I personally haven’t made that comparison but from a dollar expenditure point of view I can see the argument. $425 for one or $425 for the other. But there’s more going on here than just the out of pocket ELU costs. Completely different blade steels. Completely different design and ergonomics.

I can only speak for me of course. Because of the reputation and respect for CRK, I’ve tried both small and large sebenzas over the years, trying to “get it”. Materials are great. Craftsmanship is great. But—the small is a three finger knife in my hands and the large is too heavy. So for me, there is no value in 425 for a small sebenza. I love the sage ergonomics. If I had to spend the money on one or the other, I’d buy the Rex sage every single time.

All that to say—for me it’s not an apples to apples comparison between a small sebenza and a sage.

[Red Leader]

Both the REX Sage and the CRK represent a dollar value and a knife, so there is at least some comparative value. I think I can understand where the ‘CRK price’ point is coming from, I have seen them discussed as a bit of a ‘made it’ knife, status symbol, right of passage, etc. Sort of like, ‘I can finally afford a CRK’. A bit of a commentary on a successful life’s journey. FWIW, I got the chance to first handle CRKs last summer and found out that I still rather prefer my Spydercos, and nearly everytime for less, far less, $$. Personally I don’t need the knife journey affirmation, but I get the aspirational aspect of it for a lot of people.

I’m assuming the price shock is not coming from people thinking it isn’t worth it, but the fact that the very thing that is creating the stir with the pricing on this one (Rex steel) was found so much less expensive on the previous version. If that latest report of the new Sage 5 pricing is accurate, then it would be the 25% price hike YoY that is surprising most people, but that price hike makes the Rex-121 Sage 5 to Sage 6 price difference make a lot more sense.


Is it worth it? To those who buy it, of course. To me, unfortunately not at that price point, but that is because my own knife value structure is somewhat skewed from the benefit of things like the Seconds Sale - I know that my perspective represents only me and I won’t try to apply it to others.


Here is where I think the big difference lies and what makes Spyderco unique and special: they still offer the same performance in more affordable packages. They consider that knife ‘Afis’ and blade steel junkies transcend one specific budget or pricepoint and I believe they try as hard as they can to make that same high performance available to all. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate upcoming offerings like the PM2 LW and Lil’ Native LW in 15V.

As far as some other these higher priced offerings - heck, if they did some ultra limited release and charged $10k for each one and sold 1000 of them, I would be happy that they would likely be in an even better position to thrive and keep creating offerings that I could afford, use and enjoy.

If they *only* had more costly knives like CRK, or if they *only* made high performance steel availble in nothing but the highest priced knives, this might be a different timeline and discussion - one that we are not forced to live in, thankfully. In an odd turn, these higher priced items have me feeling blessed for what I have been able to own and use.

I cannot find fault with them trying to take care of their own. As long as they don’t forget the little guy and their roots, we’re good here.

[Coastal]

After pondering this a little, my main issue with Spyderco prices in general is that the quality of the product doesn't necessarily match the price. Okay, prices usually (but not always) correspond to "better" steels or handle materials, say S90V vs S30V or G-10 vs FRN. But prices often don't correspond to build quality, how well the knife operates, OTB sharpness, whether the screws are loose or tight, soft or hard detent, even vs uneven bevels, smoothness/grittiness, etc. I'd go as far as to say I've received byrds and budget folders with better build quality than $300+ premium models. It feels like there's no effort at all given to making premium knives seem like they're premium.

Here's an example: I recently purchased an S35VN Resilience and 2 M4 Tenacious budget folders that are some of the best-built, smoothest-operating knives I've ever seen -- perfect detents, perfect lockup, perfect bevels. The most expensive was a little over a hundred bucks. By contrast, I finally bit the bullet and ordered the vaunted fluted carbon fiber S90V Native 5, only to have it arrive with the grittiest action I've ever experienced outside of a $37 byrd Uptern.

Nor has this changed over time. Some of my OG Pacific Salts have smoother actions than my Schempp Persian. I agree that plenty of Spyderco knives are better at being a knife than a Sebenza but they're just not as nice, even the expensive ones.

[cjk]

I was wondering what people were complaining about until I saw the price of the new G10 UKPK salt, $100 more than the G10 SPY27 UKPK. Guess I’m sticking to my Spydiechef.

I made the same comparison. Then I looked at the difference between a G-10 SPY27 Para 3 and a DLC Para 3 G-10 Salt ($25 difference in MSRP). However, I think the G-10 Spy27 UKPK may actually be underpriced. It's cheaper than the Heinnie Haynes red G-10 S30V one. Its MSRP is only $5 more than a lightweight.

[TkoK83Spy]

With all this CRK talk in here, I feel I can add a bit from my own personal perspective. I was DIEHARD Spyderco for my first few years around here and probably cycled through close to 100 knives throughout that time. Really found what I liked and didn't like. Then it got to the point where I was ready to try something else. I had all these different knives, different sizes, steels, colored scales, lock types. Many of them started becoming a bit repetitive models but with different steels/scales through various exclusive and sprint runs, while the prices were also slowly creeping up.

At that point, thanks to a handful of the enablers around here I was ready to give something else a try. Something different than Spyderco and a bit more high end vs all the G10 I had gotten so used to and already had around 30 knives. So CRK was it. It wasn't about a status symbol or pocket jewelry, I was just ready to take what felt like another step in the journey. I've had 6 different CRK's and now currently only have 2. Yes, they absolutely are fantastic knives that you need to use and carry to really appreciate. They're not "fun" knives, but are admirable in their own way. I will say I don't think they cut as well as most Spyderco's I have, even after reprofiling, but they are certainly capable of getting work done and I used all of them during my warehouse days.

With the prices of knives creeping into similar price ranges, it comes down to what you're looking for and prefer. You want fun and exotic steels with various lock types and/or materials you go with Spyderco. You want titanium tanks with tight tolerances, you go CRK. As Sal himself likes to say about steels, I believe works with quality knife brands..."all good, just different"

[ladybug93]

if i'm not paying crk prices for crk, i'm certainly not paying crk prices for spyderco, regardless of what kind of magical recipe they use for the steel. i don't want to buy chinese knives from all these cheaper companies, but i'm not going to pay these ridiculous prices either. i guess it's time to look at my humble collection and be grateful and content for what i have. seriously... there are good guns and guitars for cheaper than these knives.

i do have a few more on my list and will always love spyderco knives though.

[apollo]

Sal with prices of spydies going up each year could you find it in your possibilities to cqi your hardware without raising prices for it? Because i feel really bad i need to say this your screws are the weakest spot in any spydie and in comparison off all the brands i ever took apart spydies are the only one i am scared to put a screwdriver in because if someone on your factory floor even puts a micro drop of loctide to much on they are like butter its kinda depressing. So i do not find them worthy of the quality you are trying to make let alone for the current prices inflation has given.

[apollo]

if i'm not paying crk prices for crk, i'm certainly not paying crk prices for spyderco, regardless of what kind of magical recipe they use for the steel. i don't want to buy chinese knives from all these cheaper companies, but i'm not going to pay these ridiculous prices either. i guess it's time to look at my humble collection and be grateful and content for what i have. seriously... there are good guns and guitars for cheaper than these knives.

i do have a few more on my list and will always love spyderco knives though.

+1 except i switch guns and guitars for fishing gear as i can buy a brand new premium fishing pole for the price of a Manix .

[cjk]

With all this CRK talk in here,
...
I will say I don't think they cut as well as most Spyderco's I have, even after reprofiling, but they are certainly capable of getting work done ....

This is also my experience. I also verified it via my calipers. It's pretty amusing given how thin the internets seem to think the hollow grinds are.

[8th_Note]

With all this CRK talk in here,
...
I will say I don't think they cut as well as most Spyderco's I have, even after reprofiling, but they are certainly capable of getting work done ....

This is also my experience. I also verified it via my calipers. It's pretty amusing given how thin the internets seem to think the hollow grinds are.

I haven't put calipers on it, but my GB2 seems to be thinner behind the edge than the Sebenza. It also cuts better

[James Y]

With all this CRK talk in here, I feel I can add a bit from my own personal perspective. I was DIEHARD Spyderco for my first few years around here and probably cycled through close to 100 knives throughout that time. Really found what I liked and didn't like. Then it got to the point where I was ready to try something else. I had all these different knives, different sizes, steels, colored scales, lock types. Many of them started becoming a bit repetitive models but with different steels/scales through various exclusive and sprint runs, while the prices were also slowly creeping up.

At that point, thanks to a handful of the enablers around here I was ready to give something else a try. Something different than Spyderco and a bit more high end vs all the G10 I had gotten so used to and already had around 30 knives. So CRK was it. It wasn't about a status symbol or pocket jewelry, I was just ready to take what felt like another step in the journey. I've had 6 different CRK's and now currently only have 2. Yes, they absolutely are fantastic knives that you need to use and carry to really appreciate. They're not "fun" knives, but are admirable in their own way. I will say I don't think they cut as well as most Spyderco's I have, even after reprofiling, but they are certainly capable of getting work done and I used all of them during my warehouse days.

With the prices of knives creeping into similar price ranges, it comes down to what you're looking for and prefer. You want fun and exotic steels with various lock types and/or materials you go with Spyderco. You want titanium tanks with tight tolerances, you go CRK. As Sal himself likes to say about steels, I believe works with quality knife brands..."all good, just different"

I also found that my CRKs don't cut as well or as easily as my Spyderco knives, especially my FFG ones.

CRK likes to put convex edge levels, which are often ground fairly thick, and kind of negates the thinness of the beautiful high hollow grinds on CRK's blades. Even after I've reprofiled, they don't bite in and cut as efficiently *for me* as my FFG Spyderco blades do.

Jim

[BeggarSo]

SAL, l guess to put a fine point on it the question is why is the Sage 6 Button Compression Lock in orange G-10 in REX-121 so drasticaly more expensive than the Sage 5 in the Same steel?

It isn't adding up to me. It is very hard for me to say that approaching Chrise Reeve Prices is making much sense with the Sage 6 I could use a few other overpriced knife companies for comparison but I dont buy from them.

To be clear for what you get from Chris Reeve they are overpriced. And as I covered in the Drunken conversation many Spydercos as I shared equal or exceed them.

[silver & black]

Even if I complain and cringe on this forum, and when I push the ‘buy’ button, it is pretty unlikely that I will miss out on the REX121 Chap. Ultimately, I personally don’t know of another company that has the kind of access to the owner like this forum. Sal takes some pretty good shots and stays engaged and polite. Such integrity can overcome a lot of other issues for me.