Dealers Getting "Exclusives"

[Superfool]

Hi folks; lurker and UKPK pervert here.

I have questions about the dealer exclusive versions of knives, e.g. Heinnie Haynes UKPK, Cutlery Shoppe PM2, etc.

First four questions are for those in the know, so please state your position (dealer, trader, collector, in-the-industry, ) but feel free to weigh in if you are a tourist (such as myself).

1. What factors influence Spyderco to agree to a dealer exclusive version of a knife being made?

2. Is it more for promotion of the dealer? Or does it usually prove profitable?

3. Does Spyderco jump at the opportunity, or is it done more for the fans?

4. Do you think dealer exclusives are a good or a bad thing overall?


...and a last question for anyone and everyone...

5. What dealer exclusive would you like to see and why?

[ChrisinHove]

1. Dunno
2. Dunno
3. Dunno
4. errr….Dunno
5. Easy! HH M390 Metropolitan.

[WilliamMunny]

Collector, so these are just my opinions.

1. As long as they do not negatively impact the brand and can be made with current equipment. Negative impact could be politically teamed design, super cheap steel, poor performing grip material, etc.

2. It is profitable for the dealer and promotional. Dealers do well, in general with exclusives, driving their demand and promotion of the Spyderco product, helping Spyderco in the end.

3. Spyderco always jumps at opportunities to “do for the fans”. So it’s a double win.

4. Exclusive are an amazing thing and a huge part of Spyderco’s appeal, diversity. There is something for everyone and every task. I mean how cool is it to have a PM2 in REX-121.

5. I would like to see some more diversity in G10. They are on the right track with their black and yellow salt G10 handles. This includes textures in the G10 like the PM2 REX-121. It would be nice to see in the tried and true Native 5 and Manix 2 to start.

[zhyla]

The retailers order them so they can sell at a profit. Spyderco takes the orders so they can make a profit. Thats what businesses do.

I’ve heard that exclusives are exempt from MAP.

[Red Leader]

Fun thread! Thanks for posting it. Tourist/semi-collector here.

1. What factors influence Spyderco to agree to a dealer exclusive version of a knife being made?

Good question. I have to think demand or maybe a pet project/labor of love of someone in an influential position can be at play here.


2. Is it more for promotion of the dealer? Or does it usually prove profitable?

I think it could be either or both. For example, I recently picked up the Knifejoy Lil’ Native pink exclusive. It went on sale at a price that was low enough to not generate much profit, or maybe none at all. But Knifejoy is for sure on my radar, so even if didn’t generate any revenue for them, it is creating some good exposure for them.



3. Does Spyderco jump at the opportunity, or is it done more for the fans?

Hard to answer that one, but I do know that Sal has stated that many smaller projects are more as a service to a portion of the enthusiast community, and it’s something I’m sure a lot of the base knives help to subsidize.



4. Do you think dealer exclusives are a good or a bad thing overall?


Overall, I think an overwhelmingly good thing. It creates variety and gives people a chance to experience different steels, options and helps them hone their preferences. Can also create some dealer loyalty, can help strengthen the relation between Spyderco and the dealer, and also the dealer with the customer.


It also helps create and satisfy a portion of the collector market sector, as some people enjoy collecting many iterations of a model, so it keeps those customers engaged, those that normally wouldn’t have 10 different models of knives, but would have 10 varieties of a model. Create more business for Spyderco. If they are exempt from MAP, even better, as it may give folks the extra chance to get a good deal, much like it did for me like the Knifejoy Lil’ Native.


There are times, however, that I do think it can be detrimental, though rare. The BladeHQ jade G10 Magnacut PM2 is a recent example, not because of anything with the knife (its a great knife) but because of the way BladeHQ handled it. They teased a suspenseful picuture of the jade G10 handle while simultaniously running a sweepstakes for a jade G10 PM2 M4 tanto, so everyone (including me) made a natural inference, then they sent a ton of them out to youtube influencers to overhype the knife at the same time that people discovered it was neither the M4 nor the tanto they were waiting for. I’m not interested in either variant and so just observing from afar, but it left an inordinate amount of people disappointed, and felt deceptive to me.

...and a last question for anyone and everyone...

5. What dealer exclusive would you like to see and why?


I would love to see another release of the PM2 with Emerson opener, a previous BladeOps exclusive. I went so far as to call BladeOps about another run, and they said they would likely never do another one. Which then lead me to a question for those in the know…


If a dealer 'owns' a certain exclusive and either cannot, or will not, do another run of knives that there is market demand for, can the ‘ownership’ that exclusive be released for someone else to do?

[silver & black]

5. What dealer exclusive would you like to see and why?

I would like to see a Shaman in K390, satin finish with Fat Carbon scales. I love K390 and Carbon fiber.

[attila]

5. What dealer exclusive would you like to see and why?

Original P.I.T.S. in Magnamax anodized some interesting color.

[Danke]

Love the dealer exclusives, have lots. Gotta say I hate the current double secret probation rule about selling outside the USA.

Slysz Bowie at Knife Joy? Nope. Any of the Jade/M4 Blade HQ knives? Nope.

All that said I would love to see a Street Beat in Blade HQ Jade/M4 (uncoated) with maybe a leather sheath. I would reactivate my USA drop ship location for that.

[TazKristi]

Love the dealer exclusives, have lots. Gotta say I hate the current double secret probation rule about selling outside the USA.

Slysz Bowie at Knife Joy? Nope. Any of the Jade/M4 Blade HQ knives? Nope.

All that said I would love to see a Street Beat in Blade HQ Jade/M4 (uncoated) with maybe a leather sheath. I would reactivate my USA drop ship location for that.

Danke,
I'm not tracking the "double secret probation rule." We don't limit dealers to selling an exclusive only in the USA. That's left up to each dealer to decide.

Kristi

[Danke]

Love the dealer exclusives, have lots. Gotta say I hate the current double secret probation rule about selling outside the USA.

Slysz Bowie at Knife Joy? Nope. Any of the Jade/M4 Blade HQ knives? Nope.

All that said I would love to see a Street Beat in Blade HQ Jade/M4 (uncoated) with maybe a leather sheath. I would reactivate my USA drop ship location for that.

Danke,
I'm not tracking the "double secret probation rule." We don't limit dealers to selling an exclusive only in the USA. That's left up to each dealer to decide.

Kristi

This is a quote from an email Blade HQ sent me. Sounds like they're throwing Spyderco under the bus? Sept. 15 2025, a serrated Dodo.

I’m sorry, but the knife you ordered can't be shipped to Canada. Due to a system issue, the order was mistakenly allowed to go through. Spyderco works with its own international dealers and places restrictions on items being shipped outside the U.S.

[Onewheelloser]

A very abbreviated answer:

Basically a dealer will propose a knife model with certain scales, blade material, coating ( DLC), etc, etc…. That model will be unique to that particular dealer.

They will also decide on the desired quantity (1000, 1500, 2000 etc).

Spyderco will decide if they want (or can) do it, how long it will take, how much the dealer cost will be.

Once everything is agreed upon, the dealer is required to purchase the entire run at one time; Spyderco will not warehouse them.

[TazKristi]

This is a quote from an email Blade HQ sent me. Sounds like they're throwing Spyderco under the bus? Sept. 15 2025, a serrated Dodo.

I’m sorry, but the knife you ordered can't be shipped to Canada. Due to a system issue, the order was mistakenly allowed to go through. Spyderco works with its own international dealers and places restrictions on items being shipped outside the U.S.

Hi, @Danke:
I shared this with our Sales Manager. Our sales team will reach out to BladeHQ to clarify. :)

Kristi

[Danke]

This is a quote from an email Blade HQ sent me. Sounds like they're throwing Spyderco under the bus? Sept. 15 2025, a serrated Dodo.

I’m sorry, but the knife you ordered can't be shipped to Canada. Due to a system issue, the order was mistakenly allowed to go through. Spyderco works with its own international dealers and places restrictions on items being shipped outside the U.S.

Hi, @Danke:
I shared this with our Sales Manager. Our sales team will reach out to BladeHQ to clarify. :)

Kristi

Thanks, I can FW the actual mail to anyone there if needed.

[Ramonade]

I was able to buy Spyderco exclusives from BladeHQ before. I've had more issues with other websites, but that was during covid, when many knife dealers stopped shipping overseas.

If the site allows it, I can buy Spyderco exclusives and ship them to France. That's weird and I'm sorry to learn that you had issues with that before @Danke .

[cjk]

I think exclusives are likely pretty lucrative for the dealer getting them.
For a sprint run, a dealer would only get so many. Say there's a run of 5000 items spread across 200 dealers. Each dealer gets 25 things to sell.
With an exclusive, the dealer gets the whole run (except for the ones allocated for the collector club). So say the dealer gets 1000 (or whatever number they ordered) exclusive things to sell. This is likely a *lot* more special product than they would otherwise be allocated. FWIW, 1000 is 40 times more than 25. These also usually sell fairly quickly.

Spyderco gets paid for the knives, but they're at least a smidge more effort than making their normal catalog models. Spyderco would have to ensure having the special materials needed in the quantities needed. Spyderco might have a slightly lower profit margin as a result on these exclusives, but I doubt it's much less. They're smart people. I'm sure they make money on them.

[Danke]

I would expect the exclusives are a bit more of a pain for Spyderco. The copper PM2 for Blade HQ would be a good example. $215 US for a knife that required a one off compression lock and special handling due to the sensitivity of the copper.

[Red Leader]

Another exclusive that comes to mind is the Bento Box K390 PM2, as an example of unfortunately what happens when things don’t always go well. I’ve looked at and considered picking one of these up so many times. They have consistently sold knives at or close to full msrp, and have a strict ‘no refunds’ policy. Based on historical data from Spydiewiki, it appears that the PM2 K390 run was from 2019 and was originally sold for $184.95 over 6 years ago and they still haven’t sold out, presumably due to the high price when it first debuted (I looked and found a regular PM2 around $110-$120 at that time). But what is either sad or funny to me is that instead of discounting them due to lack of interest, they have raised the price on the knife so that it is actually outpacing it’s inflation price of $236 in today’s money (currently @ $264 and still in stock).


I love the PM2 and K390 but the pricing strategy and the return policy is hard to get past on this one, especially when the Wharncliffe Rex-121 PM2 was the exact same price earlier this year.

Which leads to a curiosity around how dealers ‘own’ certain exclusives. A K390 PM2 LW would be awesome, but will it have to go through Bento Box and be priced around MSRP just to have it sit around for years again, or will another retailer be able to pick them up and run with them more around the cost of what the 15V PM2 LW will come in at?

I think a lot of people have an interest in these knives, but won’t always have that interest translated into a sale when the knives go to retailers who have the strategy of pricing knives at MSRP and having them sit for years hoping for desperate collectors.

[sal]

Hi Onewheelloser,

Welcome to our forum.

sal