Dealing with a dealer or something along those lines

SHOKR

SHOKR

Well-Known Member
Someone has been hounding me (with annoying persistence) for a while to lower my prices, he wants to purchase them with the purpose of resale
He has been asking me to drop the price by about half sometimes.
Anyway i was thinking i will give him discounts 10-15% depending on the price range and terms

Any suggestions or feed back from experience?

Its worth noting that:
he did buy 3 knives before for resale (according to him, yet he says he didnt selll any because people believed they were too expensive)
*and* he did engrave on the first one he bought from me his initial and 'made in USA' "so it would sell"
He also always asks to take the knife (without paying) to show it off and return it if he doesnt find a buyer
He is a freelance arms dealer and modifier as far as i understand


Thanks
 
'made in USA
Click to expand...
Right there he would loose me. I don't need to check the character in detail of everyone who wants one of my knives, however I hate to be miss represented. He is willing to lie to sell your knives and you get any flack if the lies are found out. He assumes zero risk, takes the profit and leaves you with the grief. In anything your reputation takes a lifetime to build and moments to destroy. Take my opinion with a grain of salt but I would tell him to stop wasting my time and go find another sucker.
 
Forget about him! He is no good! Stay as far away from him as possible. I would never sell him another knife no matter what he was willing to pay.
 
I have to agree with Brad. You have proven to be a dedicated craftsman Ahamad. There is no reason to allow someone to misrepresent your work. Though I have yet to have the opportunity to examine one of your pieces in person, I would gladly add one to my collection if given the opportunity (I know, Egyptian Customs SUCK!!!).
 
Thanks all
And wow never seen so many knife makers give the same answer to a question ;)

While i was conflicted between doing business with him vs. Wanting to make money and expand, you guys make very good point, reputation is way more valuable than the money he would bring me
He even admitted that the ppl who saw the made in USA knife and knew it was mine were displeased and told him they are proud that the knife was produced locally

Thats gonna be seriously awkward, i hang out with him a lot lol

David, thanks a lot for the support, and you nailed it! Apparently it sucks at exporting too not just importing!!!
 
Good sound advise above! :)

You do exceptional work and dont need people like this guy to sell your knives.

Stay sharp my friend
 
i had some clown by my knives and then pass em off as his own work , look if you make good stuff , its a matter of time before folks will buy , not every maker makes for every person , find your market ( that can take time ) but once there , rock on ,

wishing you the best of luck in your endeavours eh

cheers
 
Thanks Randy and GAK

I really never trusted the guy, so what you guys say makes a lot of sense!
I think his badgering to sell made me lose sight of the big picture
 
I just called hom and told him. Went smoother than i expected. Will see how things go later on! Thank you all so much for the advice!
 
i agree with the other guys, as a relatively new maker myself i had some offers from dealers, the best i could do was 10-15% for three knives or more, most dealers didn't take it but a few did.
the "made in america" thing is a major deal braker for so many reasons, as i see it if you want to be a full time maker and sell your knives well it's not about this one knife geting sold, it's about your name and people getting to know it, if this "made in america" knife gets sold it's not really your knife being sold so it didn't promote you, and is useless.
 
Shokr,
You want to find a dealer that wants to PROUDLY promote your knives as Made in Egypt! Not a crook that wants to lie about the origin of them. Some makers do 20-25% off to a dealer, but they are your knives?
 
All dealers aren't like that. Many (most) understand their reputation is the key to staying in business. Dealers provide service both to makers and to the knife community. They provide a more liquid market when maybe there isn't a ready retail buyer. They promote a maker and give him more exposure (this varies a great deal from dealer to dealer).

I know several makers that sell through dealers almost exclusively. The maker sets a retail and then discounts 20% to 30% to a dealer that buys more than one at a time. There is no set discount rate but 25% to 30% is what I hear most often.

Some dealers buy direct from makers, some buy in the open market as speculators, some do both. To check out a dealer, find out who they are representing and then contact the maker for a reference.

When I started, dealers were routinely bad mouthed by makers. The phrase blood suckers came up a lot. The makers have learned to think differently now, especially as the mid tech guys kick out bigger numbers they need help moving. Some guys resent the profit a dealer makes but it's all part of the business and as a community, we need them. Maybe a knife maker doesn't need to sell through a dealer and never will but that doesn't mean he doesn't benefit from having dealers out there drumming up business and moving knives.

Your opinion may vary.

t
 
Tracy, you make a valid point, and im not opposing the idea of a selling through dealers, in fact i went to couple of stores that sells arms/hunting stuff but none seemed interesting, and im waiting to hear from another.
BUT the problem is that dealer that i specified above, i do not trust, he is clearly willing to do anything to, 1 buy cheaper rrom me, 2, sell to anyone. As he did with the Made in USA thing he did.
He wants to buy the knives at lower price, keeps haggling and then claims he doesnt need to, he is just doing that to help me. He seemed upset when i marked my knives with my name, among other small things but enough to tell me who he is.

And since i am unable to ahip outside Egypt, there are no actual knife dealers around, as far as i know no one else around here invests that much time and effort to make quality knives to begin with
 
Laurence, i dont understand the last part, but yeah, i want one who would be happy with my work as is and promote me well, not modify my work!
 
I agree with the others!

This story reminds me of a purveyor that most experienced makers would recognize..... Most experienced makers refer to him as a "predator". His M.O. is to find promising young makers, and draw them into selling him knives at a stupid discounts, and once he is carrying their knives, he starts dictating to them what they make, and how they make it. If the maker balks, he tells the that he will ruin their names in the knife world.

Had I found that a "reseller" had altered one of my knives as you mentioned, plain and simple, it would be the END.
 
Shokr,
Its fine to have a engraver embellish your knives to add value but this man is a crook. To put made in USA on your knife to sell it to a unknowing person is wrong. I don't have any idea what the dealer market is like in Egypt? But I know you are a honest man, so find a dealer that has your values about right & wrong.

The last part of my first post is to say that you can give any amount of discount you feel good about on your knives.
 
Thanks guys

Yeah i decided not to work with the guy, and he didnt contact me back so thats good, although no telling whats going in his head.

In our last conversation, we talked about the fact that if i sold him a price he would either take it or leave it, no haggling BUT he is not also to modify my knives (like he did before) and he said its his right to do whatever he wants after he buys it, and before i tell him that i can then decide not to sell to him he said it! Lol

thanks a lot guys for the advice

Honestly there is no market for *quality* handmade knives around here. (And i am not claiming my work is of high quality, its just that from the point of view of someone who loves knives, the stuff that some people buy as art knives around here i wouldnt even use to unclog my toilet!)
So by extention there are no specilized dealers for knives. There are some stores but they sell either the crappy chinese stuff or some of the known makes for ridiculous prices.

If i play my cards roght i can be a pioneer around here and establish huge market for myself and knives in general (assuming of course i dont get arrested with all thats has been going on) :D
 
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