Retail Prices

[Neofolis]

I'm currently looking at Gyutos and I've noticed that anywhere a knife is in stock, the prices are much higher. This kind of makes sense, because people are likely to buy from cheaper places first, but the price differences are crazy.

Here's one example.
In Stock vs. Out Of Stock

These look like the same knife to me, but the in stock knife is almost 2.5x the price where it is out of stock. Is this amount of price variance normal?

 

[Boynutman]

It happens even at legit vendors that the item hasn't been in stock for ages / is no longer available and the price has just become obsolete. This is not out of bad intent. But it does make you feel like you missed out on bitcoins.

 

[Jovidah]

Sometimes 'out of stock' pages have been out of stock for years and still have old pricing. Prices have gone up quite a bit over the last few years - though your example really is a very extreme difference.
Hard to say from afar if they truly are the same knife. For example the more expensive one does have a higher hardness mentioned in the specs. The cheaper one mentions rosewood, the more expensive one mentions sandalwood. Whether that reflects any actual real-world difference between the knives is hard to say from a distance.

 

[nwshull]

Hocho in the past has priced higher. I think there was a period where they were selling 240mm Masamoto KS for 1k+ during the shortage/ peak hype. That said, yeah, there is legit price increases as well. My hope is a good chunk of that is going to the craftsman, who historically were maybe not as well compensated as they could be for what's some sometimes pretty dirty and physically taxing work.

 

[Neofolis]

My hope is a good chunk of that is going to the craftsman, who historically were maybe not as well compensated as they could be for what's some sometimes pretty dirty and physically taxing work.

This is a valid point. Maybe in future, I will try to buy direct where possible. It seems that there are not that many makers with online shops though or maybe I just need to look harder.