Are Knives Getting...CHEAPER?!?!
Inflation is a very complex concept. And determining the causes of inflation is even more complex, unless, of course, you have a Congressional-backed government program that gave businesses loans that became grants after the businesses took the money. The common refrain is that things are getting more expensive. And generally that is true. Commodities especially see regular and consistent price increases. So the idea that knives are getting cheaper seems profoundly counterintuitive. But if you think through it carefully you will see, it is actually true.
If you look at the price of the Benchmade Mini Grip over the past 20 years you will see that there is a huge increase in its price. I remember purchasing a 154CM Mini Grip in the early aughts for around $90 street price. That same knife with the same design and materials (except steel—the base model Mini Grip is steeled in S30V) now sells for $160 street price. That is clearly a price increase (notably it is exactly at inflation which pins $90 at $160 in October of 2024). So if you confine your view only to this aspect of the market, the answer is yes.
As an aside there is another model that is used in other industries—the price stays the same but the cost of production goes down. Arizona Iced Tea has famously been 99 cents since its release. Even has Pepsi, Coke, Red Bull, and others raise their price, Arizona was so confident in their product that they printed the price on the can at the factory. Arizona might be a bit of an anomaly, as their owners stated that they don’t need more profit, but other companies do this as well. Hot Wheels, for example, have been, in their base form, 99 cents forever. They increase profit by making the costs related to the production of each car lower. That is why, for example, the base plate for 80s era cars were metal and most now are plastic. Obviously a good profit-driven company would both increase prices and decrease costs, but it is worth noting that some products use only one of these strategies.
Focusing on one knife is not the right way to look at this issue though. The better way, the brand and model agnostic way, is to find a knife that has a similar position in the market and see if it costs more than the Mini Grip did at the time. This does two things—first it controls for weird market fluctuations and it controls for brand-related pricing structures.
By the first thing, I mean that some knives for essentially random reasons, catch on and go like gang busters causing price increased unrelated to things like increases in labor cost or component prices. Here I am thinking of knives like the Sebenza. It is a knife with an outsized role in the market. The reverence it receives, which I agree with and believe is justified, probably adds more than a few bucks to its price. Similarly, some knives are so hot that they are hard to buy and this, in turn, results in price increases. Comparing similar but not identical knives eliminates these model-specific issues that impact price.
It also avoids brand-wide pricing structures. A while ago Benchmade had four tiers of knives—overseas made knives were cheaper and found the “Red” class. “Blue” class knives were domestically made and general purpose blades. “Black” class blades were, of course, tactical knives and “Gold” class knives, the only class that remains from this price structure overhaul, were the limited edition knives. This complex system came and went before consumers could learn what it all meant but it had a price-related impact on almost every knife Benchmade made, both when it was introduced and when it was phased out. This is one very obvious example, but there are others in the knife industry. KAI, for example, has two different brands but those brands, especially now, are really just price structures. They gave up that goat on ZT being tactical only when they released a slipjoint. There are dozens of other examples of this—brands create new brands, sub-brands, and pricing structures that impact the price of every knife. Using a comp knife instead of the same knife isolates us from these problems as well.
So, with all this laid out, what is the comp knife for the 2004 Mini Grip? That’s pretty easy—the Civivi Yonder is a very, very similar design. Let’s take a look at the specs:
Benchmade Mini Grip circa 2004
Steel: 154CM
OAL: 6.78”
Blade Length: 2.91”
Lock Type: Sliding Bar Lock
Weight: 2.81 ounces
Handle Material: Contoured FRN
Deployment: Thumb stud
Construction: Skeletonized Frame with Traditional Stamped Clip, Satin Finish Blade
Price: $90.00
Civivi Yonder
Steel: 14C28N
OAL: 6.62”
Blade Length: 2.88”
Lock Type: Sliding Bar Lock
Weight: 2.73 ounces
Handle Material: Contoured G10
Deployment: Thumb stud
Construction: Skeletonized Frame, Bearing Pivot, Deep Carry Clip, Crowned Spine, Stonewashed Blade
Price: $56.00
There are two major differences here—country of origin and fit and finish. The Yonder is made in China for a Chinese-owned brand while the Mini Grip is and was made in America for an American-owned brand. That is a big difference for me. But is it $44 worth of a difference? On a percentage basis that is almost exactly 50% of the Mini Grip’s 2004 cost. Fit and Finish, however breaks in favor of the Yonder. This knife locks up with zero blade play, unlike the wobbly lock on the Mini Grip.
Aside from these major differences, the knives are very similar. Size, weight, lock, construction, deployment are all very similar. I think the Yonder has better steel, a better clip design, and nicer touches like the contoured G10 and the crowned spine. So the question is this—do they occupy a similar enough market spot to make it a fair comparison?
I think a lot of readers of this site are going to say no. They are going to think back to 2004 or whenever they first started buying knives and thing—the Mini Grip was the first “serious” knife and so it was a step up from the niche the Yonder occupies. But in talking to folks that got into knives more recently, like 20 somethings, this belief is wrong. For them, especially those looking for a one and done knife, the Yonder and a few other Civivis are their first “serious” knife. The Elementum 2 is another Civivi offering that fills the same niche. There simply weren’t good Chinese made knives in 2004 that most people were willing to buy. There were some good ones, but they were generally impossible to find or really, really esoteric. Now, with the advent of Amazon, the Yonder is just as readily available today as the Mini Grip was back then, if not more so. For these reason I think they occupy the same spot in the market.
Which leads me to this point—the Yonder is a better knife than the 2004 Mini Grip. While they are very similar, the small differences that do exist all favor the Yonder. 14C28N is just superior to 154CM. G10 is better than FRN. The details are better, construction is better, tolerances are better. When the differences exist and matter, they break in favor of the Yonder. There is also the matter of price. The Mini Grip is a lot more on paper, but not in reality. It is a domestic made product and that always adds cost. So while they are $44 apart, they are, in reality much closer in price. If the Mini Grip were made in China or the Yonder in the US I would guess the price difference would be quite small, less than $10 (which is purely an educated guess). But this accounting for country of origin doesn’t solve the entire problem. Assume that the prices are the same and you still have to conclude that knives now are at the least, a better value than they were before.
That argument is true even though I drew every inference AGAINST my thesis argument. That tells me, pretty conclusively, that while individual knife models are getting more expensive, knives are clearly better now than they were in 2004 and they are likely slightly cheaper when you compare knives with similar positions in the market.
But you don’t have to follow this comp to make the argument work. The OT from Wal-Mart is a real knife, not a knife-shaped object, and it is less than $10. Three years ago, a knife like this would have been between $35-50. As I have stated on the blog before, the OT and the Iridium are pretty darn similar and the newer knife is much cheaper.
These two examples make it hard to avoid the conclusion that knives are getting cheaper. They are getting cheaper and better. What a good time to be alive.
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