Spot on Peter! Markets are hot right now on knives guns ammo vehicles groceries. All my bare essentials!!!!!!

Jim,

I believe the new media sources like Instagram and Facebook are driving the demand for Randalls. Facebook alone has four or five Randall specific Groups. My favorite is the "Randall Knife Collector" the "Ramrod" is Mitchell Harrison.

"Randall B/S/T was started by Joel Hilbert, and has about 5.7K members. A dozen or so Randall Models are sold everyday. They are very strict about the "rules of the house". If you display hostile behavior, your membership is terminated. If you display a knife that is not a Randall, the post is deleted.

You look at these four or five groups and you will see a lot of trading, and buying, but except for "Randall Knife Collector", not much education, not much history, not much in reference material like we have here.

Michael Mason & I earnestly try to encourage folks to come over to Knife Talk Forums and bask in all the reference material we have and join in on the different threads, but its like pulling teeth, it seems like.

I get the feeling we're the "old guys" and while we enjoy the banter and the "conversations" on the threads, we're somehow behind the times.

Over there on Facebook & Instagram, everything is fast-paced, and folks are asking questions easily answered by the online RMK Catalog, but they don't want to waste time looking at the catalog.

The resources here like "Knives of the week Models 1-28" have so much to offer new people that want to customize, say, a Model 1. Here they can peruse 81 pages of comments and photographs and seek out a dealer and order it. But that crowd doesn't see the value of KTF.

Jim, I really believe these other media outlets are responsible for reducing dealer offerings on their websites. There's a feller over there that buys a dozen Randalls from two dealers. My first order this year will be here in two weeks. Of the 30 knives coming, only four are for my inventory. The rest are customer orders.

Better git off the soapbox before folks start dozing.

...for the "ENTIRE MONTH"...I have "5" RMKs to list...Used to be 30-35...
Stay Sharp, Capt. Chris
PS: Of the "5" one went up on my site yesterday and another today. Less than 60 seconds and both were gone...CCS

Buck, new is not wrong. Just different. 25 years ago when I bought my first new Randall I had no clue. I have little clue now.... but there is a percentage of those fast and furious traders on FB and IG that will become long time collectors, as I did.

The ease of posting and relying on those platforms makes this one less desirable. Mobile devices are even more critical. The software here is 12-15 years old.

Like it or not.... that's where the action is.

Yep, the sign of the times. Dealers are swamped with monthly orders with little or no extra for inventory. Been this way for nearly year or more. Buy 'em when you find 'em.

Pap

When Ebay was first getting popular in the early 2000's, Randall knives made a big surge in prices and demand. New collectors joined the demand and found the Randall Knife Society and KnifeTalkForums.
I think Facebook has provided a similar surge and has found a new set of collectors that crave the instant response and fast pace.
Photos are easy to post on Facebook, and it appears that a number of users have instant notification of any new posts.
Tim Cameron, who helped Tom Clinton at his tables for over 20 years, used to tell me stories about Tom piling Randalls on his tables like cord wood in the 70's.
Then the cycle changed and when I helped Rick Ward at his tables, Rick and Tom Clinton would set times for each of them to have a drawing for the right to buy a knife. The attraction was that they both sold at Catalog prices while others were getting prices well above catalog.
Times change, Technology changes, and the cycle repeats.

That's evident, just in the hassle of posting pictures on this site...

I use a 40% resizer and never have a problem posting pictures.

Pap

I think somebody already posted about this...

I use the phone to make photos, then email them to the computer.

The phone (Outlook in this case) asks if I want to resize, and I select that option.

From the email on the computer, I copy to photos to whatever folder.

The photos are small enough to post here, no problem.

And the images are as good as I need for anything else.

Larry

I do that all on my Android.

Pap