Northwoods Drop

[Beavertail]

I meant nothing disparaging against GEC knives,but I'm not going to jump through hoops to try to buy one.
There are a lot of great people on here that sell them for a reasonable price.
What burns me is seeing these crook flippers gouging for that last penny.
I still believe they have an inside track on buying these.

[Cletus Awreetus]

'I still believe they have an inside track on buying these."

if I ever had any doubts about this, they're all gone after what I saw yesterday. the KSF site was a wreck, it was almost impossible to score one knife with the site limping thru the process on life support. this guy, in North Dakota no less is either the king of serendipity, or he's got the inside track.1 knife was tough, 2, borderline impossible...5??? yeah right..

[RalphAlsip]

Here are the 2 stragglers I ended up with: 1) Big Bay in giraffe; 2) Lincoln in giraffe. These are the KSF pictures with KSF background removed and the 2 KSF front & back pictures were merged.

[kootenay joe]

No Way ! Man am i ever jealous !!
How could such magnificent knives be "stragglers" ? Looks more like someone's secret stash of hand selected knives.
Great score Jerry, but i am jealous.
kj

[gsmith7158]

That's a couple of knockouts Jerry. Congratulations!

[Cletus Awreetus]

wow. very nice. of all the Bohn NWs, I like the Big Bay best. plenty of heft, a real user.

[RalphAlsip]

kj, greg , cletus, thanks for kind words.

How could such magnificent knives be "stragglers" ?
kj

kj, KSF called them stragglers - its not my term. From what I could tell, there were 4 web pages worth of "stragglers" when they finally appeared. Assuming 50 knives per page (a guess) that would be approximately 200 knives in total. I didn't see all of them - there is no time to look through them all and them come back to what you liked. Whenever I saw one that caught my eye I put in my cart and tried to check out. I missed a couple, but am really happy with what I ended up with. The first time I really looked at these in detail was after the scramble was over and I had a chance to look at my order documentation. On the one hand it is an exhilarating process, on the other hand it is maddening to not be able to make a fully informed decision about spending your money.

[kootenay joe]

"on the other hand it is maddening to not be able to make a fully informed decision about spending your money."
For me it was frustrating to not even be able to get onto KSF website until all knives, Barlows & Stragglers were gone. I did not see a single available knife because our internet is too slow so it can only 'land' after the rush has left.
I know "stragglers" is the KSF term. Those 2 look more like stars than stragglers.
kj

[gsmith7158]

"on the other hand it is maddening to not be able to make a fully informed decision about spending your money."
For me it was frustrating to not even be able to get onto KSF website until all knives, Barlows & Stragglers were gone. I did not see a single available knife because our internet is too slow so it can only 'land' after the rush has left.
I know "stragglers" is the KSF term. Those 2 look more like stars than stragglers.
kj

Roland I've heard that GEC will hold back a number of knives from each dealers order and hold them for an in depth manufacturing analysis which may take a month or more and when finished will forward the knives to the dealer at a time that may be weeks after the initial release. The very best could conceivably be the last ones they get.

[m0nk]

Here are the 2 stragglers I ended up with: 1) Big Bay in giraffe; 2) Lincoln in giraffe. These are the KSF pictures with KSF background removed and the 2 KSF front & back pictures were merged.

Jerry,
Those are fantastic! Exactly the type of knives I've been looking for. I wasn't interested in the Madisons, but I did want to check out the stragglers, in the hopes of finding something like that. Well done, Sir!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Big Bay is on a 78 frame and the Lincoln is a 77, right?

- Lee

[RalphAlsip]

Lee, thank you for the encouragement. I wasn't interested in the Madison either. The Lincoln is a pattern I was looking for in a premium handle. The Big Bay was not on my radar at all. It was a pure impulse buy based on how pretty the handle looked to me in the thumbnail picture. Anticipation for next week's mail is high.

the Big Bay is on a 78 frame and the Lincoln is a 77, right? Lee

You are correct the Big Bay is on the 78 frame. The Lincoln is on the 15 frame.

[Doc B]

Just out of the mail! Madison Barlow in Appaloosa Bone. This is a big knife...beautiful bone.

[RalphAlsip]

Doc, Nice score with the Madison. The appaloosa turned out nice.

[Sharpnshinyknives]

Just out of the mail! Madison Barlow in Appaloosa Bone. This is a big knife...beautiful bone.
IMG_1149.jpg

That Appaloosa looks better than the one I got. I love the color variation on yours. You got a great one.
SSk

[Liverwurst]

Received 3 Sunday and Little Bay straggler today.

[kootenay joe]

Liverwurst, WELCOME to AAPK.
I would like to know how you managed to score 3 Madison Barlow knives. You must have an ultra fast method of checking out ?
kj

[Liverwurst]

Thanks KJ.. Probably just luck but being an IT guy may have helped. The site finally loaded the knives after 9 minutes, added Appaloosa to cart, nothing happened, site still slow, figuring they were gone, added cocobolo to cart, nothing, same thing ..nothing, added nat micarta to cart, nothing. Went back n forth to the stragglers site, refresh browser a few times,then about 15 min in my cart showed 3. Went to pay, getting billing address incorrect message, it wasn't but made some adjustments and payment cleared. Went back to stragglers and added to cart, payed no issues. Went back to stragglers, added Lincoln Jack mammoth to cart, tried paying but it was gone.

[kootenay joe]

Thanks Liverw. Your 'secret' is to be patient and wait for pages to load. I live where the internet connection is a 'slow' hi-speed and i kept closing the page after 1-2 minutes and trying again. I did not finally land on the KSF site until after all knives sold including 'stragglers'.
With your understanding of IT, is it always better to wait for page to load instead of closing & trying again ?
kj

[Liverwurst]

No, don't wait for it to load if it's been beyond normal load time for your connection. Reload the page, have it saved in your bookmark/favorite bar. I use google chrome & ms edge w/ 300mb connection. Have your payment info in notepad to copy & paste unless you have payment preloaded. Hope this helps..

[Tsar Bomba]

Roland, I may have been mistaken. I just read on another forum that the Madison is on the GEC 43 frame. I would go with that because I wasn't certain when I posted this morning.

The Madison Barlow long predates the existence of the GEC 43 frame.

[kootenay joe]

There is an ebay seller with 5 new Madison Barlows listed. There are other sellers with 3 listed. These sellers have had multiple examples the day after previous Northwoods releases.
I am sure KSF is honest. These sellers must have some 'system' worked out.
kj
Edit to add: I just sent this message to KSF:
"Dear KSF,
Regarding the recent Northwoods Madison Barlow. I tried to get to the Northwoods page beginning one second after the opening time but could not 'land' there until about 20 minutes later when all knives, including 'stragglers' had been sold. Posts in AAPK show that this time it is not just my slower high speed internet connection, because many others had the same experience.
Today on ebay there is a seller with 5 Madison Barlows listed for sale and there are other sellers with 3 posted so far. These same sellers have had multiple examples after every Northwoods release in the last 2-3 years.
Do you think getting an IT consultation might lead to KSF site being able to handle the large volume of customers so that all of us would have a chance ? Perhaps you need a better internet service plan or re-design of part of the website ?
And have these ebay sellers found a secret way to score multiple examples every time ? I think something needs 'fixing' to make it fair to all.
I know you care about this. I have no doubt about the sincerity of KSF and your desire to treat every customer fairly.
I think having an IT specialist review your 'system' could lead to improvements."

I will post the reply.
If you think having an IT consultation could not improve things please say so. I know about nothing with regards to the IT world.
kj

[Sharpnshinyknives]

There is an ebay seller with 5 new Madison Barlows listed. There are other sellers with 3 listed. These sellers have had multiple examples the day after previous Northwoods releases.
I am sure KSF is honest. These sellers must have some 'system' worked out.
kj
Edit to add: I just sent this message to KSF:
"Dear KSF,
Regarding the recent Northwoods Madison Barlow. I tried to get to the Northwoods page beginning one second after the opening time but could not 'land' there until about 20 minutes later when all knives, including 'stragglers' had been sold. Posts in AAPK show that this time it is not just my slower high speed internet connection, because many others had the same experience.
Today on ebay there is a seller with 5 Madison Barlows listed for sale and there are other sellers with 3 posted so far. These same sellers have had multiple examples after every Northwoods release in the last 2-3 years.
Do you think getting an IT consultation might lead to KSF site being able to handle the large volume of customers so that all of us would have a chance ? Perhaps you need a better internet service plan or re-design of part of the website ?
And have these ebay sellers found a secret way to score multiple examples every time ? I think something needs 'fixing' to make it fair to all.
I know you care about this. I have no doubt about the sincerity of KSF and your desire to treat every customer fairly.
I think having an IT specialist review your 'system' could lead to improvements."

I will post the reply.
If you think having an IT consultation could not improve things please say so. I know about nothing with regards to the IT world.
kj

Roland, I know it would help. The company I work for use to be on satellite so we could place stock orders at the speed of light minus a lag for routing there and back. Literally I could buy or sell any stock in the world in less than 3 seconds. Then in the late 90’s our satelite “went dark”. Hughes electronics never did figure out why. After a massive repointing of over 10,000 dishes we switched to a T-1 line. To my surprise it was even faster than before. When that wasn’t enough bandwidth we switched to a different broadband, don’t ask me what it’s called cause I don’t know. But it handles everything as fast but has way more capacity.
Even on the highest most volatile days in the markets we never have a problem like what KSF had this last time. Capacity on our system doesn’t shut people out. I know it’s apples to oranges a small company like KSF compared to a large Wall Street firm but it goes to the point that the capacity of their server, or their system is not up to the challenge and growing businesses need to keep up.
SSk

[Drukai]

I'm not sure about the "Stragglers" but when I visited KnivesShipFree up in the UP last summer.. Derrick told me he likes to keep some of the Northwoods held back to sell in the brick and mortar store. Maybe Jay decided to liquidate all the stock they had for walk in customers? If any of ya'll live close in Tennessee you should go check out their store. I'm hoping to make it down this summer, lots of nice knives to coonfinger

Paul

[RalphAlsip]

IT mumbo/jumbo alert: This post that might not be interesting to some folks.

I think having an IT specialist review your 'system' could lead to improvements."

The problem they have is with the capacity of their servers. For approximately 355 days per year their servers can accommodate the load they receive. And that normal load is, let's say, 60 shoppers per hour hitting http://www.knivesshipfree.com to look at pictures of knives and maybe 30 of those 60 per hour decide to buy something they saw.

The reason I say 355 days is because I am assuming that 10 times per year they offer a release of a Northwoods pattern. They promote the release of the knives and provide a specific day and time that the knives will be available. This causes, let's say, 6,000 shoppers to hit the web site simultaneously at 4:00 PM Eastern time on January 17, 2019. So at that one moment, their servers are asked to accommodate 100 times a typical hourly volume and 6,000 times a typical minute's volume. Furthermore, almost everyone wants to buy knives and the shopping cart and purchasing process requires much more processing power than "browsing". Obviously they get crushed on these days.

So what to do? They could invest in enough infrastructure to support what is needed on Northwoods drop days, but then for 355 days per year they are paying for a very large amount of unused capacity. Would it be worth it for them to fix it? Hard to say. They still sell their knives on these days. The only downside I see for KSF of not addressing the issue is some short term customer abrasion with people being upset (me included) that they couldn't buy knives they wanted. If they were to invest in more infrastructure, then the price of knives would likely increase which would also result in customer abrasion because people might not be able to buy knives they want only this time it would be about affordability vs. availability.

You have probably heard commercials on TV and elsewhere about "cloud computing" & IBM "on-time" demand. These offerings, theoretically, were meant for circumstances exactly like what KSF experiences which is being able to scale to peak demands when needed and not be prohibitively expensive during low / normal demand.

I doubt that KSF hosts & supports their own servers - they probably use a business focused Internet Service Provider (ISP). Their ISP should have a data center that is able to utilize the latest cloud computing and scalability concepts. This is not a new problem and the KSF customer experience during the Northwoods releases could be made better if someone made it a priority.

[kootenay joe]

Jerry, i appreciate your explanation. It helps me to understand the situation.
I already received a reply from KSF, very prompt but rather a generic response:

"Jan 24, 3:56 PM EST

Hello Roland,

Thanks for getting in touch with us.

Due to the traffic on the website, our hosting service was overwhelmed causing some delay when loading product pages.

We appreciate the feedback, and I can assure you steps are being taken to make sure this does not happen in the future.

I'm sorry for any inconvenience this has caused you, and please be sure to contact me if you have any questions in the future."

I was hoping for a more specific response and a mention about the continually successful ebay sellers. But, really, KSF is a small family based business centered around knives. Expecting them to be on top of all the new IT knowledge is a bit much.
kj