Well I read on their website and here that these seem to be popping up. So, I think its time we had a little discussion on this topic. Has anyone here come across one of these or have any information about it? Awhile back (before this was an issue) I bought three CS products, all seem to be authentic. I bought them from an eBay store called Flames N' Knives. They sell lighters, knives from all sorts of manufacturers, etc. Anyone else do buisiness with these people? I bought an original Ti-Lite from them for $114. List price is over $200, which is why I am thinking maybe I might have a counterfeit. Everything on this knife appears to be authentic. It's heavy, locks up with a definitive click and is as sharp as a razor. Perhaps I did get a deal? I have done pretty reliable buisiness with that store and they have virtually NO negative feedback.
Fake CS Products
- Thread starter sonofodin
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JTW Jr.
Member
fake Cold Steel products ? couldnt happen to a nicer company , hope it stings em like a bitch too. I have never heard of someone making counterfeit Cold Steel products expect for that one post the day , most people usuallu counterfiet something worth counterfeiting 
The mark-up on knives is tremendous; paying half of retail from a discount dealer would not indicate a counterfeit product to me, unless other factors were involved. I must agree, though, I find it humorous that someone would counterfeit Cold Steel; who could be more deserving?
Valkman
Member
If it was a fake CS it would have been like $25 I think. "Fake Cold Steel" - now that's funny!
Folks,
I've handled fake CS knives before. Some of them are outstanding and some have been just ok. The outstanding fakes are probably going out the back door of the manufactures and coming into the US as something else, but they've got the CS markings and they have the packaging to go with it.
Will rip-off companies have boxes printed up to match the CS products? Sure. They use the older packaging (at least on the ones I've seen).
Will the knives look like real CS products? Yep. To my eye they were indistinguishable from my CS knives.
Do people pay the full retail prices for them? Not for the ones I saw. They were marketed as "close outs" and "over stocks" and went for 10% of what a the CS costs.
Markup has been mentioned.
A Retailer pays ~ 1/2 of what the MSRP is on a knife (They hardly ever charge the MSRP, so don't get too excited.). The Distributor pays 20% off that 50% off. Think about that. The $100 knife (that you paid $65-$75) costs the store $50 and the distributor $40. The manufacture probably paid $30-$35 to make the knife (with overhead) or only $5-$10 profit on that knife. Many knife companies are "lucky" to get 5% to 10% profit off of a knife they make. If they hit it big they'll make 20% on a very high end popular knife. That's it. Just 5-10% profit on that work. Think about the fact that the manufacture makes $2-$5 next time you buy a $50 Spyderco or Benchmade or whatever.
I've handled fake CS knives before. Some of them are outstanding and some have been just ok. The outstanding fakes are probably going out the back door of the manufactures and coming into the US as something else, but they've got the CS markings and they have the packaging to go with it.
Will rip-off companies have boxes printed up to match the CS products? Sure. They use the older packaging (at least on the ones I've seen).
Will the knives look like real CS products? Yep. To my eye they were indistinguishable from my CS knives.
Do people pay the full retail prices for them? Not for the ones I saw. They were marketed as "close outs" and "over stocks" and went for 10% of what a the CS costs.
Markup has been mentioned.
A Retailer pays ~ 1/2 of what the MSRP is on a knife (They hardly ever charge the MSRP, so don't get too excited.). The Distributor pays 20% off that 50% off. Think about that. The $100 knife (that you paid $65-$75) costs the store $50 and the distributor $40. The manufacture probably paid $30-$35 to make the knife (with overhead) or only $5-$10 profit on that knife. Many knife companies are "lucky" to get 5% to 10% profit off of a knife they make. If they hit it big they'll make 20% on a very high end popular knife. That's it. Just 5-10% profit on that work. Think about the fact that the manufacture makes $2-$5 next time you buy a $50 Spyderco or Benchmade or whatever.
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Alphazulu6
member
wow there is a big market for fake mid-quality knives... I can see a fake Rolex but not a fake Timex hehe.
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