Limited Quantities

I'm a small batch maker of tools and knives. Although I make a fair amount of stuff there are always people who are unable to get my creations because they are often all gone by the time they see them available. Lately I have been hearing from more and more of these folks and how unhappy they are that they can never seem to get in on the latest release of goodies.

What has been much commented on lately has been the pattern of new items showing up on Ebay at hugely inflated prices. These are mostly brand new items, never been used. So obviously a few people have been buying good sized quantities of stuff for the sole purpose of reselling them for profit. I think it is interesting that many of the items actually sell at these prices and I am grateful that my work is held in such high esteem that somebody would actually be willing to pay $65 for a whistle for example. But I have to say I am not entirely comfortable with the situation. I think it is really unfair for the folks who just want to add a new piece to their collection or even just buy ONE piece, sometimes their very first Atwood tool.

Not everyone can check my site for updates and releases constantly during the day and I realize that. I have made comments in the past about robots being run to check my site. A few of them are still being run despite my polite request for the perpetrators to stop running them or at least curtail their use so as not to inflate my bandwidth. A few of these resellers may in fact be running bots in order to swoop in and grab some goodies the moment they are released.

So here's the thing....in order to level the playing field a bit...if I think you are buying items in quantity for the sole purpose of reselling for profit I reserve the right to deny you the purchase of multiple items. I'm not saying I won't sell you one of the new Widget X, I just won't sell you 4 of them. I'm also not saying that people can't buy something and then decide they don't want it, then put it up on Ebay. That's fine too. But when I see a pattern develop of multiple item purchases and then up they go on Ebay for scalper's prices then it's not OK.

I apologize in advance to anyone who that may piss of but the fact of the matter is I'd rather piss off a few people than continually frustrate hundreds. Fair is fair.