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Idril wrote::viking:

My hammer has arrived. All good. It appears to be in perfect condition. I'll post a pic soon.
Woot! And the helm just arrived today. You'll have it shortly!
"I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend."

Decide what to defend your castle with at www.castlekon.com

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xena10ares wrote: Sun Dec 10, 2017 7:41 am Is Castle Kon closed now? I tried to go to the website and sent an email and have not heard back.
We are still open! So sorry we missed your email. What day did you send it? We were on vacation for two weeks and things got hectic.

The website should redirect to our facebook page where we are handling business now. I'll have to check our domain to make sure it is properly redirecting.
"I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend."

Decide what to defend your castle with at www.castlekon.com

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BARD SWORD UPDATE:

Delivery date to United has been pushed to October 26. Therefore, I'll ship them the following week. Look for tracking numbers the first week of November.

My new UC rep told me they "were always scheduled for the 26th" conveniently not noting the specific email where we discussed the week of the 12th.
"I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend."

Decide what to defend your castle with at www.castlekon.com

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Valkrist wrote: Fri Nov 02, 2018 6:08 am Excellent! Looking good. :thumbs_up

Can't wait to receive mine... been a long time since I've hung anything on my walls.
You still want me inspect right?
"I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend."

Decide what to defend your castle with at www.castlekon.com

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Fingolfin wrote: Sat Nov 10, 2018 11:37 am Man those pictures look awesome. I'm glad they went through with production on this. I might...maybe...just have to pull the trigger and buy one!
I have two left in stock!
"I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend."

Decide what to defend your castle with at www.castlekon.com

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Nasnandos wrote: Sun Nov 11, 2018 10:20 am The deep etch on the blade is not deep enough, but overall it's not bad.
I had a feeling that might be the case but didn't want to say anything without knowing any better. The lack of depth makes it appear grey in most lighting, rather than the black you see in promo shots or the box art. Still love the sword though.
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Sorry for the delay. I literally just found out about it all yesterday from a customer. But here we go:

Castle Kon is currently taking pre-orders for the United Cutlery Illuminated Moria Staff Of Gandalf And Display Plaque Length 66”

Price is $195 + Shipping

Shipping rates international are as follows:

$80 Canada
$90 Europe (general)
$100 UK
$120 Australia

US shipping rates can be calculated per request.

Apologies for the higher than normal shipping but this has been quoted to me at the 15 pound weight limit which increases it's price to me and then to you. Also, no news that it is in two pieces so most likely one again.

The way to pre-order is as follows:

email: CastleKon@gmail.com

with your paypal email address and shipping country. I shall then send paypal invoices that will allow partial (half payment). At least half must be placed as we are fairly close to the release (next month). Feel free to pay all if you want. One week before shipping, I'll follow up with anyone who hasn't fully paid for the rest.

The current release date is January 14, 2019, but that can easily change as we all have seen with past preorders.
"I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend."

Decide what to defend your castle with at www.castlekon.com

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Anyone else get the email from Derek Smith today? Apparently BudK/UC is telling wholesalers that they can no longer conduct business online and sell directly to customers if they are undercutting BudK. They can only move the products on eBay. Is this even legal?!? Probably not, but if they don't allow the wholesalers to buy product anymore, that has the same end result. Rev, did you get a notice from them? Here is the email:

Hello valued customers,

We (all resellers) have received a notification that we cannot sell online (with the exception of Ebay) any of the products they provide unless the resellers escalate our prices.

We cannot sell items to customers directly (i.e. our valued customers) for less than the prices they allow us to sell them for.

Our hands have been tied. Without complaining too much, this day was foreseen as, after the bankruptcy, there had been small steps to push out wholesalers and now resellers so that they are the only ones left that you can purchase from.

We simply cannot stay in business competing against the very company that we are buying from so we have decided to break free and dispose of our inventory. Maybe someday, the powers that be will change their mind on how they treat their resellers.

Below are the items we have left and the prices to which we are selling them at. If you are interested, please let me know! Cash or check would be best for us.

Lord of the Rings: Officially licensed by United Cutlery. Brand New, complete, in the original box, and never opened:

UC1265 LOTR - Glamdring Sword of Gandalf - $149.00
UC1267 LOTR - Narsil Sword of Elendil - $199.00
UC1370 LOTR - Herugrim Sword of King Theoden - $220.00
UC1298 LOTR – Hadhafang Sword - $179 (I also have a brand new Hadhafang with crack in the handle)
UC1264 LOTR – Sting Sword $90.00
UC1380 LOTR – Anduril Sword $144.00
Mini Sword of the Ringwraith (1/5th) with display stone - $40.00

The Hobbit: Officially licensed by United Cutlery. Brand New, complete, in the original box, and never opened:

UC2942 HOBBIT - Gandalf the Grey Sword - $149.00
UC2926 HOBBIT - Gandalf The Grey Staff - $150.00
UC2990 HOBBIT - Morgul Dagger - $90.00
UC3031 HOBBIT - Bow and Arrow of Tauriel - $180.00
UC3043 HOBBIT - Mirkwood Polearm $179.00
UC3107 HOBBIT - Illuminated Staff of Gandalf the Grey - $150.00
UC3167 HOBBIT - Helm of Dain Ironfoot - $250.00
UC3168 HOBBIT - Sling for Thranduil Sword - $65.00
UC3264 HOBBIT - Sword of Bard the Bowman - $149.00
UC2892 HOBBIT – Sting Sword - $90.00
UC2893 HOBBIT – Sting Scabbard - $40.00

As you can see, some of the prices have gone up. Unless it is sold out, when UC/BudK brings items back, the prices are almost always higher.

I may have a couple other items laying around that didn’t make this list. I will update you as soon as I can.

Btw, all of these items are on Ebay, Craigslist and other sites and local places. We do have multiples of some but not all.
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Lindir wrote: Fri Apr 26, 2019 8:11 am Can’t imagine that’s legal at all and it’s a crappy move on behalf of UC/BudK. I can see them getting away with it. It’s unfair to put this sort of pressure on retailers.
"Crappy" is too kind a word for this kind of tactic, to be honest. It essentially amounts to BudK implementing a monopoly on prices and dictating to independent wholesalers how to conduct their business or else. I'm not an expert on business and economics laws, but this smells very fishy to me. Of course, as BudK owns United, they can simply say they are only selling UC products through BudK now, which makes more sense. Still a low and dirty move, but feels less like breaking the law than the alternative.
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Wow. Get rid of the opposition and then rule........

I doubt it would be legal in Oz but like Val said, they could word it differently and still get away with it.

I guess this is the push back from retailers complaining Budk was selling stuff on their site cheaper than they could buy it. Still stinks. I wonder if the retailers could do something like a sale occasionally though. If it isn’t the standard price but the sale price, that might not count

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I guess I'm missing something in all this.

Let's say that Rev orders a half dozen Bard swords for the reseller price , say (for the sake of discussion) at $175 ea.
And on BudK website the sword goes for $190 .
And then Rev sells them to 6 of us for $175 ea (plus shipping).
How could BudK know what Rev charges us, especially if Rev conducts any future business via PM or private email?

"Eternity is an awful long time, especially towards the end."

"What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing.
It also depends on what sort of person you are.” -- CSL

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It would be my guess that United has a list of wholesalers that they sell to, as in the people they have issued licenses to. As such, they probably have access to their contact info, website/online retail-store, brick and mortar store, etc. This would allow them to keep tabs on what wholesalers are doing with their products. If Rev, for example, were to go completely underground, get a new email, and wipe his presence from this forum and Facebook, yeah, they wouldn't know what he's selling these swords for, but he's still buying them, so there's a trail on their end telling them that he must be selling them somewhere - unless he's nuts and likes to have 10 Bard swords on his wall. If it's not eBay, then the jig is up.

I know this all sounds very 'deep state' but I'm not sure how else to reason this whole thing or figure out how they would even enforce it. Hence my questioning of whether this is even legal. I have no clue, so what I posted above is just a theory based on personal speculation. Reality is often much simpler. What is for certain is that they could revoke all retailer licenses as that is within their purview, but I think that would hurt them far more in the end. :huh:
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Hhmm i have heard of other sword companies doing similar things. Which ones exactly I cannot remember at the moment - but I do know some resellers had to change their pricing / policy due to new rules stating that they cannot sell a sword for less than the contracted price, so as to not undercut the sword company (almost all of which also sold their swords directly). So basically what ended up happing was that the sword company and most resellers would have the same set price, but then the sword company can have a "sale" every once in a while to help move products along. I know for a while some resellers stopped carrying certain companies due to not being able to compete... whereas other would only carry one or two of each model just to maintain diversity in their offerings - which was usually other larger companies. Usually when this happens the smaller resellers die out. Just speaking from what I've seen in the past 20ish years of sword collecting....

To me this never made sense. A reseller cannot sell a sword below their cost and still stay in business. The manufacturer decides what that cost price is... so then they have much more margin to move their prices around, so to not lose out on sales. For example - BudK has weekly sales of free shipping, and monthly sales, and clearance sales every once in a while....
"Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum!"

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Thanks for the insight, Jash. I had wondered if others had tried this before and what the results were, and there's my answer.

It's a very lousy game for BudK to play with but they get to make the rules since they own UC. They are the shark in the water, and all the little minnows will get swallowed up one by one because of this. Main problem for me is that BudK does not ship internationally, so with this General Order 66 given out against all retailers (Star Wars reference there - look it up!) it means that unless I want to get gouged on eBay or from a retailer that has been forced to jack up their price, I will have no way of purchasing UC items anymore. That really stinks. :angry:
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It is a crappy move on their part for sure. But don't give up just yet! 2 examples from major companies that come to mind now:

1) Hanwei: 10-15 years ago when I worked in an outing goods store that sold Hanwei - we, as well as other major stores, sold at their MSRP. That was around the time there was a huge increase in online internet sword sales. Seeing private people becoming official distributers and selling near their cost (roughly 50%!!). Hanwei realized their major buyers (as in brick and mortar companies) were losing sales and thus Hanwei was losing sales on bulk orders, so something needed to be done, and if you notice now, I can't seem to find ANY online retailers selling near the 50% off margin anymore. I mean it also didn't help that years ago one of their main factories had a major fire which led to the increase in all their MSRP's across all lines. In hindsight - this is a complicated example lol.

2) Windlass / MRL: A lot more recent (past few years) there was a scare that either they contracted all prices to be at their MSRP as per their own website, or they were going to cut all resellers and be sole distributer... It was so intense that even KultOfAthean, arguably the largest sword reseller, even froze all their Windlass products. However, now they're back, selling Windlass. Even MRL's website would have a "Deal of the Day" where they chose one item at 50% off - then it went to 30% off - no it's gone completely....

So I guess in sum - I hope this is just a temporary scare while BudK figures out what they're doing and the future impact it will have on the collecting community which supports their business.
"Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum!"

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Thanks again for the awesome insider look into this.

In the end I don't much care where I get my UC products from, so long as a the price is decent. Obviously I prefer to support people that are doing this to bring us those products in an affordable way, such as Rev and Derek, but if it comes down to ultimately only being able to buy from BudK only, that's that - except they have this absurd new policy of not shipping outside the US. I'd really like to know why it's so hard for a big company like that to sort out international laws and customs around shipping blades, as I'm sure that's what's behind their reluctance. They used to do it before, but something has clearly changed and now they can't be bothered. You want a monopoly, fine, but if so, you have to be prepared to go global because the US is not the only market for these things... not by a long shot. Did Donald Trump suddenly become the CEO of BudK and I missed it?!?
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Not shipping overseas I could possibly see - from other sword forums / groups - last few years have become more and more difficult to ship to certain countries. But... Canada? That's what I do not understand. Almost every other sword company and retailer ships to Canada. Remember when BudK's website was only viewable from within the US? That was a fun time lol
"Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum!"

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Sorry for the delayed response. I may have missed something as I normally delete all "corporate emails," but searching through my UC emails, the 2019 agreement states that I can NOT sell on Amazon or Ebay without UC's approval. Specifically saying that I (Castle Kon) have to sell directly to the consumers and not drop shipping through another party.

I am unsure where Smith is getting this, maybe I missed it, but I am certainly not currently aware of being bound by anything.

As for the pricing. I am completely honest with you all on it.

Bard sword for example: costs me about $163. I sell it for $195 + shipping. With most orders, my paypal fees are between $7.50 - $10 depending on where I am shipping. So I net about a $20-$25 profit (if I am lucky). With the amount of issues UC has had and international losses from shipping and damage, I believe I average around $10 profit to officially calculate into my emails, invoices, opening, inspecting, closing, and shipping time per hour. Considering that for my regular day job, I currently contract for about $100/hour, this is not at all something I need to do, but have enjoyed thus far.

Now, moving onto the future. I have been taking pre-orders for the Sauron Helm and Mace re-release. I have been told I am getting 20 of each. The price also increased on me by over $100 from the initial emails I got from UC (of course after I collected the money for 18/20 Helms) so now I am doing even more re-work to settle this with everyone world wide.

My pricing is as follows:

Helm: $350 + Shipping
https://www.facebook.com/castlekon/phot ... =3&theater

Mace: $300 (firm) + Shipping
https://www.facebook.com/castlekon/phot ... =3&theater

Please message the page through facebook if you are interested. I am sorry for forcing everyone through there, but I simply cannot keep track of email/UCForum PM/ Weta Collectors PM/ [insert the million other forums here] / and facebook.
"I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend."

Decide what to defend your castle with at www.castlekon.com

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Valkrist wrote: Tue Jul 23, 2019 2:32 pm Hey Rev, I don't have Facebook but I do have your email. In any case, since you've been active here the last week, I'll ask: can you check what a new White Staff will cost through you, please?
$135 + Shipping. I assume it will be $55-$65 but I am not sure of the new shipping weight. Shoot an email to me via castlekon@gmail.com and I can send an invoice for $200. If shipping is less, I'll refund the difference.
"I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend."

Decide what to defend your castle with at www.castlekon.com

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Hey everyone,

Rev has asked me to alert any interested parties here that he is holding three silent auctions on his FB page for three items from his personal collection: Legolas Shortbow; Tauriel Shortbow; and Tranduil's Staff (all UC products).

He is also opening pre-orders for the Horn of Gondor, Eowyn sword, and Guthwine. Here is a link to the page showing the auctions, which also contains a link to the Google order form if you want to pre-order items from him. You do not need FB to access.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_ ... 0148849449
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Valkrist wrote: Thu Jun 04, 2020 5:03 am
I've never the used this new method with the Google order form. Used to be I would just contact him by email, tell him what I wanted to preorder/buy, and he would send me an invoice through PayPal on the same or next day.
Hmmm. Thanks for the reply. This is my first order with him. I hope he just wants to get a bunch in and send them all out at once.

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He definitely puts his orders in by batches because UC stipulated a minimum order of 10 per item, if I recall correctly. You can still order individually but it's not worth it for him. Not sure if he processes invoices individually or all at once but while I understand your concern as a first-time customer, I have a 100% confidence and trust in him based on previous transactions and communication.

You won't have a Ginger Wages situation on your hands. ;)
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