New Sword Store - site review and unboxing of two swords.
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- čas přidán 25. 07. 2024
- #sword #unboxing
Swordis is a pretty new store where you can buy swords. They reached out to me to offer a review sample to help raise awareness of their site. In this video, I take a look at the site, order two swords, and then unbox them.
I will be reviewing both of these swords later this year.
Check out Swordis at swordis.com
Sword measurements photo gallery: photos.app.goo.gl/8EDa3rQFLjw...
00:00 Swordis.com
16:47 Unboxing
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Swordis has responded to this video with the following:
1. We are a new startup business starting on a dropshipping basis because it would be hard to keep a stock of over 1000 products. We are also in the process of acquiring a warehouse and gradually building our inventory. However, the dropshipping partnership we have with our suppliers doesn't cost clients anything. In most cases, we offer the cheapest prices on the market, which leads me to point number two.
2. Most of the prices that you see on our website are designed to prevent customers from facing unexpected high costs at the checkout page, like shipping and sales tax. Additionally, these prices give us even more freedom to offer seasonal discounts and discounts to our loyal customers. On Kult of Athena, which you cited as being cheaper, if you go to checkout, you will see that it's actually cheaper to buy through us. For example, consider this order you placed on our website for these SKUs: SH2454 and SD35640. The total item cost is $415 + $38 (shipping) + $32 (sales tax) = $485. While on our website, the total cost is $423 + $24 (shipping fee) = $447 if you use our coupon code.
So, in the end, the same order on our website is $30 cheaper than on Kult of Athena and honestly cannot be found cheaper elsewhere.
3. Regarding the overpriced item from Windlass, it was an error that has been fixed. We will never have prices that are not at least the same as our suppliers, in most cases even cheaper if you consider sales tax and shipping. If the price of a sword is higher than the standard prices on our supplier websites, then it's most likely an error.
4. About the Battle Ready Swords, that was a mistake on our part. We actually have 3 times more battle-ready swords (800+) but they weren't properly assigned as Battle Ready Swords is a secondary category. I will update all the subcategories within 48 hours.
5. We made an update yesterday, and now you can select multiple brands in the filter sections so you don't need to always go back and forth selecting and deselecting.
6. We chose not to force users to create an account just for the sake of placing an order because we believe that if user management only serves this function, it would waste customers' time instead of being beneficial. We are planning to add a dashboard with many more features for our users, where they can access progressive discounts, manage a word collection inventory, and much more. However, we are planning to launch it early next year. Our current priority is the sword builder.
7. We are indeed working on a custom sword builder that will give customers the options to customize the swords in a way that nobody else does already. From $200 katanas up to $9000 high-end katanas.
Very interesting! Always welcome to see a new player enter the game as I think more options are always beneficial. I like the seeming good communication on Swordis’ part as that is a key component to successful business. Will be keeping a sharp eye on them going forward.
Just bought a Hanwei Basket hilt from them, and the setvice was fabulous. The prices are great, and the shipping was reasonable, not to.mention fast. I live in the PNW.
Interesting. As usual, I’ll be curious to see your full and complete thoughts on these.
Thanks for this review, I'm picky about which swords I buy and it is always nice to have another place to look!
Glad to help!
Cool review of the website. I wonder if there are more like it. Can you make a playlist if you end up making more videos like this one where you review sword buying websites?
Reviewing various sword stores is a good idea. I'll consider doing that in the future. If I do, I'll certainly make a playlist of those videos.
question, do you have any bronze swords? what can you cut with a sharpened bronze sword that hasnt been work hardened? fruit? water bottles?
I don't have a bronze sword, no. I'd like to get one from Neil Burridge some day, but that's difficult since he's stopped exporting them from the UK.
Interesting that they sell Shadow Dancer/Zsey. Never seen any 3rd party store sell those brands. They have Shadow Dancer swords with free shipping(usually $50) and listed as US supply. But lead time is 1-2 weeks, so maybe an error? Would be awesome if its really US stock and you don't have to deal with the Chinese customer service, though you lose the customization from the direct store.
Hey Kale!
Thank you for pointing that out! It was indeed an error, and it should have been marked as "International Supply." Could you please let me know what kind of customization you would like that is not possible with us but is possible with Z-SEY/ShadowDancer? We have a close relationship with both the Z-SEY and ShadowDancer teams, and we will soon improve the delivery times for most of our products.
I'm not going to lie; we are a small company that started out with limited resources. However, our main goal is to build our own stock of products so that customers will have the option to have the products shipped in a more effective and less costly manner. One way we see this happening sooner is by reserving some stock so it would be ready to ship without having to wait for custom orders. In the meantime, we are trying to be very transparent and accurate with the lead times for most of the products that we have in inventory.
As for the language barrier when it comes to customer service with international companies, I hear you, as we had the same struggle to form this partnership, especially with the sword builder we are working on. However, we have two team members who are fluent in both Chinese and English, and they will take care of customer service and communication with suppliers to avoid any misunderstandings.
@@swordis-shop Hi, thanks for taking the time to respond. it's mostly in the thinking that if the swords are US stock then they were premade and aren't made to order, so you wouldn't be able to customize them. If they are made to order with customization allowed then what you are offering is a great value! Would be very interesting to see how your custom builder works out.
@@Kale_Kale Oh, I misunderstood you! But yes, you are right. Long-term, we won't be able to customize products found on the product category pages, but the custom sword builder will be used for that purpose.
@@swordis-shop Will the custom sword builder have shadow dancer or zsey as an option as the forge building the sword?
@@Kale_Kale Yes! We will collaborate with at least three different brands, including Z-Sey/ShadowDancer. To give you a bit of a spoiler, customers should be able to choose the type of sword they want to customize and then select the brand available for each type of sword. Each brand will have its own advantages; some brands offer fewer customization options but are more affordable and take less time to build, while others will be more complex and will come with a longer processing time and higher costs.
The custom Katana builder sounds really cool. I wonder how exactly that would work? It would be really cool to get a blade and saya from company A a Tsuba from company B and menuki from company C etc. Not that they would be much different because they're probably all longquan parts lol 😅 but maybe if you can mix and match forges then you could get the fittings you like instead of just whatever company X you are ordering from has. Whenever I am building a sword for fun, I seem to pick fittings that don't really have counter parts on the site, but then I look somewhere else and I'm like "oh man they have just the thing I would pick if it had only been on the other site. But not the thing I would get from the other site so I still can't get what I wanted pffff."
That is my understanding of it, but I'm not 100% on the details.
@@alientude I hope so! That would be really cool. I'm guessing that you would have to assemble it your self? So many questions😅 like the tsuka? (menuki, kashira etc.) Would have to be from one forge? How's that gonna work? Let us know
Cool videos kyle thanks 🤘 interesting store
@@sinisterswordsman25
That's a great idea, and it's also something that we have given a lot of thought to. However, as much as we would like it to happen, it's not possible at the moment. Nonetheless, the builder will offer many options for you to choose from, and long-term, we plan to add different sword parts from various suppliers that you can individually buy from our website. Depending on the brand you choose, the customization can involve up to 27 steps, with a choice between 400 different options.
One option that we are considering is to add all the available options/parts. Customers will then have the choice to customize their own sword and order additional sword parts that they can interchange.
We are going to release the first beta version in 2 months, and starting from there, we will collect feedback so we can constantly improve it.
@@swordis-shop That all sounds really cool! I appreciate you answering my questions about it. OK I have another one for you. I'm Canadian and sometimes shipping can really add up and make a affordable sword much less so.
So my question is. Do you guys think you would have cheaper shipping to Canada than KOA? I know it depends, but ballpark figure?
@@sinisterswordsman25 It's hard to say at this point because we are still in the early stages. The only way we could offer cheaper shipping to Canada would be to have warehouses there, but at this moment, it's difficult to determine if we will ever do that. Our main focus now is on the USA market.
Attention Europeans:
The Langeid can be picked up for ~€330 from different vendors in Spain along with many other Windlass swords.
The Hanwei Rhinelander has that nice archetypical German sword look from the 15th century. Too bad people complained about build issues following test cutting. I'll look forward to a dedicated review. I am curious how you would compare it to other cutting swords. But in all honesty, your short feedback from the unboxing speaks volumes: since you referenced a "weight in the hilt" (yea no, a side-ring like that will not make that much of a weight difference, especially when you consider its location in relation to your hand) and a "good amount of weight in the blade, also" (bingo! that would explain a heavy feel in the hand), I somehow doubt this will be a well-balanced sword. But this sword is one that Hanwei should improve on, just some fine-tuning, a bit on the blade profile, a bit on the taper, more quality control and they would have a winner. I mean, this is a very appealing sword, especially at an entry price point.
This is precisely why I don't like to give initial thoughts/first impressions on swords - too much reading into things I say that I have not thought through.
@@alientude I expected you to say this. This is why I added the exact quotes. :)
I think we all understand that the first impression of a sword can change quite a lot. After all, you didn't even got a chance to swing it around in the unboxing video.
Honestly, my opinion was formed less on your words (so don't worry), and mostly on an extrapolation based a little on experience and on different reviews (the one reporting the built issues was from Matt Easton if I remember exactly). But since you bought a Rhinelander, I am indeed curious to see a proper review from someone focusing on cutting. I really want to like this sword. And if you find faults with it, good, that means Hanwei can improve on it.
But my point is that my exact quotes are still not thought through. They are incredibly unrefined thoughts that you have already taken too strongly - commenting that the hilt doesn't feel heavy despite what I said, and that the blade weight is what gives it the feeling I'm describing.
@@alientude Ok, I see. Past a reasonable limit, I would say not to overthink how people interpret your words, but it's clear that you have a stronger concern in this regard than me (and I get it, it's your channel, your words, your responsibility). From my perspective, I was making those comments as banter rather than some strong analysis. Yes, the statements I quoted from you were a form of feedback, but I never took it as a strong one (all the factors I already mentioned were implicit in my mind). But hey, I read again what I wrote, and now I'm worried that people will read too much into my own comments...
P.S. I can remove the direct quotes if you would feel more at ease, but I think all this back and forward is sufficient to warn people not to misconstrue your unboxing as a mini-review.
The back and forth is good - no need to edit your comment. I am particularly conscious of how my first impressions are interpreted because I've seen people make buying decisions based purely on somebody's first impressions before, and I have personally had my first impressions change considerably after time with a sword, so I always try to be very careful in that regard.
Just popped over there to search a few things. They have the most ANNOYING search bar I have ever encountered. Seemed to not want me to enter anything. Very strange. Couldn't find what I wanted with their search bar. Either search doesn't work or they don't have many popular products. Not sure I will be shopping there. May 13/24
Odd, because it works perfectly for me (on PC Firefox).
Swords seem overpriced on this site. Some of the prices are x2 or more than other site.
edit: And I have a lot of the swords on this site. Shop around find better prices