Collections vs Getting Old

Gary W. Graley

Gary W. Graley

“Imagination is more important than knowledge"
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Mar 2, 1999
Messages
26,403
Greets folks, lately I've seen a few for sale posts where people are closing out their collection as they approach their 'golden' years, myself I just turned 70 but I expect to be around a little longer. But it does make me wonder about what happens when that day arrives and my wife, bless her knife disliking soul, is left with a cardboard box of knives to set on the curb with a sign saying "FREE" and just let them all go. ;)

I don't think she'd do that, hopefully my grandsons will inherit what is left. But they are a ways off of being knife users and my one grandson likes knives but doesn't have the same insane steel virus that I am infected with, so he isn't too invested.

So, I have been on a reduction myself of my knives, it's a struggle that I have been up against for the past year or so. But I still think getting it down to those precious few knives is a good endeavor to work at.

Now, one thing I think that a lot of us guys don't do is let on just how much this or that costs, some will go as far as telling their wives "oh that one, I've had that for years..." and they probably think their wives believe them but I've found wives are more savvy than we sometimes give them credit. So I don't have a list of knife values for her to go off of if she tries to sell them, because, well, a list like that might hasten that day if it fell into the wrong hands! ;) So my plan is to just bring it down to those few that I know that I really like and would hate to part with, from different categories such as slip joints, locking blade, fixed blades and Swiss Army Knives, these I view more as tools than knives myself.

With my wife's uncle recently passing away brings this into a tighter focus. He has a significant collection, I think she is going to just pack them up and send them to one of the consignment places to get what she can, I haven't talked with her since she has gotten home from the hospital and but a friend of the family told me that was his plan for a while in the event he dies.

A somber thing looking at the future, but none of us will get out of here alive, or so they tell me, just a matter of time and as one person stated "life's too short to carry an ugly knife" so make the best of the time we have.

G2
 
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I'm not at retirement age so maybe it will hit different later, but after my dad died a few years back and left tons of collected stuff that was more burden than something I associated with him so would want to keep, I made the decision to start cutting back as well. I don't buy the idea that some relative will appreciate something I never carried and sat in a case or safe for years and no one knew I even had til they had to clean it out. They'll appreciate more a few more bucks in the bank.

For knives, my plan since then has been by the end of esch year I have to have got rid of (sold, gifted, whatever) more knives than I've bought. That way I'm whittling down the number over time, but it's also not stressful to cut down to just a couple asap. So far, a few years in now, it's actually been a nice experience.
 
I'm fortunate that my wife both supports my collecting and has been somewhat involved in the knife community. She has a very good idea of values, and knows where to go to for help on anything she may have questions about. I've never understood the people who need to hide their collection, just seems like a sign of much deeper problems.
 

Favorite line “it’s treasure till it’s mine, then it ain’t worth a time” ;)
G2
 
I'm there! I have some documentation with values if anyone cares but it will be beyond me to care. I just don't want my wife to get the short end - knives going for $50.00 that should be $500.00. I have a few of those. Maybe she can get at least 1/2 of real value. :( Sadly no one in line family for local friends who will care to acquire. Maybe a few nephews or nieces but they would be mementos for them not users. I might just send some particular knives to BF and BCUSA friends. 🥳

I expect over the next few years I will reduce my already minimal collection to near 2 or 3. It is a struggle to not buy more in spite of this realization. ;)
I'm a knife Knut. Good thing I'm not rolling in dough - I would be rolling in knives too. 🤫

Sorry G2 - I won't be buying any of your knives. :)
 
WValtakis said:
....I've never understood the people who need to hide their collection, just seems like a sign of much deeper problems.
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Thanks Dr Phil ;)
I would say you are one of the fortunate ones to have a wife such as that.

The 'system' that I have always used for my toys were that they had to be paid out of money that I make aside from my regular job, be it from making sheaths, sharpenings, lanyards and of course selling one to buy another, so my wife doesn't worry about packages that arrive as she knows that it is covered by other funds outside the family regular income which certainly makes for a better way to do this. BUT she has never ever understood how any knife could cost more that $20 and so that part she doesn't need to know about as it just promotes more eyerolling than normal and yes I do spark a bit of eyerolling from her on a daily basis ;) but she still loves me as goofy as I am.

G2
 
Great topic! Downsizing! I’m trying to address paper: books, letters, communication, records, even school-related work. I’ve been tossing 2–3 trash cans/day and it is exhausting going through it all. I keep thinking that in the end, I’ll not need any of it and I should just chuck it all on the first go around.

Knives are still in tact though. I stopped adding to the collection about 10 years ago. But there are drawers of stuff including sharpening equipment. To be fair, I made a living off these sharp knives…
 
Gary W. Graley said:
With my wife's uncle recently passing away brings this into a tighter focus. He has a significant collection, I think she is going to just pack them up and send them to one of the consignment places to get what she can, I haven't talked with her since she has gotten home from the hospital and but a friend of the family told me that was his plan for a while in the event he dies.
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The downsizing thing I understand, but not passing along your collection to the other fellow collectors who you know? That I don't understand at all! Especially if you have extended family who collect knives... why not simply entrust things to them? Even if they're going to get rid of them anyway, it's better than them going to literally anyone else who doesn't appreciate them for what they are. Even if the people you leave them to aren't into them half as much as you, it's still a better situation, because at least they can understand.

It would be insensitive to bring it up to her, I know... but dang man. What was he thinking? :confused:
 
It’s hard to know what the thinking process was and he died suddenly while driving which ended with the car crashing and his wife sustaining serious injuries, if there was time I’m sure it would be handled differently
G2
 
I'm 73 and I answered a question similar to this in a different thread.

My response is that I don't care about what happens after I'm dead and, as long as my collections of things (knives is just one of several valuable collections of things that I own) gives me "pleasure," I'm keeping all of them until I die.

So, I never plan to sell anything just to reduce a collection to make it easier for my heirs to collect/spend my $ after I'm dead and, if I sell anything, it will only be because I need the $ and/or don't care to own those things any more while I'm still alive.

What my executor and heirs do with the rest is irrelevant to me as a dead man.

However, I have already briefed the executor about the general value of these things and will leave documents establishing the specific value of these collections for sale/appraisal purposes before I die.

Only a fool would give any thing among them away for free.

BTW, the "value" of my knife collection alone is in the neighborhood of $100k.
 
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Ask your family/friends now who is interested in your things and put together a document with instructions now. For example, I have a bunch of books on art and put instructions to donate them to the local art league or a school which could use them, if nobody in the family is interested in them. They are not valuable, but may be worth something to a school who can sell them or give them away to students.
 
I understand and can relate...

I haven't forgotten a conversation I had with a friend I hadn't seen in a while some 5-7 years ago +/-, during which I mentioned how I needed to sell things, and at the time could identify the 4 things I thought I'd be satisfied with:

an acoustic guitar
a mandolin
a pistol (1911)
and a knife (Becker BK-9)

Haven't hardly sold a thing. Just bought more since then...

I mentioned my interest in slimming down my belongings to some colleagues and one started referencing how this could be a sign of depression/being suicidal (which it isn't - though I understand the reference)... I figure no one knows how to advertise the things I've bought to maximize any profit better than me - knowing the history of my (actually quite meager) possessions. Really just want to do it to spare those that might be left to do it for me in a worst case scenario.
 
Time goes pretty fast any more, looking over my photos of all the knives I've owned it boggles my mind, loved each one, miss most of them, bought several over again...and again and still fight the urge to get one that I used to own, because it just looks so darn good, but I am trying to not indulge and it is a struggle.

My collection has dropped down a lot, we'll see how long that goes, as I have a few more to put up for sale and trying to get the others sold seems to be a bit hard, I'm guessing the up coming blade show might have something to do with it, or people just want a super duper deal that I can't drop the price low enough ;)
G2
 
I too have been thinking about this. My "collecting" has been all over the board, but a move last year had me moving a lot of knives. I slimmed my collection down to 3 foot lockers, and got rid of at least that many. Did the same with the large majority of my firearms, all my motorcycles, a couple vintage autos, and kept two auctioneers happy with the household stuff. And I still have more. Crazy. One of these days I'm going to have to get serious about really moving this stuff out, but if I don't, well, not my problem.

I have friends who left airplanes, boats, and storage full of stuff behind. And while it can be hard taking care of that "stuff" it's kind of fun.
 
My wife keeps urging me to have us get a will made up so if anything ever happened, our kids would know what's what and that would lessen the worry about how things should be handled. Of course every time she brings it up I try to remember if I had made her mad recently ;)

So at some point I guess we'll get a will drawn up, nothing fancy since we're not that fancy, just the house and cars, big wall of dvd's which seems to be going the way of the vhs tapes, but where we use to live we did not have cable and the roof antenna would, on good days, get two stations. We lived out in the hicks for 34 years, so dvd's were handy at least for me and the kids. Now the kids' dvd's are with them that get shown to their kids, one neat series was Jane and the Dragon, very nicely made.

But I can't imagine having foot lockers full of knives, I'm getting mine pared down to less than 10 right now and moving to go lower as I can.
G2
 
Gary W. Graley said:
My wife keeps urging me to have us get a will made up so if anything ever happened, our kids would know what's what and that would lessen the worry about how things should be handled. Of course every time she brings it up I try to remember if I had made her mad recently ;)

So at some point I guess we'll get a will drawn up, nothing fancy since we're not that fancy, just the house and cars, big wall of dvd's which seems to be going the way of the vhs tapes, but where we use to live we did not have cable and the roof antenna would, on good days, get two stations. We lived out in the hicks for 34 years, so dvd's were handy at least for me and the kids. Now the kids' dvd's are with them that get shown to their kids, one neat series was Jane and the Dragon, very nicely made.

But I can't imagine having foot lockers full of knives, I'm getting mine pared down to less than 10 right now and moving to go lower as I can.
G2
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Not an expert here: I believe there are many good reasons to do a little estate planning. The chief reason IMO is to avoid taxation—and make sure you know the laws, etc. Also, it could make division and dispersement of assets easier and possibly avoid dissent and confusion. People get weird when money is at stake.

Also, planning can cover durable power of attorney, health care proxy at same time if need be.
 
At one point recently I felt my mortality and gave away 10% of my collection. I thought it would continue to be a way of thinking, but I'm now back at the previous level and likely higher. It's just hard when I'm finally comfortable $$$ wise and there's extra income. I do look at my collection and try to pare down the things that don't "bring me joy" but that is a problem when you love knives. At least we have a will, and I do have a listing of what I own and approximate value.
 
I've been cleaning house lately and I saw that my knife accumulation is not a great as I imagined. I already sold most of anything worth anything and now I'm giving away the surplus. I just dropped two knives in the post yesterday, on the way to a good friend. When I'm done with my distribution, I'll still have more knives than I could use in several lifetimes, certainly more than I need for the time I have left.

My uncle was a guy who never left the house without a knife and couldn't understand why anybody would. The last time I saw him, he showed me his collection. There were six knives in a drawer, each one had seen a lot of use. I knew there were a few others, but that was about it for 80 years of always having a knife in his pocket. When I think of him, I feel rather foolish for wanting another knife that I won't use.
 
You really do need to do a will or a revocable trust. We did the trust and everything is outlined. I've been remiss in not adding a list of "stuff", with distribution to the trust. It's just a list the gets put with the document. I have an excel sheet for knives and guns. The rest of the "stuff" is up for grabs.

I turn 80 this month and have cut back on purchases. I have also sold off some high end knives and better sell more. I figure my wife at the flea market "The Loveless are $50, two for $80."
 
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