2012 Premier Knife Auction

The Amazing Virginian

The Amazing Virginian

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Did anyone who posts here attend this - or follow it "virtually?"

I was online following it last night. I thought that sales were better than in Chicago in 2010. I didn't add them up for a direct comparison, but it just seemed like there were fewer passed items, and I thought the prices were generally pretty good for the sellers. Several items had somewhat vigorous bidding activity.

Overall, I thought it was evidence of a rather robust collector marketplace.

Maybe Las Vegas is a better venue than Chicago, or maybe the market is just stonger? Or maybe my impressions are just off base?

Anyone else have any thoughts on this.
 
I looked it over this morning and didn't think there were any real surprises. As usual, the really "premier" pieces sold for very nice prices. I felt there were some good buys, even with the buyers paying 10 or 15%. I'll be interested to hear from someone who was there as to turnout, Internet bidding and what were the most active auctions.

Win
 
Welll ... Definitely more activities ... Got outbid on some items .... Now ... My question ... Who got that Jess Horn? Pm me pls. Thanks.
 
Thanks for the link Jim. I found the results VERY interesting. I don't know what the trend of price sold vs. estimate typically is, but VERY few knives were in the estimate range.

Peter
 
I agree, definitely positive, in not many "no-sells", and some deals were had on the no-reserve pieces.

Forged knives didn't do particularly well, however I wouldn't expect then to at this auction.

Loveless "fighter style" knives did very well in not only did ALL surpass reserves but ALL surpassed
their top estimates as well.
So much for the predictions that the Loveless market is headed for the toilets.

Loveless knives being made after Bob's death with the "new mark" are being offered/selling at lower
prices but I think it was a pretty sure bet that was going to happen.
 
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I was there. The prices were reasonable, most sold in the low range, not much Internet action and probably 60% of the sales were to dealers/ resellers. In my opinion the weren't any really spectacular knives, maybe three or four. Quite a few knives had condition issues, handling marks etc. but I'm kind of a perfectionist and would rather save my money for a show like Solvang in a few months. Anton, the Jess Horn was nothing to write home about.
 
martinr said:
I was there. The prices were reasonable, most sold in the low range, not much Internet action and probably 60% of the sales were to dealers/ resellers. In my opinion the weren't any really spectacular knives, maybe three or four. Quite a few knives had condition issues, handling marks etc. but I'm kind of a perfectionist and would rather save my money for a show like Solvang in a few months. Anton, the Jess Horn was nothing to write home about.
Click to expand...

Hi Martin-

Definitely agree with your comment about Solvang, and will see you there. Below are the comments I posted to another forum, about the auction:


"Kevin, I stayed on audio and in proxibid for the entire auction.

I think your impression of decent sales and vigorous bidding is pretty accurate, as is your comment about forged knives.

Overall, I think the quality of offerings was not nearly as high as in past years. Over, say, the last three years, the quality pieces have become fewer and fewer.

As for Loveless knives, not really enough to judge, but they seemed to do reasonably ok, though the NYS suprised to the upside. I think it was an anomaly, but what do I know.

A lot of eight smaller matching double-ground SR Johnsons with pearl scales went for only $8k. A lot of 10 matched Kressler integrals went for $15k. In both cases, less than one would anticipate, I think. I had to kinda laugh when a really nice Warenski folder went for $3500 with a warning that when the blade is closed, it doesn't close all the way. That's a real issue with being offsite for the bidding, not really knowing what you would get for the bid you make.

All in all, not as interesting an auction, from an "offerings" standpoint, but that pretty much is what one sees online these days, too.
 
Without question, the effect of sales at a live auction is intensified by the right auctioneer....

Who ran the podium?

(My fave was that Murad Sayen piece. But I also thought the $900 reserve started a bit high, and the 'no sell' bore that out.)

Coop
 
A few more specific comments . . .

1) The Loveless knives really did well IMO. $21K (+ another $3K premium) for a Big Bear with micarta scales. Not bad.

2) Not surprised that the Kressler knives did not sell - they were just too tiny for my taste.

3) I had the exact same reaction as Bob to the Warenski folder. It looked beautiful in the one picture they provided, but that was a lot of $$ IMO for a knife with an issue like that. Maybe someone thought they could easily fix it???

4) Someone commented on how there was not much Internet action. IMO, there was a simple reason for that. The images they provided for many of the lots were TOTALLY inadequate to support any sizeable investment from someone only viewing the knife over the Internet. Shockingly inadequate, IMO. If someone was serious about attracting a lot of action over the Internet, IMO they would offer much better and higer resolution photos of each lot. And a video would not hurt either. If I am going to risk serious cash, I want multiple high res photos from every important angle. I have purchased coins in the four-figure range at Heritage Auctions over the Internet without any worries. They have NO problem generating a huge amount of bidding action over the Internet. Now admittedly part of that is because of well-established third party graders. But that would not be enough for me. They provide several very high resolution images of each lot. Very important. I have never had any surprises. But with the limited pictures they provided here on many lots, I could not justify spending several thousand dollars on a crapshoot.

5) Somebody should really learn how to spell Johan Gustafsson's name. They misspelled it. Twice. I thought that was fairly embarrassing.


I bid on three knives. Not a lot of $$ since, as explained above, they were pretty much sight unseen except for one not-too-great picture for each lot. I won one. Might be a good deal; might be a dud. Can't tell from the lone picture. But it was not a lot of cash, so I won't cry too hard if it turns out that the knife has some issues.
 
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