Alright, who the hell killed the exchange?

[JR88FAN]

Maybe I am wrong, and if I am I will quickly apologize and close this thread.

I've noticed that since about January the exchange (custom, production, makers and individual) has turned ice cold.
I've seen this before. Winter has never traditionally been the best season for the knife market, however spring usually is....
We are well into spring, and selling on the exchange, especially the past couple of weeks has become scary difficult.
Even at below average prices, price drops, regardless of brand or maker, things are just not moving.

This would all be wonderful from a buyers perspective, as this is a great time to grab a steal, but knives are not a consumable.
We don't buy them, use them up, and need more....
This is a hobby, and we all buy and sell to a varying degree, and it's because we enjoy knives, not because we really need 20 of them...(I know, that's debatable)

This is the essential problem.
Most of us need to sell something to fund other knife purchases.
For many of us, if we can't sell, we can't buy, or what we can purchase becomes much more limited.

This is not about 'flipping' this is just how passionate hobbies work for the most part......

So what am I missing?
Is this just a typical cooling off that happens every 10 years?
Are there some economic factors that I am not aware of?
Are the dealers seeing this same thing? (This can't just be a BF trend)

I have loved knives forever, but my fever really only started about 5-6 years ago, so maybe some of the guys who have been in this for much longer have seem this before?

Whatever the case may be, the exchange is ice cold, and that hurts all of us.....

I look forward to understanding this better, thanks in advance.

 

[DocPyres]

I wonder if the rise of Facebook/Instagram/etc. sales has anything to do with it. I don't use FB, etc. to buy/sell. I'd much rather do business here on Blade Forums, where there is a good system of feedback in place, and a good core community. But some people new to the game might not have been burned yet, and may see certain social media as a safe place to buy, sell, or trade.