Arizona Custom Knives - something to watch out for

livingmochila said:
Hey guys- Ryan from Arizona Custom Knives here. Really appreciate each of you taking the time to weigh in here and share of your experiences with us. We've sold tens of thousands of knives over the last 25 years. With that being said, we still see knives on a regular basis that we don't recognize. New makers. Old makers. New guys that are getting their start by "pimping" other makers' work. The knife in question came to us from a collector in Russia. It's easy to label the person that modified the knife as an "obscure service provider" when it's someone you've never heard of. I have to believe that he's more than an "obscure service provider" in Russia just based on the fact that the gentleman that had the modification work done apparently thought highly enough of his "skills" to hand him a knife that he paid several thousand dollars for. As with any of the consignment knives we sell, the consignor has the final say on pricing. I might think your knife is worth $2,000. You may think it's worth $3,000. Ultimately it's your knife and we'll price it at $3,000 and then watch to see if it sells or if the price needs to be reduced over time to prompt a sale. In most cases, the market tells us what a knife is really worth when it finally sells. From my viewpoint here in the office, I see knives selling each and every day for double or triple what I'd ever be willing to pay for them. This is a matter of taste, not value.

As for discrepancies/lack of information on our site- we welcome any information that can be added to ANY of the listings found on our site. We try hard to represent each knife as accurately as possible. Sometimes this is difficult when the knife has no makers mark, no certificate of authenticity, and was sent to us by some woman who found it in the attic after her husband passed away. Contact us when you see mistakes or have additional information on a knife or a maker and we'll add it!
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You guys do a great job. I have consigned 10 or so of my knives through AZCK and purchased countless others, all without a hitch.
 
Bought a custom from AZCK while ago and I have to say that they are the best customer service I have ever dealt with.I'am not gonna go into details about my purchase but they went head and shoulders above for me so I can get the knife I purchased.Cheers.
 
I bought a J. Neilson Bowie on Saturday and it shipped this morning. I'm a fan of AZCK. Check them out everyday.
 
I THINK the issue raised is that knives are being described as being modified by a certain person, but they might have been modified by someone else. If I were concerned with this issue, I would either send pix to the advertised modder and ask if they did the work, or ask the seller (AZCK or anyone else) if they had any documentation of the mod work.

Maybe the owner of the knife has an invoice or emails they could provide (or did provide). If neither of these inquiries provides proof, then as a buyer, I am free to make a decision whether to buy the knife knowing there is no assurance of who did the mod work. Bernard Levine says, "buy the knife, not the story."
 
A couple of years later...I appreciate your informative and well intentioned posts. I got what you were trying to impart.

Thanks.
 
Let me recap my understanding of the OP's concern, since I think some people misunderstood:

1) PersonX, new to the industry, buys some production knives, does some (maybe shoddy) customization work himself, and sends it to AZCK for consignment
2) PersonX then instructs AZCK to list it for a high price (say, $1000), regardless of AZCK's fair market estimate. AZCK does what the seller instructed them to do, and sets the price at $1000
3) PersonX buys the knife themselves (or has a buddy do it), to show that their work has "sold" for $1000
4) PersonX can then claim that his customized knives are now "worth" $1000, because there is a listing on AZCK showing his work "sold" for $1000 in the past
5) BuyerY, also new to the industry and fairly naive, sees the above claim, believes it because it's on a prominent site like AZCK, and buys another of PersonX's customized pieces for $1000

In the end, PersonX lost $250 in consignment fees on the first knife they sent to AZCK, but then makes $500+ in profit on every subsequent one sold - assuming they can convince buyers their knives are worth it.

The "concern" here is that, with AZCK being a big, reputable site, people may believe the prices listed as "sold" represent the true value of the knife, without knowing the shenanigans that can happen behind the scenes to artificially inflate those prices. Hell, when I first got into knife collecting, I had a prominent knifemaker warn me that AZCK's "sold" prices may not reflect reality, for this exact reason.

The questions really are: is this a common enough occurrence to worry about, and if so, can (or should) AZCK do anything about it? Given @livingmochila above said they receive many knives they don't recognize, I wouldn't want them to institute a rule that I can't list knives above their fair market estimate - if I send in an expensive but obscure piece that they don't think is worth a lot, I'd still want to be able to list it at a higher price, if I think there is a market for it at that price.
 
It's called the free market. AZCK has always done an excellent job describing the condition and origin of the knives they.
 
I was a little shocked to find out Arizona Custom knives was in Florida, but, they have always done right by me.
 
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