Easy now Bernie, most of us traditional collectors are patient slow movin' folks
. (Plus I have a lose friend in the hospital so I have not been around as much).
Most of the folks here know I am a big fan of Case Classics. (I hope that does not prevent a discussion of the pros and cons.)
At the time they came out Case was in the doldrums. The Case Classics came on the scene with high carbon blades (much better than either steel in the regular Case lines) with fit and finish quality that we have not seen since the early to mid 60's on a Case knife. Not to mention handle materials that were varied and beautiful. (Some of the stag from the series was drop dead beautiful.) I feel that their production as well as the Winchester's that came out about the same time (Winchester in '89, First Case Classic that I know of in '90) turned a lot of heads in the industry to understand that quality would sell.
They were not cheap even to begin with even at the distributor level (there were only two original distributor's of the Case Classics Parker's KCS and Cut & Run Cutlery. I used to set up at shows (mostly as a hobby) and specialized in the Classic line. Still get a few calls now and then from old customers who are glad they got in at the bottom floor. One of the things I liked about the line other than the quality and beautiful handle materials was that the blades were clearly stamped with the year of production that left no doubts.
I still have quite a few in my personal collection that I enjoy. Over the last three years I have put a few onto ebay and they have turned out to be excellent investments as far as return on a collectable. They bring much more now than they did when I was selling them at shows. (In most cases twice as much or more.) I will still buy one now and then if I see it is going slip under the radar cheap.
Watch your self on ebay, there are a lot of clowns throwing around the "Classic" category very loosely to describe regular production pieces. Around 5 or 6 hundred of these puppies have passed though my hands at one point or another and I have a book or two on them as well as a list of original prices. I paid when they came out, so if I can be of any help on something you are interested in bidding on drop me a line
gusk@bellsouth.net. (I promise not to try to outbid you
).
.