Cold Steel San Mai III Gurkha Kukri?

R

ram38

Joined
Nov 21, 2005
Messages
127
Hello Everyone,
I went to a pawnshop today and picked up a Cold Steel San Mai III Gurkha Kukri VG-1 for $45 and was surprised to see how expensive these things are:eek: It's an interesting knife, but why such the high price tag? The cheapest I found was around $385. Retail is $600+ for this knife. Again, someone please enlighten me :) Oh, it's the real thing also. verified it looking at Cold Steel web site and the numerous videos on Youtube. I'll post pictures this afternoon.

Thanks,
Ram
 
Well, they make an SK-V model for $180 or so. The VG1/San-Mai III is their "premium" steel model so it costs more. Either way you got a pretty awesome deal. If you don't like it I'll be happy to buy it off you for $46 :)
 
Anybody who would pay "retail" for Cold Steel is an idiot, so don't go throwing out that price on a knife forum to impress.

Still, it sounds like you got a good deal for your knife.
 
Hey, I am not trolling, a liar, or throwing prices around to "impress". XXXX guys, I was just asking to see if I had spent $45 on a gold plated XXXX made for wana-be desk ninjas. I made my second post because no one replied so I thought, " Got a XXXX, again!". Thanks Appletz for the comment and not attacking me. Anyways, I promised pictures and here they are for you un-believers ;) I work on a military base and go to pawn shops during my lunch hour and over the years you would be amazed at some of the deals I've gotten. Military guys go and buy these very expensive knives before they deploy and then realize they need money and pawn them for next to nothing. Pawn shops around this area will treat a knife, unless it's a benchmade because they
know that brand, like $5 dollars knives. It pisses me off that our soldiers are getting ripped-off, so I posted a listing if they wanted to sell their high dollars knives to call me and I would give them a fair price; not a single response and they still keep showing up at pawnshops.

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Thanks,
Ram
 
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I wonder if they googled the CS Kukri and found the cheaper version and priced it based on the SK-V model.

Great find though:thumbup:

It wasn't Chumley who sold you it, was it???
 
P1GEONPOO,

That's what I figured they did, but with VG-1 stamped on the tang you would thing that they would notice. Like I said, this happens quit often. My buddy, which also "hunts" in my area :), beat me to a Buckmaster 184 which he got for $40 dollars! I was pissed because I had seen it and didnt pick it up because I thought it was a china copy! Now I look at everything :) Like everything this is a 1:20 occurance, but the leg work pays off nicely around here.
Oh! this thing cuts like a son-of-a-Woof! I was cleaning it up and saw a box next to me and I couldnt resist! With a VERY gentle swing, more of just the weight of the knife, it cut half way into the side of the box; My wife was PISSED! :) gift wraping box....ooops!
 
Amazing deal. Like P1geionpoo is suggesting, I too believe that they must have put the price on it thinking it was the CS Kukri and not the CS GURKHA Kukri in San Mai. What I don't understand though, is how the previous owner could have parted with it for less than 20-30 USD (pawnshop want to make a profit too), given that they must have know that the retail price is like 600 USD. Very strange however you look at it. You made a killing on it though. Perhaps someone stole it and didn't know it's value and just went along with the price that the pawnshop gave them..?
 
Stoffi,
Pawnshops around here are kept on a very short leash because that does occur and frankly sad this being a military town.
 
That's an excellent deal. I'd still roll with an HI khuk, but I am pretty fond of Cold Steel's San Mai. I'd jump all over a deal like that in your shoes. Nice find!
 
That's a killer score. Enjoy it in good health.
The CS retail pricing is frankly nuts - even for their "laminated stel". But heavy modern production kukris are few and far between. I like my Himalyan Imports traditional stuff, but always eyed the kukris from Extrema Ratio.
 
I hate to be negative, but based on my experiences in a law enforcement profession, I can tell you with no ifs, ands or buts about it, that pawn shops deal in a LARGE amount of stolen property. What stolen goods they deal in knowingly, unknowingly, or just pretending they don't know can be debated endlessly. Same thing with some of the online auctions, especially one that begins with a "C" and ends in "list." So when you get a deal that's too good to be true, this might be the reason. The pawn shop probably bought the item for almost nothing because the moron criminal probably didn't know what he had, and the shop just wants to make a good profit, so they price the item accordingly. By the way, I've worked burglary detail before, and we found A LOT of stolen goods in pawn shops, so I'm not just talking out my arse on this.
 
Riversidedep,
understand what your saying and I agree with you. I dont know about California, but around here the big name pawnshops, where I do most of my business, they are required to hold the item for 21 days before the item is released for sale. This period falls within the monthly "aduit" the police makes.
They even display the item, but you cant buy it until after the waiting period; giving the thief victim a chance to go around and see if they find their stolen
stuff. Many times when I'm in there shopping I see police and someone claiming their item, so your 100%. As for getting such a great deal, I dont think I
got it because they wanted a fast turn-around because they bought it from some scum bag. I asked a pawn manager friend of mine why he had a
Mission MP1 for $35 dollars when if he only did a search he would see that he can get alot more money? His reply was, " These stupid knives dont move fast and people around here are not going to pay 2-3 hundred dollars for a freaking knife", so I got me a Mission for $35 :) You would think that this being a military town, the soldiers would scoop these up but they dont; figure that out...
 
This summer, I found the Carbon V version in good condition at a pawn shop near me for $50. Great chopper. I love mine.
 
Sorry, I wasn't suggesting your kukri was stolen goods, I was just trying to give people a head's up on the realities of pawn shops. As you said, location is a big part of the type of clientele they have, and yours being military, one might believe it's not as likely to have a steady flow of stolen goods filtering through. One would probably be wrong on that though. Military families and other people living around bases get burglarized just like anywhere else, and the thieves need a place to sell the stuff. Obvious conclusion: Pawn shop.

Pawn shops in California also are required to hold merchandise for a period of time before selling it. They are not required to display it, at least to the general public. Speaking from experience again, I can tell you that most people who are victims of theft do not go to pawn shops looking for their stuff. I would place the percentage of people who don't at somewhere around 99.5%. A few do. Very few. Even if they see their stolen property in the store, they can't get it back unless they can POSITIVELY identify it by means of a serial number or other unique identifying marks, or they have a photograph and the item is unique enough to identify via the picture. Personally, I think some lawmaker in California's past who was involved in writing laws governing pawn shops must have had a relative who owned pawn shops, or some other type of stake in them. The laws are heavily biased in favor of the pawn shops and not in favor of the victims.

When police audit pawn shops, we are looking for names of known criminals selling stuff there, patterns of people continually selling items, and whether or not they pawned something that the shop should have known was stolen. For example, an 18 year old gang member coming in every other day and pawning expensive jewelry should be pretty obvious to any pawn shop. There is no way, at least in major municipalities, for the police to be familiar enough with the large quantity of possessions that are stolen on a daily basis to walk into a pawn shop and say, "Oh, that was stolen in this burg, and that over there was stolen in this other burg." Its just not reality.

Anyway, I don't want to get the thread off track anymore than I already have. That is a killer deal you got on the kuk. I've always wanted to buy one of those. They are definitely one of the pieces Cold Steel got right.
 
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