Current makers - prices up or down?

ptgdvc

ptgdvc

Joined
Feb 27, 2003
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Ok, I ripped off the idea from the retired makers thread.
Whose knives move up in value the second you walk away from their tables.

I will start us off with two easy ones: Jerry Fisk, MS and John Young.
 
Nearly all knives I can think of go up in value from the maker's price to 2ndary market. Ken Onion, Kit Carson, Jerry Fisk, Ernest Emerson, etc, etc, etc are probably at the top of the list in terms of instantaneous profit.
 
ptgdvc said:
Ok, I ripped off the idea from the retired makers thread.
Whose knives move up in value the second you walk away from their tables.

I will start us off with two easy ones: Jerry Fisk, MS and John Young.
Click to expand...

Irrespective of agreement or not, these are some makers that I have seen, recently:

Russ Andrews
Phil Boguszewski
Walter Brend
Kit Carson
Harvey Dean
Ernest Emerson
Derek Fraley
Tim Galyean
Tim Hancock
Ron Lake
Mike Lovett
Bob Loveless(duh!):eek:
Tom Mayo
Mike Obenauf
Ken Onion
Randall Knives
Scott Sawby(Interesting thing about Sawby is that, from the MAKER, prices have risen steadily in the last 4 years by about 30%)
Strider Customs
Michael Walker
Lee Williams

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
Good list Steven.

Bob Lum.

Coop
 
BrB said:
Is Don Fogg attending shows?
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Not really, and although he doesn't have a "table", the asking price for his knives is very reasonable, and can be turned for a profit, but to a select group:

http://www.knifeart.com/ebtemlinbow.html

This item has been on the website for at LEAST 6 months, if not a year or more, and Joss certainly knows it's there.;)

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
Don's case is difficult to assess because he has such a small production. One thing I know is that his prices have gone up at least 50% in the last 3 years.
 
Jay Hendricksen is aninteresting case. Yo will find his older knives for sale occasionally. Sometimes you can get them for around what he would charge you today, sometimes for a bit less. Other times, you bid on Ebay for what he would get and lose by a fair amount. Ebay skews the market a bit because some knives sellfor a fair amount less than they would if the seller placed them with a dealer or sold themon here. I got a P.J. Tomes integrl hunter for around $350 a while back. and a sheep horn handled Jim Walker cowboy bowie for $300.
 
Interesting thread. Knives seem to rise and fall much like stocks these days. For example,,A number of the ones mentioned here while still up agsinst the table price are down from their highs.
Currently,, the hottest makers seem to be: Tim Galyean, Bob Lum, Lee Williams, John Young and Gerry McGinnis.

Phillip :)
 
jdm61 said:
Ebay skews the market a bit because some knives sellfor a fair amount less than they would if the seller placed them with a dealer or sold themon here.
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The 'bay is always a crapshoot.

Bobby Branton let me know about 2 months ago about a polished Moeller Viper II on the 'bay in minty shape from.......Smoky Mountain Knifeworks.

Harald is getting around $200.00 for these, before shipping, and agreed to make one and deliver it at Pasadena next month. Thinking:cool: , I decided to make my bid on for $165.00, looked good until some knucklehead sniped the bid to around $245.00+$8.00 for shipping with 15 seconds left.:mad:

All of a sudden, Harald's asking price is looking pretty good!:)

I picked up 2 Viper Pro-Throwers from A.G. Russell's catalog, The Cutting Edge, around 1998 for about $80.00/per, they sell new for about $225.00, or so.

Just checked the bay, and there are 2 expired auctions where the "buy it now" price is $249.00, so that might be where Mr Knucklehead came up with his figure, I dunno.

My point is that you never know with the 'bay, I hear some good, I hear some bad.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
notdos said:
Interesting thread. Knives seem to rise and fall much like stocks these days. .......Tim Galyean, Bob Lum, Lee Williams, John Young and Gerry McGinnis.

Phillip :)
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1. Man, you are so right about the rise and fall! I figure that it takes as little as 10 buyers/sellers to change one make from hot to not, one of the reasons that things can change so fast!

2. Just got off of the phone with Bob Lum. Really glad to hear that he is hot now, considering that he has been making knives for 30 years or so.

Another maker that I remember 6 or 7 years ago, might still have some knives on his table from Friday until Saturday, now they sell out in like 15 minutes. TRUE innovator, the "American Tanto" would not exist without his thoughtful design skills, he has EARNED his place in the sun!

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
True. i have paid market for some but below for most. I may have paid a premium for one little James Rodebaugh hunter that I really liked, but I have passed or been sniped on a few too, including two Lime Kiln Morans that went for market price or maybe a bit more. I'm ok with how I did on the 2 Morans I did score, but I can't say whether I got a "deal" on them or not. The Morans were already pretty crazy before Bill died because he had been making so few for a number of years I guess, so I don't know what the market has done lately.
I am still surprised by some of the knives you can find by chance. I scored a little plain Harvey Dean stag gents bowie from a purveyor at the Gator Club show last year. It is the 6 inch model and the letter from Harvey said it was the prototype. I got it for $400 and was pretty happy. His stuff is pretty pricey on the secondary market these days. I also grabbed an early Pendray wootz integral hunter, but no screamin deal to be found there. Still a LOT cheaper than the Pendrays I have seen on here lately. The best deal I have come across so far was that Walker bowie on Ebay.
 
ptgdvc said:
Makers whose knives move up in value the second you walk away from their tables.
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For discussion purposes, let's assume that Peter's statement "move up in value the second you walk away" means you could sell the makers knives at a profit the second you walk away from his table.
In my opinion this creates a much shorter list than the list of makers identified in this thread.

The Dec. '06 Blade article "The Quick-Resale Phenomenon" addresses makers whose knives are bought direct from certain makers at shows and re-sold within seconds at a profit.

I'm not trying to take Peter's thread off track, however just expand it a bit.
 
Kevin Jones said:
In my opinion this creates a much shorter list than the list of makers identified in this thread.
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Kevin, I have to respectfully disagree with your opinion on this. From the aftermarket prices that I've seen, I would say that you can make an instant profit reselling knives from the overwhelming majority of the makers named in this thread. It may not be a huge profit in some cases, but it would definitely be some sort of profit in almost all of the names that I've seen here.

A couple of names not mentioned yet to add to the list:

DB Fraley
Deryk Munroe
Charles Marlowe
Sal Manaro
Rick Hinderer

Edit: Whoops, didn't see that Steven had already mentioned DB Fraley.
 
Perfect example- 2 years ago at the Vegas show a friend of mine got his card pulled in the Ken Onion drawing. I advised him to buy one of only 2 Spce bumps that had been made with Ken's new lock. He paid $775 I think? 15 minutes later sold it for $2500 to a collector. Now that's quick!
 
The "list" stays steady at around 25 makers. Most participants on the Internet can quote you these names.

Of course by the time most makers get on this list you have a slim and none chance of getting a knife directly from the maker. Short of winning a drawing you will not get one without a premium.

Onion's and Emerson's after market prices are coming down. This of course has nothing to do with the makers. It is all determined (usually by a small group of buyers) in the after market.

There are probably another 30 - 40 makers who's work is not mentioned in this thread who's work will trade hands for a premium just as quickly as those mentioned.

These are the makers to go after now for the biggest return on your investment.

Good hunting.

WWG
President
Arbitrage Custom Knives
 
WoodWorkGhost said:
The "list" stays steady at around 25 makers. Most participants on the Internet can quote you these names.

Of course by the time most makers get on this list you have a slim and none chance of getting a knife directly from the maker. Short of winning a drawing you will not get one without a premium.

Onion's and Emerson's after market prices are coming down. This of course has nothing to do with the makers. It is all determined (usually by a small group of buyers) in the after market.

There are probably another 30 - 40 makers who's work is not mentioned in this thread who's work will trade hands for a premium just as quickly as those mentioned.

These are the makers to go after now for the biggest return on your investment.

Good hunting.

WWG
President
Arbitrage Custom Knives
Click to expand...

I agree there are makers whose knives are snatched up quickly at shows, and immediately re-sold at a profit. I have had the opportunity to do such with every Fisk knife I have purchased from Jerry at a show. We have all seen and/or hear of these transactions and know they happen, especially with the makers who have the highly publicized drawings with big crowds around their tables. :eek:
All I'm saying is that if we are trying to create the illusion that at all major show openings there are 50 to 60 makers whose tables will immediately empty (or have sold out before the show) and have secondary buyers standing in queue to immediately offer the first buyer a profit. I don't see it at the 2 or 3 majors shows I attend each year. :confused:
As a matter of fact, I can remember three top makers from this thread's list that had very nice un-purchased knives on their table at about 3:00pm. Friday afternoon of the last Blade Show. I purchased one of these Bowies. I didn’t have a secondary buyer standing by with a bag of money. :D And even though I'm sure these nice remaining knives sold later on Friday afternoon or Saturday, their buyers did not have people standing behind them offering profits.
So in my opinion, this “Quick Re-sale Phenomenon” is slightly exaggerated.

I believe there are profits to be made from purchases from every maker that has been identified here. In addition, I believe a profit should be made each time a collector sells a knife, however we all know that does not happen. :grumpy: Because first, many collectors do not treat custom knife purchases as investments. Second, many knife purchases are made on impulse rather than value / resale potential. And third, there's that mind set that you should ask less than you paid when you need to sell a piece to free up capitol or to adjust your collection. But then these in themselves, could be a topic for another thread.
Don’t mean to ruffle any feathers here guys, just sharing some thoughts and keeping things interesting.
 
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