Deceased estate collection in Australia

mcjohnson81

mcjohnson81

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Joined
Aug 24, 2025
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I have the opportunity to purchase a deceased persons knife collection here in Australia. There's too many knives to try and sell into the local market and trying to sell them individually into the US would be a monumental effort.

Just wondering if there would be any potential buyers in the US that would be interested in purchasing the whole collection. And if so, what do you think would be the low ball amount I could be confident to get for it.

Thanks.
 

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For the record, you can ask about values of any particular knives as a gold member, but you can't act on behalf of the owner of the knives to solicit or find a buyer here. The owner of the knives would require their own membership.
 
Ok thanks Blues. I'm not trying to sell them on anyone's behalf.

I'm trying to figure out whether I should try and purchase the collection and then sell on here. So, just asking for guidance on whether something like this would sell and what the low end value might be. That way I can make a decision on whether to purchase from the owner.
 
mcjohnson81 said:
Ok thanks Blues. I'm not trying to sell them on anyone's behalf.

I'm trying to figure out whether I should try and purchase the collection and then sell on here. So, just asking for guidance on whether something like this would sell and what the low end value might be. That way I can make a decision on whether to purchase from the owner.
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Well, the way it was worded, (before you edited), was whether someone here would be willing to buy the whole collection. And since the collection isn't yours to sell, it prompted my comment.

Now, if you buy it, you can try to sell it in whole, or in part. You can also ask what you think would be a fair price for the collection, but not what one of our members would pay for it themselves. It's semantics, but it matters as regards the rules set by the site owner here.
 
mcjohnson81 said:
I have the opportunity to purchase a deceased persons knife collection here in Australia. There's too many knives to try and sell into the local market and trying to sell them individually into the US would be a monumental effort.

Just wondering if there would be any potential buyers in the US that would be interested in purchasing the whole collection. And if so, what do you think would be the low ball amount I could be confident to get for it.

Thanks.
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Just a word to the wise..........

Anything imported into the U.S. with natural handle material theoretically has to be declared and has to pass through Fish and Wildlife for inspection.

Because of the number of knives my guess is that this could only imported as a commercial transaction and would certainly attract customs duty and possible tariff's.

No offence but while it is a fair amount of knives, it's a pretty vanilla collection. Probably best to sell it in situ.
 
Steven65 said:
Just a word to the wise..........

Anything imported into the U.S. with natural handle material theoretically has to be declared and has to pass through Fish and Wildlife for inspection.

Because of the number of knives my guess is that this could only imported as a commercial transaction and would certainly attract customs duty and possible tariff's.

No offence but while it is a fair amount of knives, it's a pretty vanilla collection. Probably best to sell it in situ.
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I agree.

I tried to post earlier but your thread was down.

1) consider that these knives have already been shipped and imported into Australia, and that you are talking about shipping and importing them into the U.S.. That is a lot of additional costs, which means the items are likely already selling for far less in the U.S. than your price level would be after import. These are a lot of very common knives.

2) Condition is a major factor. The only way this moves is if you photograph everything.

3) If you go this route, look at selling individual lots based on brands and models.

N2s
 
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Thanks everyone, great advice. Sounds like trying to sell to US isn't a viable option.

I think I'm going to offer about 17% of the total purchase price - $US4.6k. I think that should leave enough fat to make a profit just selling domestically.
 
Aussie here and for what its worth, with the current tariffs, it cost an additional 10% tax to ship to US
 
I’d be very careful about buying that lot. As was already pointed out there aren’t really very many desirable or sought after pieces. Unless you could get it for pennies on the dollar seems like a lot of hassle and expense for very little return.

You’re going to be selling most of those knives to people who are looking for a cheap beater knife for very little scratch, not collectors who are willing to pay big for something they want. Might take you a while to make your money back. Just something to think about. But then again I’m just a hobbyist and no expert either.
 
Yep I learned the hard way on this one. I bought one of those deals where you purchase Swiss army knives by the pound. I think I got like maybe 150 knives. I think the worked out to be like maybe 7 dollars a piece or there about. I thought for sure I would make a killing selling them here and elsewhere. How wrong I was. First I spent weeks trying to figure out what they all were. There's some great Swiss army sites out there but it was still a gigantic pain in the posterior. Then I discovered that by the time I tacked on shipping and a small profit that people could often by a brand new knife for just a little more money. I did Sell some of the larger or more rare models for decent money, but for the most part I ended up giving them away to family, friends, local boy scouts etc.

I think I proved once again that the best way to make a small fortune in knives is to start out with a large fortune.
 
This screen shot is sorted by price in descending order.

No value even in these ones towards the top? I thought makers like Fiddlewood Forge and Jim Pugh would maintain most of their value? These are purchase prices from 2011-2015.

Blades like that Medford tactical service sniper ts-1 would still fetch $140 wouldn't it, or nah?

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mcjohnson81 said:
This screen shot is sorted by price in descending order.

No value even in these ones towards the top? I thought makers like Fiddlewood Forge and Jim Pugh would maintain most of their value? These are purchase prices from 2011-2015.

Blades like that Medford tactical service sniper ts-1 would still fetch $140 wouldn't it, or nah?

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You may make some money.......but honestly the effort that it will take hardly seems worth it. As Triton Triton says above in post 15 these things look good from the front end but by the time it's actually done there is very little in it.

I don't know what goes on with courier companies and local Australian post but be warned many will simply refuse to carry knives now. So you could also be facing a shipping problem if you sell them individually in the U.S. as shipping may not be possible or prohibitive in price.

If I was a U.S. buyer I would always prefer to buy locally than to go through the pain of an international transaction. And honestly nothing listed here is not readily available in the U.S.
 
Unless you want an instant collection for yourself it makes little sense.

If you owned a shop or had a retail space to sell the ones you don’t want. It might be feasible. Even a small display case in a barbershop or baitshop
 
The bottom line to this is can you sell? If you enjoy the topic, researching and documenting knives, and dealing with people you may do fine. If you just want to flip the property to an international buyer in a week it not going to happen unless the collection goes for 10 cents on the dollar. Even then you have to show condition; are these pristine in their original boxes with all paperwork or do you have many broken & worn users, fake copies and clones?

This can be a fun collection to sell locally. Something to do on a sunny Saturday afternoon that can earn a few bucks and perhaps garner you a few good acquaintances. But, I doubt customs, or most buyers, will accept “miscellaneous lot of knives” as a descriptive.

I would repeat my suggestion to sort these by brand and take some photos. Collectors are interested in specific brands.


N2s
 
Thanks for your advice everyone, it's very much appreciated. I'm going to see if he'll take $4.6k. I think there's still a lot of value in there and I won't mind taking the time and effort to try and re-sell. Probably naive but live and learn I guess.
 
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