Desperate:Please give advice!!!

KlayKutlery said:
Ohh.. We got separated or something throughout the msgs. Forgive me this forum type msging is foreign to me. I thought y'all were talking about like the higher up knives. In my book a Kershaw isn't a "expensive" knife so to speak. I plan on selling Kershaw,crkt,Gerber, Case,and other brands like those.they will be my high up knives. But I'll probably sell a lot more cheap china knives. I was thinking you were talking about essy, Spyderco,boker, benchmade type knives. My bad.
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Those aren't sub-$10 knives
 
Since you claim to be good at sharpening.......and want to sell knives.


why not buy decent, yet inexpensive knife kits.... build them. (It's basiclly just putting handles on, and finishing/sharpening them.... and sell Them.

at least they would be much higher quality than gas station knives...... and you have the 'hand made" appeal and selling factor
 
I only claim to be decent at sharpening. For some reason my edges never seem to last. I've still got a lot of learning before I start building knives to sale. I didn't know they sold them in kits like that though. I'll check into it. Thanks!
 
KlayKutlery said:
With that being said the majority of what I'll sale will probably be $1-$10 cheap gas station style knives simply because they look cool to the buyer.
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Buy them off those late night TV shows, that sell them cheap in bulk.
I don't know where you are located, but where I'm at you'd not sell much. Because gas stations, liquor stores and hardware stores are already selling those type knives.
 
Zulus said:
Then you will sell them for $1-$10
I got it
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What?lol... I'm thinking of setting up different price range tables. $1-$5-$10-$20 and up.

Don't be a jerk because I'm new. We all gotta start somewhere. I'm asking for advice. Not smartellic comments pal...
 
Seems like your best option to me would be to crawl eBay for bulk buckets of knives for resale. You could clean them up, maybe even get into modifications or sharpening a bit and learn a lot. Investment wouldn't be super high because again, gas station knives mainly, and you wouldn't make much if any money, but it could be an educational experience and who knows, maybe lead to something that actually does make money after a while.
 
KlayKutlery said:
What?lol... I'm thinking of setting up different price range tables. $1-$5-$10-$20 and up.

Don't be a jerk because I'm new. We all gotta start somewhere. I'm asking for advice. Not smartellic comments pal...
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I see only one jerk - seller of $1 knives for profit
You must buy them for whooping 50 cents MAX :^)))))
Gross
I'm out of that trolling
 
madcap_magician said:
Seems like your best option to me would be to crawl eBay for bulk buckets of knives for resale. You could clean them up, maybe even get into modifications or sharpening a bit and learn a lot. Investment wouldn't be super high because again, gas station knives mainly, and you wouldn't make much if any money, but it could be an educational experience and who knows, maybe lead to something that actually does make money after a while.
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That's kinda what I'm leaning towards. Buying bulk boxes of assorted used knives. Im not doing this to get rich or anything. It'll just give me something to do and make a little money here and there. I'm bidding on a 40lb box of confiscated TSA knives as we speak. I figure there's gotta be at least 100+ knives in it and I can see a couple SOG's and Kershaw's in the top of the box. Bunch of mult-tool knives and whatnot. Right now I'm the high bidder at $95 with 12hrs remaining in the auction.. If it goes over $150 I'm out. Thinking I should be able to turn a decent profit margin at that price....

Idk though. This is a first for me. I could be pissing away money and wasting my time.
 
KlayKutlery said:
Hey guys I'm brand new to this forum and just looking for advice and maybe a distributor/vendor.

So I have a local (trade day) in my town and was walking around the other day and noticed an open market that I could maybe fulfill. There was no knife booths. I mean some of the booths had a couple knives on the table but there wasn't any dedicated booths. I'm thinking there's some money to be made there and possibly a business in the making. I'm young and determined!! I live in the south and pretty much every adult male has a pocket knife in their pocket. So I'm thinking about renting out a booth and selling knives but I have no idea where to start. I just recently got put on disability and can't go back to work due to a very bad injury. I was in a car accident and can't walk without a walker. So I've got some questions....

Where do I buy bulk wholesale knives?
How many knives should I buy and how much should I spend?
What knives are popular and sell the best?
How could I draw in customer to the booth?
What are some good ways to display or set up my booth?
What should be my markup percentage?
Is this even a good business to be in?
Am I wasting my time?


Any information is greatly appreciated. I love knives and have a pretty good collection already. But I don't want to sell my personal knives. So I'm looking for a vendor..
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Certain knife manufacturers have distributor applications on their websites. I believe Real Steel has one. Not sure about others.
 
What makes you believe there will be enough people who buy cheap knives from a physical booth in your area? I mean, shouldn't market research be the first thing to do before anyone actually starts a business like this?
 
I once got a piece of advice from someone who was talking about anything but knives, but I think it applies here; find where your tribe gathers, and go tell stories there. Doesn’t make all that much sense, but the point is; find your market and reach out to them.

Who will buy what you sell?

Who buys what?

What are they looking for and what do they buy?

If you’re looking for just a hobby, the closest thing I have that’s knife related is buying/selling/trading well into the higher end. From what I’ve seen, for knives to sell well and hold value (talking about the high dollar market here, btw), they have to be something a lot of people appreciate and that’s desired.

Personally, I do it because I like knives, and I like trying out all sorts of different stuff. If I don’t like it, I try and get my money back. Not always successfully, because I’m really buying for my tastes.

For example, if you built up a reputation as the Hinderer guy, who buys and sells Hinderers. From what I’ve seen, Hinderers, CRKs, and a few other brands do really well on value holding and resale value. Striders and Medfords, sometimes. Not everyone wants one. Most people on this forum would take a Hinderer/CRK. Shiros and CKFs have a similar vibe, but they’re a bit classier and a bit more tentative market, from what I’ve seen.

Obviously, you probably couldn’t sell any of these at your local trade day, but here on BF there’s a thriving micro economy based off nothing but knife love and cash that maybe shouldn’t have been spent.

Anyways, just my thoughts on the whole matter.
 
KlayKutlery said:
That's kinda what I'm leaning towards. Buying bulk boxes of assorted used knives. Im not doing this to get rich or anything. It'll just give me something to do and make a little money here and there. I'm bidding on a 40lb box of confiscated TSA knives as we speak. I figure there's gotta be at least 100+ knives in it and I can see a couple SOG's and Kershaw's in the top of the box. Bunch of mult-tool knives and whatnot. Right now I'm the high bidder at $95 with 12hrs remaining in the auction.. If it goes over $150 I'm out. Thinking I should be able to turn a decent profit margin at that price....

Idk though. This is a first for me. I could be pissing away money and wasting my time.
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If you are only outlaying about $150 then it's luckily not that much of a loss. You can always try to resell cleaned and sharpened knives on the ebay as well.
 
unwisefool said:
Those aren't sub-$10 knives
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There are models that are. I bought sporting goods store knives for long enough—you can get them for $10-12. Those are just the knives that never get discussed by us “enlightened users”.

A $10 knife by a brand called Game Winner (Academy’s brand, I’ve come to find out), used to be my favorite folder. I had like three of them, concurrent to losing the previous one. I thought they were great. Now that I’m a snob, I’d probably be like; “This knife is broken—it doesn’t even flick open with the thumb studs!”
 
In my experience, most people that run these types of booths are basically just making their money back, and if their lucky make enough extra to buy a beer and a burger afterwards. The people that do slightly better are either selling something unique, completely fleecing people with false information about their products, or are offering a desirable service.

Since you have the time and the drive, I’d say offering a desirable service and or something unique and making it your staple. If it were me, I’d buy a bunch of used knives for dirt cheap, and work on my sharpening skills until they are excellent. If some of the knives look good after then they can be sold, otherwise don’t sell something that isn’t decent quality, unless it’s in a budget bin. Next you could also offer customizations like engraving and anodizing. If you have the time, both skills don’t take a massive investment up front but can be honed with practice. Knives with aluminum scales can be found relatively cheap. You could sell those and then offer to anodize for an additional charge. This has the benefit of making you more money, and giving your business a unique attribute that attracts people just to watch. Everyone loves magic shows right?

On top of that you seem to have a decent understanding of what styles are popular in your area. You can buy bulk boxes on Amazon and such and sell those as well.
 
Why in the world would someone buy cheap gas station knives at a flea market when they can get them at gas stations while filling their tank buying snickers and smokes?
 
Leo Greer said:
There are models that are. I bought sporting goods store knives for long enough—you can get them for $10-12. Those are just the knives that never get discussed by us “enlightened users”.

A $10 knife by a brand called Game Winner (Academy’s brand, I’ve come to find out), used to be my favorite folder. I had like three of them, concurrent to losing the previous one. I thought they were great. Now that I’m a snob, I’d probably be like; “This knife is broken—it doesn’t even flick open with the thumb studs!”
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Yes, but the Kershaw and Spydercos are not. That's what I was referring to.
 
unwisefool said:
Yes, but the Kershaw and Spydercos are not. That's what I was referring to.
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Definitely not the Spydercos. Have you seen the Walmart Kershaws yet? Obviously not the higher end ones, but they’re getting down there… before I gained some actual knife knowledge I bought one myself. Cost $20. Okay enough materials, horrible design, action, etc. Can’t speak to the QC, as I don’t want to use the dang thing.
 
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