Does a knife that is published have more value?

i4Marc

i4Marc

Joined
Oct 19, 2011
Messages
5,034
I asked this question to a few customers privately. But since so many prominent knives that have appeared in various publications are made or owned by many of you, I thought I'd get a larger sample of opinions here. The question is: as a maker, or more particularly as an owner of a knife or knives that have appeared in publications, do you feel that it adds any value to the knife? This could mean in terms of monetary value in the secondary market or simply in terms of gravitas, pride or some other description in owning a piece that has received some notoriety? I only ask out of curiosity.
 
As a practical matter, it certainly can't hurt. Publicity matters, the more people who recognize a name or a knife, the more demand there will be. And we can argue about whether owning a printing press should bestow authority, but printing a pretty picture in a magazine has a way of communicating "this is legit".

Some time back I sold a knife to a guy who was on the fence about it until I remembered it had appeared in _Blade_. I threw in that issue and he was suddenly eager to buy.
 
It all depends on the knife and the maker. And after that, it's pretty dependent on the market itself, which I believe has changed considerably given that many of us old guys have seen a much younger crowd change the complexion of the market. That having been said, I believe there is a decline in the premium, more or less.

I would add that having a piece in a publication at least has a positive affect on the ability to resell......
 
Last edited:
I think it does not, it's only getting better known resell maybe easy or faster and can lead to incoming orders.
So if I publish a knife which is already sold and the owner decided to resell it is in fact 2nd hand, maybe used, maybe mint condition but still not
new. A second knife in the same execution published or unpublished and unsold from me can/ should/ will have more value(higher price) because it is new and fresh on the market.
But sometimes I find knives made by me on the second hand market that actually have a higher price than ordered new....but fortunately this is rare.
so who can tell.....
like betzner said: it depends.
 
Templehound said:
I think it does not, it's only getting better known resell maybe easy or faster and can lead to incoming orders.
So if I publish a knife which is already sold and the owner decided to resell it is in fact 2nd hand, maybe used, maybe mint condition but still not
new. A second knife in the same execution published or unpublished and unsold from me can/ should/ will have more value(higher price) because it is new and fresh on the market.
But sometimes I find knives made by me on the second hand market that actually have a higher price than ordered new....but fortunately this is rare.
so who can tell.....
like betzner said: it depends.
Click to expand...
I'm curious about why you think it's not a good thing that your work sometimes sells for more on the secondary market than it does from you directly, would you mind elaborating a bit on that?
 
If 'Value' is measured in prominence, then BY ALL MEANS a knife seen by thousands, and in print for posterity, has more value than the same knife which is NOT published.

If 'Value' is measured financially, well, the extra prominence in publication is in the eye of the beholder and remains subjective.

I will relate that my clients GUSH when their work is also covered in a print format. :cool:

We see knives ALL THE TIME on our social media and here, yet getting in the PRINT pages remains a grail.

I'm pleased for that. Good thread.
 
SharpByCoop said:
If 'Value' is measured in prominence, then BY ALL MEANS a knife seen by thousands, and in print for posterity, has more value than the same knife which is NOT published.

If 'Value' is measured financially, well, the extra prominence in publication is in the eye of the beholder and remains subjective.

I will relate that my clients GUSH when their work is also covered in a print format. :cool:

We see knives ALL THE TIME on our social media and here, yet getting in the PRINT pages remains a grail.

I'm pleased for that. Good thread.
Click to expand...

I think it's true that a maker vs. a current owner would have slightly different views too.

A knife owner might see potential increase of value of their one knife....
A maker might see potential increase of value of ALL their sales.


I know that I set a goal of someday being published (in a good way)
haha
 
Lorien said:
I'm curious about why you think it's not a good thing that your work sometimes sells for more on the secondary market than it does from you directly, would you mind elaborating a bit on that?
Click to expand...
Lorien, no I don't mind, but I am not sure if I can
For me as a German It is always walking on thin ice having a discussion in English. When I ask Google translate for the translation of "elaborate" it translates it with
"thinking through"....so the translation on "would you elaborating a bit on that" in a sentence comes as " would you explain that?....
Let me answer that with a question( I know answering with a question is not always elegant), ...why should i appreciate the higher price on 2nd hand market?
It is just getting attention, maybe making more money with my name which has no benefit for me....I didn't help me to get more well known as I am already or had another good benefit at all....
at least that I or other customers can tell.
Germany and Europe is really small compared to the US and words may spread faster than in America.
There is only one magazine for knives in Germany and it is unimportant and not comparable to like Blade Magazine in the Us.
So when knives in Germany get published it is on social media.
There are a few persons who buy knives own them for some time and then resell it.
One of those guys wanted to buy a knife from me but it was too expensive for him...he said,
and a short while after I got the info( from trustworthy source) that he bought one similar on 2nd market and paid more for a used knife and came out in social media running his mouth making big fuzz how great it is and selling it 2 weeks later....
....what the heck is that good for?...
so my humble answer to your question is.... do you appreciate this and if you do, can you elaborate why ?
 
Templehound said:
Lorien, no I don't mind, but I am not sure if I can
For me as a German It is always walking on thin ice having a discussion in English. When I ask Google translate for the translation of "elaborate" it translates it with
"thinking through"....so the translation on "would you elaborating a bit on that" in a sentence comes as " would you explain that?....
Let me answer that with a question( I know answering with a question is not always elegant), ...why should i appreciate the higher price on 2nd hand market?
It is just getting attention, maybe making more money with my name which has no benefit for me....I didn't help me to get more well known as I am already or had another good benefit at all....
at least that I or other customers can tell.
Germany and Europe is really small compared to the US and words may spread faster than in America.
There is only one magazine for knives in Germany and it is unimportant and not comparable to like Blade Magazine in the Us.
So when knives in Germany get published it is on social media.
There are a few persons who buy knives own them for some time and then resell it.
One of those guys wanted to buy a knife from me but it was too expensive for him...he said,
and a short while after I got the info( from trustworthy source) that he bought one similar on 2nd market and paid more for a used knife and came out in social media running his mouth making big fuzz how great it is and selling it 2 weeks later....
....what the heck is that good for?...
so my humble answer to your question is.... do you appreciate this and if you do, can you elaborate why ?
Click to expand...
I don't really have a firm opinion either way, which is why I like to ask what other people think about it when the opportunity arises.

That said- in answer to your question- a knife maker's work becoming more valuable on the secondary market than direct from the maker might benefit other collectors. And by collectors, I don't mean people who routinely flip knives for a quick profit, (that's another animal entirely, and the benefit to them is obvious). Sure, those collectors will end up having to pay more for the work on the secondary market than they might otherwise have to, (especially if the knife maker is no longer able to produce) but that increase in monetary value might also equate to greater prestige, which is something that I know some collectors really value.

One benefit I could see for a maker having the value of their work inflated on the secondary market, is the feedback regarding their pricing. Maybe it opens the door to raising the price for the work , and maybe having more of that prestige reflected back on them. Other than that, I'm not sure if there is much benefit. Which is maybe the same kind of benefit that can be realized through their work being published.

That last point brings me back to the OP, and the question of published work increasing its value. In that context, the exposure through publishing has been said could increase the value of a maker's work, which in effect could inflate the prices charged by the maker. Which may or may not lead to the same place as inflated pricing on the secondary market.

For me personally, I'll charge what I can when I sell a knife. It's a delicate balance between asking too much and asking too little- both practices can establish a negative precedent. I think it would make me happy to see my work on the secondary market for more than I sold it for. Yes, I made it and yes I would like fair compensation, but at the other end of the equation- someone bought that knife and figured out they could make money on it.

I have a friend who makes amazing knives. He's terrible at pricing them, and routinely charges easily 20% less than he should. I was in a position not long ago where I had to sell some knives from my collection to keep food on the table, and after giving him a hard time for years about charging too little for his work was I going to be a hypocrite and charge his same low valuation? Of course not! I made 20% when I sold his knives and gave him half of that 20%. He still charges too little! And...he's been published plenty.
 
Lorien thanks for the comprehensive answer.
(....by the way I had a knife making friend to who is sadly deceased last year,...he made excellent knives and was terrible in pricing them too.)
This maybe drifting a bit away from the original subject of the thread but it is in its range
Luckily my knives are really rare on 2nd hand market. Most of the customers and buyers keep them. That makes me proud and happy and is besides good quality
a real goal making them as good as I can....no matter how long it takes, every knife I make deserves the best I can do and it doesn't matter if the knife costs 300 or 3000 Euros.
I love to hear and read the stories( oh yes I do) when guys deeply regret selling them and desperately want to buy them back or ordering again.
But the latter have to wait until the waiting list catches up with them, which can take a while...
There is one special dude who buys from a few makers but only keeping the knives a few days to a few weeks and then resell them.
I now refuse to make knives for him....I'm trying not to hurt his feelings but I politely reject orders from him....it is too dissapointing,
Ordering a knife, selling it a few days later and a few weeks after that ordering the same knife again....that pisses me really off.
Thank God fortunately I am not dependent on such orders.
At the end there are various reasons a knife is published....offering them on the 2nd hand market is publishing them too.
To me it always looks like a dissatisfied customer want to get rid of a knife.....superficially this is never good for the image or the prestige.
To me the best value is in satisfied costumers who spreading the word and keeping their knives....published or unpublished.;)
 
I personally think about it in "long game" terms and in terms of building my brand. I'm not sure that a knife that's been in a magazine necessarily commands a greater price. I am pretty sure that the price I ask for a given knife today can be bolstered by having had other knives in print. I'll make up an outrageous example. Let's say I have a knife that I just made, and I want to sell it for a million dollars. When a potential buyer approaches, he will do his research before spending that kind of money. Googling is a place to start, and up to the top will pop a few times I've been published in magazines, plus the books I wrote, etc. Each of those sends the message that "this guy is a 'real' knifemaker" and increases the chances that the customer will purchase the million dollar knife in front of him today.

Another point, many collectors also read the magazines. I had a nice article and cover in Knife Magazine last month. One of my customers spotted a knife of his in there and sent me a nice note. Does that increase the monetary value of the knife, who knows, but it does increase the value to the owner.
 
Lorien said:
I don't really have a firm opinion either way, which is why I like to ask what other people think about it when the opportunity arises.

That said- in answer to your question- a knife maker's work becoming more valuable on the secondary market than direct from the maker might benefit other collectors. And by collectors, I don't mean people who routinely flip knives for a quick profit, (that's another animal entirely, and the benefit to them is obvious). Sure, those collectors will end up having to pay more for the work on the secondary market than they might otherwise have to, (especially if the knife maker is no longer able to produce) but that increase in monetary value might also equate to greater prestige, which is something that I know some collectors really value.

One benefit I could see for a maker having the value of their work inflated on the secondary market, is the feedback regarding their pricing. Maybe it opens the door to raising the price for the work , and maybe having more of that prestige reflected back on them. Other than that, I'm not sure if there is much benefit. Which is maybe the same kind of benefit that can be realized through their work being published.

That last point brings me back to the OP, and the question of published work increasing its value. In that context, the exposure through publishing has been said could increase the value of a maker's work, which in effect could inflate the prices charged by the maker. Which may or may not lead to the same place as inflated pricing on the secondary market.

For me personally, I'll charge what I can when I sell a knife. It's a delicate balance between asking too much and asking too little- both practices can establish a negative precedent. I think it would make me happy to see my work on the secondary market for more than I sold it for. Yes, I made it and yes I would like fair compensation, but at the other end of the equation- someone bought that knife and figured out they could make money on it.

I have a friend who makes amazing knives. He's terrible at pricing them, and routinely charges easily 20% less than he should. I was in a position not long ago where I had to sell some knives from my collection to keep food on the table, and after giving him a hard time for years about charging too little for his work was I going to be a hypocrite and charge his same low valuation? Of course not! I made 20% when I sold his knives and gave him half of that 20%. He still charges too little! And...he's been published plenty.
Click to expand...
One of my favorite makers prices his knives (table or book list) at about 75% of what they sell for (instantly) in his Facebook group. Even his least-popular and most-common midtech models will hold 75%+ of their value, and many of the more popular midtechs are also only available at secondary prices. Some of the older midtechs that used to sell retail for $450 in 2017 will sell instantly for $950 now. A book order knife that cost me $965 will have takers at $1,600 the day I get it. The last one I sold I won in a raffle for about $200 in tickets and had five people fighting over the right to buy it at $3,200 before I even posted it for sale.

The maker likes it that way because his knives holding value on the secondary market drives popularity, and because, in his words, he likes it when people are able to turn his knives into quick cash if they need to repair a car, pay for unexpected medical bills, or even just get a grail knife or gun they'd always wanted. He has a good sense of both driving collectability and investment value.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top