Dumping all your knives for $$$?

Hi BurkStar,

You said that you sold several knives at a profit. Additionally, you were holding some back. The names you listed seemed like you could get your money back and then some.

Seems to me if you buy the right knives it is always a sellers market.

Judging by your comments, it appears you bought a lot of the right knives.
 
T. Erdlelyi,

You may want to rethink the value of your
twenty year old CD collection.

CDs were invented in 1987. :)
 
As with any collectable its a matter of having enough time to find the right person that can't live without your knife. For example, last fall I picked up a highly engraved knife by a maker named McBurnnet and I paid $1100 for it, figuring that was what it was worth, but it had some exceptional engraving and I really liked it. When I found out that I was going to have to go on short term disability I decided to throw it up on E-Bay hoping to get my money back and start socking some cash away in preperation. Well, to my complete amazement I had someone who was a big time McBurnnet collector and the knife went for over $3000. But if I hadn't hit that one individual at the right time I probably would've ended up losing money on it. Another example of the other end of the spectrum are Blackwoods and Mayos. Three months ago, even in a desperation sale you'd at least get your money back, but right now both makers' knives are in a little slump and are going for bargain basement prices. If I was in a different financial situation I would be doing some serious knife buying right now, but my timing definitely sucks. And not to say that I'm not going to have to sell those knives that I've held back on and if I have to I'll accept a loss, but hopefully my insurance company will catch up on my checks and things will even out a bit.
 
It isn't that silly of a thought. I have considered selling off all of my knives with a few exceptions(sentimental value). I just never seem to get around to doing it.
 
Unfortunately, I've been constantly in this position now for the past year. I've mentioned casually a few times in the past... My wife is a literal shopaholic. I know guys joke about such things, but this is no joke. She has a serious problem. She is getting better, but every now and then she has a "relapse" and blows about $1000-$4000 on worthless crap that we don't need. And then I have to sell off some of my possessions just so we can make our house payment, etc.

I don't know exactly what kind of market percentage price I've been getting, and I'm a little scared to add it up. Several times it was maybe around 50%-60%, but have been able to do better at times when I found the right buyer. Sold my Witness .45 ACP for $250, and at the next gunshow, the dealer was asking $385 for my gun. There have also been times in between "emergencies" when I did not sell at a big loss. Basically, everything I own is for sale, since we have so much debt accumulated.

I will say, that this ordeal has changed my entire attidute about material possessions. I used to buy knives just to add to my collection; the end goal being having a better collection (or perhaps more accurately, pile of stuff that I don't need.) Now I'm more focused on buying,... no, wait. I never buy anything for myself anymore. I'm more focused on keeping things that I truly need, or give me great pleasure. I take more pleasure in simple things.
 
WoodWorkGhost,

I think you need to be somewhat careful with that assessment.....like BurkStar addmitted, he's been truly fortunate. :)

There are several high-dollar Mayos and Strider customs, items which usually do very well, simply languishing on the secondary market now, taking hits upwards of hundreds of dollars.......

Timing, indeed, is the key, and when one's desperate, well, it's a luxury we don't have. :(

Allen
aka DumboRAT
 
"hawkbill," over at the spyderco forums bailed me out last year around december.

i still only have just a few knives now, and i forever learned just exactly what it means to be a poor college student.


i been doing a bit better, recently, though. i got my bills in order and my priorities straight, and i also joined the army. ;)

thanks again, hawkbill. :)
 
I think I am echoing what other posters already said here - if you are thinking about selling your knives, start looking at selling the ones you are comfortable parting with before you are desperate to do so. If you wait until you're desperate, you probably will sell them for a price that you won't be happy with.

You may also want to keep a core selection of your favorite knives, unless you really need the money. After spending all that time and money collecting, you don't want to be left with nothing.
 
Every financial advisor will recommend keeping 6 to 12 months of your wages in an emergency fund. Yeah, I know, the first problem is to actually save that amount.

I recommend the short, easy to read, very much acclaimed book: 'The Wealthy Barber', by David Chilton. At about $19 it is the best investment you wil ever make if you are like I used to be, an idiot with money. Here is a personal hint that also helped me accumulate money to stash away in savings, so I could actually get enough funds together to invest (money that makes money): Look at it as 'collecting'. Collect that $5.00 you'd spend on the daily cup of cappuchino and put it safely away. Treasue and admire it. Add to it. You can find dozens and dozens of ways to save funds. You'll enjoy adding to it. Watching it grow. Skip a few purchases of knives or guns and enjoy the wonderful feeling of financial security.

Yeah... I know I have not even mentioned selling off knives and guns to raise quick money, a sure way to lose. The whole point is not to get to that stage in the first place.

Good luck
 
Sport said:
T. Erdlelyi,

You may want to rethink the value of your
twenty year old CD collection.

CDs were invented in 1987. :)
Click to expand...
Actually, compact discs were introduced in Europe and Japan in 1982 and in North America in 1983.

Edited to add:

Prototypes of CD players were being demonstrated in the late 70's.
 
They always tell you to diversify your investments, but they seldom clearly tell you why. You probably think it is so that your aggregate investments will never go down very much in value. That is not generally the case. Your biggest concern is not to SELL your investments when they are down. It's better to have equities that fluctuate in value, but appreciate strongly in the long run than to have very stable investments that don't appreciate well. The trick is that you may have to sell SOME of your investments at an arbitrary time that is NOT of your choosing. If you have diversified investments you can choose to sell equities that are up at the time you are compelled to sell or you can dump losers that show bad future prospects (and take a tax loss).

In order to protect your investments you need diversity or time under your control. If you have a broad portfolio (stocks, bonds, real estate, gold, trust deeds...) you can protect yourself by selecting what you sell. If you have a time cushion (generally this means cash or secondary income to get through emergencies) you can protect your investments by not selling during a crunch. If too much of your equities are in collectables you better have a cash cushion because when the economy goes south you'll have trouble selling your toys in a hurry. Any money that you know you are going to need in the next year needs to be in something pretty safe like a money market account since you don't have a time cushion. I've done real well using a hedged preferred stock fund for a portion of my short term money. It has the risk of going down about 10%, but generally not very fast. It typically pays about 7% and goes up about 10% a year. I don't put money into knives ever expecting to get a penny back out.
 
Been there, done that a few times in the last 20 years with knives and guns.

Just sold a few rifles last month that were sitting in the safe doing nothing to afford more bowies purchased this month. :D

Have sold a few high end straight knives, just sold a Strider SMF [ numbered ]after three months in the safe for 60% profit over purchase [ cash ]. :D :D

Sold a Bagwell Belle last year and wish I had it back but got what I paid for it easily. Since then, I've bought 3 more Bagwells. Money comes and goes dependant on whether my interests have changed or a major project at the house comes up and I don't want to float a short term loan. :(

Have had to sell several "assaults" like a g-3 and mp-5 [ both to the same person ] years ago. Cried to do so, but then the wife saw at that moment that there is money sitting in the safes, it just doesn't look like green paper which she's used to. :eek: :(

Brownie
 
I never bought a knife as an investment. I get what I like and can afford. And then I sell what I don't seem to carry that much to get others, keeping a certain amount floating in knifewares. It's just a hobby and as mentioned elsewhere, part of it was in finding the perfect knife or knives, which many have discovered is almost well neigh impossible. But if I lose a few bucks, I don't care. Friends I have with boats blow all sorts of hundreds in fuel and accessories. Buffs will do that sort of thing. They dig it. So long as they can afford it, it's OK.
 
This is a great thread, and something I think about from time to time. I hate to assign just dollar values to the few knives I own, but it probably is a good discipline.

For me, risk of loss all boils down to acquisition price and demand. Let's take Tom Mayo knives - one of my favorites. Not that long ago, a medium TNT could be purchased for $500 from Tom, IIRC. Even in the nasty secondary market right now, I would guess at $525 - $550, the Mayo would move fairly quickly. (You can test this assumption by offering me your mint Mayo for $525 :D )

As long as the demand for Mayo TNTs remains strong for the foreseeable future, a Mayo bought at a good price will probably hold it's value. So those buying in today's buyer's market may do well.

Depends on the maker too. My guess is that a Fisk knife bought from Jerry, does not depreciate. Anyway, I just try to put a cap on the total money spent on all knives - users and collectors. That cap is governed by my liquid assets.

Some good thoughts in this thread.
 
I would like to think that I am frugal enough with my purchases that I could sell my collection individually at a small loss fast enough to raise funds if I ever needed too. Thats the key if you ask me, looking for the deals. Buy a knife cheap enough and its not hard to get your money back out of it when you need to. However the economy does have allot to do with it. I have seen allot of awesome deals on knives with no takers b/c cash was scarce all around.

Wolfman, I don't know how you did it. If I was forced to sell my entire collection I doubt I would ever even attempt to rebuild it once I was back on my feet. I would be too depressing for me. I would most likely buy one good knife for an EDC, maybe one or two knives for concealment and hunting and that would be it
 
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