Recommendation? Ebay, Armslist, Gunbroker, Craigslist? My Update

NW_KNIFE_GUY

NW_KNIFE_GUY

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Hi all,

This is my first post so I am not sure if this is the appropriate place to post this message.

I'm cleaning out my barn and I'm getting rid of nearly 30 years worth of working in the Knife and Tool industry. 99% of my collection is new in boxes from trade shows, helping out small mom and pop shops and my buying things that I thought were cool.

I recently joined the forum so that I can list some of my better items with the folks that will likely appreciate them. I have a lot of gratitude and respect for the folks who maintain this site and the whole community in general because it became a valuable resource for many of us in the industry.

As I mentioned before, I plan on listing my better items here first, then placing them on other sites if no one bites from the forum. For my lesser value products, (Bear Grylls for example) I plan on using alternative has anyone had any luck with sites other than Ebay?

If any of you have any thoughts or suggestions on my listings it would be much appreciated. Many of you will know more about knives than I so I may defer some questions to the forum.

Lastly, if anyone has any suggestions on how to distribute a product list to interested buyers that would be super helpful.

Thanks for your help!

J.

Some highlights:
Last BMF to leave the Gerber factory
3 sets of Gerber/Bokker Applegate commemorative sets
Titanium Airframe
Last microlights to leave the factory
Assorted Benchmade, Kershaw, Foster and more
 
Welcome. It really depends on how much time you are willing to put into it, and where you think your customers might be.
Craigslist and other classified ad sites are likely to give you grief as all you will get is local, and a lot of scammers fishing for a mark, and thats also provided that your posts don't just get taken down by over-eager rule minders. Its not like you are selling a car or something that is hard to ship. The more specialized lists might find you the people you are looking for, but I don't know for sure. I've not had great luck with anything other than paypal and mail-drop. Everything else leaves room for someone to work an angle, and I don't have time for that.

A couple other thoughts. There are quite a few guys around who go by either their full names, or at least don't keep their names private. With 30 years in the industry, I'd guess you may know a few people on here, and if they can vouch for you, that will help a lot in regards to having a reputation that will generate sales. (even the cheap stuff will move here as there are a lot of rookies looking to build collections) But be aware that there have been a couple really big scams pulled here in the not too distant past, so there might be more than a few who are skeptical of someone moving a lot of stuff. Just the realities of life at the moment.

As far as selling, your best bet is just read up on the exchange rules and start listing things. So long as you are up-front and have good pics, I bet you will keep busy moving what you have. If you want to do just a big feeler post, or maybe some other style of sale, that would have to go through Spark, who owns the place. A direct email with what you are hoping to do might gain you some clarity. I'm guessing that with the pile you have it will be a mission to list it all, but despite all appearances, we do try to keep some rules around.

Other than that, be clear on where you are willing to ship (CONUS or international if legal) and payment/insurance/shipping terms (you will not make friends by asking for friends and family payment) and that will avoid most of the kerfuffle that new sellers have. Good luck to ya, hope it works out.
 
Welcome to the forums. From my personal experience, Armslist and Gunbroker have insane prices for knives in my area (Detroit). The selection leaves something to be desired as well. There is rarely more then a dozen listings in the Detroit AL for knives. CL is something I don't buy from much. I get the feeling many items are stolen. Meeting at the local Walmart parking lot for the transaction? Meh. I haven't sold or bought anything on da bay lately, the listing fee's and costs have skyrocketed, and again I'm worried about counterfeits and stolen items (from a buyers prospective).

Like ggeek said above, use this forum as much as possible. Even the "cheaper" items can sell if you are patient and the price is good. Bundle some items together. Since you've paid for gold, it won't cost you anything else.

If I absolutely had to pick from one of your choices, I'd pick the bay. If something happens, the bay and paypal can help moderate or make amends. You will also get your products out to more folks by using the bay.
 
Thank you for the helpful response and for bringing a number of things to my attention. I will poke around and see if I recognize anyone from years past. A lot of the old guard that I worked with have since left the business or have retired. Thanks for the reminder of international shipping. I ended up with the three Applegate sets because they were rejected on our trip when we tried to enter countries on a Scandinavian tour.

Much appreciated

gadgetgeek said:
Welcome. It really depends on how much time you are willing to put into it, and where you think your customers might be.
Craigslist and other classified ad sites are likely to give you grief as all you will get is local, and a lot of scammers fishing for a mark, and thats also provided that your posts don't just get taken down by over-eager rule minders. Its not like you are selling a car or something that is hard to ship. The more specialized lists might find you the people you are looking for, but I don't know for sure. I've not had great luck with anything other than paypal and mail-drop. Everything else leaves room for someone to work an angle, and I don't have time for that.

A couple other thoughts. There are quite a few guys around who go by either their full names, or at least don't keep their names private. With 30 years in the industry, I'd guess you may know a few people on here, and if they can vouch for you, that will help a lot in regards to having a reputation that will generate sales. (even the cheap stuff will move here as there are a lot of rookies looking to build collections) But be aware that there have been a couple really big scams pulled here in the not too distant past, so there might be more than a few who are skeptical of someone moving a lot of stuff. Just the realities of life at the moment.

As far as selling, your best bet is just read up on the exchange rules and start listing things. So long as you are up-front and have good pics, I bet you will keep busy moving what you have. If you want to do just a big feeler post, or maybe some other style of sale, that would have to go through Spark, who owns the place. A direct email with what you are hoping to do might gain you some clarity. I'm guessing that with the pile you have it will be a mission to list it all, but despite all appearances, we do try to keep some rules around.

Other than that, be clear on where you are willing to ship (CONUS or international if legal) and payment/insurance/shipping terms (you will not make friends by asking for friends and family payment) and that will avoid most of the kerfuffle that new sellers have. Good luck to ya, hope it works out.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks Jeff. I really hadn't thought about the downsides of actually completing a deal made on some of the other sites. I will heed your advice and use this resource as much as possible.

J.



gazz98 said:
Welcome to the forums. From my personal experience, Armslist and Gunbroker have insane prices for knives in my area (Detroit). The selection leaves something to be desired as well. There is rarely more then a dozen listings in the Detroit AL for knives. CL is something I don't buy from much. I get the feeling many items are stolen. Meeting at the local Walmart parking lot for the transaction? Meh. I haven't sold or bought anything on da bay lately, the listing fee's and costs have skyrocketed, and again I'm worried about counterfeits and stolen items (from a buyers prospective).

Like ggeek said above, use this forum as much as possible. Even the "cheaper" items can sell if you are patient and the price is good. Bundle some items together. Since you've paid for gold, it won't cost you anything else.

If I absolutely had to pick from one of your choices, I'd pick the bay. If something happens, the bay and paypal can help moderate or make amends. You will also get your products out to more folks by using the bay.
Click to expand...
 
I know some people that buy/sell stuff on social media, Face Book and the likes draw a big crowd.
 
Ebay or actual forums that deal in knives like this one are the best bets. The gun sales boards are a buyer's market, Craigslist is even worse. Older smaller brands will tend to do best on Ebay.
 
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I would definitely give armslist a try. I gun guys are often knife guys and you never know, the right person might see it. I live in a kind of rural area with the biggest town near by being no more than 70,000 people and had awesome experiences with selling guns are there. I have posted a griptilian on there and got some trade offers but I later decided to keep it. Im thinking about starting to post my custom knives on there too once I get caught up.
 
I was just notified by Ebay that I will be limited to 10 items or 500.00 in sales. Looks like the Forum is where I will be putting most of my efforts. Thank you for your responses!
 
Is that some sort of trial period for the limits? I have never heard of that. I think once a track record is established you can list all you want.
I think for the type of items you have ebay is the best market. Buy it Now with multiple quantities for the common stuff, auctions for the rare stuff.
 
When you do make a sell on BF, ask the buyer to post on your Feedback rating. I always look at the feedback before buying.--Good luck and welcome to BF.--KV
 
Welcome!!
Why don’t you get a feel for selling here and just list a couple to begin with.
Also, check out the for sale Exchange. This will
Give you some good ideas re pics and wording.
The most important thing.......NO F & F!! Goods and services only!! It’ll save you a lot of headaches!!
Good luck!
Joe
 
The forums here are a great place to sell knives, and at least one third of my sales were from happy buyers wanting to know what else that I was willing to part with. I was able to totally reorganize my collection, and based on what I was learning from the members here, I then made better and more educated choices for my new purchases.
 
Thanks for the advice Joe! Had to figure out F and F but I think I got it. Do people opt for that just to save the Paypal fees? Why would a buyer accept that?

palonej said:
Welcome!!
Why don’t you get a feel for selling here and just list a couple to begin with.
Also, check out the for sale Exchange. This will
Give you some good ideas re pics and wording.
The most important thing.......NO F & F!! Goods and services only!! It’ll save you a lot of headaches!!
Good luck!
Joe
Click to expand...
 
Ajack60 said:
I know some people that buy/sell stuff on social media, Face Book and the likes draw a big crowd.
Click to expand...

I do some business on Facebook. They are really cracking down on knife sales. It’s come down to being really sneaky in how knives are listed. Creating a discussion rather that a sales ad is one way. But, it also seems to help not including a price in the body of text rather do it in a comment. I’m afraid it will all eventually disappear as Facebook seems to consider them all weapons.
 
Couple of reasons......a scamming seller will try to make a better deal for you if you use Friends & Family........when you get a box with a rock in it, your protection is gone. Most negative threads here in GBU begin with.....I paid using F&F. Don’t do it!!!
Is it worth saving ~ 3%????? NO!!!
Joe

NW_KNIFE_GUY said:
Thanks for the advice Joe! Had to figure out F and F but I think I got it. Do people opt for that just to save the Paypal fees? Why would a buyer accept that?
Click to expand...
 
Here's an update to my original post after selling both on the forum and Ebay.

I've had great success with selling on the Blade Forum especially with my better knives that were priced competitively. The BF community really knows their stuff and I have made it a point to put brands such as Kershaw and Benchmade on the forum and sell items like Winchester, Gerber and such on Ebay. I have tried to put a few Gerber items on the forum but people here seem to have more discerning tastes and I ended up moving them on Ebay. If I sell some of my more collectible Gerber knives, I may continue to list them on the Blade Forum.

The cost to do business on Ebay adds up quickly. There's the selling fee, the Paypal fee, the fee on the shipping cost and sometimes a listing fee. Putting items on Ebay is rather time consuming and their customer service could use some improvement. Every time I have had to contact Ebay's customer service, I have been connected to an offshore call center with canned answers and sometimes no follow up.

I recently posted a picture of a Hinderer CLS on Ebay and my item was removed by Ebay without any warning based on a complaint from Fiskars, the parent company of Gerber. Here's the original that I took in my office:
GerberCLS3.jpeg
And here's the cleaned up version:

GerberCLS3.jpeg Here's the notice from Ebay:

Your listing has been removed: Copyright Violation - Unauthorized Image

Your listing was reviewed after the rights owner notified us that your listing used their copyrighted image without permission.

The rights owner or an agent authorized to act on behalf of the rights owner, Fiskars Brands, Inc. DBA Gerber Gear, notified eBay that this listing violates intellectual property rights. When eBay receives a report of this type of violation, we remove the listing to comply with the law

We encourage you to contact Fiskars Brands, Inc. DBA Gerber Gear directly if you have any questions.

So, without any warning or available recourse on my part, Ebay ended my auction and deleted all of the content that I had written based on a request from Fiskars. In addition to the fees, you will find time wasting scenarios like the one that I just described. Perhaps some companies should put more money towards their R&D and QC rather than policing small guys offloading a few items on Ebay. Just a thought.....

Another thing about Ebay is that you get asked a lot of dumb questions that take up a lot of time. Questions that I doubt would ever be asked on the forum because people here tend to be a little more astute when it comes to knives and such. I don't think the general Ebay audience is wanting to pay value for higher quality items. Most tend to be looking for deals and I often get offers that are barely cents on the dollar. Transactions on the forum take just a fraction of the time of how long it takes to sell the same item on Ebay. On Ebay you have to fill out their template, figure out the selling method being auction or fixed price, figure out shipping. the duration of the auction or sale then wait for the auction or sale to end. With the forum it's clean and easy. You also receive payment immediately selling on the forum, whereas Ebay holds the funds and doesn't release them until a few days after the buyer receives the item.

So, to sum things up, If you have something decent to sell and have priced it fairly, I would try the Forum first knowing that if you sell it here, it's going to someone with a genuine interest in knives and not just someone wanting a "steal of a deal" with the intent of flipping your item down the road.

The other huge bonus is that everyone that I have dealt with on the BF have been good guys and I have enjoyed meeting them through our transactions. That is something that will never happen with an Ebay transaction.

Hopefully this helps people looking at selling things online like I was a few months ago.

Thanks again Blade Forum
 
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