ebay....

Joined
Jul 29, 2002
Messages
3,228
I ve seen some good buys on ebay, and Ive seen some ridiculous buys. Ive seen many things "mis-reprensented". If you know what your doing you stand a fair chance, but if you dont....well thats really sad. Some of the knives Ive seen on there lately could either use some truth, or the right information.

what do you guys think?
 
The whole thing could cause problems if you are not familiar with what you are interested in.

Examples: Case XX on ebay means just about anything.
In reality to a collector we are talking 1940 to mid 60's.

Case Classic - a series of high quality knives made by Queen 1990-1996.

And so forth and so on.

I have been lucky so far and there have been times when I have gotten excellent deals. (An Ed Caffery 3 bar composit 11+" damascus for 500) was the luckiest one I nabbed. Easily a 1200.00 knife)

I have picked up a couple of cheap (under 20) multiblades that were old and in great shape.
 
I do the majority of my knife purchasing on ebay, and have been burnt really only once in all this time. Obviously, you have to know what you're looking at, and ask questions. The problem is, they don't always get back to you in time.

I have seen some misrepresentation here and there. Very ironic how every seller has "bad eyesight", and "can't make out the markings" on the tang. One I saw recently had a newer schrade knife, but the box said schrade walden on it. Very tricky.

On an unrelated note, when you guys get older knives in, do you recut the blade angles in and resharpen before putting them in your collection, or do you leave the nicks, bad grind marks, etc. on them as is?:confused:
 
If I am putting it in my collection, I will not use anything abrasive on any part of the knife.
If I am going to use it all bets are off starting with sharpening.
 
If your speaking of collectablilty, you have to be careful, altering a knife in any way can destroy the crediblitly, or value, or both on an older knife.
 
Same story. I see a few people that know about knives and pretend that they don't to conceal facts about their knives. I see folks that don't know much about knives that try and pretend that they do. Ask questions early in time for a response. No response, I pass on it. I haven't had but a few minor let downs.
Greg
 
personally I havent been ripped off yet. I have to say from what Ive seen ebay is generally a bad place to judge a knifes' worth. The reason I say this is if you go anywhere else, knife shows, ect. you will find a much different climate, and people who generally are not "impulse" buyers (not saying that everyone on ebay is, but there does seem to be some of that going on there). Its easy for many to get caught up in the "I have to win" mode and loose all reasoning (later realizing you got a bad deal, and cheated yourself!).
 
Since eBay allows everybody to list their stuff, there is ALWAYS someone who has little to no skill in 'advertising'. This coupled with incredibly poor photo taking skills can often put a valuable knife within reach--inexpensively. I've benefitted too.

But.... this is always a gamble, as the one's that ARE knowledgable may be withholding (bad) or misleading (even worse) information. And, possibly, this 'gem' is really a DUD. :rolleyes: If a seller has experience, beware of the 'newbie' descriptions.

The eBay market is here to stay, so do as the others have suggested and ask questions! The responses (or lack of) are usually telling.

Coop
 
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