Case is kind of like General Motors (or maybe like the General Motors of times past). You can find much nicer cars, you can find less expensive cars. They used to make about 6 body styles and changed the bumpers and headlights and sold them under Pontiac, Buick, Chevrolet, Oldsmobile brand names but it was the same car underneath, just depends on what little details you liked. Kind of like Case with the same patterns of knives, just variations in steel, handle materials, and finish.
Back in the early 90s I had a buddy who was a big GM fan. He explained to me that GM cars had little rattles and squeaks, fit and finish issues, always some little minor thing going on with them. But he was a car guy and could fix up those little things and didn't mind them. He referred to it as "GM-itis" - little nitpicky stuff but nothing major and still good cars.
I have another friend who wouldn't have anything else than a BMW. He is also a car guy but a different kind. He appreciates all of the performance, precision engineering and specs but isn't a tinkerer like my other buddy. It had nothing to do with income levels, both are pretty well off, they just liked different things about cars.
So I figure Case knives are kind of like GM cars of the 90s. Made in the US so to hit their target cost and stay profitable, they probably have to cut some corners and aren't as nicely finished or reliable as they might once have been (like GM did back in those days, which is why Toyota and Nissan were able to gain so much market share).
Just like my buddy who loved his GM cars and kept his working with minor effort, I tend to like Case knives and just don't notice or don't really care about all the minor (to me) flaws that would annoy the stew out of someone else. And like many people prefer Nissan or Toyota or Honda, and some won't drive anything less than a Mercedes or BMW, (I am a Nissan man myself), some still like and choose GM. Just like I still like the quirky, not perfect, still attractive to me Case knives. I'm carrying two of them today, in fact.
While I like the idea of keeping people employed in my home country, I won't buy something of poor quality just because it is made in the USA. It's a tough world, you still have to compete on value.
If I were giving advice to a new COLLECTOR, then I would say by all means, GEC is the only game in town right now. Beautiful work, always innovating, every production run a limited edition, and actually going up in price in the resale market. Other options are Canal Street, great quality but limited number of patterns and handle materials, and Queen if they can continue to get their game on.
I sort of danced around it in my first response to the OP, but as soon as I read the post I thought to myself "Yeah, you're not a Case guy and you're not going to be happy with them. Find a brand you like and move on."
Meanwhile, I am waiting on my 3rd Queen and another Vic Alox to show up.
Hey, I said I like Case, I'm not married to them.
