GEC Price Guide?

JohnDF said:
GEC Secondary Price Guide: :D
If the model is still available on shelves... 120% of retail
Once the shelves are empty of that model... 200% of retail
After a year with no repeat on the model... 300% to 500% of retail

*This guide was created in fun and actual percentages were made up. :p
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You forgot to include the 150 - 250% markup on used GEC knives. Markup being proportional to amount of patina.
 
I’d buy a coffee table sort of book . I like Steve Pfeiffer’s case book . Good amount of history , little value info and a lot of good photographs .
I’ve got a print out of Tony’s Forsters case price guide . It’s useful but I don’t really rely
on it for buying . If it doesn’t reflect current open market sell prices then it’s just one persons opinion on what said knife “should” be worth . High or low .

I’m not saying Fosters guide isn’t accurate , I just don’t rely on it
 
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cbr1000 said:
If you included GEC produced Northwoods information you would have a long term seller. Due to no posted information regarding Northwoods production, if you colaborated with GEC to get the production info., you would have significant interest.
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I believe at least some of the Northwoods production data are listed in the GEC annual production totals. Sometimes under 'Nortwoods' and sometimes under 'Derrick Bohn'.
 
Any book on knives is bound to arouse interest :cool:

But, I fear this particular book might plunge me into depression at seeing GECs getting beyond my reach with astronomical prices :eek:;) Or the ones I have being useless as I live in Europe and it's getting tricky to ship stuff...;)
 
A book cataloging all the GEC knives would be great (second ten years, etc.), but a pricing guide would be out of date so fast it would be silly, and a total nightmare to update.

Pretty pictures and production data, yes.

Price guide, no.
 
I like the idea and wish you the best and I would buy copies. But, an interactive price tracking database that people could pay into AND participate in is where we have evolved to. Here's the idea. Minimal annual fees for use per person, but members can submitt know "real-time" sale prices. This lessens the obsolete price values and provides real-world street pricing.
 
Norcaldude said:
I believe at least some of the Northwoods production data are listed in the GEC annual production totals. Sometimes under 'Nortwoods' and sometimes under 'Derrick Bohn'.
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Oh no, I knew that ... I was thinking one thing and typed another. Thank you for the correction :thumbsup:
 
Reminds me of those basball card beckett magazines from my childhood.

A new issue could release every year with the prices for the previous years along with the estimated price for the following year with an asterisk, denoting its a hypothetical price.


This would help keep sellers honest. It would help with haggling. And it would help people make trades of equal value.
 
This is in the category of IMHO or .02 worth. (Don't mean to offend anyone) Here goes...

Historically pricing guides almost always ended up being managed to some degree by those with the greatest $$ interest. I always come to this conclusion as up to about 5 years ago years ago my family (not what I did for a living) were well know antique/collectible dealers for several decades. In the print era every pricing guide was published by people who made up or inflated prices. Of course, along came Ebay, the "great leveler" and that made pricing guides obsolete almost overnight and exposed the chicanery that went on during the print era.

It's all what the market will bear - By the year, by month, daily, the Dow or by the phases of the moon or whatever. Right now, people are paying stupid prices for GEC, Northwoods - mostly on Ebay, but elsewhere, too. - (IMHO) this started to climb steeply about 18 months ago. A check of sold item for GEC on Ebay shows almost 70 sales in the $400 to $1000 range from mid May to today. All that tells me is that yet another block of buyers are forced out of the market - but hey, we're a capitalistic society and with it's burrs it's still the way to go. How long a trend will last or what market force or event will change it is anyone's guess. So, how does a guide fits into all this unpredictability and emotion?... well- I just don't see it as that useful.

I would, however, not mind seeing an accurate, easily accessible guide to all models, variations etc by number produced and date. Most of this info is on the GEC site, but it is cumbersome to access. In the spirit of saving time, an online book (with real time updates) or something in scrollable form would make an excellent reference for people to draw their own conclusions in a quick changing and variable market.

Again - IMHO
 
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I would like to see a semi-annual magazine (paper and e-versions) similar to the "What's Happening" page on the GEC website. Something more in-depth and professional that comes out every two or three months. It could have previews of upcoming pattern runs, quality pictures of the latest runs, a look back on some old patterns, in-depth interviews with Bill and his staff, history of the company, history of the different knife patterns, a look at the different machines used in production, etc.
 
southriv said:
This is in the category of IMHO or .02 worth. (Don't mean to offend anyone) Here goes...

Historically pricing guides almost always ended up being managed to some degree by those with the greatest $$ interest. I always come to this conclusion as up to about 5 years ago years ago my family (not what I did for a living) were well know antique/collectible dealers for several decades. In the print era every pricing guide was published by people who made up or inflated prices. Of course, along came Ebay, the "great leveler" and that made pricing guides obsolete almost overnight and exposed the chicanery that went on during the print era.

It's all what the market will bear - By the year, by month, daily, the Dow or by the phases of the moon or whatever. Right now, people are paying stupid prices for GEC, Northwoods - mostly on Ebay, but elsewhere, too. - (IMHO) this started to climb steeply about 18 months ago. A check of sold item for GEC on Ebay shows almost 70 sales in the $400 to $1000 range from mid May to today. All that tells me is that yet another block of buyers are forced out of the market - but hey, we're a capitalistic society and with it's burrs it's still the way to go. How long a trend will last or what market force or event will change it is anyone's guess. So, how does a guide fits into all this unpredictability and emotion?... well- I just don't see it as that useful.

I would, however, not mind seeing an accurate, easily accessible guide to all models, variations etc by number produced and date. Most of this info is on the GEC site, but it is cumbersome to access. In the spirit of saving time, an online book (with real time updates) or something in scrollable form would make an excellent reference for people to draw their own conclusions in a quick changing and variable market.

Again - IMHO
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There is a lot of information there to understand. But it sounds like you are saying "why do we need a price guide when we have eBay", and "eBay has stupid values". Specifically eBay prices vary a good bit on GEC's; but generally if a variation sells high today it generally will sell at a similar price range for months at a time if not continuously increasing. Although there are "flyers" out there; a good estimate can be gathered by noting several price points. There have historically been GEC variations that brought crazy prices on eBay; that is not a recent event. But how many times does a Whaler have to bring $500 before it is a trend instead of an anomaly?

About the same time eBay started up I was working by day and building up my Canoe (knife) collection in the evenings. There were many easily attainable canoes on the market. There were some that, even though many were made, were very hard to find in the wild. So I ended up having to make a decision to pay a good price and possibly never acquire one or pay an inflated price to fill a gap. Many times I paid more than I liked for the rare birds that hit the market in fear (and in many cases rightly so) that I may not see another for months or years.

There was an anomaly that I noticed with the primary price guide I used. If the author had a good supply of Case Tested Folding Hunters their value was obscenely high; but if he was in the market for them, they were very reasonable valued. So, I understand what you are saying. But it still comes down to the fact that the "hunters" don't want knives to know their own value and "sellers" want a jewelry store appraisal value. So I had envisioned something like a blue book range depending not only on condition but also a scale of "great buy" to "overpriced". But putting "market" values may be a mistake anyway. Maybe just production details and original dsr price would be sufficient for the reader to set his own value. Knowledge is power - to the person with the knowledge; it is weakness to the remainder.

It is sounding a bit like the printed forms of anything are fading into history. Maybe as it should be.
 
knifeswapper said:
There is a lot of information there to understand. But it sounds like you are saying "why do we need a price guide when we have eBay", and "eBay has stupid values". Specifically eBay prices vary a good bit on GEC's; but generally if a variation sells high today it generally will sell at a similar price range for months at a time if not continuously increasing. Although there are "flyers" out there; a good estimate can be gathered by noting several price points. There have historically been GEC variations that brought crazy prices on eBay; that is not a recent event. But how many times does a Whaler have to bring $500 before it is a trend instead of an anomaly?

About the same time eBay started up I was working by day and building up my Canoe (knife) collection in the evenings. There were many easily attainable canoes on the market. There were some that, even though many were made, were very hard to find in the wild. So I ended up having to make a decision to pay a good price and possibly never acquire one or pay an inflated price to fill a gap. Many times I paid more than I liked for the rare birds that hit the market in fear (and in many cases rightly so) that I may not see another for months or years.

There was an anomaly that I noticed with the primary price guide I used. If the author had a good supply of Case Tested Folding Hunters their value was obscenely high; but if he was in the market for them, they were very reasonable valued. So, I understand what you are saying. But it still comes down to the fact that the "hunters" don't want knives to know their own value and "sellers" want a jewelry store appraisal value. So I had envisioned something like a blue book range depending not only on condition but also a scale of "great buy" to "overpriced". But putting "market" values may be a mistake anyway. Maybe just production details and original dsr price would be sufficient for the reader to set his own value. Knowledge is power - to the person with the knowledge; it is weakness to the remainder.

It is sounding a bit like the printed forms of anything are fading into history. Maybe as it should be.
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Nice follow - up Mike,

Perhaps I could have used a different phrase than "stupid values", but at the beginning of 2019, if I were diligent, I could get a many nice OOP GECs for two figures (which I did). The same go for goes for NW, which I cannot touch today for (most often) twice or more what I paid. I suppose what I was getting at is that the target audience has perhaps shifted? - which make it even more difficult to structure a pricing guide as a useful tool.

At the same time, I should talk. I retired a few years ago after 25 years of making a yearly limited edition item (not knives) that now (and then) sell for more than I charged. A forum that followed the flow of these collectibles had a sub-forum called "Ebay Crazies". Crazy thing for me is, I've been on both sides - benefiting and being pushed out. But, it's the way things are. I started "collecting" in the early 70s - I wish I still had those things, hey, I wish I still had my minty 59 Turquoise and white Chevy Bubbletop with a 348 that I paid $300.00 for. Well, nothing is forever.

More relevant and interesting to the discussion is the second and third paragraphs of your response, which points out the difficulty of how to structure a guide or even to print when, given the unpredictable future of the print medium. I am sure one could discover many more anomalies. For me, what be most useful is the most enduring information, good photos (one of the things I enjoy on the forums the most is the photos in the "show us" threads) presented in coffee table book or any thing nicely presented (creative photography wise - like often seen in the "show us" threads) along with dates, production numbers and behind the scenes information related to development, new techniques, exploratory models and so on. There are sure to be dozens of sub categories. With all this information at everyone's fingertips, the market would (likely/maybe)? find it's own level.

It is also possible that your last line is about where it's at or heading to. But who knows, if I were that clairvoyant I would have made a fortune in a short time on Wall Street...
 
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knifeswapper said:
Just wondering - would there be a significant interest in a full price guide on all GEC general production products? I have never written a book or price guide; but I once carried around my "Pocket Knife Traders Guide" everywhere I went (that there might be knives).
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knifeswapper said:
The example I used was the "Pocket Knife Traders Guide" was put out every few years and was not an attempt to catch market swings - it was solely an attempt for people to spot the more valuable variations and see production numbers, etc. Also I think it would be interesting to get some factory "commentary" on patterns and market analysis. Anything electronic would be a full time job of updating prices. And I am not interested in tracking day to day prices, etc. But I have recently seen knives just list as normal knives on sales threads, eBay, etc. that were actually from tiny production runs and most would never know. There is actually little sense in putting a market price on anything made in the last 5 years.
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knifeswapper said:
Tons of 1of2; 1of8, etc. etc. That is more what I was thinking. With GEC's once you get over 25pcs; there seems to be little price impact due to rareness up to 1000pcs.
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This is a shut up and take my money situation, do a pre order and I’ll absolutely pay today.
 
It is certainly an interesting prospect. I suppose independent watchers can help with supplying information regarding certain models. Folks with long memories and academic interests, perhaps. But this sort of reminds me of coin catalogs and what not. Are we gonna categorize knives by mint state as in factory oil still on it, wax paper crisp, about uncirculated knife out for pictures maybe carried gently, good condition knives, and poor. Personal favorite is gonna be post factory damage for those who modified their knives (guilty)
 
In the days of online auctions and frenzied GEC buying, price guides become obsolete pretty quick. A GEC guide as an app would probably work to the advantage of inexperienced collectors (instant history lesson) and GEC dealers (helps keep the frenzy hot) but maybe not existing collectors (harder to get a good price on 1 of 6, or a sucker's price on 1 of 300). Bruce Voyles prices in his Knife articles always run high compared to gun and knife shows.
 
GEC secondary prices are growing exponentially, it would be hard to track unless done weekly.
Even then it would be too hard to predict what a rare collectible would go for on the market.
 
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