Hard to get knives.

c7m2p3 said:
Others have answered fairly well already but essentially its going to come down to the specific knife we are talking about, the availability, the condition, and ultimately/most importantly; the consumer. In general customs are going to be able to be sold at or over their selling price because they are hard to get or the maker only makes a few blades in that style each year. Production knives are more difficult. For instance, I have been looking to pick up a TRM Atom for some time but I still balk at prices well in excess of the original price since they are a production knife that is still being made and I know that there will be more coming out soon.
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I think it will come down to like someone said. Look for the same knife here, and see how it's priced.. Thanks for replying.
 
To be totally honest, it very much depends on the seller. There is now a large number of sellers on the exchange who mark up the prices, sometimes crazily so, depending on how desired a knife is. For example, the recent 3V Hinderers or Demko releases mostly are sold for > 2x the original purchase price, and they sell quickly, even though they were only purchased a few months ago.

In parallel, there are some sellers who sell at cost or below. I personally sell like that and only buy from them. But I also feel that over the last two years, the relative size of that community has shrunk. And, steep mark-ups are frowned upon.

Roland.
 
ferider said:
To be totally honest, it very much depends on the seller. There is now a large number of sellers on the exchange who mark up the prices, sometimes crazily so, depending on how desired a knife is. For example, the recent 3V Hinderers or Demko releases mostly are sold for > 2x the original purchase price, and they sell, even though they were only purchased a few months ago.

In parallel, there are some sellers who sell at cost or below. I personally only buy from them. But I also feel that over the last two years, the relative size of that community has shrunk. And, steep mark-ups are frowned upon.

Roland.
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Thanks for the reply.
 
You're free to ask whatever you want for the knives you want to sell.

Members here are very sophisticated and know (or can find out) what the current value of knives being sold here is. So, you'll find out pretty quick whether what you're asking is more than people here want to pay for your knives.

FWIW, based on my experience, most knives posted for sale here on the Exchange are listed at a discount from similar items on other 2ndary markets. However, for certain knives that are in high demand and hard to find, prices can go higher.

The Exchange rules require the cost of shipping/payment fees are required to be included in the asking price.

Some sellers have started to accept only non-fee payment methods which is not prohibited but does not provide buyers with any buyer protection.

Some buyers, like me, may not be willing to buy a knife unless payment is made via PayPal G&S, which is what the Forum recommends, especially if the seller does not have a significant sales feedback record.

So, if you choose to only accept non-fee payment methods, be aware that you may be limiting the number of potential buyers interested in your knives.

Also, I've found many new (and some old) members have (for some reason) stopped posting any photos of the knives that they want to sell with their listings w/o any indication that they are available or not (or ask people to request photos by email, if they are).

FWIW, this is an absolute deal killer for me.

I would never buy a knife w/o seeing photos of it and I would never request photos because IMO if you want to sell something, you should be willing to put in the effort to properly display/advertise that product for sale and NOT put the burden on the buyer to request something that you should already provide.

So, if you're too lazy (or tech challenged) to post photos of the knives you want to sell, that may also negatively affect your ablility to sell them here.

Just some info/opinions of mine that may (or may not) be of value to you in your sales efforts here.

Good luck!
 
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sgt1372 said:
You're free to ask whatever you want for the knives you want to sell.

Members here are very sophisticated and know (or can find out) what the current value of knives being sold here is. So, you'll find out pretty quick whether what you're asking is more than people here want to pay for your knives.

FWIW, based on my experience, most knives posted for sale here on the Exchange are listed at a discount from similar items on other 2ndary markets. However, for certain knives that are in high demand and hard to find, prices can go higher.

The Exchange rules require the cost of shipping/PayPal fees are required to be included in the asking price.

Some sellers have started to accept only non-fee payment methods which is not prohibited but does not provide buyers with any buyer protection.

Some buyers, like me, may not be willing to buy a knife unless payment is made via PayPal G&S, which is what the Forum recommends, especially if the seller does not have a significant sales feedback record.

So, if you choose to only accept non-fee payment methods, be aware that you may be limiting the number of potential buyers interested in your knives.

Also, I've found many new (and some old) members have (for some reason) stopped posting photos of the knives that they want to sell with their listings or ask people to request photos by email.

FWIW, this is an absolute deal killer for me and I would never request photos because IMO if you want to sell something, you should be willing to put in the effort to properly display/advertise that product for sale and NOT put the burden on the buyer to request something that you should already provide.

So, if you're too lazy (or tech challenged) to post photos of the knives you want to sell, that may also negatively affect your ablility to sell them here.

Just some info/opinions of mine that may (or may not) be of value to you in your sales efforts here.

Good luck!
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Thanks for replying. I have already listed two for sale. I did have problems with the photos, but finally figured it out. I only marked up one , to cover fees. The other , Im actually asking for less than cost. Thanks again for your feedback.
 
JPD61 said:
Thanks for replying. I have already listed two for sale. I did have problems with the photos, but finally figured it out. I only marked up one , to cover fees. The other , Im actually asking for less than cost. Thanks again for your feedback.
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PS: As a public service, I'd urge you to NOT delete the original asking price from your sales thread after a knife is sold in order to help members gets a sense of the value of knives sold on the Exchange.

You do not have to reveal the actual sales price and nothing is lost if you leave the asking price in your listing. All you have to do is overstrike or grey out the original asking price and add the word SOLD to accomplish this.

I have done this on all of my many past sales listings and some others have joined me in doing this BUT most people still delete the original sale price from the listing which IMO is entirely unnecessary.
 
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sgt1372 said:
PS: As a public service, I'd urge you to NOT delete the original asking price from your sales thread after a knife is sold in order to help members gets a sense of the value of knives sold on the Exchange.

You do not have to reveal the actual sales price and nothing is lost if you leave the asking price in your listing. All you have to do is overstrike or grey out the original asking price and add the word SOLD to accomplish this.

I have done this on all of my many past sales listings.
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Yes, good idea. I've seen that on most , you can't see the sold price.
 
c7m2p3 said:
Others have answered fairly well already but essentially its going to come down to the specific knife we are talking about, the availability, the condition, and ultimately/most importantly; the consumer. In general customs are going to be able to be sold at or over their selling price because they are hard to get or the maker only makes a few blades in that style each year. Production knives are more difficult. For instance, I have been looking to pick up a TRM Atom for some time but I still balk at prices well in excess of the original price since they are a production knife that is still being made and I know that there will be more coming out soon.
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I disagree. Most custom knives sell at a substantial loss. Only those custom knives from makers who are extremely popular may carry a premium - and the biggest premium will be from longtime makers who have always been popular, i.e. Loveless, or for those makers who have hit it big on social media and are making the knife of the moment for the Instagram crowd, usually some combination of overbuilt titanium framelock flippers with Damasteel, M390, fat carbon, zirconium, and timascus everything.

Some of those are really hard to explain in terms of where the popularity comes from. The Tracker Dan Bloodshark is a great design, but it's still a cord-wrapped, finely finished prison shank, so I don't see how the secondary market can justify asking $1,500 for one, but they do, easily, while less popular makers making similar designs to similar quality standards out of similar or better materials might not get $250.

Some makers, like Phil Patton or Robert Erickson, make outstanding quality work at a very reasonable or even undervalued price.

But unless you're the Instagram flavor du jour or a famous knifemaking icon, the odds are you'll take a loss selling customs. Even recognized ABS M.S. knifemakers' work can be hard to sell and make any money off it, just because the market for $2,000+ M.S.-made bowie knives is fairly small.

The fastest-selling knives are reasonably priced production knives. Very popular high-end production knives where demand exceeds supply, i.e. Koenig, Shirogorov, TRM, etc. will often sell rapidly at retail + shipping + fees + 10% or so. Things like standard production Hinderers and CRKs where dealers are out of stock often but also regularly getting new knives will sell rapidly at 75% of retail. Rule of thumb? If when they're released they sell out in less than three minutes and the knife community is awash with the tears of people who missed the release, it'll sell above retail.

Obviously you can't sell production or custom knives above the price you can buy them for from the dealers when they're still available at the dealers. There was a fellow selling a tomahawk on the forums here that would ordinarily be very popular and should sell fast... except that model was just shipped to the dealers by the manufacturer, and I happen to know at least two dealers that still have them in stock at retail, so the seller here will likely never see his $125 premium.

For the most part, the best way to make a small fortune off your knife hobby is to start with a large fortune. It is very difficult to make money selling collected knives, so the best thing to do is to look at it as supplemental income for buying new knives if you happen to manage to sell at a profit, because odds are good for every knife you sell at a profit, you'll end up selling two at a loss. So just try to break even on the whole. Especially when you take into consideration that just to break even on a knife you have to ask for retail + shipping + fees.
 
I recommend that you delete the sales price, so other newcomers who come here to sell don't attempt to sell at escalated prices.
 
I think most of us are interested in selling a knife to get money to buy another knife.
When we are buying a knife it's to add to our collection.
Everyone is entitled to a fair price or value.
When I owned a business the interest in my stock was quality, how it cost and much I could sell for.
 
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