Has Great Eastern Cutlery peaked in popularity?

Quiet said:
Candidly speaking, a lot of GEC collectors are GEC collectors due to the extreme mobility of classic GEC models, and are often trading GECs for other GECs (at all spectrums of desirability and rareness). Custom slipjoints couldn't hope in their wildest dreams to be as desirable to a much larger number of people as GECs are, and that's the problem.

Keep an eye on the Traditionals Exchange. People post up a custom slipjoint at a loss and it sits for awhile, especially if it's not a VERY classic pattern and cover combo. People post up GECs that sold for $118 six months ago for $225 and they're gone in minutes. There's a reason for that.
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Yeah, I understand the market difference due to the collectability of GECs (which is, admittedly, one of the "cool" factors about them), but at the same time, there are customs out there whose quality exceeds GEC by a lot and which have the potential to become collectables in time (for those willing to wait). It is a different approach.
 
Boattale said:
The only way I will ever have a GEC knife is if I find one lying in the road while I'm out for a bike ride. Have found lots of interesting stuff that way including a Vaughn Rigger's Axe with the handle broken off, and a set of false teeth that didn't even fit.
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Well. Just got back from a delightful April afternoon bike ride and guess what? Still no GEC.
 
they have become much harder to obtain in the last couple of years. I remember days when you actualy had time to browse and think if you wanted a knife. some patterns are less popular but overal I think the popularity has increased a lot
 
JTB_5 said:
Yeah, I understand the market difference due to the collectability of GECs (which is, admittedly, one of the "cool" factors about them), but at the same time, there are customs out there whose quality exceeds GEC by a lot and which have the potential to become collectables in time (for those willing to wait). It is a different approach.
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As someone who owns over a hundred of 'em, can absolutely confirm. But then, quality is really only part of it. GECs are just crazy, and a perfect storm of factors that you don't tend to see often. Unfortunately, the fans of the brand are the ones who suffer for it.
 
Quiet said:
As someone who owns over a hundred of 'em, can absolutely confirm. But then, quality is really only part of it. GECs are just crazy, and a perfect storm of factors that you don't tend to see often. Unfortunately, the fans of the brand are the ones who suffer for it.
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The fans of the brand with a hundred GEC created the frenzy which feeds the price rocketing. What will trigger you to cash out?
 
brownshoe said:
The fans of the brand with a hundred GEC created the frenzy which feeds the price rocketing. What will trigger you to cash out?
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Actually, the folks who have triggered this are all the folks who have to have every cover available in every run, who for whatever reason don't have an "in" in the Good Ole Boy network of dealers with their private lists so they're stuck making the purchase on secondary. This caused flippers to see how hot the property is, and have muscled in to ruin things (like they've done with everything else). On top of that, there are new fans discovering the brand every day after seeing people post pics of theirs on the Porch, IG, FB, Reddit, and everywhere else. More importantly, a standard run of knives might be 400-500 knives, broken down into even smaller numbers when you factor in that each model will be made with at least three or four covers (if not more, for all those SFOs they swore they weren't doing anymore :rolleyes: ) so if the knife you have always wanted happens to be, say a Cocobolo covered whatever, well guess what? There are probably 100 to 150 of those that got made, and you get to compete with thousands of other people for the knives that are left after all the Good Ole Boys scratched their dealer buddy's back and got theirs before whatever that dealer has left hits their site. I'm not bitter about this, because I understand how the game is played, and I only speak of it here in order to make the actual issue more clear for folks.

So, to recap: the reason people aren't able to score GEC knives is because of how few there actually are in each run (a number made smaller by some of these knives being siphoned off towards dealer buddy lists), which means collectors who don't have an aforementioned dealer buddy are forced to buy on secondary, which brings out the scumsucking bottomfeeders to insert themselves as an extra money gate between collectors and the knives.

Lastly, as you lowkey attempted to call me out, allow me to clear it up for you: I purchased a significant portion of my collection back before all this started. I've got a bunch of knives I purchased from actual dealers without a markup, back before GEC got crazy. Others, I purchased here from great members with minimal markup back (again) before things got as crazy as they are now. Today's frenzy is a direct result of thousands of people attempting to score one of a very limited number of knives. It's simple math at this point.
 
Quiet said:
Actually, the folks who have triggered this are all the folks who have to have every cover available in every run, who for whatever reason don't have an "in" in the Good Ole Boy network of dealers with their private lists so they're stuck making the purchase on secondary. This caused flippers to see how hot the property is, and have muscled in to ruin things (like they've done with everything else). On top of that, there are new fans discovering the brand every day after seeing people post pics of theirs on the Porch, IG, FB, Reddit, and everywhere else. More importantly, a standard run of knives might be 400-500 knives, broken down into even smaller numbers when you factor in that each model will be made with at least three or four covers (if not more, for all those SFOs they swore they weren't doing anymore :rolleyes: ) so if the knife you have always wanted happens to be, say a Cocobolo covered whatever, well guess what? There are probably 100 to 150 of those that got made, and you get to compete with thousands of other people for the knives that are left after all the Good Ole Boys scratched their dealer buddy's back and got theirs before whatever that dealer has left hits their site. I'm not bitter about this, because I understand how the game is played, and I only speak of it here in order to make the actual issue more clear for folks.

So, to recap: the reason people aren't able to score GEC knives is because of how few there actually are in each run (a number made smaller by some of these knives being siphoned off towards dealer buddy lists), which means collectors who don't have an aforementioned dealer buddy are forced to buy on secondary, which brings out the scumsucking bottomfeeders to insert themselves as an extra money gate between collectors and the knives.

Lastly, as you lowkey attempted to call me out, allow me to clear it up for you: I purchased a significant portion of my collection back before all this started. I've got a bunch of knives I purchased from actual dealers without a markup, back before GEC got crazy. Others, I purchased here from great members with minimal markup back (again) before things got as crazy as they are now. Today's frenzy is a direct result of thousands of people attempting to score one of a very limited number of knives. It's simple math at this point.
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Agreed.


Flipping has tarnished the appeal of GEC.

As the market has been tuned to serve a select few it does make a person wonder about the long term potential for the future of GEC.

A shrinking and privy client base is snatching up the knives within minutes, then posting them up immediately at a ridiculous markup.

While the craziness is making a few people some cash in the short term, it may be detrimental to the brand down the road when the fervor diminishes.
 
bax229 said:
I blame social media for the demand. GECs photograph really well. Everyone's gotta have a nice GEC rotation for their EDC post of the day.
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That's why I don't collect anymore. That is about all the use 99% of the knives get. My Dad used to carry a Case Dixie switch and would only replace it when he wore the 4" blade down to the size of a small pen blade. Doesn't take long as you think when you use it for everything from skinning game to scraping gaskets. Took me a while, but I discovered the joy in wearing a knife out.
 
I would have bought a few GEC if I could get them for any reasonable prices.... but no chance
it's too bad, but I've moved on... I prefer traditionals that use better steel

(i know 1095 is very 'traditional', but 52100 would be a huge improvement while also maintaining all your tarnish/patina requirements)
 
Quiet said:
Actually, the folks who have triggered this are all the folks who have to have every cover available in every run, who for whatever reason don't have an "in" in the Good Ole Boy network of dealers with their private lists so they're stuck making the purchase on secondary. This caused flippers to see how hot the property is, and have muscled in to ruin things (like they've done with everything else). On top of that, there are new fans discovering the brand every day after seeing people post pics of theirs on the Porch, IG, FB, Reddit, and everywhere else. More importantly, a standard run of knives might be 400-500 knives, broken down into even smaller numbers when you factor in that each model will be made with at least three or four covers (if not more, for all those SFOs they swore they weren't doing anymore :rolleyes: ) so if the knife you have always wanted happens to be, say a Cocobolo covered whatever, well guess what? There are probably 100 to 150 of those that got made, and you get to compete with thousands of other people for the knives that are left after all the Good Ole Boys scratched their dealer buddy's back and got theirs before whatever that dealer has left hits their site. I'm not bitter about this, because I understand how the game is played, and I only speak of it here in order to make the actual issue more clear for folks.

So, to recap: the reason people aren't able to score GEC knives is because of how few there actually are in each run (a number made smaller by some of these knives being siphoned off towards dealer buddy lists), which means collectors who don't have an aforementioned dealer buddy are forced to buy on secondary, which brings out the scumsucking bottomfeeders to insert themselves as an extra money gate between collectors and the knives.

Lastly, as you lowkey attempted to call me out, allow me to clear it up for you: I purchased a significant portion of my collection back before all this started. I've got a bunch of knives I purchased from actual dealers without a markup, back before GEC got crazy. Others, I purchased here from great members with minimal markup back (again) before things got as crazy as they are now. Today's frenzy is a direct result of thousands of people attempting to score one of a very limited number of knives. It's simple math at this point.
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A 100 knives at ~$100 each, what would trigger you to cash out?
 
People that buy and sell GECs for profit based on leveraging connections in the dealer network (or even worse, snatching them from forums at a discount) are bad for the hobby and create artificial inflation on the secondary. Sadly, nothing will change until either more knives are made or dealers do the right thing and give everyone a fair shot.
 
If it has 'peaked' when's the crash going to be? I'd like a bargain :cool:

I just prefer the days of yore when even I in far away Europe on a different time zone could mull over a knife from a US dealer, get knives of which only 25 were made (one I have is one of five) nobody cared a damn about my knives except me and a few others with taste . Collectibility means little to me, availability and aesthetics do.

It seems like a Tulip Craze, these knives are very good production knives, often tasteful but made of unremarkable steel called FOMA or Musthave :D
 
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