- Joined
- Feb 24, 2006
- Messages
- 276
Last year, early spring, my father called me and asked if I wanted to go on a fishing trip to Lake George (here in NY.) I got all excited and started to put some gear together for the trip. I had sold my LB7 for beer money years ago (idiot college days) and thought it would be a great time to pick up another. I started to get frustrated after I came up empty at the 3rd or 4th hardware store. Finally, I tried to buy one via the internet. That's where I heard about the factory closeing.
I went onto eBay and found a nice "hardly used" LB7 for $10 or $12 (I still had the sheath from the one I bought when I was 12 years old.) It made me feel good to get that LB7. I felt a connection to my past. A little more complete. The camping/fishing trip got cancelled because my father came down with flabitis (?spell?), but I had gotten the itch to pick up a few more Schrades. My Dad recovered and is now in good health, thank God.
I started to rationalize that it would be wise to buy a bunch of LB7's while people were still selling the "old stock" from hardware stores. Little did I know that there would soon be hundreds of thousands of these "old stock" items flooding the market. So, I bought fifteen or twenty NIB LB7's, the same number of 897UH's, ten 885UH's, a handful of 285UH's a few PH1's, a few 167UH's, and the list gones on and on...
I tried to float the idea that because of inflation and their "rareity" of Schrade USA knives, I would not have any trouble turning a profit on my collection in ten or fifteen years. I am starting to doubt that now that I see how much inventory is going onto the market in "mint" or unused condition. But, as I said when I started buying these knives, if they never go up in value, at the very least all my brothers, all my sons,uncles, freinds, etc... all of them will have a really good quality pocket knife. Probably my grandchildren too! That helps me rationalize the expense.
I went onto eBay and found a nice "hardly used" LB7 for $10 or $12 (I still had the sheath from the one I bought when I was 12 years old.) It made me feel good to get that LB7. I felt a connection to my past. A little more complete. The camping/fishing trip got cancelled because my father came down with flabitis (?spell?), but I had gotten the itch to pick up a few more Schrades. My Dad recovered and is now in good health, thank God.
I started to rationalize that it would be wise to buy a bunch of LB7's while people were still selling the "old stock" from hardware stores. Little did I know that there would soon be hundreds of thousands of these "old stock" items flooding the market. So, I bought fifteen or twenty NIB LB7's, the same number of 897UH's, ten 885UH's, a handful of 285UH's a few PH1's, a few 167UH's, and the list gones on and on...
I tried to float the idea that because of inflation and their "rareity" of Schrade USA knives, I would not have any trouble turning a profit on my collection in ten or fifteen years. I am starting to doubt that now that I see how much inventory is going onto the market in "mint" or unused condition. But, as I said when I started buying these knives, if they never go up in value, at the very least all my brothers, all my sons,uncles, freinds, etc... all of them will have a really good quality pocket knife. Probably my grandchildren too! That helps me rationalize the expense.