How do you determine the value of knives on the secondary market?

draggat

draggat

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When you are buying and selling knives on the secondary market, obviously a NIB knife will increase in value if it is a relatively sought after, discontinued knife. What if that same knife has been re-sharpened from the factory edge or has a scratch or two? Consider that the blade was sharpened by the original buyer, but they did a good job with an even bevel. Does it still increase? Does it lower? Does the price remain the same as a "sterile" knife? As a buyer, what would your opinion be? Just curious to see what opinions everyone has in regards to secondary market value.
 
To sum it up, it depends if you want the knife for yourself or for trade bait

The long version:
I usually only go after the knives I can see myself using. It varies- if the knife is in good enough condition to where I would put the same amount of marks on it in a matter of days or few sharpenings, the value does not suffer much and the seller will probably get a good offer from me. However if the knife is not something I want, and I want only for re-trade value, of course I'm only going to go for things that are in like new condition or new in box.
 
A user-sharpened blade is just that: a user. They will always sell less than a LNIB. That doesn't necessarily mean it will lower in value from the original price though - assuming the knife has been discontinued and is sought after. The user will just have less value than the LNIB.
 
There used to be a fellow named Paul Basch, who was regarded as an authority on handmade knives. I don't know about production knives, and I'm not sure if Basch is still around, but it brings me around the long way to saying that there are published guides to knives and knife prices, although they are not all-encompassing. I know there are pricing guides for Case and Barlow(e?) slipjoints, there may be some for Schrade.

I don't think there is an established way of pricing/valuing production knives; even the above guides are, just, guides.

Expect to do some dealing, whether you're buying or selling.
 
It seems to me that recent production knives are frequently discounted even after they've been discontinued. My own feeling on condition is simple used/sharpened is NOT Mint or LNIB. If I'm buying a user it doesn't bother me that much. If it's going in a safe it's a different story altogether, in that case I'd rather be buying wholesale direct to get a the best possible price. Investing in knives that you buy at retail is a loser from the get go unless you are willing to wait decades to collect (IMHO).

When it comes to custom knives you enter a different world altogether. Les Robertson of Robertson's Custom Cutlery ( http://www.robertsoncustomcutlery.com/ ) wrote a dandy little pamphlet on this topic called - The Custom Knives Buying Guide. You might wanna get one of those from him and study it. The core message of the book is that you should buy the best knives you can afford from knifemakers who run their businesses like businesses, not hobbies, meaning they invest in their marketing as well as their tooling.

Custom knives are a LUXURY item for most people and the economy has affected the secondary marketplace. There are lots of knives on eBay that you can look at to get an idea about relative value. Go into advanced search and look at the closed listing for what sold and for how much.You can also look at the realized prices on J. Bruce Voyles recent auctions for a different perspective. The market is flooded with good inventory....................

Syn
 
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