How do you guys and girls price your knives for sale?

[Scott.Maslowe]

Congrats for being ‘that’ a-hole who goes and poisons a perfectly fine discussion. You think the topic is beaten to death, yet there you are swinging your tiny stick. 507 positives and still a total d-bag. Maybe get some other hobbies and spread your wings a bit? Just a thought.

Thank you, I really appreciate that. Incidentally, and of course not relevant to anyone here… I’ve only been here a bit longer than a year, but I’ve been around about 50, and it’s my experience that when someone attacks someone without provocation or in defense, always gives me an idea of what blade size they’re carrying. Random, I know. Definitely not a metaphor. Thank you again, Doc!

 

[Dadpool]

I'm a bit of an outlier these days in some ways (I leave my sale prices up and I only sell via PayPal G&S, for example), so take this with a grain of salt. For what it's worth here's how I roll.

My starting point is what I paid; 99.5% of the time I'm asking less than that. I take stock of the condition and consider what I would pay for it. Sometimes I'll look back at listings here (when they leave the prices up), but if I feel like I've got a good handle on the market for Knife X I don't bother with that step.

Then I guess there's a bit of fuzz factor. From several years of selling knives here I know I tend to underprice, so I'll take a look at my listing with that in mind. I think about how much hassling with price drops and waiting to relist if something doesn't sell is worth to me, and adjust up or down from there.

TBH I probably overthink it.

I know I got it right when a knife sells for my asking price in under 24 hours. I know I priced it low if it sells within minutes. I feel good about it either way.

If it sits more than 48 hours, it probably won't sell at all given how fast the Exchange moves. I've learned not to read too much into that; sometimes that's just how it is. When I relist, I run through my steps again but generally trim the price a bit.

 

[Scott.Maslowe]

Problem with leaving the sale price up is that who knows what the market was like on, say September 18th 2022? It seems to change several times per year (going back and forth between a “buyers” market and a “sellers” market.)

For example, right now is not a good time to sell, so the prices right now WILL be lower than they will be on say December 18th this year
Probably lol

And then in a few months prospective buyers will be saying “so and so sold this exact same knife for X amount, so I’ll give you X amount, minus $20, sound good?”


That’s a lot of knives!

Another thoughtful and cogent reply. Thanks man, made another point I hadn’t considered. “Relevancy”.

 

[Scott.Maslowe]

Bottom line is there is no substitute for following the exchange daily. If it’s important to you then you need to put in “the work” . I do not know of a more liquid exchange than the one here…

Search for models you are interested in. Sometimes sellers leave the prices shown after sales, and sometimes the buyers post “I’ll take it for $x”.

Otherwise, try discounting replacement value by +/- 20 to 30%, while taking the model’s availability and item condition into your consideration. Scarcity value counts for a lot in my experience (eg Demko ad20 MG trade at or above original retail)

Thank you for all your remarks, but the one about the liquidity of this market in particular couldn’t be more salient. I think it’s so particularly mercurial here because you have all the typical market contributing and confounding factors like supply and demand, condition and variant, etc, but then you have the emotional component that will effect a sale at an exorbitant price because the person simply “had to have it” and was carried away in the moment. Or any number of other emotionally motivated exchanges that tend to temporarily decouple the real price from the momentarily perceived value. Trying to get enough advice from other members here that will accommodate the mercurial nature of this hobby.

So yeah, thank you for your thoughtful reply!

 

[Scott.Maslowe]

It's actually quite easy to price knives for reselling. Start at a price you hope to get, and if it doesn't sell, you drop the price until it does or until you're at a price you're no longer willing to accept.

I agree with this out of the gate, as a simple yet reliable way to insure you get the exact momentarily value, but at scale it becomes difficult to manage and loses some of it’s gracefulness. I probably should have mentioned in my original post that I’m going to be attempting the sale of a couple hundred knives over the course of the next 12-18 months. I’m transitioning my collection from quantitative to qualitative, which requires the sale of most of it. So having a solid pricing strategy that’s more theoretically available to me than practically will prove useful.

 

[hhmoore]

I probably should have mentioned in my original post that I’m going to be attempting the sale of a couple hundred knives over the course of the next 12-18 months. I’m transitioning my collection from quantitative to qualitative, which requires the sale of most of it.

If you have a bunch of low end knives, you may find it easier and more desirable to sell them in lots. Selling off hundreds of knives while trying to get the highest possible prices requires a lot more effort & depends a lot on the right buyer seeing your sales...and that your ads are easy to navigate. For example, if a seller has 8 knives for sale and two low quality group pictures, many people lose interest quickly.
Worse, to me, are the people that have those two pictures with 8 knives each...and no easy way to identify the knives (ie descriptions out of order, no labeling, etc). Sometimes, if there's a knife that catches my eye, I'll try the process of elimination; but if it takes too long, I'm out.
Also, a lot of posts in an ad tends to reduce views and sales after a point if the seller doesn't manage the ad diligently - if it's not easy to tell from the ad text what is sold, pending, or available buyers are left with asking (adds to clutter) or trying to figure it out from the subsequent posts (which doesn't necessarily work if people are PMing)

 

[Scott.Maslowe]

You've been here slightly longer than a year....

Perhaps it would be much wiser, if you spent your time keeping an eye on those wolves in charge of teaching (or in your own word's "institutionlizing") your children.....
rather than worrying about why some of us 'sheeped' member's here on a knife forum on the internet, delete our sales prices.......

Bottom line is: It's none of your business.


^ This!

^ And therein lies the the answer to this beaten to death topic; society as a whole, has just become too damn lazy, to do any of their own work, anymore.

Ok, so aside from the joke I made in a reply to this reply, I’m going to ignore your derision and attempt to diminish me and answer this candidly. I’m not sure what provoked you to reply the way you did, but senior member, you’re barking up the wrong tree. I’m not going to get into an acrimonious exchange. I care what you think of me. I care about our admittedly tenuous, but still existing, relationship. I don’t like to leave things a shitmess if they don’t have to be.

The implication that I’m not “keeping an eye” on the exchange is inaccurate. As frequent and carefully as I am able to, I watch and mentally catalogue the sales and trades here. I have ignored the presumptions that I’m somehow the curator of a hundred positive transactions, a semi frequent contributor to threads per my time here, yet ostensibly ignore the naturally occurring practice of watching the relevant sales threads. I ignored them because I think discretion is the better part of valor, not because they’re true.

You followed that I’m abdicating my responsibilities as a transacting member, to do the appropriate research, by making this post. Not at all. I simply wanted to increase my working body of knowledge that I use to determine the sale value of a knife, by asking my fellow members advice, and what practices they use. That’s probably why this website was created. To exchange that kind of information. I’m not farming my work on to some other member. I’m trying to improve my technique.

You were offended by the way I characterized members following suite when another member begins a practice. That wasn’t intended to offend you, it was a poorly conceived metaphor, I apologize.

I would disagree that it’s not my business. I would agree that any member has a right to conceal their transaction price, however I wasn’t suggesting it be mandated. As a historical event uniquely relevant to my research it becomes my business. I just didn’t understand why people did it, however since then smarter people than me have provided meaningful answers and as I stated previous, had I known those reasons before, it would have precluded me from asking in my post. I apologize, I should have searched the threads when it comes to an obvious question on a site that’s quite old in internet terms.

The close of your reply was this vague implication that I’m another lazy piece of crap and minutely responsible for the downfall of society etc, etc… Yeah ok I get it. It’s frustrating when you observe someone practicing behavior that you know contributes to the degradation of society or culture or even little things that have established value, like this site. But i’m not the target of your frustration. I share it. I get that my comedic, kinda cavalier, kinda putzy, vibe can characterize me as an unserious person. I’m not. I’m a father, business owner, responsible constituent, etc. This is just how I cope, man. How I communicate. I work my ass off for what I want to receive, I sacrafice my time, I do all the things you do. I think you’d find me more palatable in person than you realize.

Lastly… No, I did not do a TON of cocaine and roll up on my computer to post this reply. I’m just obnoxiously verbose and naturally annoying.

Ok well see you around, peace, man.

 

[Scott.Maslowe]

If you have a bunch of low end knives, you may find it easier and more desirable to sell them in lots. Selling off hundreds of knives while trying to get the highest possible prices requires a lot more effort & depends a lot on the right buyer seeing your sales...and that your ads are easy to navigate. For example, if a seller has 8 knives for sale and two low quality group pictures, many people lose interest quickly.
Worse, to me, are the people that have those two pictures with 8 knives each...and no easy way to identify the knives (ie descriptions out of order, no labeling, etc). Sometimes, if there's a knife that catches my eye, I'll try the process of elimination; but if it takes too long, I'm out.
Also, a lot of posts in an ad tends to reduce views and sales after a point if the seller doesn't manage the ad diligently - if it's not easy to tell from the ad text what is sold, pending, or available buyers are left with asking (adds to clutter) or trying to figure it out from the subsequent posts (which doesn't necessarily work if people are PMing)

It’s hard not to respond to this without sounding like an elitist prick. I’m selling a bunch of Spydercos, hinderers, striders, CRKs, etc. I’m only keeping my nicest examples of some brands, while curating rarer pieces in others. THAT is my problem, you hit the nail on the head, it’s a lot of individual sales, at knives priced out of bunched sales (which I do), that I could potentially take considerable loss over time. Everyone’s given me great advice, current reply included, but I think I’m going to close the thread after an appropriate amount of time for people to respond to my recent responses. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m doing the same things everyone else is, however I appear to just be crappy at it.

 

[Scott.Maslowe]

I'm a bit of an outlier these days in some ways (I leave my sale prices up and I only sell via PayPal G&S, for example), so take this with a grain of salt. For what it's worth here's how I roll.

My starting point is what I paid; 99.5% of the time I'm asking less than that. I take stock of the condition and consider what I would pay for it. Sometimes I'll look back at listings here (when they leave the prices up), but if I feel like I've got a good handle on the market for Knife X I don't bother with that step.

Then I guess there's a bit of fuzz factor. From several years of selling knives here I know I tend to underprice, so I'll take a look at my listing with that in mind. I think about how much hassling with price drops and waiting to relist if something doesn't sell is worth to me, and adjust up or down from there.

TBH I probably overthink it.

I know I got it right when a knife sells for my asking price in under 24 hours. I know I priced it low if it sells within minutes. I feel good about it either way.

If it sits more than 48 hours, it probably won't sell at all given how fast the Exchange moves. I've learned not to read too much into that; sometimes that's just how it is. When I relist, I run through my steps again but generally trim the price a bit.

I don’t think you overthink it. This was awesome, exactly what I was looking for, and I’m aware that you probably do all this quite fluidly and appreciate you taking the time to articulate it. Thanks brother!

 

[hhmoore]

It’s hard not to respond to this without sounding like an elitist prick.

Assuming you were referring to my first statement, typically when people reference shifting from quantity to quality, at least some portion of their collection will be lower end... How much varies by how soon they started pushing their individual price barriers. I intended no offense; but from your response it is obvious that YOUR lower end knives aren't what would be bunched together for a quick and easy sale.

 

[Scott.Maslowe]

Assuming you were referring to my first statement, typically when people reference shifting from quantity to quality, at least some portion of their collection will be lower end... How much varies by how soon they started pushing their individual price barriers. I intended no offense; but from your response it is obvious that YOUR lower end knives aren't what would be bunched together for a quick and easy sale.

Absolutely none taken. Yeah, I already cycled through my first dumb and ignorant purchases : )