I Inherited a massive knife collection.

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novic3

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My father in law passed recently. He left us a massive knife collection. Im lost with this I dont even know where to start. I have very little experience with knives.

When I mean massive im talking about a lot of knives. Most of them are brand new in boxes. I have a stack of knives 4 / 5 feet tall and several feet wide. The knives vary greatly from pocket to massive machete / sword type. I have spotted ceramic to throwing knives. Just by looking at the collection I easily have 700-1k knives. Still working on cleaning out the rest of the house before I attempt to sort these out. There just sitting in piles.

I just dont know what to do with this. I dont have much of an interest in keeping these.


Any tips or suggestions would be helpful. I live in Southern Illinois as far as I can tell there are not any knife stores in the area.
 
There may be a market for them on here if you are willing to take the time to categorize, sort, photo and post. Or you could find someone that would buy the bulk.
 
I think ultimately I was looking to see if there was some one local who is considered a respectful member of this community to tell me if i have a huge pile of junk or if I actually have something here that is worth organizing.

I also have a lot of knife holsters and knife paraphernalia. And I came across a box of what I think is build your own knife kits.
 
Be careful with abrupt offers to buy. Your situation leaves you open to be taken advantage of. I doubt a man with that magnitude of collection has only junk; you may have many thousands of dollars in inventory on your hands.

It couldn't hurt to use search engines and the large auction site to get an idea of what you are dealing with. Best of luck.
 
Where are you located? I'm sure someone would love to help you sort it out. I'm in SoCal so let me know if you're in the area
 
You may want to start with listing the collection in a spreadsheet, including the makers and models, and begin researching the values from there. Grand Prarie Knives, a great knife shop, is located in Troy, Illinois. You could also do some research there. It sounds like your dad was a real knife nut, so the collection is potentially valuable, you may want to take your time researching.

Condolences on your loss. I am located in St. Louis, email me if you need any specific direction or have questions on how to get started.
 
Take some pics and post them up so we know what you are dealing with and then you can / will get better suggestions to help you out.

Good luck!
 
To sell them here on the forum would take some effort to determine their worth. Most people who sell here remove the price after they sell, so it can be difficult to use the forums to research prices (which is why the prices are removed). You can use Ebay to see what similar knives have sold for (look for the price of actually sold knives).

You might select 10 of the knives randomly and then search out their value. You should be able to do that in an hour or so. Then do another 10. Then do another 10. At some point fairly early on you'll get a good sense of what the collection is worth. I wouldn't sell any of those knives until and unless you have a general idea of what they are worth. When it comes to knives, both seller and buyer have to beware.
 
WARNING, IF YOU YOURSELF ARE NOT FAKING THIS, AND NO REASON TO THINK SO, THEN BE VERY CAREFUL ON ANY SITE, ANY SITE..

BF HAS GREAT MEMBERS AND ALSO SOME WHO DWELL AT THE BOTTOM AND SEEK FOLKS LIKE YOU OUT. KNIVES ARE A DIRTY WORLD AND BUYING/SELLING/OR TRADING IS VERY RISKY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I HAVE SEEN MANY HERE TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF !!!

The problem with knives is no clear value exist, there are major dealers on all sites who would cheat you and turn around a "flip" the knives for massive profit. IMO this is very wrong, and do not reflect on a good, honest person at all. That many knives will take at least 6-8 weeks to research and find value. Look at past sells, here, on a more general large auction type site, I will not mention because it does not support BF, but you should easily know, and then simply google each knife and full details under for sale. By now you have received several PM, or emails asking for your address, phone etc. do not fall into that trap. As a owner of over 5000 knives and a 45 year collector. I can tell, you are in for a long deep process, one that can and should be enjoyed and fun. Your family member deserves that respect for his items. Also remember that with the box, knife values are min 15% higher. If you complete a list and submit it here in general discussion, I feel you will get a good value of what your knives are worth, but I would not sell anything for at least 6-8 weeks. you have started, and maybe on purpose a firestorm now, walk away. BF does have several mods, including RevDevil and Esav Benjamin among others that you can trust and may should seek out guidance. I only tell you these things out of my love of knives and care for you regardless of your time on this forum.
 
Please, please, do post pictures -- I'd certainly like to just look at them. Folks here will help you with categorization, as well as valuation to a certain extent. You may indeed have inventory worth thousands of dollars, especially if the collection spans decades.
 
novic3 said:
I think ultimately I was looking to see if there was some one local who is considered a respectful member of this community to tell me if i have a huge pile of junk or if I actually have something here that is worth organizing.

I also have a lot of knife holsters and knife paraphernalia. And I came across a box of what I think is build your own knife kits.
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Welcome. Unfortunately you are breaking, or on the verge of breaking, a whole handful of rules.

Read this:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/faq.php?faq=faq_rules#faq_faq_rules_sale_forums

and this:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/904093-NEW-MEMBERS-Please-read-this-WHAT-IS-MY-KNIFE-WORTH
 
Could you post just a couple of the different brands you see represented?

Do you have anything that looks like this:
seb21l.jpg


Or this:
582360e2dcb83558b986539b1e5f099b.jpg
 
Marcinek (as usual) beat me to it. Any other time, this thread would be full of "READ THE RULES!" posts. Instead, there's talk of "post up some pics so we can help you!"

Seems to me that's being asked for the purposes of possibly scoring a sweet knife on the cheap from a guy who's clueless as to what he might have*....but that's none of my business.






*It's 2015 and folks still don't know how to use the Internet to learn the going price of something?
 
To get anywhere near the true value will take time and effort. You could have anything from dime store slip joints to rare gems or maybe just a few gems thrown in. Try to list them as best you can and then start researching them. I would use google as well as this site. It sounds like a mammoth task but you will soon see tends. Start with some group photo's and maybe we can give you an idea of what you have. The gems will stand out.

I am not talking about pricing them, but just giving you an idea of what you have so you can do the research.
 
Yep, that's probably true Quiet. But we still need to see the knives to even begin helping him. And it's better if he does in publicly in this thread so the honest members can make sure no one is trying to give him incorrect values that benefit them.
 
Krissig12 said:
Yep, that's probably true Quiet. But we still need to see the knives to even get started helpng him. And it's better if he does in publicly in this thread so the honest members can make sure no one is trying to give him incorrect values that benefit them.
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Helping this guy is technically against the rules, which is my point. If he wants help, he should step up and kick this site $30 to get the ball rolling.
 
Krissig12 said:
Yep, that's probably true Quiet. But we still need to see the knives to even get started helpng him. And it's better if he does in publicly in this thread so the honest members can make sure no one is trying to give him incorrect values that benefit them.
Click to expand...

No one can give him ANY values at his membership level, either correct or incorrect.

Ha! Now Quiet be ME to it. :D
 
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