The whole thing is a slippery slope probably best avoided, it would seem. The "slope" is explained well in the sticky on the subject.
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I Inherited a massive knife collection.
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The whole thing is a slippery slope probably best avoided, it would seem. The "slope" is explained well in the sticky on the subject.
Hi Novic3,
Welcome to Bladeforums. Southern Illinois is beautiful this time of year. :thumbup:
If I lived closer I'd love to take a peak at your collection and pass along whatever I know.
Lacking that, Esav is a well-respected moderator of the highest integrity. His advice is good. Take your time, don't be in a rush to dump, give away, or sell any of the items until you get a handle on what's going on. Watch out for a sudden rush of vultures suddenly spamming your email with offers to buy. Keep them in the same condition as the collector had them; don't throw away the boxes or toss them in a damp basement for example.
When you get them organized and want to start checking values, you can use the Completed Items search on eBay. To get the most accurate comparisons look for knives of the same brand, model, materials, and condition as yours. Little things, such as the integrity of the accessories and factory packaging can make a huge difference in value at auction. And you might not think a red handle is worth more than a blue one (random example) but if the company made ten red knives and 10,000,000 blue ones...
Best wishes to you and good luck in your quest,
-Bob
Welcome to Bladeforums. Southern Illinois is beautiful this time of year. :thumbup:
If I lived closer I'd love to take a peak at your collection and pass along whatever I know.
Lacking that, Esav is a well-respected moderator of the highest integrity. His advice is good. Take your time, don't be in a rush to dump, give away, or sell any of the items until you get a handle on what's going on. Watch out for a sudden rush of vultures suddenly spamming your email with offers to buy. Keep them in the same condition as the collector had them; don't throw away the boxes or toss them in a damp basement for example.
When you get them organized and want to start checking values, you can use the Completed Items search on eBay. To get the most accurate comparisons look for knives of the same brand, model, materials, and condition as yours. Little things, such as the integrity of the accessories and factory packaging can make a huge difference in value at auction. And you might not think a red handle is worth more than a blue one (random example) but if the company made ten red knives and 10,000,000 blue ones...
Best wishes to you and good luck in your quest,
-Bob
Daniel Dorn
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A. G. Russell would be my first bet on getting these out on consignment. He offers a service to sell knives, and takes a set % fee per item. As Mr. Russell is a paid advertiser on this site, I have no problem putting out his name.
It may be worth the effort to contact him and see what he can offer you, as far as helping out with "700-1K knives"
Here's his web-site contact page: http://www.agrussell.com/Contact_Us/a/3/
My condolences on your father-in-law's passing, and Good luck with making something of this inheritance. Take some time to go through the pile, and pick out a few.
Stick around here, and educate yourself on knives, in general. We may make a knife knut out of you, yet! I'm sure your father-in-law would be proud!
It may be worth the effort to contact him and see what he can offer you, as far as helping out with "700-1K knives"
Here's his web-site contact page: http://www.agrussell.com/Contact_Us/a/3/
My condolences on your father-in-law's passing, and Good luck with making something of this inheritance. Take some time to go through the pile, and pick out a few.
Stick around here, and educate yourself on knives, in general. We may make a knife knut out of you, yet! I'm sure your father-in-law would be proud!
gga357
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To start do a simple sort by brand name. Hopefully the majority are only a few brands. Then as a group rather than give any knife values generalities can be made. Say you have 500 Benchmade 5xx boxes (with knives of course) then you likely have $25k to $28k at wholesale if you choose to sell all to one buyer or $40,000 to $45,000 if you sell one knife at a time AND they are all in 'like new' condition. Of course this is all hypothetical. Similar numbers if they are Spyderco Delica. Just using 2 very popular knives as examples.
This just gives you an idea of the scope of dealing with hundreds of knives.
This just gives you an idea of the scope of dealing with hundreds of knives.
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Stacks of knives... 700-1000? Sounds like a knife dealer maybe? Or a true knife knut to the extreme!
I have about 700 knives and I have never sold one. I have traded a few. I paid a little more than 2 bucks each. Ten years of accumulating adds up fast.
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I have high hopes for this thread but based on some local guys collections that would look like this, I'm not going to hold my breath.
If one of my wife's relatives died he'd have a similar collection...most of which are comprised of $10 chinese folders. Literally hundreds of these things. I heard of another local who had passed and his wife wanted to sell his collection. Unfortunately he spent a little to much time ordering off of the infomercials and didn't have a single good knife.
If one of my wife's relatives died he'd have a similar collection...most of which are comprised of $10 chinese folders. Literally hundreds of these things. I heard of another local who had passed and his wife wanted to sell his collection. Unfortunately he spent a little to much time ordering off of the infomercials and didn't have a single good knife.
AusLoX
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The guy isn't into knives and was just asking for help and we throw the rule book at him? Where's the spirit of the law? No one is giving values to him. He's just asking how to go about it. At least give him a chance to learn how it works.
***The letter of the law versus the spirit of the law is an idiomatic antithesis. When one obeys the letter of the law but not the spirit, one is obeying the literal interpretation of the words (the "letter") of the law, but not the intent of those who wrote the law.
***The letter of the law versus the spirit of the law is an idiomatic antithesis. When one obeys the letter of the law but not the spirit, one is obeying the literal interpretation of the words (the "letter") of the law, but not the intent of those who wrote the law.
I live in Stl but am from Marion county IL and lived in Williamson County while attending SIU after I got out of the military. I would be glad to look at your stuff and give you an opinion just to try to help you figure out what to do. But i am not really an expert on anything. That being said you should just buy a membership, start another thread and post pictures of your stuff. 1000 of anything is worth looking into.
Sorry for your loss. When my wifes mom died it was a very tough time for her. It has been 6 years and she still has not recovered. Make sure that the time is right to be screwing with these knifes. No matter what they are worth it is more important to be supportive of your wife.
Nobody is throwing anything at anybody. You seen any yellow cards? We all agree to abide by the site's rules when we become members. The OP is now aware of the site's rules.
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Well, here's how to go about it. For purposes of valuing the estate for tax and probate court purposes, someone (the executor or his/her agent) will need to inventory all of the assets of the estate and assign some sort of valuation.
This is hard work and there is no shortcut. Whoever does it needs to start a spreadsheet and start listing all of the knives (unless they are obviously junk, in which case they would still need to be listed as "700 assorted pocket knives, approximately $1,400 value". So make, model, condition, all need to be taken into account. Once he has compiled the list, then he needs to get an appraisal or estimate of value for each item or group of like items.
I would go with the expected value that they could sell for, since if you have to pay creditors and divvy up the estate among beneficiaries, you'll either have to sell them or assign a market value in case one of the beneficiaries wants to keep some of the knives. You would have to allocate the cash value against their "share" of the estate.
I suggest having the executor of the estate pay for an official appraisal. if the OP doesn't want to go through the hassle of photographing, listing, and selling each knife individually on ebay then the other options are an estate sale, or finding a broker who will buy the entire collection (usually for rather less than they could be sold individually).
If it were me, I would at least get a basic list of # of knives, manufacturer, and country of origin (like 10 Kershaw-USA, 20 Boker-China, etc) just to get a basic idea of how much effort they should expend.
This is hard work and there is no shortcut. Whoever does it needs to start a spreadsheet and start listing all of the knives (unless they are obviously junk, in which case they would still need to be listed as "700 assorted pocket knives, approximately $1,400 value". So make, model, condition, all need to be taken into account. Once he has compiled the list, then he needs to get an appraisal or estimate of value for each item or group of like items.
I would go with the expected value that they could sell for, since if you have to pay creditors and divvy up the estate among beneficiaries, you'll either have to sell them or assign a market value in case one of the beneficiaries wants to keep some of the knives. You would have to allocate the cash value against their "share" of the estate.
I suggest having the executor of the estate pay for an official appraisal. if the OP doesn't want to go through the hassle of photographing, listing, and selling each knife individually on ebay then the other options are an estate sale, or finding a broker who will buy the entire collection (usually for rather less than they could be sold individually).
If it were me, I would at least get a basic list of # of knives, manufacturer, and country of origin (like 10 Kershaw-USA, 20 Boker-China, etc) just to get a basic idea of how much effort they should expend.
Wow, this thread kinda blew up. I'm not attempting to sell anything. The point of this thread was to see if by chance there was a local that could come hold my hand for a few seconds to let me know if i had a pile of junk or if its actually worth going threw the effort to get an excel spread going. I do not have any pics of the collection and honestly we have left it alone mostly. Its all sitting in a room by its self and were cleaning out the rest of the house and adding to the pile when we find more knives stashed away in other places of the house. Were done for the day and my father in law's house is a good 25 miles from mine. He passed only a few days ago. Perhaps this thread is a bit premature and a mistake all together.
I was just looking for the help of an enthusiast that was credible in this community that happened to live close.
I was just looking for the help of an enthusiast that was credible in this community that happened to live close.
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I would say look at the names on the boxes. Google a couple of the name to see the quality of the blade and you'll know whether you should index it. If you see names like Zero Tolerance (ZT), Spyderco, Kershaw, Benchmade, Busse, just to name a few - probably worth indexing.
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Wow! A ton of posts, in such a short time, for a new member. 
It almost brings a tear to my eye.
Sorry about your Father-in-law. I lost mine 3 years ago, and I really miss him. Your Father-in-law probably spent a lot of time and money on these knives. The first thing I would do is to figure out if they are flea market knives. Otherwise, take your time. They are still appreciating in their boxes. Go through them gradually. Check to see if they need to be cleaned/oiled. If it is a real collection, these knives may grow on you after a while.
There has already been lots of good advice given, except the ones that want to come to your house to "help you". Your post is going to attract sharks.
I am hoping you will find some good stuff. Let us know.
It almost brings a tear to my eye. Sorry about your Father-in-law. I lost mine 3 years ago, and I really miss him. Your Father-in-law probably spent a lot of time and money on these knives. The first thing I would do is to figure out if they are flea market knives. Otherwise, take your time. They are still appreciating in their boxes. Go through them gradually. Check to see if they need to be cleaned/oiled. If it is a real collection, these knives may grow on you after a while.
There has already been lots of good advice given, except the ones that want to come to your house to "help you". Your post is going to attract sharks.
I am hoping you will find some good stuff. Let us know.
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No one can give him ANY values at his membership level, either correct or incorrect.
Ha! Now Quiet be ME to it.
Yeah I know. It was implied that we advise him get the right membership first.
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