I really don't understand selling knives...

I know what its like to accumulate, I used to spend much time on the auction site looking for this and that, buying something merely to check them out and see what all the buzz was about. It was fun.

After a while, I noticed more and more this person or that selling off the passed-on fathers or husbands collection. And I started to think, what is the point of that? To collect a bunch of stuff in a closet, the vast majority never used, only to be sold off bit by bit by someone who had no attachment to it? Not for me. I decided I would rather have a few pieces, be it knives or guns or whatever, used by me and cared for, to pass on when my days are up. My wife and children will be able to use and enjoy a few things that I used and enjoyed and they will see the scuffs and marks I made and smile I hope when they think of me. So now I don't buy hardly any, sell some of the ones that I know should go, and try to keep just the ones that have meaning.

My 2 cents, YMMV.
 
The knives in my collection number about 500. They range from Case peanuts and watch fob knives to Beckers, bayonets, and vintage khukris. Even including the factory boxes, sheathes, and locking cabinets they still take up less space than a single redneck "project" car or a prepper's doomsday stash. :D
 
Sometimes, especially when buying online, you get something that doesn't look as appealing to you as when you bought it or doesn't fit your hand well and you decide that if you sell it, you can get something you'd like more.
 
There are artists who can't bear to sell their own work so it just piles up in a room, and then their heirs sell it off or donate it to museums, or you just never hear about them because they never created a market for their work. I knew an Argentine artist like that, who was a friend of Salvidor Dali. I think Cezanne was a bank clerk who sold almost no work during his lifetime. You get attached to your stuff, even when you make it yourself. It's kind of odd, but humans are kind of odd.
 
I've never sold a knife---gave away a few---I have Buck customs--Benchmades--Bark Rivers---Spydies and others(nothing really high end)-------I rarely buy a new knife anymore because everything I have just works.
 
When I bought my first expensive (for me- $400+) knife, got it and realized that now there were a couple more expensive knives I wanted, I seriously questioned what I was thinking! Spending that kind of money on knives I would probably never use seemed a bit nutso. About the same time, there was a guy listing a bunch of knives in the exchange to fund his new woodworking hobby, and a light went on for me- buy whatever I liked and could afford, and if/when the time came when my interests shifted, I could sell some knives to fund it.

I've gotten to experience and enjoy a huge (well, large, at least) variety of knives, learn what I like and don't, what I'll use and won't. When I took up longboarding, I sold a few knives to fund it. I decided to learn bass, and a few knives later I have a new bass and amp. Meanwhile, I've gotten to enjoy some knives that it turned out weren't for me- much more fun than money in the bank! Especially with today's interest rates.
 
Because I'm not a hoarder. I can't stand having stuff lying around that I don't use. I'm also not much of a collector the only knives I actively collect are the annual traditional forum knives.
 
Brisket said:
Some knives I buy are catch & release for personal preference or performance issues and sometimes I feel the need to thin the herd of knives I have lost interest in and haven't used in a long time. Why would I not want to sell those knives?
Click to expand...

Excactly!
 
I only like to keep knives that I will use as there is no value in any material object that is supposed to be a tool. For knives most knives you just need a couple as they will last many years of use. The problem with knives and this forum as a whole is that it hit that tick mark part of the brain that borders on obsession and desire. There are so many different variations to knives that buying and searching and hunting for them becomes fun. I'm personally not a collector so I often times buy something just to have in my hand as I have no place to check out knives near me.

So trading out something that I won't use is just a fun way of handling something and if I decide its not for me it gets sent off to someone else who might like it. It's like trading baseball cards or comic books. A really, really fun time waster that doesn't cost too much money relative to some of the other hobbies that I've had! I remember first discovering paintball as a teen and then in my 20s with my first job I accumulated 10, 15 high end paintball guns. Turns out that no matter what I paid I ended up using only a few of them. With knives it happens to have ended up the same way.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top