I'm pretty much done buying knives

Status
Not open for further replies.
I look at my knife habit as a hobby. I'm an old guy and have had a lot of hobbies and none of them paid for themselves. When the money spent on a hobby becomes a concern, it's time to find something another one. I just seem to have a need to piss money away on something.
 
It's a tough economy at the moment. Yeah, I've sold a few at a loss. Made some on some others. I do this because I love knives. I also keep probably 80%-90% of what I buy these days. I've kept a few examples of my collecting stages from Benchmade to Spyderco, to ZT to my preferred tier of CRK, Arno Bernard, Koenig and up from there. Oddly enough the knives that could earn the most financial profit are largely to sentimental to ever consider selling, like my lefty Night Sky Sebenza 31. If you can't afford it, yeah it's a good idea to exit. If you've lost your love for it, sure, exit. And enjoy the moments you had.
 
I consider my losses to be the price it cost me to rent the knives for the time that I owned them.

I enjoyed most of them at least for a while and I’m not bothered too much if that comes at a cost.

I also like to consider that if I sell a knife for let’s say $150 at 10:00, I’m $150 richer than I was at 9:59 regardless of how much I paid for it.
 
91bravo said:
Knives ARE a terrible investment, so I don’t buy them for the investment factor. What I do buy them for, is to enjoy them as everyday work and weekend camp tools.

Knives have increased dramatically in price, over the last few years. I can see how that would affect someone just getting into the hobby. On the other side of that coin, guns and ammo haven’t been this cheap in a long time.

Salad days for 2A stuff, and knives cost a fortune. Save this post for future reference, because it’s true.

Hang in there champ, don’t give up on the hobby just yet…
Click to expand...
Except for milsurps. Those are up. I made a good profit on a '42 Mosin Nagant M38 with accessories and a crate of ammo.
 
Railsplitter said:
I consider my losses to be the price it cost me to rent the knives for the time that I owned them.

I enjoyed most of them at least for a while and I’m not bothered too much if that comes at a cost.

I also like to consider that if I sell a knife for let’s say $150 at 10:00, I’m $150 richer than I was at 9:59 regardless of how much I paid for it.
Click to expand...
Agreed.

Chasing the latest "super-steel" is fine, part of the trade / hobby, there's a reason why D2 and 14C28N are still widely used.
 
Last edited:
images


"Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop buying knives"
 
My interest in knives shifted a while back, and now, I don't spend much money at all. I went on the 'bay and bought a few knives that were duplicates of those that I had as a child. The most expensive one was less than 20 bucks, but I get a lot more enjoyment from them than the price would suggest. I sold everything that would sell and I still have a few to give away. My keepers are rather pedestrian tools like Buck, Kabar and Case. My EDC is an Izula 2. I keep it simple, use my tools.
 
As someone coming back to the hobby in recent years, all I can say is that i am very dismayed by the inflation that I've seen, especially in the past few months. I really will not pay more than I think a knife is worth. I'm not sure how much markup there is, but I am sure that a lot of you have been overpaying for quite a long time and have been conditioned to simply accept it. Don't take that as an insult. This isn't me preaching about how others should spend their money, but a statement about how reluctant I am to squander mine (I buy dumb things, too). I do also recognize that the costs to make a knife have gone up, but the most noticeable price increases started before the pandemic. At least, that's when I started noticing.

I haven't even thought about resale value for myself. If times got hard, there are far more instantly sellable items in my possession to part with before I get to the cutlery. I doubt I would break even on any of them, and besides that, they are far more useful in a practical sense than most of the other stuff.
 
edgelion said:
...but I am sure that a lot of you have been overpaying for quite a long time and have been conditioned to simply accept it.
Click to expand...
I think that's a somewhat broad generalization. Many does not equal most...and to be honest, people have been chasing and overpaying for stuff forever...whether tulips, cabbage patch kids, tele-tubbies, whatever.

Many of us here caution our brethren to take a breath and not fall prey to predatory pricing or policies.

But I do agree with you that some cannot seem to rein in their fervor. Whether they are "conditioned" to accept overpaying is open to debate.
 
I'm really not trying to be an asshole here, I promise, but if you're buying a knife (or gun, or car, or Rolex or whatever) with resale value primarily in mind, and then stuff it in a safe never to be seen again rather than getting out and using it, that's your first mistake, and you've chosen a poor monetary investment. Unless it's a Loveless, I just wouldn't bother.

Any man is well within his rights to buy, sell, trade and collect as he pleases, don't get me wrong, but expecting to buy a knife, let it sit in a safe or drawer for a few years and then sell it for what you paid or even more just doesn't make sense unless it's something coveted like a Loveless or hard to get like a Skookum Bushtool, and even then the markup for those isn't what it used to be.

I'm not sure if anyone else feels this way, but when I see a knife up for sale on Ebay that's expensive and 'rare' my first thought is that I'd be a fool to use it, in which case I would rather not even have it.

Again, not trying to be a dick, but I feel like this described knife market recession of sorts is collective karma of some type, the wrath of the Knife Gods descending upon us for our hubris and foolishness, if you'll accept the metaphor. Plus IMO it's about time we had a buyers' market.

Just my $0.02, not coming for anyone, just sharing some thoughts and trying not to be too curmudgeonly about it.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top