I'm starting to wonder... professional knife flippers?

The Logical One

The Logical One

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I'm starting to wonder if there are people out there who's sole profession is to sit there in front of the computer all day checking all the popular vendors/exchange for rare limited mid-tech/custom knives just to buy the knives and then turn around immediately to flip them for a profit. After checking on ebay I noticed several sellers who have a list of highly sought after knives for sale at very inflated prices. Same thing for the exchange where you see people posting up their fresh/mint direware hyper-90 that's probably still warm from the heat treat for a hefty $1500 when they paid $600 for it from the maker.

As frustrating as it is I know there is nothing I can do about these type of things. It just pisses me off that I've been waiting a year for my hyper-90 knowing that a bunch of opportunists probably backed the list up by ordering a bunch to sell at a profit.

Sorry just wanted to vent and rant. :p
 
I'm sure there are some that do, but most likely it's unscrupulous dealers/distributors, or employees of dealers who buy the knives and sell them for profit over and above their normal sales of knives. If for some reason they can't sell the knives at a huge profit on ebay or one of the other online market places, they can still sell them in the normal storefront for the normal amount of profit.
 
Naw, it's probably a hobby. Flipping knives is much easier than flipping houses or cars for example. :)
 
Like the guys that win a lottery and purchase it at the maker's cost and turn around and make a huge profit? Of course there are many who do that.
 
I'm a professional knife flipper myself. But I just flip knives open and closed all day.

It doesn't pay much.
 
With enough reserve of cash you could easily make a living do this it seams.

If you just sell one knife for 200 dollars more than you paid a day, you are doing decently. All that work would take you all of but 20 minutes. The hardest part would be trying to find open books & keep organized emails with the hundreds of knifes you have on order from makers.

Working at a dealer, and selling them thru email anomalously seems like it could be easy money for the owner as well.

The entire situation is gross.
 
I was hoping this thread was about flipping your folder open. Fastest flip, most flips per minute, flipping until your finger bleeds, most inappropriate flip, etc.
 
I think the toughest part would be getting a high enough volume of knives. I can see easily flipping a Direware for a profit, but flipping enough to generate a respectable income would be tough. Even if they were pulling in $900/knife profit like your example, flipping one knife per week would still be under $50k/year. I think CJZ got it right, more of a hobby than anything else.
 
Man, if I could only make a profit once in a while, I wouldn't have to sell my blood. I love these knives, but I usually take at least a 10% loss when I resell them as new. I don't carry them; I just look at them; the Zaan or Sebbie is my only carry.
 
RedLynx said:
I'm a professional knife flipper myself. But I just flip knives open and closed all day.

It doesn't pay much.
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Sure it does, you must be doing it wrong, you have to do it in a bank with a black mask on, the tellers will throw bags of money at you, for some reason their ink pens always seem to get in the bags and explode and make a huge mess. Oh well, still a good pay day for getting to play with knives all day.
 
As a free market capitalist defender, I feel the same way about knife flippers as I do about ticket scalpers.
 
I was hoping this was about knife twirlers or something.

I think this issue is an emergent phenomenon that comes about with a certain set of circumstances (small supply, strong demand, a few enterprising folks with the funds to buy up stock). It reminds me of the situation with Randalls, with a multi-year waiting list & a few vendors ordering up most of their stock. Its bound to happen given the circumstances.
 
If they did it regularly, they'd be dealers. There are plenty of dealers who roll into a knife show with a large posse so they can get in a lottery several times and then immediately post all your wins on your website with a hefty markup.

I don't mind paying a small premium over table price if the piece is really hard to find but certainly not 50% more. Just as little something for the time and effort of going to the show and securing the piece.

But if you go on a website (true north knives for example) and but a knife (shirogorov mod 95 for example) only to post out on the exchange 2hrs after you receive it for $200 more than what you paid, then no way.

Being on someone's lousy or picking something up at a show is completely different than just buying stuff off a website because anybody can do that. There's no added time and effort I am willing to pay you a premium for.
 
I have seen it a couple times across various forums. Someone buys a desirable knife at a relatively good price, then reposts it for a profit the second they get it. It was so darn obvious too. I can't remember if they would post on a different forum or on the same one (which must be terribly insulting to the first owner), but it was clear that it was the same knife. I'd imagine it's even easier on ebay.

Like everyone else is saying, I don't think it's enough for a livable income. I think the markup was like 50 bucks or so. But it works because for rare and discontinued knives, people will pay. It just sucks for me because it kinda hikes up the perceived value of the knives I want to levels I just will not pay for.
 
CJZ said:
Naw, it's probably a hobby. Flipping knives is much easier than flipping houses or cars for example. :)
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Yes some people also just like to try out the latest and greatest knives then sell them to fund the next ones.Not my thing but I know it happens.
 
Scurvy092 said:
If they did it regularly, they'd be dealers. There are plenty of dealers who roll into a knife show with a large posse so they can get in a lottery several times and then immediately post all your wins on your website with a hefty markup.

I don't mind paying a small premium over table price if the piece is really hard to find but certainly not 50% more. Just as little something for the time and effort of going to the show and securing the piece.

But if you go on a website (true north knives for example) and but a knife (shirogorov mod 95 for example) only to post out on the exchange 2hrs after you receive it for $200 more than what you paid, then no way.

Being on someone's lousy or picking something up at a show is completely different than just buying stuff off a website because anybody can do that. There's no added time and effort I am willing to pay you a premium for.
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I saw that very post last night.
 
The main problem would be the inconsistency of available good deals. Also, the market for knives you could make a good margin on is relatively low. Let's say I find a $300 knife for $200. That's a relatively rare deal - partly because people in that price range know what they are worth.

Customs, midtech, and limited editions are both too scarce and too volatile to make a living off of flipping. You might average $300 a week, but at somewhat high risk (lemons, maker steps up production and dilutes value, loss in shipping) that makes it quite a gamble. You lose one $1000 knife in the mail and you're set back a month or so in profits.

Additionally, if you made a lot over a year, hello taxes! Mr. Unemployed knife flipper here is about to get hit with some ridiculous taxes.

Given how competitive the market is just for collectors and users, I doubt a dedicated flipper would have enough opportunities to get good deals to make a decent living.
 
If I buy a knife legally, I can sell it to a willing buyer at an agreed upon price. It's no one else's business.
 
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