I'm thinking about selling off most of my collection

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I did it already over the last year. I accumulated almost 70 nice knives in the years leading up to about a year ago when I started to close my eyes and force myself to do it. In the end, it was a relief and I survived. I'm down to one dozen knives now. Knives that I carry except for a few duplicates of my favorite knives.

Another thing that was liberating about doing the sell off was that so many nice new offerings are coming out by the month and I have a lot less guilt and in fact, a lot of anticipation in receiving all the newer knives I get on the preorder lists. It's fun, exciting and honestly, I think the MFG's and makers are coming out with better knives and more interesting knives today than most grails from the past.

Now all I do is react when I see a special knife and I buy it and I also do preorders for upcoming knives that appear to be something I would like, often buying duplicates of the ones I think I will likely keep. If I don't care for them after I handle them I sell them almost immediately and just wait for the next new knives. And the waits are not long anymore.


I say go for it if you are getting that itch. Like me, I'm confident you may feel the same sense of liberation from all the knives of the recent and far past you own but never use.


Even though there are some well regarded knives of the far and recent past, today's knives and steels are just getting better and better IMHO . . .
 
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Same thing here. I'm soon going to be selling them by the bushell on the exchange, as I just don't use or carry many of them.
 
bld522 said:
I'm primarily a fixed-blade knife collector. The fact that I don't use my knives doesn't bother me at all. What has bothered me is the fact that I really didn't have an effective way to display my knives. So I ended up storing them in drawers. Then I saw a stand on Knives Live that appeared to be perfect for displaying fixed-blade knives. I ordered a few of them and set my knives up where I could see them. Doing that has rekindled my interest in collecting. Perhaps it could do the same thing for you.

Here's a link to the product:

http://www.eknifeworks.com/webapp/eCommerce/product.jsp?range=21&Mode=Cat&Cat=163&SKU=MI110

PS: They're temporarily out of stock at the moment. :(
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I think this is a great point; don't we often hear a poster complaining about only getting to see their knives once in a while when they open their safe, or worse when they pull out 'the shoebox'!

Rotating a dozen or so knives as display pieces (I think smkw has some wall hanger-picture frame type displays) would probably 'justify' the collection and keep pride of ownership high. Think Bruce Wayne

You will also realize that it's a lot cheaper than buying 'real artwork' to decorate walls. :)

BTW, don't forget to insure those high 4 and 5 figure collections!
 
JTR357,

I think it depends on if you've been accumulating or a collecting.

If you've been accumulating, by all means thin the herd.

If you've been collecting interesting knives...well that's for you to decide.

It's like ending a relationship--sometimes you don't know what you miss until it's gone.:D

Best,

heekma
 
babakanoosh45 said:
I purge the collection every now & then. Usually off a half dozen and pick up one new one.;)
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thats what I do

as I have progressed in my collecting, I have been moving up in price/quality

first had a bunch of cheap chinese ones, then saved up for some taylor cutlery ones, then i sold those to get into spydercos and benchmades, now selling many of those for others
 
silenthunterstudios said:
Cutting down on impulse buys helped a lot too ;).
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This was killing me. I'd watch a review a couple times and read that a member or two, say they liked theirs and bingo I had to have it.

Thanks goodness those day are over, I'd rather have one superb knife in a year than the knife of the month favorite.

I'm buying far less knives now and they're knives I never dreamed I'd own. All those $100 bill blades add up to some nice $4 or $500 treasures. :)
 
heekma said:
JTR357,

I think it depends on if you've been accumulating or a collecting.

If you've been accumulating, by all means thin the herd.

If you've been collecting interesting knives...well that's for you to decide.
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I agree with this thought.

My perspective is, you buy a knife either to use or to display. If those knives are sitting away in a safe or a case and not being used or seen, then you can get rid of them and probably not miss them too much.
 
I have such thoughts every once in a while but I'm mainly trying to sell of all of my paperweight knives to fund other higher end knives. At this point in my life I'd rather have say one Sebenza then 2 nice Spydercos/Benchmades/Kershaws... However I am not selling them to get rid of them, I'm selling them to fund other knives so I'm not at the point where I'm tired of knives. If I am honest with myself I only EDC about 6-7 of my knives however I'm not ready to offload all of the other knives I have laying around. Just the ones that I have duplicates of or am not too enamored with. Right now my EDC rotation looks something like this usually.

~Small Classic micarta inlay Sebenza
~Burger EXK1
~Spyderco Sage 2
~Buck TNT
~IKBS (Brad Southard) JYD II w/ STR lowrider clip
~Wilkins Mini Ritter
I have a Burke Production Rockstar that I got for an unbelievably low price coming early next week that I hope makes it into the rotation as well.

I've got others that I use in the evenings and on the weekends when I like a little bit bigger beefier folder because I do a lot of hiking, biking and camping but truth be told I would be 100% content in using those listed folders for the rest of my life.... I'd go into more detail however I gotta go make sure I'm not missing any killer deals on the exchange. ;)
 
I've sold some of my knives. I'm still not sure what to do with Kershaw JYD 2 Composite as it doesn't see that much action these days nor my ZT 0500 MUDD, Buck Vantage Pro and Spyderco Delica 4 FFG are in same boat. ZT 0500 is currently on my hike back as back up folder but I traded Caly 3 for M4 Mini Ritter-Griptitlian that might fill its place.

These days its mostly carried:
Benchmade 940
Spyderco UKPK
Spyderco Urban

SAK's or traditional slippies. This just means I've found the knife type I like most.
 
I can relate. I went over board.
The keepers are: SnG, HD7 and my Haney Renegade. The rest will go.
 
Something similar I call it consolidation. I've only got 3 knives right now and am only looking to buy 3 models nothing else. I only want to buy because the ones I'm looking for have been discoed and their all I use or want. Now don't get me wrong if I run across a bunch of any of those models I'm buying what I can afford for backups. I think a dozen or so is about right.
 
I actually just did this. I'm not a collector so I dont see the point of having more knives than I can use. I am now down to:
EDC: 2 Opinel #8's(I'm sooo lovin these), a Spyderco Tenacious and Endura 4
Fixed: BRKT Bravo-1 and Gunny, Swamprat HRLM and a Ranger RD-6
Anything more is just useless, to me anyway.
 
typically I only have one knife that I carry, and the rest are never used. I try not to have more than a few knives at once though.
 
Last night I was looking over the collection and I was thinking something similar. I was thinking about dwindling my collection down to certain custom makers and certain production models and getting rid of everything in between. Then I snapped out of it and remembered that I'm not insane. :D I just can't do it. From time to time I'll go through and grab some things that just don't belong and sell them off.
 
Reeek said:
I did it already over the last year. I accumulated almost 70 nice knives in the years leading up to about a year ago when I started to close my eyes and force myself to do it. In the end, it was a relief and I survived. I'm down to one dozen knives now. Knives that I carry except for a few duplicates of my favorite knives.

Another thing that was liberating about doing the sell off was that so many nice new offerings are coming out by the month and I have a lot less guilt and in fact, a lot of anticipation in receiving all the newer knives I get on the preorder lists. It's fun, exciting and honestly, I think the MFG's and makers are coming out with better knives and more interesting knives today than most grails from the past.

Now all I do is react when I see a special knife and I buy it and I also do preorders for upcoming knives that appear to be something I would like, often buying duplicates of the ones I think I will likely keep. If I don't care for them after I handle them I sell them almost immediately and just wait for the next new knives. And the waits are not long anymore.


I say go for it if you are getting that itch. Like me, I'm confident you may feel the same sense of liberation from all the knives of the recent and far past you own but never use.


Even though there are some well regarded knives of the far and recent past, today's knives and steels are just getting better and better IMHO . . .
Click to expand...


I'd like to do get mine down to one dozen too.:thumbup:

I'm not going to stop collecting/acquiring knives.I'm just in a dry spell,as in there's nothing out there I really want.I feel content with what I have for now.
 
i've acquired about 30 fixed and folders all together right now, and i can honestly say i'm done purchasing any more; i'm satisfied with the variety i've got, and what i've got will last me my lifetime...

no intention on selling anything either...i didn't buy them to show off or play with; i will use, abuse, and hopefully not lose the great knives that i own...
 
I have only a handful of true "keepers" that I want to keep either as collectables or EDC knives. The rest are trade fodder. IMO they are just currency to fund the acquisition of new, interesting knives when cash isn't readily available. And there are always new and interesting knives coming soon :D
 
I sold most of my collection this summer, although it was small collection compared to most members here. I'm down to the cheapies now..
a BM/HK14210, Kershaw JYD, and will have a Kershaw Ram in a couple of weeks. The PT's, SnG's and Sebe's were all fantastic knives but I could never get myself to EDC them on a steady basis, except around the house. I'm in construction so I always worried about losing them, and when I needed fast cash to fund another hobby these were always the first to go.
While I don't have the pride of ownership I had with the CRK's and Striders these less expensive blades do everything my higher end knives did.
I can't say that I will never get another expensive blade...I do miss my small micarta Sebe, but for today I'm satisfied with the knives I got.

Dave
 
If don't use it or if it doesn't pass the apple test I sell it. I try to keep the collection low so that I'll use them and none turn into shelf queens. I agree about the fixed blade piece, I sold my last two Busse's and ordered a McNees MCKI which will be my only fixed blade.
Now I'm just grabbing a few folders that I'll rotate - Spyderco Gayle Bradley and PPT, Sebenza, SnG, and I've contacted Yuna and Darrel Ralph for knives. I hope that'll do it :D
 
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