Knife Appreciation

Triton

Triton

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Aug 8, 2000
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There's appreciation of knives and then there's appreciation of knives!

No, I'm not talking about appreciating knives from the standpoint of admiring them, from the viewpoint of this place that's neither unique nor particularly noteworthy. If you don't appreciate knives in that sense what the heck are you doing here?

I'm talking about from an appreciation of knives from investment standpoint. We all know about the silly appreciation that occurs when one is buying a "lotto knife" from that hot flavor of the month maker. People go on diatribes against "flippers" and profess anger that anyone would want to make a profit to the detriment of their "brothers" in the knife community. (Sour grapes in my opinion) We also all know about the heavy duty knife investment types the guys that buy the multi-thousand dollar art daggers or the Scagels or the Randalls or the Loveless knives. There are people that even make a living doing that (although oddly they aren't classed as "flippers" I guess once you get beyond a certain price point that moniker no longer applies.)

However, today I saw something in knife appreciation that I hadn't thought of before. I have carried a Benchmade Mini-Rukus for the last 6-8 years. It's been in my pocket nearly every day. It holds a great edge, I like the ergonomics and love the axis lock. Today I thought I had lost the darned thing. I was aggravated beyond belief and looked everywhere. No luck. I wondered what it would cost to replace it so I hopped on that evil empire of auction sites to take a look. To my shock if I wanted to purchase a knife identical to the one that I lost I would have to pony up around 500 dollars. Wow! I paid 180 dollars from a brick and mortar store here in Tritonville somewhere between 6 and 8 years ago. I know at the time I could have purchased the knife for less but I thought that there was some benefit to supporting the local guy. By my simple math calculations that means that the knife has appreciated to the tune of 2.7 times it's original value. Not mine of course, mine would go for less because it has been carried, but if I had purchased it and tossed it in the safe I could have almost tripled by money by now. That makes me wish I would have purchased about a dozen of them and tossed them in the safe!

What about you? How much has your edc appreciated? I wondering if I need to get out of the stock market and invest exclusively in guns and knives at this point!

Oh yeah... and I found my knife.
 
Nope. I pretty much require my investments appreciate at a level that knives simply can't be guaranteed to match. Add in that a huge amount of my enjoyment of the hobby is carrying and using blades and I simply don't pay much attention to appreciation from a price perspective.

Knives are also much more awkward to liquidate than other investments and almost require a discontinuation for them to really pull the kind of price that would even begin to justify buying one simply to sell it later.
 
I hear you, this one is probably an outlier but tripling your money in less than 10 years, if it could be guaranteed... :)
 
b00n said:
Keep in mind that Bay prices don't mean anything UNLESS it sold for the price. I can advertise my PM2 there for a 1000$, that doesn't make it worth 1000$ until somebody buys it for that.
Click to expand...

Absolutely right of course.
 
The value of my knife and the investment I made is directly proportional to the need and lack of a suitable cuttin' implement at the time I bought it vs the time I need to use and whether or not I have it with me then.

If you're seriously lookin' to invest in knives I think you'll get a higher return on vintage knives more consistently than you can on any new comer to the culture. I call it a culture because only from that perspective does buying a tool or tools and expect to sell them later at a substantial profit. The tangible value is in what a person can do with a tool, the tool by itself is only worth what one will pay for it. Any intrinsic value can only truly be recognized in the hands of someone who can use it for what it's meant to be used. I wouldn't bet my future fortune on that precept.

That bein' said I've found a few gems and made a decent profit on the 2 pieces I sold I doubled my money over 10 years, I paid $19.99 at a place that bought out a Sporting Goods store. It sat for 10 years on a shelf in my home and every once in awhile I'd throw it up on eBay with a reserve, finally after 10 years I got $120. At that rate I'll never get rich, YMMV though.
 
Sometimes, you can get a hot one...like the very few "perfect" PM2's in Maxamet that exist out here. But most of the time, it's just a gamble. I guess over the last yrs, I've probably averaged a 15%-25% loss on any money I've put into knives. Of course, I like knives a bit more than money, so I'm not complaining...the price of the game.
 
Most of my knives are still in production and don't cost much more than they did when I bought them.

The only knife I have that fits this bill would be my Victorinox pocket pal.
I bought it at the local hardware store about a year and a half ago for $15 when I finally got tired of seeing it on the rack for years.
I just looked it up and there's one available on Amazon for $65.
Does this mean the pocket pal has really quadrupled in value, or is this just one person selling them really high ?

I'll bet there's more than a few small town hardware and sporting goods stores around the country that still have some on the rack for under $20.
I personally don't think they've gone up that much, but what do I know.
 
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Dr. James Lucie got in on the ground floor collecting William Scagel knives. He authored a book using his Scagel knives for the illustrations. The collection sold for more than $800,000. I suspect his investment was worthwhile.
He is also a bladesmith and makes impressive Scagel copies.
 
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