Knives that retain value .

[josh yu]

buy limited editions of well established makers, and never use them.

but where's the fun in that...

 

[whp]

Of course you can. Some guy here right now, selling knives for $150 could be the next Scagel or Loveless. You might pick the right guy, but you probably wont.

I collect a few knives, but I know that I can t make money on them. Their value to me is in taking them out of storage and looking at them once and a while. Their value is my appreciation of them. I know I can make more money working a few hours of overtime then trying to buy and sell knives. The only collection that has worked for me has involved the stock market!! (Did I hijack the thread? Sorry guys.)
Trying to make money collecting knives is like buying a metal detector and walking it up and down the beach. An appealing concept but not likely to happen.

 

[jbmonkey]

rare and popluar ones that arent used or touched with box and papers etc. that said youd could do likely do far better in the stock market.

an extreme example.......

imagine someone who bought 1000 bucks worth of the best maker brand model etc 20 years ago. vs. someone who bought 1000 bucks worth of amazon stock 20 years ago. in 1997 its stock was 18 bucks a share now around a thousand a share. so a $54k+ profit...vs. any knife made in 1997. whats it worth today......no where near that much.

 

[fjblair]

I hope my Benchmade Spike from the 90's has some pop.

 

[T. Erdelyi]

There's a guy on tv, I saw him this mornin'. He was selling a dealer's box-0-blades.Worth $1800 retail and he was lettin' 'em all go for a hair under $2 a piece when you bought the boxlot. Now I'm no math genius and my math could way off nut isn't that like 1000% return o investment? Those guys must be gettin' filthy on those late night knife deals on tc.

 

[timdennis]

One time had a lot of butterfly/balisong knives-like a hundred. Ranging from Filipino ones to Pacific Cutlery, BM, Japanese and oddities. Sold off the majority. Didn't really lose any money on them but if I waited could have made more. However, many were sold to people here and other serious butterfly people so was happy to have sold them.

 

[sharp_edge]

Just curious when people say they sold a knife that tripled the purchase price of it 15 years ago (and hence made 200% profit), do they take into consideration the inflation?

For me, I think I lost about 25% selling my knives in the past year or so, most of which have barely been used by me. Of course I include here the costs of PayPal fees, shipping, and insurance when selling them. A Sebenza is perhaps the only one that I made even on while a Kizer is the one that I lost the most on %-wise (even if I bought it brand new from a dealer at an already discounted price).

 

[maximus83]

I know there are pro collectors, who buy rare editions of things, and make money. But....my general experience and what I do: I don't buy guns and knives expecting them to appreciate, or even to retain their value. I just get stuff to use and enjoy. If I sell it, I assume that if got a quality item and took care of it, I'll get some decent but reduced value for it. I have found that to consistently be the case with every gun or knife I've ever sold.

Recent example: I bought a factory Remington 700 rifle, left hand. Nicely customized it. Stock. Aftermarket trigger. Etc. All quality aftermarket parts like a Timney trigger that you can install yourself. All told, had about $1500 in the rifle and it was 'better than factory', and far less than you could buy a similarly equipped custom for, and I had target to prove that it shot very accurately sub-MOA groups with factory ammo. Did any of this matter? No. Because I took a FACTORY gun, originally worth about $600, and customized it. I didn't get nearly out of it what I had put into it, even though it was a very nice, semi-custom factory rifle.

Another recent example: a family friend with a very large estate, a prolific collector of many nice firearms worth over $300,000 total, recently had a big estate sale, selling off most of his stuff. He had very high-end Italian shotguns, custom 1911's by Wilson Combat and all the big makers, etc. In general, he was getting in the neighborhood of 50% to 70% on each of these firearms. He was stunned and told my Dad he was really shocked by that. I wasn't, though I felt bad for him.

I think knives are similar. Unless you are some kind of rare vintage collector that truly knows your business and how to get a special item that appreciates in value (like some special edition by a high-end maker, or a rare historical artifact), it ain't worth getting knives and guns thinking they will appreciate or hold value. Get 'em to use and enjoy, but assume once the money is spent, it's spent and you'll get quite a bit less when you re-sell. Just me, YMMV.

 

[severtecher]

My 2cents. Buy big name makers you like. Enjoy them while you have them.
I sold about $7000 worth of customs after my motorcycle wreck. I made about 15% profit after selling them all. I was happy I didn't lose money. I'd buy back half of them if i could.

 

[CrazyCaucasian]

The knives that hold their value are the ones that someone else owns. The ones that don't hold their value are the ones that I own.

I feel this will be the most on point thing I'll read for a long time...

Give me a piece of obsidian and I'll be happier with it than a 15k+ knife that's for sure!!! Just a solid piece of obsidian. I'll knap it myself lol That will retain it's sentimental value.

 

[22-rimfire]

For about 25yrs I collected limited edition Case knives and even a few sprint type Spydies.
Bought them all on clearance online or from stores that were going out of business. There were a lot of those in the 80's around Dallas.
Made good money actually. I never did worse than break even on a knife. Many tripled and even a few couple quadrupled in value. Keep in mind, I kept most of these knives 20-25 years before selling.

It's still a crap shoot.

It is and I would only buy knives that you want without any thought of future value. Holding 20-25 years.... that is a long time. Inflation on knives made by popular custom knife makers should keep you about even, but about even is not making money nor is it an investment. It's a hobby. It's a money pit... pour money in and little to nothing comes back out.

 

[rschuch]

GEC slipjoints seem to be holding their value, even increasing their value as time goes on. I wish I had kept the ones I had!