I got into traditionals about 4 years ago. I think the photo below is my first 'state of the collection' photo and it's dated almost exactly 4 years ago. I don't have any of those knives anymore.
I was active on several slipjoint FB groups and knives got sold and traded constantly. Prices rarely went over $100. The stag 72 I posted earlier I bought for something like $60.
People were open to trading and selling and some knives would ping pong between several people and often times end up back in the original owner's hands. Somebody would post a picture of a knife for sale and somebody else would comment that they really liked that knife but couldn't afford it so then somebody else would say "I'll put in $10 so xxx can get this knife" and other's would 'dogpile' on and end up buying the person a knife.
Somewhere in there though the knives started being seen as investments. Knives would get bought and not be seen again. It became more and more difficult to get good deals. More new members joined these group and soon there were a ton of people and most of them you didn't know and you'd sell them a knife at the 'buddy price' like we'd been doing and then sometimes somebody would message you to let you know that the knife you sold at a good deal got sold on IG for 2 or 3 times what you sold it for.
I had cycled through so many different patterns and knives back in those days. It's hard to believe it was only 4 years ago. Only 3 years ago I found a small online retailer that had 3 stag and 2 blood red jigged Grinling Whittlers for sale, new in tube, at retail prices. $143.42 for the stags and $115.76 for the red jigged. I bought a few for myself (which I traded or sold for my cost within a year) and messaged some people on the FB group about the others so they could get good deals.
Those days are gone though. GECs used to be a bit of a niche item. Those small runs of patterns are just too much of a hassle for retailers to deal with now. Long time customers get angry if they miss out on a run and get pissy in various ways. Nobody wants to deal with that. So GEC makes the big runs now (and people still don't get enough of some of them).
Popularity and the resultant money that brought in changed the hobby. I used to be able to buy and sell knives for about the same. I'd buy one, sell it and use that money to buy another. It was a balanced thing. Now I can't do that without making a profit off a knife when I sell it because the replacement knife will also cost more. I'm not a good capitalist and I don't enjoy doing that. As a result, my collection has become pretty stagnant. I still buy more knives than the average person, but it's nothing like the old days when every month there would be a bunch of knives coming and going.
I liked the camaraderie of the old days when we were just a bunch of random (guys for the most part, though there were a few ladies in the hobby) that were drawn together by our love of these knives. The profiteers rule the hobby now though.