may I ask about knife dealers?

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sonofaghost

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I'm not sure if I should get the gold membership so I can ask about individual knife values or just ask for referrals of reputable knife dealers in the Boston area & lower Westchester, NY

while I have an interest in knives, it was a passion of my Dad's. at almost 95 he recently passed away & now I'm trying to help the family. I don't know if using the forum will be too time consuming, so maybe visiting a dealer in person would be better for us. we have probably 200-300 knives to deal with

any thoughts?

thank you in advance ;-)
 
This forum is an amazing resource chock-full of some of the most knowledgeable knife people in the known universe. But yes, just because of the way it works, finding values for 200-300 knives when you don’t know much about them will take a lot of time and a lot of effort on your part.

If you’re not willing to do that, you could always list them as lots of knives for sale on here. You probably won’t get the most value out of each knife that way, but maybe the time and energy savings are worth it for you.

Sorry for the loss of your father.

-Mike
 
I don't think a membership here is all that expensive.
Maybe go to a reputable dealer and you will get some information about what you have.
Depending on the time frame and effort you want to go through you can decide if a dealer is the best bang for the buck or selling yourself, here or elsewhere.
 
Welcome to Bladeforums.

Even if there is a "reputable" knife dealer or appraiser in your area, I wouldn't assume that they are going to agree to go through hundreds of knives, spend the time to research them, and provide a dollar value of each one, all for free. They might very well charge you a lot more than the cost of a Gold membership here. Appraisers in particular charge a fee for what they do, they don't work for free.

One suggestion I would make is, take some group pictures of the collection, like maybe 10 to 15 knives per pic, post them here, and the membership here can tell you what type of collection your father had, and recommended a course of action, all without discussing dollar values and without you having to purchase a membership. That could save you a lot of time, and perhaps some money, especially if it's a collection of Home Shopping Channel knives.
 
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killgar said:
Welcome to Bladeforums.

Even if there is a "reputable" knife dealer or appraiser in your area, I wouldn't assume that they are going to agree to go through hundreds of knives, spend the time to research them, and provide a dollar value, all for free. They might very well charge you a lot more than a Gold membership here.

One suggestion I would make is, take some group pictures of the collection, like maybe 10 to 15 knives per pic, post them here, and the membership here can tell you what type of collection your father had, and recommended a course of action, all without discussing dollar values and without you having to purchase a membership. That could save you a lot of time, and perhaps some money, especially if it's a collection of Home Shopping Channel knives.
Click to expand...

This is the way to go. A membership is only 30 bucks to get infos from several sources. And who knows maybe you will also get the bug and start collecting knives too !
 
Condolences for your father.

Knowledge about the market value of anything usually takes a lot of time and effort. If you don't have a passion for learning about knives, maybe a dealer is your best bet. You might want to do a few searches similar to "Who Buys Knife Collections" for some rudimentary guidance first. There is a lot of information out there to that effect.
 
I believe you are going to have to do enough work to determine if you have wheat or chaff. There could be all valuable knives in there , well worth the effort, or just a bunch of junk and China reproductions. People collect on all levels. Using a image hosting site (if you don't want to pony up the $35)you can put up some photos asking what you have, but not values. You can proceed from there, to sell, with possibly a consignment dealer.
 
Just using the internet as a resource, I'd separate the obvious junk stuff and knives that have some makers marks or other identification into groups.
Also, since you knew your grandfather better than us, are the better knives likely to be real and higher dollar or maybe some reproductions?
We also don't know how much value you place on your time. Using your own estimate of 200-300 knives and an average of $50 per knife (unless it's mostly lower end junk) your talking about $10,000-15,000, so again, I'd make the small investment for a membership here to help make this process a lot easier for you.
Middle value ($50-200) to upper end knives sold here will net you a lot more than a bulk sale to any dealer. I'd take the lower end stuff and maybe sell those in bulk as they represent a lot more time per dollar than one or two of the potentially higher end stuff.
 
If you want mostly unbiased / non-financially motivated opinions, I think you'll do best to pony up the money and get a gold membership so that you can solicit the wisdom of the community here. This will save you a great deal of time in regard to trying to determine what is wheat and what is chaff.

Then you can decide what to sell here, what you might want to use a third party purveyor for...and what to hold on to as keepsakes.

(I have no financial interest in this site and derive no income from it. I am strictly a volunteer insofar as my duties are concerned. So my advice carries no monetary self-interest.)
 
And did he keep boxes for some of the knives? Most collectors nowadays keep the original box, especially for nicer knives, in case he wanted to trade or resell them. They add to the value, just like toys or any other collectible.

But given his age, saving boxes wasn't a thing years ago. But if he did save a few boxes, you may not know what knife belongs in which box. We could help with that.
 
killgar said:
Welcome to Bladeforums.

Even if there is a "reputable" knife dealer or appraiser in your area, I wouldn't assume that they are going to agree to go through hundreds of knives, spend the time to research them, and provide a dollar value of each one, all for free. They might very well charge you a lot more than the cost of a Gold membership here. Appraisers in particular charge a fee for what they do, they don't work for free.

One suggestion I would make is, take some group pictures of the collection, like maybe 10 to 15 knives per pic, post them here, and the membership here can tell you what type of collection your father had, and recommended a course of action, all without discussing dollar values and without you having to purchase a membership. That could save you a lot of time, and perhaps some money, especially if it's a collection of Home Shopping Channel knives.
Click to expand...
This is the way. Take some pictures of knives, no need to do it for each one, just put them all on the floor and take picture of 10-20 at a time. Then we can identify what and how many knives you have and whether it would be best to sell them all in bulk batches, sell them one at a time, consign them, or just recycle them.
 
Locutus D'Borg said:
And did he keep boxes for some of the knives? Most collectors nowadays keep the original box, especially for nicer knives, in case he wanted to trade or resell them. They add to the value, just like toys or any other collectible.

But given his age, saving boxes wasn't a thing years ago. But if he did save a few boxes, you may not know what knife belongs in which box. We could help with that.
Click to expand...
yes we have boxes
 
A dealer? No, absolutely not. They are in the business of selling knives, not identifying them. If a dealer were to identify some potentially valuable merchandise among your collection, you'll be offered pennies on the dollar if you don't have any idea what you have.
Same goes for asking on the internet. Don't entertain any offers until things are properly identified. There are unscrupulous people out there who troll the forums looking to scoop up stuff cheap before the owner knows better.
Post good, clear high resolution pictures that can be enlarged to look closer at details.
 
timos- said:
If you are in central MA area you might want to check out a knife collectors show in MArlboro coming up soon 9/11
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tempting, that's near me. I may be out of town helping the Mom, but if not, is it this one?

Marlborough Knife Show, Sep 11th, 2022
Holiday Inn & Suites Marlborough
265 Lakeside Ave
Marlborough, MA 01752

Marlborough Knife Show 2023 Marlborough, MA

Marlborough Knife Show - Holiday Inn & Suites Marlborough in Marlborough, MA. For more information call the Marlborough Knife Show at (978) 249-6070 or vist us at http://www.ncca.info.
www.igunshows.com
 
You're in my area. Keep in mind PayPal will report any goods sold over $600 to the IRS. Depending how you plan to sell the collection, you could be on the hook for taxable income vs inheritance. If he had a will, or if your Mom is his legal widow, or there are other siblings involved, you might consider getting the knife collection (and anything else of value) appraised before liquidating. Sorry for your loss.
 
The Gun & Knife Show that used to be held every year at the Westchester Community Center in White Plains
was banned in 2018 and has not returned. There is one gun shop (LEO oriented) in Elmsford that "might" carry
some knives, not sure. Apart from the usual Dick's Sporting Goods, Walmart type plastic bubble
packaged usual brands, can;t think of anyplace left to actually go see outddor/folding knives in lower Westchester.
But as others have correctly pointed out, individual knife dealers will never be able to give you the identication accross the board
of various makers and values as BladeForums. The combined expertise here is enormous.
 
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