Moran on the bay

Joe,

Congratulations on what I think is a special knife on many levels.

Gus
 
As this is a very innovative design from Mr. Moran, it's going to be liked by some and disliked by some.

Regardless, you acquired it at a good price.
 
The major congratulations is that you got the knife. The seller has a rating of "8" and the prior 7 rating "points" were all due to him buying something. So the first thing he sells is a 9200$ Moran. Good deal.
 
Wanna know the REAL funny part? He may have made a profit of $9180 minus what his trip to Reno cost him. I'm not really sure if he was the raffle winner, but there is a pretty good chance that he was. I asked, but didn't get an answer. But you are correct. With what some older Morans have sold for on purveyor websites and Ebay since Bill's death, this one was a bit below market at a minimum. I saw a pretty nice old Lime Kiln hunter go for $6K on ebay a while back and a couple of relatively plain ST23's go for $10k and $12k. I don't EVEN want to talk about what that fellow paid for the ABS Board knife at Blade......lol. That will continue to be crazy because Jerry Fisk has agreed to take over forging the blade. As they say in Britain, the King is dead......long live the King.
 
Kevin Jones said:
As this is a very innovative design from Mr. Moran, it's going to be liked by some and disliked by some.

Regardless, you acquired it at a good price.
Click to expand...
Mr. Bill was still doing some pretty funky stuff right up until the end. He did a number of those L6 integrals fairly late in his career and the pierced heart guards on the bowies and ST24's were a cool little design twist. He had one of the "heart' knives with him at Blade '05. I was impressed. That wire "embossing" technique he used on his leather covered wood sheaths was a neat trick too.
:thumbup: He actually called my knife a hunter and it has his Featherweight handle on it, but with that blade shape, I'm not sure what you would hunt with it, unless it was an Al Quaeda guy in some bazaar in Peshwar!!!
 
jdm61 said:
Wanna know the REAL funny part? He may have made a profit of $9180 minus what his trip to Reno cost him. I'm not really sure if he was the raffle winner, but there is a pretty good chance that he was. I asked, but didn't get an answer. But you are correct. With what some older Morans have sold for on purveyor websites and Ebay since Bill's death, this one was a bit below market at a minimum. I saw a pretty nice old Lime Kiln hunter go for $6K on ebay a while back and a couple of relatively plain ST23's go for $10k and $12k. I don't EVEN want to talk about what that fellow paid for the ABS Board knife at Blade......lol. That will continue to be crazy because Jerry Fisk has agreed to take over forging the blade. As they say in Britain, the King is dead......long live the King.
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You bought a well advertised collectible item from a public auction at a price no one else wanted to pay, I think you paid the current market price. Circumstances may change in the market drive that price higher or lower. The buyer of the rather stunning ABS board knife did the same, also with the knowledge that alot of the money raised went back into the society. Why do you think you did better? and why disparage someone elses purchase?

Stephen
 
Not disparaging anyone, my man. I was talking with Burt Gaston and B.R. Hughes about that Board knife project at the fall '05 Piney Woods Hammer-In (Burt had brought his own ST23 so that the other guys could handle it and get a feel for how the guard and handle should look and feel, and I got to fondle it a bit along with my knife) and my wild a** guess at what that knife would go for was $30-35k. Actually SEEING it go for as much as it did caused some sticker shock.....lol. Especially after that GORGEOUS bowie went for around $12k in '05. But then again, it was the last damascus blade that Mr. Bill finished and it was a stunner!! As for who did "better", i think i can safely say that we are both happy campers. What surprised me about my knife was that there were no bids the first round and scant few the second. The same thing happened when I bid on my Hudson hunter, my Tomes integral and my Walker bowie. Whereas on the two Jay Hendrickson hunters i bid on (won one, lost one by ambush bid and slow air card connection...lol) both went for pretty close to what Jay would charge you for one today. I guess when something comes up on here or one of the other forums or one of the purveyor's sites, you have a pretty big built in audience, whereas on Ebay, it is a question of finding the knives listed. You have to be actively looking for them. I had been looking for Morans on Ebay for a while and lost an auction on one a few months ago. But a person can just accidentally stumble onto some very cool stuff on here quite often....lol
 
fracmeister said:
The major congratulations is that you got the knife. The seller has a rating of "8" and the prior 7 rating "points" were all due to him buying something. So the first thing he sells is a 9200$ Moran. Good deal.
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Joe, sounds like you buy quite a few knives on eBay. Have you ever had any problems finalizing the purchase? :confused:

The few times I have bid for knives on eBay, I got multiple "BOGAS" second chance offers from people claiming to own the knife using very authentic looking documents. Always claiming the purchaser back out for one reason or another.
 
Kevin Jones said:
Joe, sounds like you buy quite a few knives on eBay. Have you ever had any problems finalizing the purchase? :confused:

The few times I have bid for knives on eBay, I got multiple "BOGAS" second chance offers from people claiming to own the knife using very authentic looking documents. Always claiming the purchaser back out for one reason or another.
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i have actually bought more music equipment that knives on Ebay and yes, I have gotten a few of those. I got one on the Hendrickson knife here a couple of weeks ago. I have also gotten a couple of "we have something very similar" bogus e-mails......usually from some 3rdworld country......:D Never hd a problem finalizing the purchase./ I had two experiences with products not being what they were repesented to be. One was a guitar that had some damage and needed a fret job and the other was supposed to be 2 vintage Mullard vacuum tubes for a guitar amplifier. The guy sent one bad GE tube after several weeks and at least one "where the hell are my tubes' e-mail. I have also had a couple of delivery delays , including one watch that got "lost" in the postal system.....it was eventually "found" when the seller and I raised a stink. Funny how that happens. The one problem I see with ebay is that a bad seller gets to do retaliatory negative feedback when you complain about them. The tube guy gave me feedback that said "scammer!!! second time he has tried this (referring to my feedback about the guitar) avoid a t all costs!!!" Funny thing is that the guy had perect feedback until thaqt month and then like 3 complaints in the same week!!. He was gone as an authorized user withn a few weeks......probably changed to another screen name. In the end, I was left with no tubes, a guitar bought for my best friend for his b-day that needed about $300 worth of work, and two negative feedbacks. Those kept me from being able to bid on at least one nice item.
 
Joe,
Just wanted to throw my 2 cents in,your Moran,the one you are holding on the previous page of this thread has me spellbound.:eek:

A big congratulation on an amazing example of a Moran.:thumbup: :cool:
I've seen an ST 23 I liked as much,but not much more.

Doug
 
Doug,
Thank you, sir. Do you have "The Master of the Forge" book? There is a slightly smallish, very sleek damascus ST23 in there that is just beyond!!! That and the couple of "prototypes" for the ST24 that had the wider blades, more dropped point and the checkered handles are probably my current favorites of Mr. Morans later work. The later 24's are very sleek and beautiful, but those originals just look MEAN!! Like they want to jump up off the page and cut you!!! lol
Although it is somewhat crude by comparison, I am still enthralled by Ken Warner's old Airman because that is the first Moran I ever saw a picture of and, to me, it is kind of the idealized interpretation of the old Air Force pilot's knife. I have a pretty crusty one of those Airman, and although it is far from perfect, I am attempting to make a couple of derivative versions because I think it is a fantastic basic blade design for a 5 1/2 to 6 inch rough duty knife. The one I am working on now has a slightly dropped more conventional African blackwood handle and a pretty wide balde that is a hair over 6 inches,, but the next one will have the traditional maple "commando" handle. But I probably won't go with brass. My current project has nickel silver fittings and the next one will probably have rust blued or plum-browned 1018. My next trick wil be to figure out how to do a wood lined sheath for them that isn't too bulky and can attach to modern web gear like the MOLLE system.
 
Joe,
No,I don't have it but I'll get it as soon as I find one,thanks for the tip.:thumbup:
Congrats on your Airman and can't wait to see your derivative version of it.

Doug :)
Edited to add:Found it on the ABS site.
 
Doug,

Check the Knife World site.

You can still get them for 85 last time I looked (maybe cheaper).

Eventually the price will go up.

-g
 
Hey, it's a Moran and YOU like it. That's all that really matters, IMO. Congrats! :thumbup: :)
 
Bastid said:
Doug,

Check the Knife World site.

You can still get them for 85 last time I looked (maybe cheaper).

Eventually the price will go up.

-g
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Are they that much? I was thinking that i paid $50 or so. I can't remember where i got mine...maybe from the ABS store. I also have the 50th Anniversary knives book, but that is signed by the author, so I'm thinking that I got it off of Ebay.
 
AWESOME Moran you have there! I missed purchasing a ST-24 back in 1994, a dealer wanted 9 grand for it, the moment I put the blade down, someone plunked the cash down for it! Really regret not buying that piece. Whats the weight of the one you are holding? Am thinking its really light and fast in the hand...
 
Gus,
Thanks.:thumbup:
It was 85 bucks at both places,I ordered it from the ABS store,it probably will go up in price.
Doesn't everything? :D

Doug
 
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