New Collectors, Reputable Dealers, eBay sellers, et all

[Jaxe Pen Kits]

One piece of advice I have heard for new collectors is to buy from reputable sellers. I realize this doesn't replace the admonition to learn, learn, learn all you can about what your buying, what knives from a particular time and place look like, feel like, and are made from, but at the same time how does one exactly identify a "reputable" dealer?

eBay feedback seems hit or miss, it tells how a seller is to deal with, but nothing about either the sellers or buyers knowledge if the transaction in question was a genuine knife, a reproduction, or some other article entirely.

I would assume the large auction houses are fairly accurate in their descriptions and authenticity, but then again their auctions aren't an everyday occurance and for my particular area of collecting there may only be a few knives a year, if that, offered. And I don't have a factual basis for that assumption.

Then there are a few companies that seem to specialize in antique knives (NorthWest knives, Cutting Edge, and Voyles are a few I have come across) or antique firearms and carry a few edged weapons (like CW Slagle and John Denner). How is a beginner to tell who is reputable and who to steer clear of?

Is there a feedback forum of "XXX is good", or "stay away from XXX"? And could such a forum run without running into libel and other laws?

 

[Cougar Allen]

Welcome to Bladeforums!

 

[bernard_levine]

The worst crooks on eBay have perfect feedback, so that is no help.

It is not possible to use "reputable" and "auction house" in the same sentence unless you are making a joke. Even somebody who starts out in that business with the best intentions, soon finds that he cannot afford to antagonize a potential consignor by telling him that some of his precious collection is fake. That consignor will consign somewhere else.

New knives offered for sale at fixed prices on commercial websites are usually real, not always, but usually. But "antique" knives offered for sale at fixed prices on commercial websites are usually fakes. Nobody has enough real antique knives to run a business that way. There are "specialists" in Civil War material who sell more newly discovered Confederate bowie knives every week than surface in the entire country every year. Gee, how do they do that???

No rule of thumb is going to help you here... except this one: that no rule of thumb is going to help you here.

Even the most reputable dealers will not show you good knives if they know you buy bad ones. I just had a newbie ask me about fake after fake after fake that he was being offered by "reputable" dealers, then finally plead with me to find him a real knife. So I did... I contacted a collector I knew who was quietly selling off some of his knives, only to people he knew, and he sent me pictures of one. The newbie balked; he didn't want it because it was more expensive than the other knives he had seen (the fakes). Do you think I will give this fool a second chance? Would you?

And don't forget Meg Whitman's dictum (Meg is the president of eBay). She sez, if you don't know enough to tell if it is real or not, you should not care whether it is real or not. Review what I said about auction houses, above.

If you are too parsimonious to pay a guide, you have no business complaining when you get lost in the swamp.

BRL...

 

[notdos]

Hi JAxe,
You came to the right place. Each of the big knife forums (BF, USN, CKG, etc) have an area where individuals leave positive or negative feedback for dealers and other invidivuals they've completed deals with,,invaluable information.

Phillip