Not a bad price for a LE...

Sounds as if you got educated on sharpening at a pretty early age dave. I never was taught and I don't think my Dad even knew how to do it right. From the looks of whats left of the blades on a couple of his old knives, I know he didn't.

I suppose I could learn, but I'm just not interested enough to take the time.

It's a little like my brother and I. He loves washing and waxing his car and his Harley. Not me man, I hire it done.

I'll hire someone to do my knife if I can't get the job done with my sharpmaker.
 
Although we've been taken a bit astray, since the thread topic is not steel, this rabbit trail has ironically taken us in the direction of the topic--that being the differences we face in choosing collectibles.

Here's yet another "to each his own" situation.

If your sharpening skills are poor, very hard steels can frustrate you and you should stick to the easy steels.

If you have the required skills, 440C will hold an edge well and is indeed a superior steel to some of the softer steels.

With the excellent diamond hones, stones and steels available today, almost anyone can learn to sharpen the more difficult steels.

And so, going back more toward topic again......the steel question is similar to the case of choosing between the collectible with intrinsic value and the collectible artificially contrived by making a numbered set.......it's all about what each person likes and chooses.

May we all choose well.
 
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dave, my dad also was not a knife person :(
did not like pig stickers at all
and did not know how to sharpen one so could never teach me..

it was a case of " it was apart of the job" that i learned..
that and had this old cook show me some tricks once..
learned on carbon steel ... mostly one brand- Chicago ..
 
wolfdog said:
Considering it was NIB with all the original papers, an LE of 630, final year of El Cajon production - I think whoever bought this paid a fair price. Not as good a deal as the sale in my OP, but neither a bargain nor too high a price.
IMO

(It wasn't me, btw.)

http://cgi.ebay.com/BUCK-110-EL-CAJ...ible_Knives?hash=item3efe81f9db#ht_500wt_1035
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It was me and the accepted offer ($100) included shipping. It was shipped today so I should have it early next week to report on.
 
So the discussion here drove the offers up a bunch on the second knife.

Is this not why the moderators tell us not to post here about ongoing auctions?

;)
 
BG42EDGE said:
So the discussion here drove the offers up a bunch on the second knife.

Is this not why the moderators tell us not to post here about ongoing auctions?

;)
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Actually, the price went down from the $125. asking price. ;)
 
Buck_110 said:
Actually, it did not. There were no bids at all. It wasn't that type of listing. If it were, only bidders can drive the price up. It doesn't matter what other folks say or don't say, but what the bidder is willing to pay that ultimately determines the selling price.

While worth is determined by the high bidder, the actual value is not. Worth and value are two very different things.
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When I buy a knife, I decide what it's worth. That decision is based on what it's value is to ME, not what it's value or worth is to anyone else.

I really don't care what anyone else thinks it's worth or if it has their definition of value.;)
 
Buck_110 said:
Actually, it did not. There were no bids at all. It wasn't that type of listing. If it were, only bidders can drive the price up. It doesn't matter what other folks say or don't say, but what the bidder is willing to pay that ultimately determines the selling price.
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Not exactly true.

The knife was sold for best offer. I didn't say there were bids, although when people compete to make best offer, the end result is the same as bidding.

If a knife gets talked up here as a great knife, the offers will get higher and the final and winning offer will HAVE to be higher as the offers are made and rejected by the seller.

The seller will then take that highest offer, which will be higher due to the discussion on this forum. Not that this would happen on every knife, but as a general rule it certainly does happen.

That's why it's bad to discuss ongoing auctions and why the moderators caution us.
 
Plumberdv said:
When I buy a knife, I decide what it's worth. That decision is based on what it's value is to ME, not what it's value or worth is to anyone else.

I really don't care what anyone else thinks it's worth or if it has their definition of value.;)
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:thumbup:
 
I have always liked tools and things like guns and knives. Everyone carried a pocket knife when I was a kid it seemed. I think it was my grandfather that showed me how to use a stone for sharpening. He had a nice wood shop to make his hotel bird feeders.

When I bought my first Buck knife I bought the sharpening kit (which I still have) containing honing oil, an arkansas and washita stone. I sharpened my knife constantly, just cause I liked using the stones.

Buck switched steels more for economic reasons than performance reasons. Based on typical testing tasks, 440C is a higher performance steel than 420HC. Buck was wise to contract Paul Bos (who is retiring) to heat treat their blades.

Steel is another personal preference, and if the knife isn't going to be used, it really is of little significance. Yet most people WANT the designer steels.:D
 
Some people say, "It's just going into a display case anyway, so 420HC is good enough."

Oh really? :)

There's a good reason people want the designer steels. Most knives eventually get sold. Maybe many years from now. The potential buyers include a significant number of people who either want to use the knife or just want the best.

The best steels will command a premium price in years to come.

A stag Buck Custom with BG-42 will bring far more money than its twin in 420HC.
Invest in good steel......you will never regret it.

:thumbup:
 
BG42EDGE said:
If a knife gets talked up here as a great knife, the offers will get higher and the final and winning offer will HAVE to be higher as the offers are made and rejected by the seller.

The seller will then take that highest offer, which will be higher due to the discussion on this forum. Not that this would happen on every knife, but as a general rule it certainly does happen.

That's why it's bad to discuss ongoing auctions and why the moderators caution us.
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I'm not sure that discussions here have that much influence on the market. Maybe in one or two cases, but I don't think it influences the general market.

BTW, the moderators caution us because they don't want e-bay to profit from this forum. They (e-bay) pays nothing for the exposure and blade forums gets no percentage from the sales that e-bay makes money from. If bladeforums was worried about knives being sold to us for too much, they would warn us when sellers here list extravagant prices. Nope, they just let the market take its course and either said knives don't sell or the seller drops the price. That's the way it should be. The mods just don't want us to talk about the specific knives being offered on the sale site itself. If this type of discussion were allowed, people could collaborate to try to falsely raise a price to the unwitting. Whether the collaborators would succeed at this is another issue entirely.
 
I don't think we're in disagreement.

I said:

Not that this would happen on every knife, but as a general rule it certainly does happen. That's why it's bad to discuss ongoing auctions and why the moderators caution us.
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I've seen auctions obviously gain a following from something posted on this forum. I've also seen things mentioned here that have not seemed to be affected. I've seen a seller with a lot of stuff begin to get higher and higher prices for that stuff as the word got around that he had really good stuff. It does happen.

However, we should not forget that other forums, e-mails and other word of mouth also contribute to the effect.
 
BG42EDGE said:
I don't think we're in disagreement.

I said:



I've seen auctions obviously gain a following from something posted on this forum. I've also seen things mentioned here that have not seemed to be affected. I've seen a seller with a lot of stuff begin to get higher and higher prices for that stuff as the word got around that he had really good stuff. It does happen.

However, we should not forget that other forums, e-mails and other word of mouth also contribute to the effect.
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Nope, not disagreement, just discussion. Since those three-dot 110s sold at auction for approx $145. (probably boosted by this forum or by shills) I've seen three-dotters go for about $35. The latter were not NIB like the $145. ones, but were only lightly used. If anyone wanted a three-dot user, those were very good deals. A collector would want NIBs and would pay more.

The market is all over the map. :D
 
I would have picked tat one up, for thaat price. Some have a limited idea of what being a collector of a certian brand means. Collecting things of all sorts as long as it is Buck is my idea of being a Buck collector. As a matter of fact, I have a LE 2004, 110 signed by Chuck from a store that went out of bizzz. I snached that up quick. It ment something to me. And thats all that matters. Are you a collector or an investor. If you are an investor, you only care that one day you can make money, on the other hand if you are a collector it doesn't matter if the piece makes you money its the sake of haveing a piece of history. My 2 bits
 
mbjannusch said:
I would have picked tat one up, for thaat price. Some have a limited idea of what being a collector of a certian brand means. Collecting things of all sorts as long as it is Buck is my idea of being a Buck collector. As a matter of fact, I have a LE 2004, 110 signed by Chuck from a store that went out of bizzz. I snached that up quick. It ment something to me. And thats all that matters. Are you a collector or an investor. If you are an investor, you only care that one day you can make money, on the other hand if you are a collector it doesn't matter if the piece makes you money its the sake of haveing a piece of history. My 2 bits
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+1:thumbup:
 
Since those three-dot 110s sold at auction for approx $145. (probably boosted by this forum or by shills) I've seen three-dotters go for about $35. The latter were not NIB like the $145. ones, but were only lightly used. If anyone wanted a three-dot user, those were very good deals. A collector would want NIBs and would pay more.

The market is all over the map.
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Yes, I'm familiar with the seller you mention. I wondered about shills, too, but I've decided it was probably just eager collectors.

The key thing is......he actually did have a bunch of new old stock.....and when people started buying from him and found out that this was for real--his stuff started going sky-high.

Lots of times the stuff you see advertised as NIB is really NOT new in the box. It's some guy selling a knife in really good condition with some papers and a box he came across. Such stuff is usually not desirable because it goes too high for its true value.

This guy had REAL NOS......a lot of it that had never been opened and had been stored for many years.....and that's what people REALLY want.

So, you see.......there are many variables. Old and newer in various conditions, NIB that's not really NIB, and real NIB and real NOS (which is what went for $145).

It may seem like the market is crazy and all over the map (and in some cases, it is) but often there is both rhyme and reason to the prices.
 
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