Question for the more experienced collectors here.

Always hard to say. No Civil War vets left but that stuff still sells well. WWII stuff still seems to be strong.

I think knives may do better in the long run as less and less people have places to shoot, and guns get pushed further out of reach for many people due to laws. They may opt to get into knives more. Again, it's all hard to call.

As others have said though, a knife is still a useable tool if needed.
 
My collecting/accumulating has nothing to do with investment for me. It is all about pleasure. Honestly most of my knives wont be would much to anyone but family as most of mine end up seeing use. I started as a teen because of a love for knives and outdoors. Most of my knives were sold off when I went to college. The few I had left at my grandparents house when I went to college had disappeared when I got home. I went to college with three knives. A Buck 301, Schrade barlow, Schrade hunting knife. I still have all three.While at college parents bought me a 703 for b-day. That was it for many years. About 11 years ago wife bought me a new 110. Then about 8 years or so the passion reignited. The wife bought me a Case minitrapper and it restarted my love affair. My collecting goes slow as we have 4 kids in the house 17,14,11,6. But each of them now has a love for knives. I have sold a few knives and broke even on them. A few I wish I still had. To me its just about the fun, the history, and passing down a love for something.
 
I think there will always be a market for collecting . I also believe beauty is in the eye of the beholder. personally while I may think an older knife that has alot of wear looks cool and has some history behind it I would never buy I a knife unless it was in new or like new appearance. I basically buy knives based on what I absolutely fall in love with and what I think its worth to me. I hope that if i ever needed to sell one I would break even but thats not whats in my mind when I buy them. Unfortunately I think Buck themselves is shooting themselves in the foot buy putting alot of the knives in a limited edition category with an inflated cost. I bought about 40 knives this year and I find that mostly anything I like now I cannot justify buying. I was hoping for buildouts or web specials but looks like a bunch of those made it directly to ebay .Personally I would think that they would wanna grow knife collecting. maybe I am wrong.
 
Don't get me wrong here, I am a great fan of Bucks and have many of thew fixed blades, but when you get right down to the nitty gritty of the whole issuer Buck is a Company for profit or they would not be in business. While many of us disagree with how their knives are numbered, customized, build outs or whatever they do what they feel is necessary to maintain a certain level of profit.
That includes selling large lots of knives to high volume dealers at a reduced price. Just like everything we buy today, it has to go from manufacturer to distributor to dealer at the minimum. All those people expect a profit. In other words what it costs to buy a Buck knife (or any item) costs the manufacturer much less that the dealer sells for.
It is the great American way. Let's just hope Buck never goes public and onto the stock market because if it does the prices will rocket due to the stock holders.
 
mbjannusch said:
I think the question lies in demographics though. Does the 20 something find collecting old Buck knives interesting? And the answer is probably not. There are maybe a hand full of guys and gals out there that will pick up the collecting bug. Some will stick with it and others will move on to other hobbies. But this isnt the old days where there wasn't much to do. Now there is a Xbox in every home, Cell phones, Super Malls, and so forth to occupie time. People dont have to look for a hobbie there is something at every turn to fill their attention. There are a hundred ways to spend that hundred dollard you would have spent on that knife, like a new Ipad, Itouch, Iphone5 6 7 8 9 10 to infinity...
Point is Most people dont want to spend money on something that just sits there...
Click to expand...

This is one reason why Americans with their wealth are poorer. All the stuff you list above will be landfill in 5-years. Quality USA knifes, sold, silver will last generations. These are all great long-term investments.:thumbup:
 
Every guide to collecting anything cautions the reader to collect only what you love. Never start collecting something — widgets let's say — for the investment value. Why? Because odds are good the investment value will tank before you cash out of widgets, and then you're stuck with a bunch of 'em.

Collecting also tends to involve people older than their 20s generally. They have more disposable money, for one thing. Other factors include: With older people, establishing a job/career and family are no longer absorbing 200% of their waking hours and energies. Older people are more likely to be settled and have space to store collections.

That said, the specific objects being collected tends to evolve over the years. And here, knives face some difficulties. There's a definite social stigma attached to knives. It's nowhere near as strong as that against guns, but is still real.

A knife, a kid, and school: the perfect ingredients for a hysterical overreaction by parents and school officials. This is unfair and downright stupid, but it's everyday reality for now, however different it was 20 to 50 years ago.

Knife collectors can do something to reduce this stigma, but it'll take an evolution within society before it gets back to what it was when older people were kids.
 
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