Question on collecting....

D

DEV

Joined
Nov 9, 1998
Messages
28
Hello guys, I had a quastion on collecting customs. I have a Crawford KFF with titanium handles and polished blade, and a Crawford Carnivor with polished micarta handles and blade. I am not carrying these two knives.
I was wondering about if these knives will be worth more a few years even 10 years from now, or should I just carry one or both and not worry about it. If there is a chance that these will be worth more, I think I will just leave em in the safe.
Any advice would be great guys. Thanks
Dev.
 
Dev
I am convinced now that only few select makers will be collectable. Right now there are thousands of makers trying to have a go at it. but only a few will be a good investment. Moran,Loveless,Frank,and Warensski etc will all have replacements some day. Thanks to the knife media some of these replacements will soar in value but most will continue to struggle. While some custom guys make a fantastic product others are just jumping on the bandwagon with mediocore knives.At the same time I think the majority of custom knives will retain there value it doesn't mean they will go up in value.A good comparison is the art world thousands of struggling painters out there but very few who can command top dollar.The key is here for makers to strive for perfection in all aspects of there knives and for good steady exposure. I have some customs from years ago by well known guys which have stayed steady in value but not risen above the buying price. Does that bother me? No because I always buy what I like regardless of future financial expectations and this way I am never disapointed.Of course there will always be variants to this and one hopes to discover the next Mike Walker and as long as you buy what you like it will always be a good experiance for the collector.
Bob
 
Investing in custom knives is not as difficult as one might think.

The difficult part is determining what percentage you want returned on your money. How much risk are willing to assume. Can you leave yourself in a position to ride the ups and downs in the custom knife market.

Everyone brings up the main guys, Loveless, Moran, etc.

If you are going to buy one of these knives and expect to get a 10% return, per year, even with the stars you will have difficulty.

For instance, you buy a Loveless drop point hunter for $2,000.00 (the going price give or take). You want a 10% return and you hold the knife for 5 years. That means you must now find a buyer who will pay $3,000.00 for this knife. Will the market support that, probably not.

Now lets jump to the the $15,000.00 level of some of the more expensive Morans and Loveless's. Again a 10% return per year for 5 years would make the cost of this knife at resale $22,500.00 at the end of 5 years. Remember, the collectors at these level's generally already have one or two knives at this level from these makers. So how does this impact desireablity? Remember, in this game you do not want to be holding the knife when the music stops. This means that the knife has topped out. Now you discover just how much rish you are willing to accept.

Probably the question that needs to be asked is how liquid will your purchase's be. That is to say, how quickly could you get rid of your knives and how much of your initial investment would you recover.

Custom knives are not a good investment tool. This is not what they were designed for. This is not to say you cannot make money on custom knives. Im proof that you can.

For those of you who do want to try and make some money, buy and sell quickly.

How do you do this? Sounds like you need to hire a consultant!

Les
 
I bet people wish they had bought and stashed a couple Morans, Randals, or Scagels back when they were just pups startin out. Getting new maker's blades now, before they start getting noticed is a good oppourtunity to make some money in 10-12 years, if the maker keeps at it and has the talent. Take care! Michael

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"Always think of your fellow knife makers as partners in the search for the perfect blade, not as people trying to compete with you and your work!"


[This message has been edited by L6STEEL (edited 26 October 1999).]
 
Hello guys, thanks for all the input. It would be nice to make some money on them, but I guess thats the way things go. Thanks again. Dev.
 
The only money I've "made" on my custom knives is that in producing my custom knives, often over a couple of years, the makers learn that some things take more time than they had planned, their names grow more known, etc., and when I take delivery of the piece, the maker's price for an identical piece has risen substantially. Often with an increase in the maker's lead time, giving my "knife-in-hand" a small bump in value.

My best example of this is Bailey Bradshaw's split-backspring whittler. As he worked on my knife (which was his first try at the pattern), he learned that the split backspring was more complex than he had initially bargained for, and the ivory carving took lots of time and toil. I won't tell you what I paid for mine, but I will say that it is substantially less than what he is now charging for the same model ($700).

So the knife is more "valuable". This is all, of course, theoretical money, based, as Les said, upon finding another purchaser willing to pay the new price.

With semi-customs, like the KFF, Their lower prices (relative to customs) puts them within reach of a far larger market, but the fact that numerous examples exist means that any potential buyer will have the option of shopping multiple sources, thereby forcing the sellers to drop prices. Awfully hard to make "investment" sized profits when there are people competing for the same buck...
 
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