Question on Olamics

M

Matches Malone

Joined
Jul 21, 2018
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I'm new here and new to collecting knives. Over the past couple of months I've been picking up s bunch of knives in the $200 range just to get a feel for what I like. I figure if I decide to let something go, I'll take a small hit and move on.

I'm now looking at more expensive stuff like CRK, the Benchmade Anthem (just seems like an incredibly fun fidget piece) and the Wayfarer 247. I'm thinking the 247 is likely the next purchase. Unfortunately I came across a Wayfarer custom and fell in love.
It's a lot more than I'd like to spend and frankly more than I ever would have though of spending on a knife (until the addiction bit me). Despite the cost, I'm in love and while crazy expensive, it is doable.

If I were to blow past the less expensive option and go with the wayfarer, then down the road decide to sell it, what's the resale like on those? I see lots of 247s for sale but not that many of the one-off wayfarers. Original price seems to also fluctuate a great deal so it's a bit hard to figure out what sort of deprecation to expect.

Appreciate any input!
 
To really talk value you need a gold membership here but talking in broader general terms you will lose on most high end knives when resold. To my knowledge Olamics are all "custom" they do have a base but generally speaking they do lots of detail work and different detail work has different added costs. They do take orders to specific configurations but when they make a batch to sell to retailers it is "makers" choice of the various configurations and finishes they offer. I go in to all that to point out that a "custom" from a company that works like that is vary difficult to judge the retained value of and it may depend on the specific configuration.
 
Matches Malone said:
I'm new here and new to collecting knives. Over the past couple of months I've been picking up s bunch of knives in the $200 range just to get a feel for what I like. I figure if I decide to let something go, I'll take a small hit and move on.

I'm now looking at more expensive stuff like CRK, the Benchmade Anthem (just seems like an incredibly fun fidget piece) and the Wayfarer 247. I'm thinking the 247 is likely the next purchase. Unfortunately I came across a Wayfarer custom and fell in love.
It's a lot more than I'd like to spend and frankly more than I ever would have though of spending on a knife (until the addiction bit me). Despite the cost, I'm in love and while crazy expensive, it is doable.

If I were to blow past the less expensive option and go with the wayfarer, then down the road decide to sell it, what's the resale like on those? I see lots of 247s for sale but not that many of the one-off wayfarers. Original price seems to also fluctuate a great deal so it's a bit hard to figure out what sort of deprecation to expect.

Appreciate any input!
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You won’t make back every dollar you spent on it but at the same time it’s not going to lose much value. However as you put use on it that will likely be the major factor in determining how much value it loses. It also depends because what appeals to you in a custom might not appeal to others.

So if you were to buy it, fip it twice and then decide you don’t like it and want to resell it you would likely be able to get the majority of the cost back.

If you were to carry it for 3 weeks put a few scratches on and then decide you don’t like it, then you will get less of the full value back.

Since you don’t have a gold membership I can’t discuss specific numbers.
 
The truly custom Olamic Wayfarers tend to keep their value, and as far as quality, there's a reason why you tend not to see many of those for sale. I own two custom Wayfarers, and I'm not ever letting 'em go.
 
It's like custom cars. Don't expect to make your money back, but if you're patient or find the right guy you can sell it with little loss to the next person. That being said, the knife market is a bit more forgiving than the car market since materials/colors don't vary that much and Olamics usually have appeal to more people than a flip flop painted Civic. :D
 
Quiet said:
The truly custom Olamic Wayfarers tend to keep their value, and as far as quality, there's a reason why you tend not to see many of those for sale. I own two custom Wayfarers, and I'm not ever letting 'em go.
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Bingo.

You really don't see many for sale, so it's difficult to predict their future or present value in this fickle market. I would suspect they will take the standard 25% or so hit that the knife-buying market seems to demand lately. I've noticed an odd paradigm for sub-$1000 customs, in that they rarely appreciate in value and very often drop to the $500 mark, ostensibly as they align with production offerings. Who knows :rolleyes:

I would honestly advise against using resale value as a metric for determining a knife purchase, unless you're scooping up Loerchners and Lakes :thumbsup:
 
ArchVV said:
Bingo.

You really don't see many for sale, so it's difficult to predict their future or present value in this fickle market. I would suspect they will take the standard 25% or so hit that the knife-buying market seems to demand lately. I've noticed an odd paradigm for sub-$1000 customs, in that they rarely appreciate in value and very often drop to the $500 mark, ostensibly as they align with production offerings. Who knows :rolleyes:

I would honestly advise against using resale value as a metric for determining a knife purchase, unless you're scooping up Loerchners and Lakes :thumbsup:
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Facts.

Also, OP, it's probably best to keep in mind that knives make poor investments, unless you're one of the folks in the upper stratosphere of the collector world who trades in knives worth several or even tens of thousands of dollars that they were able to snag at table prices at shows. The kind of person who "knows a guy, who knows a guy" who gets into those knife shows before all the (sniff, sniff) dirty commoners and can snap up the rarest, most desirable knives before you have even left your hotel room to come to the show. Many of the lesser ($1,000 or less) knives tend to take a 20% hit as soon as the first finger-print hits that mokuti bolster. LOL
 
Quiet said:
The truly custom Olamic Wayfarers tend to keep their value, and as far as quality, there's a reason why you tend not to see many of those for sale. I own two custom Wayfarers, and I'm not ever letting 'em go.
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I pulled the trigger on an Olamic last night... Never ventured that high in cost on a knife.
 
stonproject said:
The swish. Kinetic brown handles, orangish hardware, satin blade. Selling off a big chunk of the collection for it. But that design is calling me!
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You will not regret it. I am going to get one myself when I find an Acid Rain version I can swing. I held one back in June at BLADE when talking with Eugene, and it's a tremendous EDC-sized knife. I'd definitely like to see pics when you get it. I can commiserate about selling off part of your collection, as I am doing the same, as I managed to land of one of my longtime grails yesterday.
 
Quiet said:
You will not regret it. I am going to get one myself when I find an Acid Rain version I can swing. I held one back in June at BLADE when talking with Eugene, and it's a tremendous EDC-sized knife. I'd definitely like to see pics when you get it. I can commiserate about selling off part of your collection, as I am doing the same, as I managed to land of one of my longtime grails yesterday.
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I just have a dozen knives sittinf in a safe doing nothing, figured I should consolidate.

What'd you pick up?
 
Thanks for all of the advice, it's appreciated.
My apologies if I broke any rules here, that's not my intention. I'm also not looking to find specific values per se. More so just trying to get a ballpark idea of potential depreciation.

For example, I love all sorts of mechanical devices. I collect guns, watches, and now knives. With watches, I know if I buy a stainless Rolex and ever need to get rid of it, I'll be OK. If I were to buy an Omega at MSRP, I'm going to lose quite a bit. I have a couple of Panerai, which I really like. I'd never pay MSRP on those. Not that I plan to get rid of them but if I had to, I know where the market is at.

With knives, I simply don't know yet. The Olamic I'm considering is in the $1K ballpark. If I were to purchase and decided down the road to let it go, I'd rather not be in a position where I'm losing $500. If they hold rather steady then I'm more comfortable.
I don't look at these as investments but am more likely to spend more knowing that if I have to get rid of something I can recoup most of what I paid.

Thanks again for the input so far, I'm finding this site to be a wonderful educator!
 
Are knives actually a worthwhile investment? I doubt leaving a knife in a safe for 10-20 years is going to be a profitable activity...
 
Darkera said:
Are knives actually a worthwhile investment? I doubt leaving a knife in a safe for 10-20 years is going to be a profitable activity...
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As I was alluding to earlier, they CAN be...if you're choosing knives that have significance of some kind, or are from a maker who is very highly respected (and I'm not talking about one of those fifteen-seconds-of-fame Instagram stooges). I'm talking about people like Ray Laconico, Chuck Gedraitis, a bunch of others. Put it this way, if you had a safe full of, say, Loveless knives (actually made by Bob), opening that safe 20 years from now is going to make you a fairly good sized chunk of cash.
 
Well one part of this is demand. A full custom Olamic Wayfarer is configured... well, custom. So you pay extra to have it your way, but resale depends on whether there's someone with the cash who also wants the knife configured your way.

With the midtechs, there's a lot more people interested in those configurations at that price range.

Resale value depends largely on how long you're willing to wait to sell. You could theoretically ask list price on an unused knife and ship immediately so that the buyer is paying you more for the convenience of not having to wait for a custom or midtech build. But the odds of finding a buyer who wants exactly what you have, has the money, and is willing to buy yours and get it in three days as opposed to ordering it from Olamic and getting it in whatever their delivery time is? Probably low.
 
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