Joel
I love Valmet's list's. Matter of fact, he list's we my inspiration for the pictures on the Emerson Customs list. Valmet turned me down on my offer to do what we've done here.
Some time ago, we had discussed adding prices to the list, like his lists. I was even in favor of it.
The idea was not popular and there were may good points brought up.
Microtechs are production knives that are done with hundreds or thousands of pieces exactly the same. There are short runs and individual customs, but they are again definable. Ernies knives very greatly in features and generations.
The pricing of Emersons on the secondary market has been very volatile of late. Since July (his "retirement" announcement) pricing has sharply increased.
And my opinion is that it hasn't leveled out yet. I'm still waiting on the other shoe to drop.
One very good point that was brought up was that such a list can be very "restrictive" to collectors. The secondary market basically comes down to what one party will sell a knife for and what a second party is willing to pay. "Worth" is kind of an ambiguous term.
Example: Someone decides to put his . . . Specwar CQC6 up for sale. Let's say on Ebay. Two guys get into a bidding war for it. One ends up paying $2100 for it because he's always wanted one. Does that make all CQC6s are "worth" $2100?
Another angle . . . . Let's look at a . . . a Rhino. There are two out there that we know of. Let's say (hypothetically) that the owners paid $1000 for the ones that they have. What price do we put on them? Hell, I'd give them $1000 for them, any day. Problem is, Rhinos don't trade hands often and the "worth" of that knife is much higher then that today. Matter of fact, a comment was made not long ago that "I know where one could be had for $5000" and someone posted asking for contact info. Does that make Rhinos "worth" $1000 or $5000?
Or, lets' say another Rhino suddenly appears (we know their out there . . . somewhere). A seller offers it up for . . . (just off the top of my head) $2500. The last ones sold for $1000. Is he "ripping buys off"?
I can tell you that it's nice to look at the MT lists and see what your knife is "worth", but in our case here, it may be more destructive and labor intensive then its worth.
Just my opinion.
Anyone else have input?
John
