I am going to liquidate part of my collection, and rented a table at the Mt. Vernon, Illinois knife show for next weekend. Has anybody on here ever done this before? If so, do you have any tips, or can tell me what to expect. I have a little bit of everything to sell. Custom knives, factory knives, fixed blades, folders, butcher knives, hatchets, food choppers. Really looking forward to this, but am kind of wondering what to expect.
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Selling at a Knife Show
- Thread starter dwain
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brownshoe
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Be brutal on yourself when it comes to price. Your "babies" are not yet special to the buyers. Remember your goal, liqudation not maximum price. Used knife, 50% off your price, not list.
Knife shows sales have really fallen off compared to what they were 15-20 years ago. Usually when I travel to a knife show, I sell just enough to break even, covering my food, gas, and hotel expenses. If you want to sell off your collection and make the most profit, sell them 1 at a time in a knife forum or on Ebay. It takes way more time, but you'll double your profit.
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I think Rookie82 is giving you some good advice. If you are looking to get rid of the collection as quickly as possible, you perhaps dump things cheap at the show. Otherwise individual online sales are the way to go.
It really depends on if time or maximum returns are most important to you.
But kudos to you for at least renting a table at the show and not just brown bagging everything. That's very classy of you. Best of luck.
It really depends on if time or maximum returns are most important to you.
But kudos to you for at least renting a table at the show and not just brown bagging everything. That's very classy of you. Best of luck.
Last time I went to a trade show with a goal like that, I was approached by another vendor before I even had my table set up. After about 5 minutes of discussion, we made a deal & I walked away with cash in hand.
No doubt, I could have made more money selling at my own table....but I would have ended the day with the things I least wanted to take home (highest value stuff I had there, but they weren't selling for anybody that day). Depending on what you've got, you might find (as in my case) that somebody doesn't want the competition.
Only you know how important it is that you sell everything vs just selling a portion...or how important the monetary end is to you. Sort that out, and make your choices, accordingly.
No doubt, I could have made more money selling at my own table....but I would have ended the day with the things I least wanted to take home (highest value stuff I had there, but they weren't selling for anybody that day). Depending on what you've got, you might find (as in my case) that somebody doesn't want the competition.
Only you know how important it is that you sell everything vs just selling a portion...or how important the monetary end is to you. Sort that out, and make your choices, accordingly.
Knife Shows are not a good place to "liquidate", in my opinion. A lot of folks at a Show are just lookers, not serious buyers. Having said that, just about everybody that walks buy will offer a ridiculous, low ball offer for a knife. What Sales you do make will be Collectors looking for a certain knife, which you may happen to have. You asked for tips, Be sure of what you have, Set a price and stick to it, and be prepared to take most of your stuff home again. I hope I'm wrong, Good Luck.
brownshoe
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Where I live, it's expected for you to drop your prices at a show particularly if you are not a custom maker selling your own work. Now it may only drop $10, but everybody wants a deal and nobody wants to tell their spouse they spent full price
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It's basically been stated already, but you'll mostly have two kinds of people come to your table: Those who have no idea that a knife could ever cost more than $20 (or understand why it would), and those who know generally what the knives ARE worth, but are looking for a deal.
You probably won't sell very many to the first group, and the second will usually only pay if it's a specific piece they've been looking for, and if it's at or under the lowest price they can find on ebay or amazon.
I usually fall into the second group at a knife/gun show. I will mostly shy away from the tables where people are selling "collections", because 9x out of 10 I see them at every show with the exact same pieces, remaining unsold. Why? Because they want what THEY think they are worth, not what 99% of buyers think they are worth. In other words, they're not really interested in selling them, but rather in showing off a collection, or trying to make a large profit on something they themselves got a deal on already.
The tables I WILL go to are distributors, who I know paid only 50%-75% of MSRP, and can probably come down another $15 or $20 if I buy a couple of pieces off of them.
Now, I'm still figuring that I could probably get close to the same deal on any one of dozens of online retailers (amazon and ebay included), but this way I know exactly what I'm getting, can handle the knife, and save the cost of shipping, plus maybe another 5% or 10%. Instant gratification costs a couple bucks too...
The other tables I go too are people just selling a lot of used pieces for what are actually great deals... Half of new price for a piece with minor wear, or something that I can easily sharpen and polish up to almost new.
I was once at a table filled end to end with knives, and saw a couple of Kershaw Autos I'd been looking for. They were recently discontinued and the guy was asking about $25 or $30 more than they used to regularly sell for. I was debating paying close to what he was asking when I heard a younger kid ask if he could take $5 off for the same knife. The dealer started saying how they were a high demand item and would take weeks to restock, so prices were firm. I immediately walked to the other end of the show where another dealer had the same knife and was willing to let it go for about $5 less than I had seen them selling for before they were discontinued. Now, it wasn't the exact color I wanted, but I wasn't about to put up with a seller who was probably already making at least 25% on a knife, and couldn't come down a measly $5.
Just a little food for thought. If you want your knives gone, you need to be willing to negotiate, or you may as well just list them individually and wait for the buyers, deal with shipping, future price drops, etc...
You probably won't sell very many to the first group, and the second will usually only pay if it's a specific piece they've been looking for, and if it's at or under the lowest price they can find on ebay or amazon.
I usually fall into the second group at a knife/gun show. I will mostly shy away from the tables where people are selling "collections", because 9x out of 10 I see them at every show with the exact same pieces, remaining unsold. Why? Because they want what THEY think they are worth, not what 99% of buyers think they are worth. In other words, they're not really interested in selling them, but rather in showing off a collection, or trying to make a large profit on something they themselves got a deal on already.
The tables I WILL go to are distributors, who I know paid only 50%-75% of MSRP, and can probably come down another $15 or $20 if I buy a couple of pieces off of them.
Now, I'm still figuring that I could probably get close to the same deal on any one of dozens of online retailers (amazon and ebay included), but this way I know exactly what I'm getting, can handle the knife, and save the cost of shipping, plus maybe another 5% or 10%. Instant gratification costs a couple bucks too...
The other tables I go too are people just selling a lot of used pieces for what are actually great deals... Half of new price for a piece with minor wear, or something that I can easily sharpen and polish up to almost new.
I was once at a table filled end to end with knives, and saw a couple of Kershaw Autos I'd been looking for. They were recently discontinued and the guy was asking about $25 or $30 more than they used to regularly sell for. I was debating paying close to what he was asking when I heard a younger kid ask if he could take $5 off for the same knife. The dealer started saying how they were a high demand item and would take weeks to restock, so prices were firm. I immediately walked to the other end of the show where another dealer had the same knife and was willing to let it go for about $5 less than I had seen them selling for before they were discontinued. Now, it wasn't the exact color I wanted, but I wasn't about to put up with a seller who was probably already making at least 25% on a knife, and couldn't come down a measly $5.
Just a little food for thought. If you want your knives gone, you need to be willing to negotiate, or you may as well just list them individually and wait for the buyers, deal with shipping, future price drops, etc...
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Ive done this many times w/ knives, mostly w/ firearms. Not so much these days..the shows really have changed in the last 10 yrs.
Lot of good advice here, I can only add that you should bring at least one set of extra eyes..someone to help mind the table. Easy to get distracted or be busy w/ a potential buyer..and have something "walk away" If you can have the knives under glass or see thru mesh, even better. Make a sign stating " Please ask before handling"
Good luck, watch your merch, hold to your prices as much as you can. Sometimes making just enough to cover the cost of the tables is a good weekend..
Lot of good advice here, I can only add that you should bring at least one set of extra eyes..someone to help mind the table. Easy to get distracted or be busy w/ a potential buyer..and have something "walk away" If you can have the knives under glass or see thru mesh, even better. Make a sign stating " Please ask before handling"
Good luck, watch your merch, hold to your prices as much as you can. Sometimes making just enough to cover the cost of the tables is a good weekend..
