Selling knives at a garage/yard sale.

S

schoolbus

Joined
Jun 25, 2009
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I've sold many knives and other tools or weapons at garage sales in previous years and plan to have my biggest sale this weekend. I have about 50+ knives mostly fixed blades that I will try to sell for anywhere from $5 to $30. In my experience knives and swords generate a lot of interest and as a result selling these types of items is usually very easy as long as you have plenty of people aged 18+ coming along. You also must watch out for kids and possibly have a big sign up which says NO TOUCHING, PLEASE ASK FIRST!

The most interesting customer I'd say I've had was from last year. A girl around my age(early 20s) was (in her words)going around the neighborhood(we usually have neighborhood garage sales) buying up any sort of weapons she could find. She was with her dad and his car for carrying around her finds. She showed me some pretty cool items she'd already found including a really nice sword of middle eastern style. I do hope she comes around again. She was also quite pretty herself. :p

Has anyone else sold knives at yard sales? Any interesting, positive or negatives experiences? Any tips on how to do it well and responsibly?
 
This tip depends on your style but people go to a garage sale for a few reasons, the normal is to buy stuff. The other is to buy stuff you dont need. Then this step fits in with the other two, buying stuff, but trying to gt it for a lower price, this is generally done for the fun of it. So if you want to sell something at $20 put it at $25 and so on.
 
I have thought about it but people shopping yard sales are looking for bargain basement prices. There is no way I'm going to take a big hit on something like a quality knife just because people don't know what they are buying.
 
Always clearly mark prices.

Keep knives where they are in clear view of you and not on a cluttered table, (it's hard to keep an eye on 'em when they're on a cluttered table).

Separate/group by price, (keep like priced knives together and if possible keep the higher priced knive under glass)

Don't expect to get top dollar for you knives in a yardsale environment people go ther for deals and don't usually expect to spend more than a few bucks on an item.

Expect people who don't know anything about knives to tell you what they're worth and even get huffy if you won't budge on a fairly priced knife. (People can be very irritatin' at yard sales).

Now on the otherside of the coin, I've gotten some of my best deals at yard sales, met some nice knife people, educated a few others and learned from the rest.

Good luck, BTW, did ya ever consider buyin' a paid membership here and sellin' in the exchange on the forums?
 
I had a Victorian era all silver fruit knife stolen while selling at a small community flea market. The guy distracted me with some kind of crap about another knife being a counterfeit and his g.f. snagged it. Didnt even notice it was gone for about 30 min. Moral=Put a few knives out there to attract attention but keep the good ones in the back.--
 
What kind of knives are you selling? Are they mostly cheap or fantasy blades, or are there some higher quality useable pieces in there? $5-30 is pretty cheap for a fixed blade; if they're knives that are usually worth more than that I'd suggest you sell them here instead. The $25/year membership and shipping charges are pretty easily offset by the opportunity to sell to a knowledgeable crowd that knows the value of a good blade.
 
Thanks to those for the great suggestions and advice. Actually the sale has been changed to the 9th of June though. I really hope it goes well and I can make some cash from my extra stuff.
kvaughn said:
I had a Victorian era all silver fruit knife stolen while selling at a small community flea market. The guy distracted me with some kind of crap about another knife being a counterfeit and his g.f. snagged it. Didnt even notice it was gone for about 30 min. Moral=Put a few knives out there to attract attention but keep the good ones in the back.--
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Oh wow! Sorry to hear that. I really will be watching very closely but I understand how easy it can be for people to steal things right from under you.
 
Tsujigiri said:
What kind of knives are you selling? Are they mostly cheap or fantasy blades, or are there some higher quality useable pieces in there? $5-30 is pretty cheap for a fixed blade; if they're knives that are usually worth more than that I'd suggest you sell them here instead. The $25/year membership and shipping charges are pretty easily offset by the opportunity to sell to a knowledgeable crowd that knows the value of a good blade.
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Ah yes I understand what you're saying. Actually most of these blades are indeed fairly cheap. They are all Chinese made and most of them are from years ago when I didn't know anything about knives and just bought ones that looked cool knowing nothing about quality of materials. They will work fine for cutting tasks it's just that I now have some excellent quality knives from reputable companies.
I do plan to get a membership here because I have lots of MINT Benchmade, SOG and CRKT knives I'd like to sell.

Hadji Flip Me Over said:
She's a keeper. :)
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haha. Yes absolutely. If I didn't have a girlfriend I might have asked her out for sure!
 
Hey man, I would suggest getting a paid membership here on the forums ($25 for gold) and just sell your knives on here. Depending on what you have for sale, it'll pretty much pay for itself after you sell the first knife. I mean, this helps support the forums, you get your knives sold and we get to see what you've got. That way everyone wins.
 
JSMcustoms said:
Hey man, I would suggest getting a paid membership here on the forums ($25 for gold) and just sell your knives on here. Depending on what you have for sale, it'll pretty much pay for itself after you sell the first knife. I mean, this helps support the forums, you get your knives sold and we get to see what you've got. That way everyone wins.
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The ones I'm selling at the garage sale are all knives people on the forums probably won't want but I do plan to get a membership as mentioned to sell some MINT Benchmade, SOG and CRKT knives. Can I get a paid membership without buying the Kershaw knife and how do I get a membership? I do have Paypal.
 
schoolbus said:
The ones I'm selling at the garage sale are all knives people on the forums probably won't want but I do plan to get a membership as mentioned to sell some MINT Benchmade, SOG and CRKT knives. Can I get a paid membership without buying the Kershaw knife and how do I get a membership? I do have Paypal.
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Would you consider selling me any of those mint benchmades and or crkt knives? I love both brands
 
Zookie said:
Would you consider selling me any of those mint benchmades and or crkt knives? I love both brands
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Absolutely. I have duplicates of many different models from both companies. Fixed and folding. And they are all 100% authentic. I guess I just need a membership first.
 
Zookie said:
Would you consider selling me any of those mint benchmades and or crkt knives? I love both brands
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schoolbus said:
Absolutely. I have duplicates of many different models from both companies. Fixed and folding. And they are all 100% authentic. I guess I just need a membership first.
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Do not make offers to buy or reply to offers to buy. This isn't the correct forum for the offer and schoolbus does not have the correct membership to sell. No more of this.

schoolbus, if you want to upgrade your membership to gold (the minimum required to sell here) you can do so by following this link.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/profile.php?do=editusergroups
 
yard sale customers are looking for a bargain. Free, or as close to that as they can get. My knives are expensive. They would be hard to move at a yard sale. Folks would freak when I told them I needed $650 for that Randall #1 :D
 
Morrow said:
Do not make offers to buy or reply to offers to buy. This isn't the correct forum for the offer and schoolbus does not have the correct membership to sell. No more of this.

schoolbus, if you want to upgrade your membership to gold (the minimum required to sell here) you can do so by following this link.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/profile.php?do=editusergroups
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ah k. Thanks! The links is appreciated. EDIT: oops it just says "There are currently no public usergroups available for you to join." :confused:
 
crom said:
I have thought about it but people shopping yard sales are looking for bargain basement prices. There is no way I'm going to take a big hit on something like a quality knife just because people don't know what they are buying.
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Yeah I remember at a yard sale a guy was complaining saying my knives were crappy ( and they were, but I was selling them for $2). He kept bitching so I pulled my manix2 out of my pocket and told him $60 lol he smirked at me and walked away
 
Yeah, on my last flea market sales trip I took along 5 knives of various quality/prices, just to gauge interest. Everyone wanted to see and touch the Kershaws, Spydercos and Benchmades but I only ended up selling a Gerber for $8 and it was marked for $10. For fear of theft, I won't take them again. I always try to walk around to shop while I'm there and it's never quality stuff but it seems to sell based on looks over quality. I just tried to bring some [knife] class to the flea market and learned my lesson. Good luck with the yard sale though!
 
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