that mirror polished tachyon

MT is still living in the 90's if they think one of their proto's is worth that much. Limited edition MT's have "not" been holding their value lately, and are not expected to in the future. IMHO
 
Five 'G's for a knife???? Does the owner work for the Dept. of Defence. It would go nicely with the $600 toilet seat I have!!:p
 
You should have seen my face when I got the bill for the prototype. I may just auction it off and tell Tony that we will get whatever the auction price is. That way it is the market setting the price and not me or Tony.

Sound fair?
 
Mike: Yes, the auction is the fair way to go.

Unless of course you're trying to tell us that the $5000 is justified :eek: :eek: :eek:

Just give some of us some time to horde cash and sell of some unwanted knives :D :D :D
 
Originally posted by ixpfah
for a bali?! that's almost as crazy as the tachyon!
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No! No! No! $4500 is the list price for the Loveless Big Bear if you ordered it from Loveless over 10 years ago. However, if you really, really want one now it's the one priced at $19,000 (and it's a good chance that may be the only one you'll see on the market for a while). Yes, $19,000 is a lot of money, as is $5,000. But the truth is, somewhere out there are people that are willing to pay those prices and think they got a fair deal. The Loveless should continue to go up in price. As for the Tachyon, we'll see what the auction brings.

Regardless of what the final auction number is, we know that $5000 is close to what Mike had to pay Tony to make the Tachyon from scratch; Think development costs (hours of engineering, and just possibly that the final prototype wasn't the only Tachyon built as proof of concept). You guys see one knife and one price tag and forget all the behind the scene work that still cost money. I don't blame Mike for trying to recoup that development cost. He's not forcing you to buy that prototype at gunpoint people.
 
Forty-five hundred, ten years ago, ouch! So what did the "basic" four inch drop point hunter go for when it was last, still possible to order one (in green canvas Micarta, of course)? Does anyone we "know" have one? This makes our old BM customs (even the latchless one Dawkind has) seem like bargains.
 
It was around 78 or 79, and the New York Custom Knife Show was in it's infancy. Got to the Roosevelt Hotel very early (this was when makers still felt it was not professional to deal BEFORE a show) and was lucky enough to find a Loveless Drop point skinner for $350 at one of the tables (forgot the name of the dealer), and bought it strictly for it's collectibility (real short list of makers I wanted knives from). Since I blew a significant chunk of my show fund on that knife, I spent most of the show looking, handling, talking to the makers, and showing off my purchase. Seemed everyone wanted to look at that Loveless. At one table as I was showing off the knife, another gentleman came up and offered to buy it off me for $500. Hey that's $150 profit (in 1978/79 dollars) in 2 hours, so I sold it. Would it have been worth more now? Sure. But with my new found fortune, I was able to buy a few more knives, and that day I thought I made out like a bandit.

Even then, Loveless's knives carried a high level of collectibility, and can almost always guarantee that you get more than what you paid for it. And yes, while our high end Custom Bali's will only equate to the low end Loveless's, it's entirely a different ball game. I can accept that, as I've come to terms with my collection of knives and what I do with them. I prefer good quality users; their collectability comes second. So in my instance, I would never pay $19,000 for that Big Bear, but I can understand, and know why, it has that price tag. And I respect that.
 
Great story Tony; Loveless's certainly are in a separate league. Do you know what the last new price was for the classic hunter? I wonder what the highest price paid for a bali is?
 
When I saw how much it costed, I thought maybe the maker wanted to keep it?

Maybe its such a good knife (which i am pretty much positive it as) that he doesnt want to sell it, and if someone is rich enough, he could part with it for 5 grand.....right?
 
A.G.Russell is STILL getting knives from Bob that he ordered years ago! Those 'plain' hunters he's selling for $2400-$2600+ were ordered 13-14 years ago at $400-$550 each and are just now being delivered. Of course A.G. paid the $400 or so and is selling them for at least 5 times what he paid for them........... Mike's situation is entirely different. He stepped up to bat and had one of the best 'speciality' shops in the industry come up with an entirely different type of product than they ever made before. Hell, it sounds like a deal to me if you could get Tony and the gang to design, tool-up, and produce a prototype that was ready for a production run in only a few months! If the services for the R&D team, the programmers, and the equipment in an aero-space grade machine shop aren't worth a couple of hundred dollars an hour, considering that there are more 'professionals' in the market place that charge thousands of dollars an hour for their services than you can count, what would be fair? . As far as selling the one knife and recouping the $$$'s invested in it, I truly wish Mike the best of luck. It is a very important piece in the evolution of MT's line of knives and, like any of the other 'one of' pieces out there, should be very desirable to the right buyer. I, for one, think Mike has done an outstanding job putting this thing together for all us balisong 'nuts' out here, keeping us informed, and hope that there is enough support, i.e., sales, to keep this an on going project with many different variations to come!!! :D
 
Originally posted by Mr YODA
That Loveless better be able to cut through steal for $19000. I'll stick with my bali.
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That's the same as saying "I hope that Van Gogh will cover that wallspace as well as this poster." No, that knife won't cut through anything more than any other knife. In this case you are paying for the name. And your statement does a major disservice to Mr. Loveless's skill as a knifemaker, and as a major contributor to the craft of custom knife making as we know it today.
 
Originally posted by Dawkind
I, for one, think Mike has done an outstanding job putting this thing together for all us balisong 'nuts' out here, keeping us informed, and hope that there is enough support, i.e., sales, to keep this an on going project with many different variations to come!!! :D
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  What Dawkind said ...
 
Sabo: I actually handled and Flipped this proto at the blade show. Nice yes, 5K nice, no.

Mike: Auction is the fair way to go. I'd say make it a week long with no reserve. Reserve prices are stupid.

Pretty sure Balis are legal on Ebay, so I would put it there over bladeauction.
 
PS - I own a Microtech Prototype, and yes, they are special and worth a bit more, but no, they aren't 5 grand more.
 
Originally posted by Lomic
PS - I own a Microtech Prototype, and yes, they are special and worth a bit more, but no, they aren't 5 grand more.
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Well, in this case there are 2 kinds of prototypes. The first is the general one that sells for a little more than what the production one would cost, and is usually the results of being the first few to be manufactured using the final production methods. In the Tachyon's case, there are only 2. I have one and Pete Owens has the other. We each paid $750 for it.

As for the $5000 prototype. That's a true prototype, as it was handmade by Tony at MT, and only one is known to exist. Again, as for the $5000, most of it isn't for the true value of the bali in terms of materials and actual labor involved in putting it together (I think the $750 for the other prototype would just about cover that). But more for the historical value of all the work that went into it. If the Tachyon becomes a commercial success, whoever owns that prototype would have something in his possession as the first Model 110 Folding Hunter made by Mr. Buck. I wonder what that is worth these days.

Tony
 
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