Some of this may be elementary to you old hands, but for me this was only my second Blade Show, and I still made mistakes.
What I learned:
1. Pace myself. Last year I blew my wad pretty early. I got so nervous reading on here how you need to snap up something you like or it won't be there later that I planned out the route to the 3-4 makers I really was looking to buy from and made very quick decisions. Within a half hour all I had left was enough to buy an odd production here or there. And of course I saw other customs that I wanted more than those I'd bought. I think the quick snapping up of stuff is true if there's something very specific you want. If you're like me who go to the show to browse and buy what may catch your fancy, you're better off browsing first.
2. Take notes. Write down the maker, table location, and what knife it was that caught your fancy and how much it was. If you don't, despite having the map and index they have there, you're not going to remember as all the great knives blur together.
3. Blade is the show to go to. It pretty much has ruined other shows for me. I rarely buy anything at the NYC shows anymore, and those are pretty major shows. Blade just has so much good stuff. And there are great makers that a newbie like me have not heard of whose work is amazing. I now try to save my money for Blade.
4. Go elsewhere to eat. The food pickings there are slim. There are plenty of knives that will still be on the table if I take the extra 1/2 hour to drive the 1/4 mile or so away from the Galleria to eat.
What I need to learn to do:
1. Pace myself better. There is a fine line between browsing too much before pulling the trigger and pulling the trigger too fast before you've seen enough to know what you want. There were alot more knives this year that I wanted that had a "SOLD" tag next to it because I hardly bought anything till late Friday.
2. If you really want the knife, you can still ask the maker to make one similar to it. I have a hard time doing this because of the instant gratification part. I tend to just go to another table in hopes that there'll be a knife I really like there that's available to be picked up right then.
3. Saving my money for one or two great and unique but expensive knives over a lot of great but "lesser" knives. This goes for my collecting in general. Very hard for me to do this because I'll see something that's out of my normal range and I walk away with regret. Then I see something that's a bargain and buy it, then see another bargain and buy that, and another and so on. Then I sit down, review the bargains I just bought and realize that even though they're great knives, if I could have traded them toward the first one that was out of my range I would have. I could have done that in the beginning instead of using up the money on the bargains.
Looking forward to next year's show. Any tips for me for next year?
What I learned:
1. Pace myself. Last year I blew my wad pretty early. I got so nervous reading on here how you need to snap up something you like or it won't be there later that I planned out the route to the 3-4 makers I really was looking to buy from and made very quick decisions. Within a half hour all I had left was enough to buy an odd production here or there. And of course I saw other customs that I wanted more than those I'd bought. I think the quick snapping up of stuff is true if there's something very specific you want. If you're like me who go to the show to browse and buy what may catch your fancy, you're better off browsing first.
2. Take notes. Write down the maker, table location, and what knife it was that caught your fancy and how much it was. If you don't, despite having the map and index they have there, you're not going to remember as all the great knives blur together.
3. Blade is the show to go to. It pretty much has ruined other shows for me. I rarely buy anything at the NYC shows anymore, and those are pretty major shows. Blade just has so much good stuff. And there are great makers that a newbie like me have not heard of whose work is amazing. I now try to save my money for Blade.
4. Go elsewhere to eat. The food pickings there are slim. There are plenty of knives that will still be on the table if I take the extra 1/2 hour to drive the 1/4 mile or so away from the Galleria to eat.
What I need to learn to do:
1. Pace myself better. There is a fine line between browsing too much before pulling the trigger and pulling the trigger too fast before you've seen enough to know what you want. There were alot more knives this year that I wanted that had a "SOLD" tag next to it because I hardly bought anything till late Friday.
2. If you really want the knife, you can still ask the maker to make one similar to it. I have a hard time doing this because of the instant gratification part. I tend to just go to another table in hopes that there'll be a knife I really like there that's available to be picked up right then.
3. Saving my money for one or two great and unique but expensive knives over a lot of great but "lesser" knives. This goes for my collecting in general. Very hard for me to do this because I'll see something that's out of my normal range and I walk away with regret. Then I see something that's a bargain and buy it, then see another bargain and buy that, and another and so on. Then I sit down, review the bargains I just bought and realize that even though they're great knives, if I could have traded them toward the first one that was out of my range I would have. I could have done that in the beginning instead of using up the money on the bargains.
Looking forward to next year's show. Any tips for me for next year?
