Sometimes when trying a new (and especially when expensive) knife that I’m not sure I am going to like enough to keep longterm, I tend to baby it, perhaps just fondling and examining it at home for a bit, with the hopes that if I decide I don’t love it I can sell it and recoup (most of) my money. I don’t do shelf queens, so either I keep it and use it, or I will sell it. However, sometimes I have decided to sell it as it isn’t really for me, but then I am surprised how much value the knife has “lost” despite being essentially brand new. Then I think, well if it is going to lose a quarter or more of its value while still in pristine condition, I should have just used it for real and not worried about marks or scuffs. What was the point of keeping it like new in the examination phase?
How do you approach this situation? I know there will always be some value lost in buying something preowned but sometimes the expected markdown on a Like New item seems a bit unrealistic.
I'm someone who often has to try something himself to really know if I like it or not. And I'm not immune to trends or even fads in the knife market. If I hear enough about a knife, I will often try it.
But it's like cars. Only models where demand greatly exceeds supply will not see an immediate and steep loss in resale value when sold secondhand.
I really only buy high-end knives these days, and I try to only buy ones that I am reasonably sure I can rapidly resell at 70% or better of their retail value if I don't like them. Sometimes I guess right, or get lucky, or am fastest, and I get something that when I resell it, I make a bit of money. Most of the time, I don't. Sometimes I see something I just have to have even though I know it won't resell. In six years of record keeping, I am +$5,441.46 on knives sold with an original cost to me of $73,812.37 and 151 sales. That probably sounds super impressive, but it includes the halcyon days of 2020-2022 when people would buy anything that was limited in any way, shape, or form at higher than retail prices, and I really enjoy chasing drops. The last two years? I'm at -$628.70 on 34 sales for knives with a total original cost of $24,264, and I'm very happy whenever I sell a knife and am able to break even, as it allows me to buy other knives and continue enjoying this hobby.
I guess when I look at those numbers I think gosh, I could have used that money better in a lot of ways. But on the other hand, much of that cost is more accurately described as short-term asset turnover rather than building inventory, i.e., the same thousand dollars spent on a knife, earned on a sale, spent on other knives, earned on later sales... and I got a lot of pleasure out of this collecting hobby in the last 22 years.
