What is the deal with ebay knives?

It depends on what it is too. I regularly buy Spydercos off Ebay and get some decent prices. Not always great deals but lots of fair deals that online knife stores can't always seem to match. Of course I have my preferred sellers too.
 
There really are a lot of great deals out there.
You just have to keep your eyes open.
Plain and Simple.
 
Got a great rainbow leek for $40 including shipping but I was watching ebay for 2 weeks before I ever made a bid. Know your produce and the price you want to pay.;
 
Well,actually I have seen lots of great deals on ebay for knives.It depends on the type of knife.Randalls will fetch high prices.I have seen however such knives as Spyderco's and Schatt & Morgan for example that routinely sell for below dealer price if you have patience to watch the auctions for a few weeks till some good deals surface.I'll give you an example.A couple of months back give or take, I searched for Spyderco Chinook II.I had found several brand new in box for "buy it now" prices of $75.00 to 85.00.At that price money is being lost,but that is what I saw them selling for :confused: Anyway it depends on the brand of knife and type,but good deals can be found weekly without much effort.
 
I think that there are lots of good deals to be had on custom knives if you know what youre doing, but its true, on common items, like a leatherman or a SAK etc, discount stores may have them cheaper.

I know of a fellow forum member who recently snagged a beautiful, rare stag and damascus Keith Kilby bowie, easily a $1500 knife, for around $700, I know of another forum member who got a mint Centofante 3.5" pearl double bolstered tail lock, with Litton engraving, for $850, they routinely sell from dealers for $1400+.

They're out there if you look and are patient.

For certain items, Ebay can save you a bundle, like 70% off retail, and in my experience, if the seller has a long and excellent feedback rating, you're pretty safe too.
 
This is not to brag, but to illustrate the kinds of below market deals you can find. On eBay I got a NIB Military S30V PE for $52, a NIB Calypso Jr. for $22, and a NIB Spyderco Perrin for $52. Watched a new Spyderco Moran drop point sell for $35 and a new Rinaldi TTKK S30V sell for $230, both brand new (been kicking myself ever since for not grabbing them). There are definitely deals there, but like's been said, you have to know what you want, know a good deal, be patient, and be eBay savvy.
That being said, intensively searching the internet sellers can get you great prices too. I bought a Spyderco Wegner for $59, a G10 Police for $59, and I know the web sites where you can get a Cold Steel Master Hunter in Carbon V for $41, or a Cocobolo handled, S30V, Lone Wolf Hersey Tactical II (great knife) for $147...great deals I'm seriously considering that I've never seen on eBay. The forums can yield gems also. So if you want to take the time, chase it until you get it. Good luck.
 
There are good deals on eBay, and I have got my share, but it depends what you are looking for and how you do it. I have installed a number of searches into my program re the knives I am interested in and get emails when they become available so I don't have to search through all the rubbish to find them.
 
I have always saved money over retail on knives on ebay usually about 15% to 20% off internet prices and much more over local retail prices. Back a couple of years ago I got both the large and small cold steel Culloden knives for like $58 shipped. I got a Robert Parish cord wrapped double edged boot knife for the minimum bid of $80+ about $6 shipping. I got a Microtech Kestrel for around $147 shipped. I got my Reeve MK VI for $214.

Good deals are available you just have to be patient and look for the right circumstances.

Low but not too low starting bids. A $1.00 opening bid on a Randall 1-7 will always get lots of attention. An opening bid of $109 on a knife that normally sells on the internet for $129 will garner little attention when there are 5 other sellers offering the same knife with a $99 opening bid. The $99 starting bid auctions will close within a dollar or two of the internet price and the $109 auction will close for $109

Auctions that end at odd times, I seem to get the best deals when I bid on items that end between 03:00am and 07:00 am. I think because most people are bidding in the last 5 minutes to avoid someone pushing up their proxy bid to it's max. Holidays are good too. Weekend holidays like labor day and memorial day. are good.


Sellers that are relatively new to selling on ebay. Someone who has less than 100 feedback is eager to boost that number and build a customer base will often have the best opening bid price and many buyers are unwilling to bid on low feedback sellers auctions. Ironically these sellers usually give impeccable service.

Be patient, Unless you are buying Loveless or Lile another one will be offered soon. I was looking for a Dewalt or Milwaukee die grinder recently. I was tired of my weak dremmel tool and the cost of the bit's and cutters that don't last. I priced the Dewalt at an industrial tool shop locally, $318, the Milwaukee was $384 way out of line.
I checked the internet. $165 to $185. Better, but I looked on ebay, $129! that's more like it. There was a seller starting auctions for $99 and they would close at $121 to $130 so I bid $115. in the last 2 or 3 minutes I would loose. I tried again, the fourth try I got it for $109
 
This is very interesting. I can assure you that it's no place for a dealer to go who wants to make a profit. It is rare that one can get even dealer cost for a knife on Ebay. I just dumped a total of 50 mid priced kitchen knives on Ebay as an inventory clearance expecting to get less than dealer cost. That's exactly what I got on every single one. Some $80 slicers only got $10. It's very strange to hear people say that the prices are high. I'd say less than 5% of the prices on Ebay are high. There appear to be more sellers than buyers. I guess it depends on your perspective, huh?
 
Knife Outlet said:
This is very interesting. I can assure you that it's no place for a dealer to go who wants to make a profit. It is rare that one can get even dealer cost for a knife on Ebay. I just dumped a total of 50 mid priced kitchen knives on Ebay as an inventory clearance expecting to get less than dealer cost. That's exactly what I got on every single one. Some $80 slicers only got $10. It's very strange to hear people say that the prices are high. I'd say less than 5% of the prices on Ebay are high. There appear to be more sellers than buyers. I guess it depends on your perspective, huh?
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I think the way a lot of them make profit is volume, volume, volume over time. A lot of times I'll buy something there because it's $5-$20 cheaper than a store even after shipping. They must surely be making some money at that rate and I bet their overhead cost is low. The biggest expense would be the shipping supplies and postage and you can get some shipping supplies for free and I'm sure there's a way to get breaks on postage if you ship lots of packages. I'd think the only challenge would be keeping on top of it because it would be easy to slip up.

Well and another thing I often think is that if I were retired I'd like to sell a single brand of knives on Ebay just for grins. I wouldn't make much money especially in the first couple years and startup costs would be huge but it would be something to do. I doubt you can become an actual factory sanctioned dealer for any knife company just by offering an internet storefront though; I bet you have to have a brick and mortar store somewhere with some pretty stiff requirements.
 
No, if you sell below cost, volume only loses more money. It is possible for an individual to sell 10% lower than internet dealers, as an example for weekend beer money. It wouldn't make a living, though. These people sell only a fraction of what we dealers sell on line. I see sellers with over 1000 feedbacks on Ebay. We sell 1000 knives in a good week. My experience is that the great majority of knives with a reserve or with a starting bid above cost, never sell. For me Ebay is a place to dump inventory that I can't sell any other way-inventory on which I'm willing to take a loss.

Believe me, I've tried for years to figure out how to make money selling the brand name knives we sell on Ebay and I can't do it profitably. I'm pretty good at selling knives on the internet and there are plenty more like me. None of us can do it. A few years ago I used to sell occasionally on Ebay just for the advertising. Now we aren't allowed to put links in the descriptions so the option of advertising is gone.

Ebay has to be the cheapest place on the planet to buy knives-and nearly anything else. Good deal for consumers. Bad deal for sellers. Luckily it doesn't have a detectable impact on our regular business. Take care.
 
I saw a custom from John Kubasek go for 125 bucks the other day... and I just bought 5 Oneida dinner forks from our pattern for 9 bucks.
 
it depends on luck, sometimes
i have a friend selling on ebay, and he observed that bids ending on mondays to wednesdays always ended highest
sometimes, nobody bids and you get lucky
i scored a kershaw avalanche for 79+ s&h
1sks has it for 97 and msrp is 130
i would check out the prices BEFORE bidding, so i know when to stop
 
used to get good knife deals on Ebay, but it seems that everyone lately is using bid snipeing software to beat my last bid by a dollar. Very frustrating! Now I look to the forums for knife sales. I'm surpised that snipe software has not been a subject of conversation here.
 
i both agree and disagree with a lot of you. but, everyone does have a point. i have noticed that you can get good deals on ebay, but you have to look hard and be patient. just as you would any where else.

i have snagged a few awesome deals on ebay, that i would get no where else for the money. listing of items is below:

- remington silver bullet knife, 1994. collector value around $45-$50. i got it for $24 NIB
- antique PAL/Remington Hunting Navy combat knife, 1941. some sights have them for $100-$175, i got it good condition for $36
- spyderco endura frn, typically around $45 retail, i got it for $31 NIB
- chris reeve large reg. sebenza (BG42), typically around $345 retail, i got it for $279.99 NIB

i'm sure i'll find more great buys on ebay too. i'm hooked :)

thanks,
 
Now we aren't allowed to put links in the descriptions so the option of advertising is gone.
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Actually, thats only half true, its true they prohibited putting a clickable link to your website in the auction itself, however, there are at least 2 good loopholes that are completely within the rules and which are probably about 85% as effective as advertising where the link is in the auction itself.

What are they?

1) Create an "About Me" page, on this page, you can have a clickable hyperlink to your website, as long as you only say something like: "Click here to visit The Knife Outlet..." On your auction description, you clearly state, but without a clickable link, maybe once at the top, once at the bottom that people should "click on my "About Me" page to visit us at The Knife Outlet." The minute they go to your about me page, they see your big website link and click on it, viola, they're on your WS.

2) At the top of your description, in nice big letters, have a clickable email link that says, for example: "If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to email me at: (Here's the clickable email link) Fred@TheKnifeOutlet.com

Guess what, people now know you are TKO.com and will go to you if they want to and Ebay cant do anything, you are allowed to have a business email address, the good news for sellers is, it tells people what your website is, nice little loopholes, huh? :)

If Ebay wants to be greedy, well, then its up to us to become adept at figuring out legal and ethical ways to keep more of our money. Its like hiring a good accountant. :)

Many people fail to realize, Ebay is bent on world domination. :)
 
I use Ebay to sell knives that don't move on the forums. Many have gotten great deals from me - and I'm happy to have liquidated what I was not able to turn around. Maybe one day I'll be lucky enough to find a deal going the other way around.
 
amw308 said:
The average price for a leatherman wave was selling for was about $60. I could go to walmart and get one for $55 new in the box and not have to pay shipping or wait on it to arrive.
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Don't buy a wave at all. They are typically priced higher than than the Swiss Tool and still not even close to their quality. This was off topic, but I just don't like the Wave. I mean come on... The tools don't even lock!
 
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