Which Knives out now will go up in value, become unicorns ?

Why do you ask about "which knives will go up in value?" if you are not interested in re-sale or collecting?

For me, I only buy what I like. No sprint runs unless the particular knife is something I am precisely looking for.
 
Nautique said:
The Mantis & Quartermaster suggestion was complete sarcasm BTW.
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I looked at a popular knife dealer and was thinking "WTF" why I never heard of them. They didn't look like something I would pay retail let alone half their value. I had thought y'all were joking but I saw it mentioned a couple of times and each time I was more confused. I'm a pretty sarcastic person so- y'all got me.
 
Buying knives as an investment is not a great strategy. Buy a knife because you like it. Investing in any collectible hoping it will go up is not safe.

That being said I would say knives by custom makers who have 4 year long waiting lists is probably a pretty safe bet. Strider is supposed to be closing down. Some of their rarer production knives maybe?
 
If you DO want to invest, you should check on the midtech/custom market and do your homework :) I don't think production pieces can get as much cash back return/user experience/grin factor as a nice folder from some... “icons of the industry” haha
 
I think the reason the Tilt went up in value so much is because it was essentially the last top of the line Kershaw model produced. (Did that 40th anniversary one with the red standoffs come out after the tilt?) After the Tilt Kai delegated models of this quality to ZT. Also I think the uncommon steel was a factor too.
 
Don't buy knives expecting to sell it and make a profit. I keep a full history of my collection. I've sold 142 knives and on average each sale I have taken a loss of 10%. Only 8 of the knives that I sold were for more than what I bought them for (and many were rare/limited editions -- ZT0454, 0777, 0392, 0888, Benchmade Gold class, etc...) and only 4 were sold for more than $100 than I paid for them.

Manufacturers don't benefit from a knife having a high secondary market value so their strategies to sell knives can very easily do exactly the opposite. A couple years ago it was pretty hard to get your hands on an XM-18 and if you found one it was minimum $550. Now you can pick between dozens of retailers with multiple variations in stock at $425. Look what ZT did with the 0392. Sure the original is still a limited edition and there's only about 500 or so but since then there have been, what, 10 different variations released? Do you think it's still worth the $1000 that they were going for? Unlikely.
 
Unless you're willing to treat it like a second job, my answer would be don't worry about it. To make any real money at it, you've constantly got to be eyeballing trends, and trying to find deals here and there. By the time you calculate the time invested, etc.... it's :(.

Whenever folks start thinking about knives as investments, I tell them to buy a stack of knife magazines from the 80's, early 90's, look at who and what was hot then price them now. For every Loveless or Al Mar, there are dozens of once popular, very fine knives that can be picked up for much less than their original sales prices.
 
If you truly want to invest in knives, I would look at some of the custom makers that are deceased and somewhat immortal in the knife world. An alternative if you are young is to look at very popular custom makers who are getting old and not likely to be making knives for much more than another 10 years to any great extent. There are risks of course. There are not many Bill Moran's around. Most just fade away like the generals.
 
Hindsight is 20-20. I don't think it's easy to predict which knives will become collectible.
I most closely follow Spyderco. I see that the Sage 4 is now collectible. I never would have guessed that would happen.
The Zulu is another that became collectible that I never would have expected.
On the flip side, take the PPT. Not at all collectible. Even the sprint run.
I agree that the overpriced Seki-made knives like the Firefly or Temperance 3 could become collectible after they're discontinued. But what do I know.
 
Another thing that I don't think has been mentioned yet is to make the most money on resale the knife has to be new in box. I personally can't buy a knife and put it away. I need to carry and use them.
 
I would really be in big trouble if any in my knife collection were purchased with investment in mind. Though I'm pretty well versed in going upside-down when day trading. So I may be "good" at knife investments. Just don't tell my wife, because to her, EVERY KNIFE PURCHASE is an investment. No really honey. If I ever sell a knife, the worst that could happen would be a break-even. .

But if I had to guess, these few MAY be worth more than I paid for them. The fact that they were pulled from dead inventory sales for pennies on the dollar shouldn't change the futures outlook for the rest of my collection. Seriously....no really. Pretty much anything Mantis is going through the roof. But I'm most excited about the Birthday Grand Master Barlow. I hope I could sell that baby for 300%-400% over cost. Now that's the return we all want daily. But when selling, if postage or PP fees go over $2, I'm back to treading water again.

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Doh! The TinyPic copy-n-paste image codes doesn't look like it'll work with the new format. Don't know why it tried to code out the brackets. Anyway, here's try number two.

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Looks like that worked. Had to strip off the pre inserted image tags, and let this page add them with the image link. On my phone it's a much slower work around. But it works. At least while trying to learn the new site features.
 
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I invested in eggs. They've been going up the whole month of April and I got a feeling they're going to peak right around July. Then, bang! That's when I'll cash in.
 
bflying said:
I would really be in big trouble if any in my knife collection were purchased with investment in mind. Though I'm pretty well versed in going upside-down when day trading. So I may be "good" at knife investments. Just don't tell my wife, because to her, EVERY KNIFE PURCHASE is an investment. No really honey. If I ever sell a knife, the worst that could happen would be a break-even. .

But if I had to guess, these few MAY be worth more than I paid for them. The fact that they were pulled from dead inventory sales for pennies on the dollar shouldn't change the futures outlook for the rest of my collection. Seriously....no really. Pretty much anything Mantis is going through the roof. But I'm most excited about the Birthday Grand Master Barlow. I hope I could sell that baby for 300%-400% over cost. Now that's the return we all want daily. But when selling, if postage or PP fees go over $2, I'm back to treading water again.

%5BIMG%5Dhttp://i67.tinypic.com/9zx9ig.jpg%5B/IMG%5D

Doh! The TinyPic copy-n-paste image codes doesn't look like it'll work with the new format. Don't know why it tried to code out the brackets. Anyway, here's try number two.

9zx9ig.jpg


Looks like that worked. Had to strip off the pre inserted image tags, and let this page add them with the image link. On my phone it's a much slower work around. But it works. At least while trying to learn the new site features.
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What Mantis is that? Is that the one that is sort of like the Spyderco Gunting? What is it called?
 
Lapedog said:
What Mantis is that? Is that the one that is sort of like the Spyderco Gunting? What is it called?
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It's the Snaggletooth (I think). It's a monster brick with a two inch blade. With very soft steel. But it's not the first time I've purchased something just because it put a smile on my face....for whatever reason.
 
Lapedog said:
I think the reason the Tilt went up in value so much is because it was essentially the last top of the line Kershaw model produced. (Did that 40th anniversary one with the red standoffs come out after the tilt?) After the Tilt Kai delegated models of this quality to ZT. Also I think the uncommon steel was a factor too.
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The Ruby did come out after the Tilt. But... it also had a billboard across the handle and blade, the design was a lot more conventional and less interesting, the technology wasn't as new, and as you say Vanax (whichever number the Tilt had, can't remember) is still a lot rarer than the Ruby's ZDP-189. The Tilt had a lot of things going for it.

Personally I'd take a 3600 Volt over either, but that's just me. :D
 
I think OP never mentioned investing in knives. He just asked what knives may go up in value or be rare to find.

By the way I have an insider who says sell eggs. Buy in on beach towels.
 
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