Why I sold most of my expensive knives (anyone else feel like this?)

22-rimfire said:
That's one of the reasons I never sell. It is not so much the money or value, but the effort involved and who knows, a year from now I may like or want to use a particular model that I sold. No regrets this way.
Click to expand...

If I even mention the thought of trading or selling, my wife says "No!"
Because I will end up buying it again in a few months, for more money than I originally had to pay. :D
(done it before...)
 
I did that whole 'soul searching' thing before I got into knives. Set a budget cap at $200 and have only gotten close, once ($170). Want vs need - knives certainly don't fit the 'need' category for me. In fact, not much does lately.
 
Stabman- My wife says the same thing.
Now, I trade or sell one to buy one. That's it!
 
sodak said:
I can't sell any of my expensive knives and get even what I paid for them, they are all beat to snot, modified, etc. No kidding. I use what I buy, and I enjoy it.
Click to expand...

man i love this thread. I see myself in almost all the comments. I have a half dozen buses knives and that many chris reeve and have been saying that I am putting them up for sell and not buying not one more... but heck I have a great appreciation for good steel and craftsmanship even if I know without a doubt I can get the job done with much less
 
If I won't use it, it leaves. The one exception is the Sage 3 my wife got me for our anniversary, I'm Kore careful with it so it tends to be a knife I carry at family get together and the like. Don't see what good a tool is if it won't be used
 
I have far more knives than I need. I even have some "Sunday Go To Meeting" knives which it seems I seldom use or think to use. If I have a problem of "want vs need", it lies in the fact that I have way more knives than I will ever use (even once unless I make the effort) and I have this dang SAK in my pocket all the time and it gets used for everything I mostly need day to day. The woods or hikes are different. I just add to the SAK. :D

I would find it inconvenient to not carry a knife. I have learned that SAKs on the key chain can be a problem when you go into court houses. So, I pretty much keep them in my pocket where I remember that I have them and can leave them in the car/truck.
 
Haven't made the leap to Buses or Busse's. :rolleyes: I just can't justify the price even to myself and I don't need a lot of encouragement to pick something new up.

The purge will come in the future, if it comes.

I still look forward to the next one. If I compare to my firearm accumulation, I seldom even look anymore. But that could change. If it doesn't change over a period of a couple years, I might be ready to purge some blades.
 
I feel as if a lot of people do the opposite and cut down on their less expensive knives in order to fund more expensive knives. I have recently started (Or should say stopped) purchasing knives due to the size of my collection and even sold a bunch before adding another. My most expensive knives are in my EDC rotation along with my least expensive (An Sak classic).
 
I've spent as much as 2,200 on a custom knife. I pretty much stick to Zero Tolerance knives and Spydercos now because I just can't justify carrying pocket jewelry that I am afraid to use for fear of it depreciating. Every knife I currently have(minus backups) get carried and used
 
Blues Bender said:
One of my custom slipjoints was only $240, which nowadays is typical for a production piece.
Click to expand...
"Typical" is a subjective term. I'd be hard pressed to say $240 is typical for production slipjoints. My EDC pocket knife is a vintage slipjoint, an ~55 year old Ulster 180/Craftsman 9507 peanut made in Schrade's Ellenville, NY plant for which I recently paid $15 here on BF. Great blades in excellent steel. "Typical" depends entirely on one's POV and one's buying habits. I've never owned any knife, especially a production slipjoint, costing $240 or anywhere close to that. In my entire life, I've only ever owned one knife costing more than a $100, and that's the Tom Mayo one-off custom I posted earlier in this thread. It was a stretch for me to buy that.
 
Captain O said:
I'm sorry if I sound so negative. Knives are fun, but in the immortal words of Inspector Harry Callahan, "a man's got to know his limitations." I found mine years ago. Everything that I buy today should have a purpose. (for the most part, what I buy generally does.)

Captain O
Click to expand...

Hello,

I love that quote of Harry's! Thank you.

Take care.

Sincerely,

Cate
 
As much as I love knives I'm not a guy that's ever going to buy a knife more then a few hundred. Maybe down the line is like to grab a small sebenza but that would be my max. I just personally couldn't justify 600,800,1500 etc on a knife. Quality in knives jump a lot when you go from $20-$50 up to $100-$300 but how much more quality do you really get from the $200 - $800 price jump? Much more custom stuff and hand crafted work I'm sure.

Plus firearms don't help. I like guns more then knives and that's a big reason I don't see myself ever spending more then $250/$300 on a knife.

Just me though. Good thread.
 
powernoodle said:
It did so when the original poster asked if others had experienced the phenomenon of losing interest in spendy knives, and I explained why it happens.

All hobbies, ours included, are distractions from emotional angst. That's why they exist. When you are playing with your Hinderer, hitting a golf ball, or heading out in the bass boat, you aren't thinking about 22 more years of mortgage payments or a receding hairline.

Just one short step past hobbies is true addiction. Drug and alcohol abuse also anesthetizes us and distracts us from the memory that daddy never liked us or mommy's boyfriend locked us in the closet. The difference is that true addictions have much more deleterious consequences, like loss of family, sickness and death. Hobbies just make your credit card hurt.

So spendy knives and emotional anesthesia are not just closely intertwined, they are two faces of the same animal. This is my thesis, and it seems to me that all of the evidence supports it.

[emoji106]
Click to expand...



If you listen to anyone making psychoanalytic theories they are always simply telling you about themselves. Often the torments of one's own mind are also present in others and noticed creating a confirmation bias where the analyst sees all the evidence supporting their theory and ignores other evidence. Powernoodle, you have an interesting perspective that holds SOME truth, but you are taking your experiences and projecting them on others. Also, your theory is not falsifiable. Opinions are nice until they are presented as fact.
 
Converge said:
As much as I love knives I'm not a guy that's ever going to buy a knife more then a few hundred. Maybe down the line is like to grab a small sebenza but that would be my max. I just personally couldn't justify 600,800,1500 etc on a knife. Quality in knives jump a lot when you go from $20-$50 up to $100-$300 but how much more quality do you really get from the $200 - $800 price jump? Much more custom stuff and hand crafted work I'm sure.

Plus firearms don't help. I like guns more then knives and that's a big reason I don't see myself ever spending more then $250/$300 on a knife.

Just me though. Good thread.
Click to expand...

Well stated... See me, I have "enough" guns for now, bought and inherited, plenty enough for me and my family to be well armed in an emergency (since one person can only carry so many at one time any how). A Decent variety covering many of your common calibers. And while I'd love some upgrades; benelli, colt, kimber, etc, what I have works (well) and those upgrades are expensive, moreso then knives in comparison, so that's where knives come in to feed that "compulsion" to collect; but, all my "babies" need to eat, and a thousand rounds means I'm almost out of ammo... That's where knife restrictions come into play...

3 or 4 knives for under or right around $200 with one centerpiece typically "anchoring" the shopping cart, the others just budget beauts or slicks sale price deals thrown in to sweeten the pot, I can justify. But $300+ for just one knife... I mean, there are a few out there that I really do like, in the higher tier, but I always have a hard time pulling the trigger when I compare ONE really nice $300+ knife vs. $300 worth of ammunition...

Lately I haven't been shooting as much, I just don't feel as compelled, so I'm caught in that "limbo"... I still don't have "enough" ammo, but, I'm really not wasting what I got down range so, what I have is a decent stockpile for the time being.
 
Last edited:
As a law abiding nonviolent felon, I totally don't have to worry about a guns/ammo budget.

:D
 
As I get older I look at my knife accumulation and think perhaps that money could be spent more constructively.

Especially considering 99% of my pocket time goes to two of them :D
 
This post has taken an interesting direction. I would say for me buying knives is not so much about filling any void or hole, though it definitely does drive the addictive part of me at times. It's more about the idea of the right tool for the right job. I get obsessed with the idea of "best" or "the right way to do something." I mean just knowing there's a right way to mow your lawn, wipe your butt, chew food. These things are interesting to me. With knives I love the feeling you get when the right knife and the right task align for the ultimate cutting experience. It's awesome and what drives my purchases. I want to try new shapes, new steels, new bevels, I want to learn about bang for your buck and all the fun stuff. Buying new knives, new shapes, new steels, it's a lot about learning.

Also here's a fun fact. This is from Uppers, Downers, All-Arounders, a book that you need to read when your getting your addictions counselors certification and also a very good book. When we're talking about addiction - there's a system of the brain Mesolimbic Dopimenergic Reward System or more simply put The Stop/Go circut. This circut does 3 things
1. Tells you that what you are doing is necessary for survival
2. Tells you to keep doing that thing until you are satisfied
3. Tells you to remember what you did so that you can do it again next time.

Addiction generally enters the equation when the stop part of the circuit breaks. This can break not just from psychoactive drugs but also behaviors, compulsive gambling, shopping, picking etc. I think about this sometimes when I really get the urge to buy knives hard, I think, is my stop circuit broken today?
 
and this just became the winner for craziest thread ever!!! We've got emotional, psychological, addiction, comparison, etc, etc ... This is like The Crying Game of threads.... What a roller-coaster.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top