Your biggest score or haul in your lifespan of collecting

needler420

needler420

Joined
Apr 29, 2011
Messages
947
Ever find a really good knife in the wild?

I got this idea because I actively go to flea markets, auctions, yard sales for the last few years mainly collecting video games and comic books and toys. I recently started hunting knives. My video game collection is amazing would make gamers drool when they see the stuff I acquired and the prices I got them for.

Basically I avoid the main knife vendors at all flea markets they are always selling China knock offs sometimes marked but those are the type of people that will try to deceive you with counterfeits. So i tend to stick to more privatized sales. At the same time I'm fair with offers and how I approach a deal. I won't give someone $2 dollars knowing I'm walking away with their $100 dollar knife. At the same time I won't make them aware of the actual current market value. I like to be fair and meet at a fair price.

I've been too nice before telling them oh its worth $50 bucks and then they won't budge from like $40 knowing dam well if I didn't open my mouth they would have probably sold it for pennies on the dollar. So its a catch 22 how you barter.

Anyway I'd love to hear stories and see pics of rare knives or quality ones you found in the wild and made you proud to add to the collection. Or if you're a reseller and sold to buy or trade something else.

Oh I forgot to mention. I never had a good knife find. So no exciting story from me.:(
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Found a mark V dive knife at a thrift store I was checking out once. I asked if he had any knives and it was all broken junk and then this huge thing. The
sheath was all banged up and when I unscrewed the blade it was untouched and still in original grease. I thought it was some piece of junk so I left it there
and ended up googling it that night. I went back the next day and picked it up for about $50.

I kept it for a while, but really had no use for it. Ended up trading it for some Strider fixed blade that I ended up not liking, early in my obsession. Who knows
where it is now, or where that Strider even is for that matter. Was many years ago.

Still hoping to pick up some old school Randall for 50 bucks at a yard sale some day from some punk kid selling off his grandpa's stuff. That's just a knife fantasy
of mine really, I don't go to yard sales much, but maybe.

MarkVknivesL-RMorseDescoBomar.jpg
 
My biggest haul was a large order of closeout Old Timers and other Schrade knives from a large online dealer just after the factory closed. Some great knives, and at prices that would be easy to flip for a profit.
 
Picking up a SanteFe Stoneworks Delica for same price as a second-hand FRN Delica on the forums.
10447769_10152651382505139_8686729946314019759_n_zps35ad4e88.jpg


Though nothing will beat the wife having the last Tuff put through Golden for a special engraving for our 10th Wedding Anniversary. (I'm a Lopez, so Mr 'Pez is the better half's pet name for me)
11061943_10153784645820139_50590736100609899_n_zpsfpy9y8hq.jpg
 
I have no pictures but my first 3 knives were ones I found in the dirt in various places. I needed a knife for farm type work but my parents weren't the kind to give money for the kids. We were worked and given schedules with time limits for jobs that earned a beating when not completed on time, or with good results and these jobs often required knives. Where I got them was my problem.

Walking pretty much every where I went it was fairly routine to find stuff on the ground. My first was an Imperial Fishing/scaling knife with the scales off and the clip blade broken half way making it look sort of like a cut throat razor. It had then been resharpened on a bench grinder, lost, and rusted pretty bad. I used that one until the next one came. I still have it along with a couple intact Imperial Fishing type two bladed knives, one of which has steel scales instead of yellow plastic. All are still usable. Probably 1967-68

Next was a Sawcut delrin Camillus barlow with the clip blade also snapped in half. That was my companion for a decade or so and was taken from me in basic training as contraband. Found 68-9, lost 1980

Next was a Camillus (?) or Imperial imported - Japan giant swiss army type knife . The Holster was red and the thing huge so I only carried it in a back pack when hunting, fishing or camping. It had a fork and spoon included and they were full size so picture how large this knife was. I traded that off to my cousin eventually. 1970-1 thru 75


I have a few others I found but none are collectors items or expensive. I didn't even know anybody who bought expensive knives when I was a kid. Rich guys knives back then ( Bucks and Pumas) wouldn't really be considered expensive now. The industry and customer base have changed much since I was a kid.
 
Last edited:
I've made a couple of decent scores at gun shows. Not long ago, I wandered into a weekend show at a National Guard Armory, less than an hour before closing time. A lot of the sellers were already packing up, and there weren't many knives other than old WWII bayonets and the usual junk knives, but one guy had something a bit out of place with the rest of his wares: USA Cold Steel Carbon V Recon Scout. In retrospect, the price wasn't amazing ($90-100 as I recall) but more than acceptable for as clean as it was.

Realistically, most of my best scores have come from either the Exchange here or Cabela's Bargain Cave.
 
If you enjoy flea markets and garage sales, by all means continue visiting them. I don't particularly enjoy stuff like this.
 
this one may not be a great find to anyone else but me in particular but I found a perfect condition Case 1998 repro V-42 at a gunshow. I saw it sticking out from under a towel on a box behind the table. I ask to see it and he tells me it's not for sale... I said, everything's for sale for the right price, how about $150? and he said, no... so the negotiations begin. I told him how it was the symbol of my unit as a descendant of the first special service force and started laying it on a little thick, and long story short I ended up with it for $50. Again, not amazing until I found out shortly after that he had just got it that day himself and had paid more than that for it himself. All in all a great score for me and a nice gesture from him. He didn't have to sell it at all... especially for less than he paid. it now hangs in a shadow box with my coin I received after graduating my SF course.
 
Best for me so far is a small lot (5 knives) someone posted for sale several years ago on a fountain pen list I read. $40 for the bunch. Lot included a Victorinox SwissTool RS and a 1st Gen Delica as well as a discontinued Wenger SAK and a Vic Executive. I emailed the individual to make sure he meant $40 for all of them and when he said yes, I grabbed it.
 
I went hiking at a state park by me, and found a fallkniven A1 that looked pretty new. I bought a spyderco paramilitary 2 for 75 because it needed to be cleaned and sharpened and the seller didn't have the tools or sharpening stones to do so. And I just got a zero tolerance for 75 and its in mint condition
 
My CRKT/Lightfoot M1. Purchased for $80 at a large flea market (a princely sum for me, back then).

Considering my uneven experiences with CRKT, that one was a winner. If it were not for falling out of love with black knives, I could easily have stopped right there. Solid and confidence-inspiring in it's weight, good lockup, reasonable edge retention, and the LAWKS, which saved my hands several times when I tried to get one more cut out of a dull blade.

Second to that was probably the 551 Mini-Grip, purchased at Cabela's with a gift card from work. D2 and the Grip's excellent ergonomics with no money out of my pocket? Yes, please.

Maybe it seems strange that an $80 knife would outrank an essentially free knife, but I'm thinking of personal value.

Third would have to be the Mini-Cyclone. The Cyclone was discontinued back when I still thought mall ninja knives were the way to go. It took years for me to notice the Cyclone's modified wharncliffe blade and good ergonomics, by which time they had been out of production for several years.

I was very lucky to pick up a full-size one for $50. Just a plain-jane steel version with Speedsafe. It was everything I thought it would be, except that it was a little too big.

I was then very lucky again, to find a "buy it now" Mini-Cyclone for $30. It was described as a "user" knife, and there were some rough spots showing, but I didn't mind: that saved me from being the one to scuff up a pristine knife!

The Mini-Cyclone actually satisfied my knife itch for about three months. But now I've got a fixed blade on the way to me. I like the look of it, and it may end up on this list, as well.
 
Spyderco Military for $70. from a member here. It's a "Franken-Millie": a standard S30V blade in the gray G10 scales from a Cru-Wear sprint run. Built from left over parts by the seller, and I'd been looking for a beater/user for a while. It functions and locks up just like it was made in Golden.

The other is a CRKT large Razel, that I think I got for $5.00, added to the deal when I bought another knife from the seller. The LAWKS had been removed, so the lockup was unreliable. I tuned it & tweaked it, and got it adjusted perfectly. It's my best garage knife right now. Makes a great folding scraper.

The last one that comes to mind is a U.S.-made Remington #R9501 Stockman for $7.99 + $2.50 shipping off of fleabay. Made by Camillus before they closed in '07. All three blades made of Carbon V steel, and a user as well. A previous owner had put convex edges on all three blades, and that thing was a cutting beast. I sold it for an annual fundraiser we do. Man, I miss that knife.

~Chris
 
22-rimfire said:
If you enjoy flea markets and garage sales, by all means continue visiting them. I don't particularly enjoy stuff like this.
Click to expand...

Yeah, except maybe once, all I've ever found at sales are broken used junk. And grossly overpriced.

needler420 said:
bump not enough stories in here for my satisfying.
Click to expand...

You should have been around a few years back when the Effingham Ek knives were on closeout for $30 each. Too bad I only had enough money to buy one. :(
 
I would honestly have to say that the Mcusta Tactility that my friend Erik sold to me is my biggest score to date. He lent it to me so that I could test drive it, but I ended up falling in love with instantly, and begged him to sell. Turns out he had gotten a fantastic deal, and passed that deal on to me. I LOVE this knife. I carried it all weekend, in fact:

19637573674_ab96cda975_b.jpg
 
My dad paid $15 for a lot of about 10 knives; slip joints mostly and oh yeah, an unused Boye Basic 2. He didn't know what it was and neither did the guy selling the stuff.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top