How it ends

[GronK]

50% is common. I wouldn't call that pennies. Tis the way things work with dealers. Consignments work. Just depends on how quickly you want to liquidate a collection. On some things, I would be more than comfortable with 50% of market value.

50% was what I told her to get. The offers were less than 20%, what I would consider pawn shop numbers.

 

[gnystrom]

This is really sad, but I get a message from this story. The message I get is “be sure you offload your collection before they drag you away and drop you off in a nursing home.”

Exactly. I am currently doing this with quite a few firearms. The holsters, Aftermarket grips, and other gun accessories that I "had to have", my family may decide they are dumpster food.
We all as "collectors" usually p[lace a far greater value on our obsession than they will actually bring in the open market.
I have listed my guns and the approximate current (dated) along with oddities like Craig Spegel grips, Milt Sparks holsters on a sheet taped to the inside door of my safe. Included are the names of those who would be helpful in their disposition.

 

[Stumpy72]

I think what many of us silently hope to do is sell off our collections for optimum bucks shortly before we fall seriously ill or get chained to a nursing home bed in the loony wing---much like being in a free-falling elevator, suddenly jumping up just before the damn thing craters and somehow miraculously avoiding serious injury. Sadly, those kind of approaches just don’t work. The smart thing to do is offloading the good majority of the collection long before the doc says it’s Stage IV Pancreatic Cancer and you’ve only got a few months left in you. The tricky part is being able to guess how old you’ll get to be and knowing when to sell off the toys.

I doubt there’s much satisfaction or fun in living out the last couple or few years of your life with just a couple knives or guns, but it’s the most sensible thing to do for those of us who don’t want our collections to be sold off for pennies on the dollar by heirs or surviving spouses who don’t know any better, don’t care or are so lost in grief that they don’t bother to read and follow the directions that were left for them.

 

[Mecha]

That's why you gotta run to the hills, to your cabin stronghold before they can cart you off to the home, and you bring your knives with you. And if anyone tries to bring you back to Godforsaken civilization, you give 'em a taste of rock salt from Ole' Betsy!

 

[not2sharp]

....I doubt there’s much satisfaction or fun in living out the last couple or few years of your life with just a couple knives or guns, but it’s the most sensible thing to do for those of us who don’t want our collections to be sold off for pennies on the dollar by heirs or surviving spouses who don’t know any better, don’t care or are so lost in grief that they don’t bother to read and follow the directions that were left for them.

With all due respect, our heirs owe it to themselves to become familiar with our collections. We can't force them to act responsibly and we shouldn't have to. They could bin a sack of cash as easily as they would our collections. The onus here is on them, not us.

n2s

 

[Steely_Gunz]

I never got into this hobby to either make a return on my investment or leave a vast cache of heirlooms to imagined children's children.

At the end of the day, they are just bits of metal and wood or plastic. The value of my collection will be in the stories I might pass down to those who want to listen. I'm only at the tail end of my 30s, but I'm longwinded. Give me another 30 years, and im sure I'll never shut up

What I mean is that maybe one day my daughter might have a child. Or, my little brother is 20 years younger than me. Any niece or nephew I have from him will see me more as a grandfather than an uncle, which is ok. My dad is in his mid 60s. Hes not exactly going to be spry if he lives to see them Instead of worrying about what happens to my knives, I hope to worry about passing on the lessons I've learned from them..."This knife was the one I used to take on "bug hunts" with your mom when she was 3. We'd use it to pry up rocks to look for ants and worms! This one, was made knife makers who's incredibly well known and did incredible work before he retired. He made this one for me when he first started out. I carried it on every hiking trip the last 40 years. These...now these big monsters are call khukuris. I learned about them from a man and his wife who wanted to sell these in order to help the poorest of the poor people. As a matter of fact, this is the very one your grandma and I used to cut our wedding cake!"

Stuff like that means Infinity more to me regarding the hobby. Knives are just good conduits to some of the most memorable times in my life. I honestly hope I give most of my collection away before someone has to appraise its worth. Leaving a warm lingering smile on someone's lips and a pleasant memory to return to from time to time is far more important to me than what all my stuff is worth.

 

[Smaug]

Thanks for sharing this. What I got from it was to give away any knife to any friend or family before one goes into a home.

Sell the others, except for the bare minimum that is actually USED.

Selling them to send money to a nursing home is a waste. The home will get paid for by Medicaid once the tenant runs out of money. Better to pass the joy onto family and friends, even at a cut rate.

 

[Stumpy72]

With all due respect, our heirs owe it to themselves to become familiar with our collections..... n2s

You’re right but I’m already an old retiree, I have no need or use for a sizable, widely varied knife collection and I don’t feel any need to leave my heirs with a parting homework project. I’ll end up leaving ~2 dozen blades with detailed descriptions, value estimates, pix and detailed “how and where to resell” instructions. That’ll be enough of a challenge. I won't leave a 5-drawer filing cabinet filled with hundreds of blades that somebody would have to make a career out of reselling, mostly because I no longer have any use for a collection of that size in my life. I'm only capable of using one knife at a time, anyhow.

Now--if I ever win one of those giant Powerball Jackpots, somebody will definitely have to bust their chops selling off my Rolex and Ferrari collections...

 

[BitingSarcasm]

Trying to control what happens in our lives is hard enough, planning for when we are gone is nigh unto an exercise in futility. I have one of my Grampa's pocket knives, and I hope my boys keep a couple that remind them of me. I won't care by that point. I look at the legacy my Dad is going to leave my brother and I, as a man who has collected aircraft and car parts for the last 50 years. He has his own forklift to move the bits around, and I know if he doesn't dispose of them himself my brother and I are going to get gypped of their value--and I am okay with that. Better to lose out on the money than end up like one of those hoarder creatures from "Labyrinth."

 

[22-rimfire]

I think the reality is that most of your knives will go to the dump whether you like it or not after you die. If this is important, you need to deal with it before you're 70 years old. You can't depend on your kids to do what you think is important (even if you put it in your will).

A few will be saved by interested parties. My Dad's knives when to the dump, but he didn't have anything valuable or particularly memorable from my point of view.

 

[dlong]

I acquired a modest collection of mostly custom folders over the years, and then lost interest in the hobby. After retiring, I learned of this site and joined. I must confess my motivation was to have access to the marketplace with the goal of liquidating my collection, which I have almost completed. With no sons or grandsons, I didn't want to leave a burden for my survivors. However, I was introduced into the world of higher end factory and mid-tech folders which rekindled my interest. The materials and designs available now to both users and collectors is astounding to someone who believed ATS34 was the pinnacle of blade steel. Sadly, the composition of my collection has changed, but not the numbers.

 

[sharp_edge]

Need to set a bar, say $2,500. If my collection has a total value below that bar, then it does not matter where the knives go or who take them for free or how much.

 

[sabre cat]

...At the end of the day, they are just bits of metal and wood or plastic. The value of my collection will be in the stories I might pass down to those who want to listen...

... Instead of worrying about what happens to my knives, I hope to worry about passing on the lessons I've learned from them..."This knife was the one I used to take on "bug hunts" with your mom when she was 3. We'd use it to pry up rocks to look for ants and worms! This one, was made knife makers who's incredibly well known and did incredible work before he retired. He made this one for me when he first started out. I carried it on every hiking trip the last 40 years. These...now these big monsters are call khukuris. I learned about them from a man and his wife who wanted to sell these in order to help the poorest of the poor people. As a matter of fact, this is the very one your grandma and I used to cut our wedding cake!"

Stuff like that means Infinity more to me regarding the hobby. Knives are just good conduits to some of the most memorable times in my life. I honestly hope I give most of my collection away before someone has to appraise its worth. Leaving a warm lingering smile on someone's lips and a pleasant memory to return to from time to time is far more important to me than what all my stuff is worth.

Nicely written. I am a firm believer that a knife or gun is worth more if it has a story to go with it.

Some of my favorite knives are not worth very much (if anything) but, they remind me of past times and experiences. For example, my cheap CRKT Prowler makes me think of my time in uniform. I passed my first Prowler on to a good friend because he did not have a knife and could have used one. His friendship is worth more to me than the knife ever could be. I purchased a second knife because I really like the model.

I carried a full-size Griptilian on a road trip taking my daughter out of state when she was accepted at a four-year university. Don't you think she will want that knife someday? Or maybe my wife will want the knife I bought on our honeymoon?

My daughter is getting hitched this May and I will carry two knives; one being a Case medium Trapper that will be passed on to my first grandchild. Not sure what the other knife will be. Maybe the Griptilian.

You know, I used to think that the idea of building memories was stupid. Now I see it as a way to help build a healthy family. Knives are just tools to make that happen.