Inherited knife collection - how to sell it?

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Steve HB

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I inherited a knife collection from my 86-year-old friend. About 500 knives total, 80% of which are interesting old folders, likely not worth very much. The other 20% appear to have some value, old box of folders with paperwork in great shape. How do I go about selling this entire collection, and where do I go for that? Appreciate any feedback.
 
Hey Steve. Welcome. Your best bet may be eBay. Selling the decent knives individually, and the crappy ones en masse - like groups of 5 or 20 - may be your best bet. Determine prices based on prior eBay sales of similar knives. With 500 of them, you have your work cut out for you. Consider pricing them a little below market value to get them sold, if you don't want this to become your full time job for the next 2 years. But there are worse problems to have. Good luck.
 
Good advice given. Sorry for your loss.

I would look for a web site that was all about pocket knives. Take good pictures and sell them there. You’ll have to set prices. The advantage to eBay is you can start low and let the bidders decide the value, but the fees are high.
 
Thanks for your advice, really appreciate it! Thanking I will put a little work into the 20% collectible ones, and then fire sale the lot of less collectible old folders. Truth is, they are all interesting but I don’t need an additional 500 knives to my existing collection
 
Sorry for your loss. Why do you assume that some of them are not worth much? You may have a few gems hiding in there. It would be nice to see some photos of them.
 
If it were me, I’d sort through them and categorize by brand, model # and type then do some research in case you have some rare examples that are likely to bring a much better price in the collector market. With that many knives and some maybe antique it’s likely there are some in there. One of my relatives had a similar experience in an inheritance and found a rare and remarkably pristine item among a large collection of antique porcelain figurines that didn’t appear much different than the others but it brought almost as much as the rest of the collection. You never know what something might be if you’re not familiar enough to have the knowledge of it.
 
in the past I have sold on Ebay, lots of gun parts watches and of course knifes, if I remember they used to charge a small fee! for selling stuff there, but they keep sending me e-mails telling me its now free to sell, wish you the best of luck.
 
Steve HB said:
I inherited a knife collection from my 86-year-old friend. About 500 knives total, 80% of which are interesting old folders, likely not worth very much. The other 20% appear to have some value, old box of folders with paperwork in great shape. How do I go about selling this entire collection, and where do I go for that? Appreciate any feedback.
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Buy a higher membership here & you can sell them here in the exchange . There are plenty of “ Old Tymey knife folk here that will help you with brands & dates etc..
 
Show some pics or lists the brands. One man's crappy is another man's grail.

Grouping works well on budget Chinese brands like M-Tech, etc.... And on common, but worn decent brands. Keep the groups between 2-10 pieces. 10 pieces works well for stuff you just want gone. 2-5 is a good range for decent but lower value knives.
 
Rhinoknives1 said:
Buy a higher membership here & you can sell them here in the exchange . There are plenty of “ Old Tymey knife folk here that will help you with brands & dates etc..
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This. Get a gold membership here, which will not only allow you to sell here, but also allows asking about values, which will come in very handy.

Good luck!
 
Rhinoknives1 said:
Buy a higher membership here & you can sell them here in the exchange . There are plenty of “ Old Tymey knife folk here that will help you with brands & dates etc..
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Yep, spend 30 bucks on a membership here and have at the exchange. You will not only sell your new knives but if you aren’t careful you’ll make a friend or two.
The best thing about selling here is that you have all the buyers a seller could want and lots of knowledge to help price.
 
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Selling 500 knives, especially if you aren't familiar with them and their value, could take a lot of time and effort. You might look into finding a dealer and seeing what they will give you for the whole batch.

It will be less than what you get if you sold them individually yourself but it will be much quicker.
 
i know my .2 cents aren't worth much, but as others have said its very tricky, my personal opinion is to keep them all
they're heirlooms now, but if you must sell them, make friends here, contacts, and do your best to identify them, they sell books online helping with this --- all the best
 
Steve HB said:
I inherited a knife collection from my 86-year-old friend. About 500 knives total, 80% of which are interesting old folders, likely not worth very much. The other 20% appear to have some value, old box of folders with paperwork in great shape. How do I go about selling this entire collection, and where do I go for that? Appreciate any feedback.
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Pay for a membership so that you can ask for ID/valuations here. Can't do so unless you are a paying member which costs as little as $10 for Gold Memberhip (if I recall accurately).

You'd be surpised at how much some "old folders" (like Case) might be worth. You can also look on auctions sites like EB and Arizona Custom to see if you can find comps. So, just don't dump them en mass unless you really know that they aren't worth anything individually.

You can also try to use this site to try to find comps but ppl here too often remove their asking prices after the knife is sold (something I wish that ppl would STOP doing), which makes valuation here difficult or not impossible.
 
+1 on buying a membership; there's a wealth of knowledge here and good folks eager to help.
 
I won't discourage you from getting a membership on here because it's a good place and might be helpful to you for identifying knives. However, I suggest you sell on eBay instead of here. I've personally found I can sell knives for a lot more money via the eBay route--significantly more people searching eBay than this forum.
 
Hi my dear friend spent decades collecting knives. Now that he's passed and I've gone though his pockets to look for loose change I want to quickly monetize his collection. Any tips?

Oh PS I really miss him,,,where to sell fast random strangers?
 
Danke42 said:
Hi my dear friend spent decades collecting knives. Now that he's passed and I've gone though his pockets to look for loose change I want to quickly monetize his collection. Any tips?

Oh PS I really miss him,,,where to sell fast random strangers?
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Whether you want to believe it or not, this is how it's going to go for most people. Just because you value something and build up a collection doesn't mean any one of your loved ones will want to keep it when you're gone. Honestly, dealing with people's stuff after they've passed is generally a very big hassle for those they leave behind. It's one of the reasons I frequently go through my stuff and pare down my possessions to only those I truly use/need. Even though I'm young, I deal with death enough and had enough close calls on the job to realize you are not guaranteed your next breath. I don't want my loved ones to have a big burden should I suddenly die.
 
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