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Recommendation? Well I guess I am not a collector any more

fracmeister

Petroleum Engineer
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I started collecting knives 30 years ago or more. Wound up with a load of expensive folders and fixed blades, elaborate handle materials, loads of Damascus by a variety of makers. Active on the old tkcl (I bet most of you don't even know what that was!) and then bladeforums but over time I lost interest, gave some away but now have a lot of knives probably from 300 to (yikes) 5000$ range.

Can someone point me to the most effective (balancing effort and money received) way to sell these off? I am not in any financial need to do so but clearly none of my offspring are going to be knife collectors.

Thanks in advance.
 
If it were me, I’d get a gold membership and start selling them here.

There are Facebook groups but, I’m not on Facebook so I don’t have any knowledge of those.

I have not had any trouble selling here on the exchange, that would be where I would start. And... don’t be afraid to post some pics... so we can drool and ogle them properly... :);):thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
+1 on using the Exchange. I've seen some folks do large collection sell-offs in waves, with a couple dozen knives per wave. They provided multiple clear photos showing the knives, with numbers added to the photos to keep everything organized ("I'll take #7 and #12").

Were it me I'd specify US shipping only, grab a big stack of small Priority Flat Rate small boxes and some bubble wrap, and plan to ship out a bunch of knives every day or two during the initial flurry.
 
If you don't want to deal with the hassles of selling/shipping them yourself, you can also consign them to one of the major consignment sites.
 
you can also sell on ebay. you just need a printer to print the ebay shipping labels, some bubble wrap, some shipping tape, and some bubble padded envelopes. you can get free boxes from your post office if you need to sell something that wont fit in the padded envelope.
 
I bet your collection is outstanding. Any Horn, Centofante, Sawby, Bradshaw? I know of a few dealers that seems to move quite a bit of knives like that. You probably have heard of who I'd recommend and I don't think I'm allowed to rattle off names if they're not on bladeforums. My email is erichardsflt@gmail.com if you want to know the sites I constantly frequent while trying to find nice customs. I know a couple of them definitely do consignment... I'd say id you were looking to cash out I'd list them here on the exchange but since you're in no rush I'd get them on someone's site at the price you want and wait for the buyer. That way you avoid low ball and trade offers too haha

I would probably recommend against E bay as it sounds like you have some really nice pieces that should be on a dedicated knife purveyor's site.
 
OP:

IMO, Blade Forums is the best place to start trying to sell your knives because there are no fees (other than the cost of membership) and there is a large and well established audience of knife lovers here.

On the other hand, people on BF can be really fickle about what knives they are interested in. So, you may get phenomenal interest in certain knives and absolutely no interest in others. I also do not see most people here as wanting to spend A LOT of $ on knives.

A knife up to $300-400 should sell on BF if there is any interest at all, but beyond that it may have trouble selling whether anyone is interested or not. The key to this is all of the "likes" you see for expensive and interesting knives listed for sale that, of course, never sell.

eBay will give you the greatest exposure (largest potential market).

I've sold things on eBay when I had to but between eBay and PayPal you'll drop about 10-20% of the price off of the top w/their various fees and other charges. Some very valuable things are sold on eBay but, as I recall, eBay up's it's take the higher the value of the item sold as well.

The "value" of eBay's involvement as an intermediary in the transaction can also be mixed (the same applies to PayPal), which in the event of a dispute could result in the withholding of any sale proceeds.

Nonethless, eBay is a great place to sell things of little to great value if you cannot sell them anywhere else.

Arizona Custom Knives is another well known place to try to sell knives on but you have to "consign" (send) your knife to them and ACK takes 25% cut off of the top as a consignment fee (plus other expenses).

ACK will not accept any knife valued under $200 and is oriented towards selling more expensive knives. So, ACK is probably a place to try to sell your most expensive knives that you haven't been able to sell elsewhere.

It take some time (they say about a month) to list the knife on their site and you will not receive the net proceeds after the sale until the 2nd Tues of the month following the sale. So, you will not immediately receive the sale proceeds from ACK as you would on BF or eBay.

There are a variety of other consignment and auction sites available where you could try to sell your knives but I think the 3 mentioned are the best place to start.

Good luck!
 
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I am not in any financial need
If I may be so bold- Sell them here at a reasonable price so we the members can continue to enjoy and treasure what you've accumulated. It's not too hard to see who lives in the exchange and flips knives versus enthusiasts.

You'll be able to see the joy and enthusiasm you experienced when you first acquired them and be able to help others continue the hobby.

It would be refreshing to see some nice vintage pieces at reasonable prices. I'm always thankful when members like Dawkind opens his vault and posts earlier work I've never seen before.

Thanks Mitch
 
TKCL: The Knife Collectors List :thumbsup: :D

Great conversations.

Good luck!
 
Lots of enthusiast here on Bladeforums...you may even have some knifes on peoples bucket list...including mine. Haha.
Good luck on the sales...I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled. :)
 
Long time no see frac...how about rec.knives? :)

I've used AZCK for no hassle / user friendly de-accumulation
 
Long time no see frac...how about rec.knives? :)

I've used AZCK for no hassle / user friendly de-accumulation


What is their cut?


I have only ever sold here on bladeforums.

Pretty easy to look at buyers history here, check their comments etc.

Reserve right to refuse sale, and check buyers our.

About the only hassle is boxing the knives up and shipping them out.

I use PayPal for payments.
 
I think the answer depends. If you want to spend time and effort than as was suggested this platform here is a decent place although I think you will have challenges moving the multi-thousand dollar knives unless they are from a particularly well regarded maker.

If you just want to unload them you should probably work with one of the purveyors of custom knives. After all it's what they do. Often they have networks and contacts far outside a single platform or forum and that's what you pay them for. You will make a little less per sale, but you may be able to unload everything more quickly and with less effort.
 
What is their cut?


I have only ever sold here on bladeforums.

Pretty easy to look at buyers history here, check their comments etc.

Reserve right to refuse sale, and check buyers our.

About the only hassle is boxing the knives up and shipping them out.

I use PayPal for payments.

Their cut is 25%, but you can set the price, change it, etc. The take pictures, post, sell, ship and accept liability on that end.

Depending on the knife, heavy on the easy, less so on the profitable
 
Bladeforums: Confined audience. YOU take photos, provide all information, communicate with many potential buyers. Shipping costs need to be included and you are the shipper. Fee: 0%.

AZCK, Nordic, or others: Larger audience. THEY take photos, provide all information, communicate with many potential buyers. Shipping costs are covered from them(?). Fee: 25%. Least amount of work, lesser return.

Ebay: Largest audience? YOU take photos, provide all information, communicate with many potential buyers. Shipping costs need to be included and you are the shipper. Fee: 10%. (Buyer may also be charged State sales TAX via ebay? Hmmmm.)
 
There is a pay pal fee with BF and eBay and no (very little) crowd control with eBay so BF always has my vote. PLUS the Bay also makes it less than obvious how to price S&H, or offer free S&H. IME, there is always a twist that surprises me :( and they now charges state taxes :rolleyes:

Isn't Instagram a sell platform too?
 
If you are not in any dire need to liquidate your collection it may be better to wait to maximize your sale prices. The knife market is in a weird place where it is trending towards very low prices and demand due to coronavirus but at the same time there is a lot of money moving around, for some items. If I were to list a collection on eBay I would be very judicious about setting appropriate starting bids and/or using a reserve. As someone who sold a collection during the end of the last recession I missed out on a significant amount of money (~30% of the total value) by not waiting a year or so before I sold. In my opinion bladeforums and reddit are the two best places to sell a collection such as you have.
 
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