Craig.. What's important is to decide on a dozen or so you will like to be the base of your collection. Any Damascus is good for that top 12 list. Just asking WILL find you great knives and most 'advanced' collectors actually want there babies to find a good home! Top price to a flipper..family price to another collector. Go for one without box shieth and paperwork. Many fantastic 112's were separated from that even new. COA's and letters ARE important tho..Get one from the seller himself if nothing else. So many rare 112's can be compared to 60's muscle cars. Pristine all original examples exist but the folks who have them KNOW what they have.. most of the time. Research!! Learn!! Look at past sales to know when you find a bargain.
Odd things happen. For many years I looked very very hard for a BG-42 112. Few to none were offered. Then last year half a dozen showed up on Larry Oden's list and I scored a NIB version with finger groves..one of less than a handful made. Act fast when a very rare one pops up because it will be gone. Be of good cheer because bargains CAN be found. $250.00 or less buys some great knives! Trades are another way to get the Buck you want. Sometimes the only way. Network and talk to other 112 fans as you always learn..
I had a feeling you would come back with some great advice. Lots of good stuff to think about in that paragraph. Twelve is an easy number to wrap my head around. I honestly have no aspirations of building a colossal collection but I have always been a collector of
something starting young. In the early 80s through 2000 it was Ford muscle cars. I would buy, rehab/restore them. Some I would sell to fund the next purchase. You could still find them in barns and backyards for a relatively low price. I developed a network of people that all spoke the same language and worked together to find/trade/help work on cars. By the mid 90s, the first boomers were starting to retire and the price of old cars skyrocketed. Then in '01, I went to seminary and sold 13 cars and truckloads of parts. That effectively took me out of the muscle car business. I'm grateful to have kept two that I still work on and drive as time allows.
Smith & Wessons took the place of what I collected next. I had always been a shooter but I gained some focus. Again coming in a little late, I hunted for a clean examples of several models. Not a big collection but some neat pieces you don't see much anymore. COVID, for some reason, was a turning point in prices. Almost overnight, prices doubled or tripled (or more) in some cases. The frenzy of buying on Goingbroker is crazy. I have backed off from looking much anymore. I go to gun shows to find the needle in the haystack, but am about done there too.
Part of the reason is that I recently stepped back from church work to develop a new ministry for pastors and missionaries. Let's just say that has redirected my income stream. Since collecting things
that interest me is still part of my DNA, I chose to redirect my energy to something more manageable. I know some of you just laughed at that because this can be a rabbit hole of its own. What I mean by that is, I can't spend $50K on a car anymore or a firearm at $1k-$3k is not a realistic expense (for me now) but a knife periodically at $250 or less is far more manageable and I as I have learned, just as satisfying. And I think my wife - who's always been a saint - would even be a little more tolerant of it.
As I said in another thread, I have been enamored with Buck knives for as long as I can remember. I have used them as tools for decades. I really appreciated the moral foundation of the company. The testimony of the owners has always been top tier. The construction and design of their products fit my idea of what quality is, so I thought it would be a good place to focus my resources and time. As I started looking more into the company and products a whole new world opened up. I had no idea how broad the Buck product line went not to mention their custom work. I was blown away...and at the same time sorry I didn't begin to invest sooner. What I have learned over the last couple of years is that Buck never produces special runs or steels forever. I kick myself for thinking 5160 and Magnacut or BG-42 and CPM154, etc., etc., would be a long term offering. I plan to get on the front end and buy some of the factory offerings so I don't have look for it later when it's sold at 5 times the original price - or more.
All that being said (I promise I'm about done), as I joined into the conversations on this sub-forum, it feels a lot like the network of guys I hung out with in my muscle car days. Advice is freely given and direction and support is offered simply because we're all interested in the same things. There are always those guys that know more than you ever will but can be trusted to explain it to you. "Parts" are swapped back and forth when the need arises. That's kind of rare these days. There are no "knife guys" where I live so I'd like to hang around here and take part in the community. I don't see myself hunting "1 of 1" 112's (plural) - although that would be amazing. Finding even one rare iteration that could be the centerpiece of my collection would be awesome. So I will tighten up my list and keep my eyes open for starters - and watch and listen closely to what goes on here. Thanks again for the insight and direction. I look forward to my continuing education.
Craig
