All About Pocket Knives

Buy high, sell low will eventually happen with GEC knives but predicting when the peak is reached as with any commodity is not possible. There may be some upside still to come. Maybe todays $875 for a 852118 will be $1500 in a year's time ? Or, maybe it will be $400 ?
kj

There is a GEC Beer Scout for sale in an AAPK store for $550, but it is free shipping.
Mine cost under $100 when brand new

Let me start by saying I love great eastern cutlery. One of the last companies making high quality knives here in the good old USA. They make a high quality product,and have great authorized dealers who sell them at fair prices. Props to all the authorized GEC dealers. The problem comes in with all the secondary SELLERS, not dealers who buy them all up in a matter of seconds, and turn around, selling them at 200 percent or higher mark up. As much as I love GEC knives, I can't afford to pay secondary market prices for them. These secondary market sellers are ruining our knife collecting hobby. Us folks who collect knives for the love of knives can no longer afford to do so. All this greed is giving knife collecting a bad name. No longer a hobby but a greed driven way to make a quick buck. I haven't bought a knife ina year or so for this reason and if things keep going this way I may give up knife collecting. Sad times if you ask me. Thanks all for reading my rant

Couldn't agree more Umcknifeguy my friend. I hate to pay what they are going for, and the prices are still going up, not down like I keep hearing they will. I have to laugh every time I hear or read that. It hasn't' been true since I got into GEC seven or eight years ago. The opposite is happening. I would love to pay less, but fact is more and more people want to buy GEC, the fans and buyers and collector numbers are rising. That means higher demand, higher prices. I've heard the prices will fall and it hasn't happened yet. Quite the contrary. Do the math. It's because people love the product. It's so obvious to me and I have been saying for years prices will keep going up. Others say they will come down. Still waiting. Didn't appreciate how good we had it a few years ago when they sat around at the dealer for weeks or months and you could buy most GECs for less than a hundred bucks. Northwoods for just over a hundred. SFOs for 80-90 bucks. I'm not sure even GEC making a lot more numbers of knives would do it because demand is still growing. More and more people every day want GEC and can't afford them. Thousands of people, maybe tens of thousands of people, want a few hundred knives that are produced. Very high demand for very few knives. I don't hear that about new Case knives. No scramble for them. No secondary market people paying two or three or four or five times retail price for a Case. Or about any other maker I can think of. That tells you something about demand.

Ivoryman i agree with what you say. There are way more people wanting GEC knives than there are knives available. And to date the number of people wanting GEC knives keeps increasing. However collectible markets are 'fickle'. The interest in certain items changes over time. Eventually many of the people now wanting GEC knives will move on to other items or just loose interest in knives. When this shift will happen cannot be known. It might happen in 10 years time, or in 20 years but eventually the current very high demand will subside and then prices will decrease somewhat.
I don't think this change is imminent. I think it is still some years in the future.
kj

Considering the stratospheric prices we've been seeing on some other GECs, I fully expected the final selling price for this Mammoth Ivory Northwoods Big Bay to sell for much more than $567.00. Maybe the mammoth on this particular knife isn't as "interesting" or "characteristic" as people want, but even so, mammoth ivory almost always sells for much more than knives with bone handles. Trying to figure out the psychology driving the prices of GEC knives seems to be somewhat of a fool's errand; too many "X factors" come into play that no one could possibly predict, and a certain degree of luck and timing also seem to be factors that are totally unpredictable.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/154528312153?s ... true&rt=nc

QTCut5 wrote: ↑Sat Jul 17, 2021 8:41 pm Considering the stratospheric prices we've been seeing on some other GECs, I fully expected the final selling price for this Mammoth Ivory Northwoods Big Bay to sell for much more than $567.00. Maybe the mammoth on this particular knife isn't as "interesting" or "characteristic" as people want, but even so, mammoth ivory almost always sells for much more than knives with bone handles. Trying to figure out the psychology driving the prices of GEC knives seems to be somewhat of a fool's errand; too many "X factors" come into play that no one could possibly predict, and a certain degree of luck and timing also seem to be factors that are totally unpredictable.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/154528312153?s ... true&rt=nc
Northwoods Big Bay Mammoth.jpgNorthwoods Mammoth Ivory Big Bay.jpg

I'm no expert, but the Big Bay never seemed to be their popular pattern. In fact, I've never heard anyone say they wanted one, or would trade for one, or were on the look out for a Big bay. Not once. I have seen all kinds of guys looking for other Northwoods patterns. I don't know why, maybe it's like a Granddaddy barlow, just too big for the average pocket and not high demand. The pattern was never popular like a Freemont, Hawthorne, Presidential, or Broadway or the popular patterns. And then again, I believe these mammoth Big Bays sold for about $235 new. So even being a less popular patter and some run of the mill ivory, it still sold for way more than double, something like double retail plus a hundred bucks. Not bad appreciation. Hell of a lot more appreciation than a Case, Benchmade, Spyderco, Queen, etc. Not like the popular patterns going through the roof though. I don't try to figure out the psychology either, that's way beyond me, but I watch and learn what patterns are popular and I try to get the ones I like when they come out because I know soon they will be out of my price range, into the stratosphere, and only the fools or deep pocketed will be able to buy them or win the auctions. All I know is the patterns I like, are going through the roof. The others maybe not, but all the ones I like are pricing me out of the game.

$567 is a lot of money and a high price for this knife. As Ivoryman points out the "Big Bay" is not a popular pattern and the mammoth on this knife is plain, rather boring.
The Northwoods that are desirable patterns with 'interesting' handles will hold their value much longer than this Big Bay. At $567 i think the buyer will take a sizeable loss when he comes to sell it.
kj

Just saw the latest release GEC on the members store going for a handsome profit from one of the regular re-sellers, and he has not even received it yet. That's a new one.

There is one of the new GEC key chain knives for sell in an AAPK store by a seller that appears to never even had one post on the forum.
I don't know what these sold for, but he is asking $139 + 6.50 for shipping.

Can you say "flipper"??

edge213 wrote: ↑Tue Jul 20, 2021 5:26 pm There is one of the new GEC key chain knives for sell in an AAPK store by a seller that appears to never even had one post on the forum.
I don't know what these sold for, but he is asking $139 + 6.50 for shipping.

Can you say "flipper"??

They sold for $68

cudgee wrote: ↑Tue Jul 20, 2021 7:11 pm

edge213 wrote: ↑Tue Jul 20, 2021 5:26 pm There is one of the new GEC key chain knives for sell in an AAPK store by a seller that appears to never even had one post on the forum.
I don't know what these sold for, but he is asking $139 + 6.50 for shipping.

Can you say "flipper"??

They sold for $68

Not a bad profit

Speaking of making a decent profit...

I have no idea how much the original BF price was for this 2012 SFO #74,
but I'm pretty sure it was nowhere near the $455.00 it just sold for on eBay.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/203816744830?s ... true&rt=nc

I'd love to get one of these but, ya know, left in the dust by the deep pocket bidders.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/115222113404?n ... 7675.l2557

HOLY MOLEY!!! $899.00 (+ $9.45 shipping )

What in the world is going on??? I mean, I like Northwoods knives, too...but, seriously, come on now...this is beyond absurd, IMO.

How can anyone be this stupid!!

edge213 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 08, 2022 1:14 am How can anyone be this stupid!!

The World IS full of them my friend.

cudgee wrote: ↑Tue Feb 08, 2022 1:18 am

edge213 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 08, 2022 1:14 am How can anyone be this stupid!!

The World IS full of them my friend.

Unfortunately, so true cudgee.

If you bought Bitcoin when it sold for $1 and then sold it when it got to $60,000, you don't mind paying $900 for a $150 knife. Easy come, easy go.
But if you work for $30-$40 per hour then you value your money such that $900 for a $150 knife is a dumb move.
The internet has allowed a few people to garner huge amounts of money for very little effort and so they can spend it with little thought. I don't think it makes for happy people. Happiness comes from reward for effort.
kj

kootenay joe wrote: ↑Tue Feb 08, 2022 4:41 am If you bought Bitcoin when it sold for $1 and then sold it when it got to $60,000, you don't mind paying $900 for a $150 knife. Easy come, easy go.
But if you work for $30-$40 per hour then you value your money such that $900 for a $150 knife is a dumb move.
The internet has allowed a few people to garner huge amounts of money for very little effort and so they can spend it with little thought. I don't think it makes for happy people. Happiness comes from reward for effort.
kj

I think your on to something here. I agree this is a big factor in the prices.

Talk about high prices! Try being from Australia or similar country. Firstly most people refuse to post to you ( I cannot find one seller even on AAPK!) especially since COVID. Which only leaves the dealers who know they can hold you for ransom..A knife that would be $200 in the States becomes $600 over here!

Warwick wrote: ↑Fri Feb 18, 2022 3:01 am Talk about high prices! Try being from Australia or similar country. Firstly most people refuse to post to you ( I cannot find one seller even on AAPK!) especially since COVID. Which only leaves the dealers who know they can hold you for ransom..A knife that would be $200 in the States becomes $600 over here!

I ship to Australia, when it’s open for shipping. The last item I shipped was returned 2 1/2 months later because the country was closed to in bound shipping due to Covid.

Sharpnshinyknives wrote: ↑Fri Feb 18, 2022 12:11 pm

Warwick wrote: ↑Fri Feb 18, 2022 3:01 am Talk about high prices! Try being from Australia or similar country. Firstly most people refuse to post to you ( I cannot find one seller even on AAPK!) especially since COVID. Which only leaves the dealers who know they can hold you for ransom..A knife that would be $200 in the States becomes $600 over here!

I ship to Australia, when it’s open for shipping. The last item I shipped was returned 2 1/2 months later because the country was closed to in bound shipping due to Covid.

USPS, ceased posting to Australia last August i think. I think it may have resumed, there was a post that a member just received his forum knife that Bryan had put aside for him and posted on February the first.

Ivoryman wrote: ↑Fri Jul 16, 2021 3:23 am No secondary market people paying two or three or four or five times retail price for a Case.

Not necessarily true. As you know, in addition to the outrageous prices the CO-OP/FFA/4-H Case knives are fetching, the older (pre 1980s) Case knives are also bringing much higher prices.

Less than two years ago I purchased several XX era 07s in Red, Green and Brown Bone for well less than half the price this one just sold for. And this isn't the only one that I've seen sell for over $200 in the past year. I think the secondary market knife prices are increasing on many brands, not just GEC/Northwoods.

eBay auction final selling price: $388.00 (+$6.95 s/h)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/234436773678?s ... true&rt=nc

I wasnt inclined to collect GEC knives due to the crazy prices but now since I only live about 3 gallons of gas away from GEC I go there. Fer instance, picked up both the ebony and the ivory bone Toe Nail Clippers for $326, they are selling on line for $300 each, so far. I dont normally sell knives so I dont care what they bring. Got a few other goodies as well couple of Yankee barlows which are kinda nice too. I think the economy is gonna tank, glad I havent shelled out crazy high prices.