All About Pocket Knives

I just received a copy of the 7th edition of Sargent's American Premium Guide. It's very interesting but the knife values seem to run quite a bit higher when compared against other sources. My questions are - Is Sargent's considered an accurate source for knife values and if not, what source/publication is? Is Sargent's method for determining value by subtracting 10% for each grade level below mint well accepted in the knife collecting community?

FWIW, when it comes to determining values I'm looking at AAPK pricing information, I'm watching sales on Ebay and have several other guides including The Standard Knife Collector's Guide by Ritchie and Stewart, Antique Knives by Voyles, The Price Guide to Pocket Knives by Jarrett and the 3rd edition of Sargent's American Premium Guide to Knives and Razors. I also have a pre-order in for Knifeaholic's to-be-released December 2015 reference guide. I realize many of the guides I have are fairly dated but they do provide a starting point for something that appears to be quite subjective.

eBay completed sales are probably as good a current value guide as you can get. Thank goodness for the people who write knife guides, for the time and effort spent researching and writing, and sharing that with the rest of us. But the published books have limitations especially when it comes to values. All of them are educated opinions of the authors, and at the time they were written may have been a reasonable guideline. Problem is these price guidelines also may have been out of date by the time they were published. IMHO they're best seen as a good general guide of relative value, one knife maker or pattern vs another. The other thing to remember is condition is everything. Too often folks fail to remember that books like Sargent's list values for knives in pristine mint condition. Very few knives meet that condition so the values have to be adjusted accordingly.

Ken

Knife guides are and can be good reference tools. As you know, the real value is what someone is willing to pay. I have a bookcase full of older price guides as well as the most recent. I find good information in all of them from time to time. That said, I use Jim Sargent's guide most often, particularly for Case, Remington, and Queen knives. I use it because I know that Jim uses it himself and prices his knives accordingly. That doesn't mean that his prices are always right, it is just a suggestion to what he believes the value of a knife in pristine condition is worth. Jim is a close friend and has been my mentor in this business for years. I've spent many hours in his shop and have been able to handle literally thousands of knives. Many of the knives I've sold over the years came from Sargent's Cutlery. A lot of them I sold with Jim's price tags still on them. He sold them to me at a price where we both could make a little profit on them. I also have Steve Pfeiffer/Knifeaholic's book and I like it as well for Case knives. Although I've never purchased any knives from Steve's store in AAPK, I believe his prices are very reasonable and realistic. He is very knowledgeable and I enjoy reading his posts. Thanks to these guys who took the time to do the hard work and research to make these books possible. Their contributions are priceless.

Rick

IMPO.... for PRICING..........
EBAY is "THE" way ta go these days...... accurate as can possibly be for DAY TO DAY sales.

Pricing the product is one of the reasons I absolutely hate selling stuff.

Thank you everyone for the replies!

Mostly I don't want to get taken to the cleaners (and I almost did this weekend) if I find a knife I need to add to the collection, knowing the guides and authors are well-respected for their information and effort is reassuring.