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Ebay and the knife collector

I probably spend way too much time on eBay. Or maybe I don't. I'm curious if other feel a thread or even a discussion group about the trials and tribulations of buying and selling knives on eBay would be worthwhile or if it would just turn into a glorious flame war?

I'm thinking of a place to discuss in general terms some of the annoying things we run into plus some of the stranger posts we see. For instance three words that annoy me to no end are "Reserve Not Met"

And then there are those people who sell "crappy knife with cool case" knowing the word Case and knife will bring looks from people trying to find Case Knives. How can legitimate sellers of Case knives better target buyers of Case knives?

Ebay is the online flea market for knife collectors and there is a lot of good knives sold on it. But there are also disreputable sellers. How can we warn new buyers without hurting decent merchants who made an honest mistake. What do other think. Is there room or interest for a place devoted to "Ebay for Knife Collectors"

Tags: collector, eBay, knife, knives

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jerryd6818 on December 11, 2014 at 18:29

Yeah, I've seen knives by the guy who has MS. Actual? Who knows. I've never bought anything off him.

I'm a sniper. It's my belief that you're shooting yourself in the foot if you bid early. It gives others the opportunity to pick away at your bid until they find your highest offer. As has been said, bidding wars are a sellers wet dream and a catastrophe for buyers and buyers who participate are making a huge mistake.

It is my opinion that putting a reserve on an item kills the auction and I see no advantage to it. More and more are starting the bidding at what would have been a reserve price in years past. And then there's the idiot who won't reveal his reserve price. What???

It's been my observation that Mondays and Tuesdays are "bargain days". I love buying on Tuesday and would never list an item ending on that day.

Like it or not, eBay is the biggest flea market in the world. If you can't find it on eBay, it's unlikely it's available anywhere (but not guaranteed).

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Permalink Reply by Tobias Gibson on December 11, 2014 at 18:44

Recently I've out some bids on items that I kind of sort of like but really don't care if I get or not. It's almost a bid of spite. Sort of like, I like it and I'm willing to spend XX dollars on it but if someone wants it for more than that, then so be it. It really comes down to, I'd kick myself if someone got ti for less than what I was going to pay.

Incidentally I was just outbid on non-knife item that I can take or leave. I'm thinking I might want it a little more that my initial I might snipe it in the last second. I think it is wroth a buck or two more than I first thought! We'll see. As I said, I don't really need it. Maybe I'll let some lucky buyer get it for a song!

It reminds me of an old "ethnicity/hair color joke" This person guy is using the toilet and when he gets up suddenly a nickel falls out of his pocket and lands in the toilet he just used. He really wants his nickel back but he doesn't want to put his hand in the toilet. But he's afraid if he flushes the toilet his nickel will also flush. After debating about what to do for about an hour he decides there is no way he is going to put his hand in filthy toilet for a nickel. So he reaches into his pocket and tosses in a quarter and says "For thirty cents, I'll do it!"

Only in the case of Ebay it is like there is no way anyone is going to get that knife for less than what I'm willing to pay for it, even if I don't want it. I'm sure the seller is happy, I started the bidding but is sad that I never come back anstart a bidding war!

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Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on December 11, 2014 at 19:21

LOL! Not even for thirty cents but I have found myself doing the same thing with bidding. I no longer bid before the last 5 minutes. I put it on watch and get my email reminder. If I really wanted it I will go back when I get the reminder, more times than not I just move on

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Permalink Reply by Billy Oneale on December 11, 2014 at 20:44

I have had good luck on ebay for the most part, I have bought a couple of counterfeits that I thought was suspect, but overall most have been good knives. I bought one that was advertised as a French made toothpick. when I got it, the blade said Pakistan.

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Permalink Reply by Michelle "Fingers" DellaPelle on December 13, 2014 at 22:25

Myself always being very careful to check and question the seller about the knife before bid it....

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Permalink Reply by Ms Data on December 15, 2014 at 22:03

Tobias. I also have purchased from the guy who has MS. I think he is probably legit but maybe he should communicate something in his posts so that he doesn't get negative reviews.

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Permalink Reply by Tobias Gibson on December 17, 2014 at 11:28

Data, you may be right but he really needs to work on his "people skills"

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Permalink Reply by Carl Bradshaw on February 17, 2015 at 19:47

I actually noticed on Ebay now that if you bid higher than the reserve, but the auction didn't go up high enough to hit the reserve, Ebay will send you an email asking if you want to buy the item at the reserve price.

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In MemoriamPermalink Reply by Doug Webber on August 28, 2015 at 9:03

Ivars said:

What I hate around ebay thing is the words " Seller shipping restriction & No Shipping out of USA" these two things I hate on ebay! The sellers are selling knives and they want to get good money but they don't want to ship to anyone who is out of USA! Thats the reason why many great knives like GEC, Queen, Shatt&Morgan ...... are going for 35-60$! Once I bid on GEC knife and it was a moose made in 2010 and after I get it seller wasn't wanting to ship it to me, I was washing his brain something around two weeks about that shipping to Europe is safe and if knife gets lost after it leaves USA, I will not gonna ask for refund (of course if packaging is pretty secure!)! After two weeks he changed his mind and he shipped knife to me! Now it just got second knife from his store! So the seller happy, I'm happy! So that thing I just hate on ebay! Another thing what I hate is a sellers who haven't wrote in description: NO SHIPPING WORLD WIDE. So I bid and win the knife! Seller is not responding on emails, when I ask for invoice officially he don't send it and in the same time he don't want to cancel transaction! So I get unpaid item on my account and last year that way I collected a full house! I wasn't able to pay for items because of those sellers and I wasn't able to bid because of ebay unpaid policy! But overall ebay to me is the only one place where I have some chance to get some knives cheaper and get rare and vintage knives what are not for sale in online stores!

If we talk about cheaper that I get mint Crandall seahorse for 40$! I got limited edition Case stockman for 35$! I got Case CocaCola knife in a tin for something around 35$! Thanks to guys who where happy to ship those knives to me!

My buddy in Australia has all his Ebay knives shipped to me. When I get a box full I ship the whole lot to him in a flat rate priority box. Cuts the international shipping charge down to about an extra 3-4 dollars a knife. Sure he has to wait on his knives, but he can buy anything he wants. Also I check out the knives for him so if there is a problem, the knife can be returned a lot easier. We use Skype so it's easy to show him what's what with a knife.

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In MemoriamPermalink Reply by Doug Webber on August 28, 2015 at 9:12

Tobias Gibson said:

The only time I bid early is when I will not be able to bid at the last second. And when I snipe, I shoot with my max bid. If I get it for less, then that is icing on the cake. If my max bid wasn't good high enough I will lose the bid but at least I won't pay more that wanted to pay. That is my general rule that I use when bidding.

I found out a long time ago if I bid early I might bid often and might end up spending much more than I wanted to spend. The key it to remember you are trying to buy an item and not win a prize. You can't let the emotion of the moment control the purchase.

I've seen items go for a higher bid on eBay than the sticker price on Amazon, SMKW or some other eBay's seller "Buy it Now" price!

If I'm not going to be home to snipe an auction I use an online service called E-SNIPE https://esnipe19.esnipe.com/ They only charge you if you win the auction. 25 cents for anything up to $25 and then a penny a dollar after that... a $50 knife only costs 50 cents extra if you win...nothing if you dont. For $5 you're good for $500 of won auctions. You just enter in the item # , your max bid, and when you want it to bid. I set it for 4 seconds befor the auction ends. You can cancel your bid up to 5 minutes before the end of the auction with no penalty. Works great.

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In MemoriamPermalink Reply by Doug Webber on August 28, 2015 at 9:29

I buy 95% of my knives on Ebay. I agree with Jerry. Buy during the week and sell on the weekend...Sunday has always been good to me....and remember, there is a 3 hour time difference between the coasts. Never sell on a 3 day weekend, the super bowl, the world series or the Daytona 500. Those are great times to find a bargain on higher end knives though.

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In MemoriamPermalink Reply by Doug Webber on August 30, 2015 at 2:37

I just found this Ebay policy concerning bidding on Reserve auctions

In reserve price auctions, if your maximum bid is at least the reserve price, we automatically increase your bid to meet the reserve, and bidding will continue from there.