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Permalink Reply by David Hawkins on September 6, 2009 at 6:45

As you know, I happened to read the original article by Mr. Voyles. I alslo read yur comments on it on CNJ. I am still stumped a bit by the implications and moreso in coming up with some sort of resolution for it, but I have been thinking about them quite a bit but am still in the random thoughts phase without many conclusions.

I am thinking that maybe some of our older members who formed or joined knife clubs when some of them were in their infancy may have the best insight and I encourage them to comment on this topic.

I propose the answer to your question, "Have the needs of the knife collectors changed" lies somewhere in the following.

It has been my experience that memberships of many clubs and social groups, not just knife collectors began declining in the late 70's to early 80's. I am not sure of the reasons why. Did our lives become busier? Are we becoming less social on an in-person basis? What might have contributed to this? Club membership now seems to have shrunk to only those who are most dedicated and/or those who's collections include collecting the "annual club knife".

The best answer I can give now is that the economic boom in the 80's and things like the internet and the growth of mail-order business is providing a more "instant" gratification that enable more people to enjoy their hobbies in a more preferred isolated environment more cheaply than ever before.

In short, the knife collectors needs (buying knives) hasn't changed but has in fact been met and now the business of meeting that need has jumped the shark and become saturated. The once required method of joining a club, especially a manufacturers club, in order to learn about and acquire knives, is being replaced by a much less personal, more convenient, more anonymous place of fans for online show and tell.

Knife clubs once filled the need for a method of acquiring knives. As the supply side caught up to fill this need in other ways, clubs seemed to survive mostly by certain manufacturers and sellers creating shortages or exclusive deals that created a new need that could be met only by joining their club to get them. Now the supply side is so over saturated the collector can get what he needs, knives, just about anywhere at any time from a choice of thousands of online dealers at once, including e-bay. Why should I join something like "the Usual Suspects Network" to buy the Syperco special edition USN knife when I can get it at my local knife distributor or probably more cheaply on ebay?

I made a post here asking what knife club people here would recommend joining and why. So far there have been no replies, and I wonder if anything I have said above has anything to do with it.

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