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How to go about selling a knife collection?

Hello everyone and thanks for taking the time to read my post.

I have been tasked with selling off my grandfather's knife collection to help pay for medical expenses. I know very little about knife collecting outside of what my grandpa has told me. However, I do know a bit about collecting in general as I am big on sports cards and comic books.

Basically, I am looking for advice on how to go about selling his collection. Some family members want me to go through Ebay and sell each knife individually. Others suggest I go through a local auctioneer. Personally, I don't think either idea is very good.

As for the collection itself, he has well over 5000 knives all housed in climate controlled glass cabinets. They are all in pristine condition and have been properly cared for over the past 50 years. As for rarity, I wouldn't even know where to start in finding the rare ones versus the common ones. I do know that he has quite a lot of limited editions and collector edition sets. He has every knife cataloged with all the info with the date of purchase, price, and quality, etc.

I have just started going through everything and will probably be at it for the next couple of weeks. I am going to go through his catalog and research each knife/set individually. I guess that is a good place to start.

If any of you could give me some advice or some pointers, I would greatly apreciate. Further more, if there is a specific knife you are looking for, send me a description and if possible an ISDN and I will see if I have it.

Again, thank you for your time.

J.J. Williams

email: jj.willi@yahoo.com

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Replies to This Discussion

In MemoriamPermalink Reply by John McCain on December 9, 2013 at 16:54

I can see your dilemma,J.J. Pehaps a good starting point,would be to share some examples and or photos of the types (fixed blade,folders, military,custom,etc.) Any info on the vintage of some of them would be helpful, too.Selling that many knives on ebay, without being a knife collector yourself, could be disastrous.You could end up selling a knife worth thousands for far, far less than it was worth.There are honest knife appraisers out there, who could appraise the collection for a fee. Also, there are major auction houses who would be willing to sell them with national publicity if it was considered an important enough collection.My thoughts are,your grandfather obviously collected for a great many years. He lovingly cared for them, catalogued them, and amassed a huge collection.I would hazard a guess that there are some very valuable knives there.If you can provide us with some examples, we might be able to advise you further.

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Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on December 9, 2013 at 19:11

JJ I am sending you a message

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KnifeMakerPermalink Reply by Vance Wade Hinds on December 10, 2013 at 0:24

I think you are starting off right by seeking advice. There are great people on this site that can lead you in the right direction. As with all things, knowledge is everything. Knowing what you have is the first step, then trying to get the knives to the right buyers is the next step. J. Bruce Voyles is known for auctioning off collections and is very knowledgeable on knife values. I would think he would be very expensive though. I met him twice at the Spirit of Steel Show in Dallas several years ago and both times my initial impression was that he was not very personable or nice. I do not know if my first impression is really an accurate portrayal of the man. I would not use a local auctioneer, the general public is generally not educated on knife values. A local auction could result in you selling extremely valuable knives for little or no money. Ebay is generally ok but some knives sell for less than what I think they should. It is hit or miss and a lot of work. It would be quite a chore to sell 5,000 knives on it individually. It would be a job in and of itself. Ebay is a great tool to determine a reasonable value for the knives. Use the completed section or sold section, not what they are asking for the knives. Purveyors can sell the knives for you, but the commission for this service is pretty steep. I think Houston Price or Bernard Levine would appraise your knives for a fee and give you an idea of the value of the collection. With that many knives, J. Bruce Voyles may be the way to go. I have never consigned anything to him, but I have bid in some of his auctions. He seems to get pretty good value for the knives. You may ask if anyone on here has ever used him and what their experience was with the auction. I see the Jan sent you a message, I would trust her opinion. As with all thing, opinions are like assholes. Everyone has one. You will get opinions all over the board. It is easy to come up on the wrong end of a knife sale. I think John is right. If you post some examples, these guys can give you an idea of what they are worth and then advise on the best way to go. You have something special there and you need you to get full value for the knives. I wish you luck.

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Permalink Reply by J.J. Williams on December 10, 2013 at 9:55

John,

Thank you for your reply. Today I am getting started on converting my grandfathers roladex catalog into an excel spreadsheet. That in itself will probably take me a week or so to do as I have a box full of rolladexs to go through. Once I get that finished, I will post it here.

As for the types of knives he has, its all across the boards. I have yet to figure out if he had a central theme as he seems to have collected everything. He does have them sorted in such a manner as one case is full of fixed blades while another is folders, and so on. Then he has a huge gun safe filled with all sorts of knives still packed in original boxes.

I know this still isn't much info to go on. I will be hard at it over the next few days and will post more once I have a better understanding of what he has.

Again, thank you for your time.

John McCain said:

I can see your dilemma,J.J. Pehaps a good starting point,would be to share some examples and or photos of the types (fixed blade,folders, military,custom,etc.) Any info on the vintage of some of them would be helpful, too.Selling that many knives on ebay, without being a knife collector yourself, could be disastrous.You could end up selling a knife worth thousands for far, far less than it was worth.There are honest knife appraisers out there, who could appraise the collection for a fee. Also, there are major auction houses who would be willing to sell them with national publicity if it was considered an important enough collection.My thoughts are,your grandfather obviously collected for a great many years. He lovingly cared for them, catalogued them, and amassed a huge collection.I would hazard a guess that there are some very valuable knives there.If you can provide us with some examples, we might be able to advise you further.

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Permalink Reply by J.J. Williams on December 10, 2013 at 10:33

Vance,

Thanks for your reply. Several people have pointed me in the direction of Bruce Voyles now and some have said similar things in regards to his personality. However, it does seem like he gets the job done. Knowing what I have is certainly a difficult step. My grandfather is in no position to help, and the other grandchilderen are doing the same as I with his other collections. Grandpa was a collector of many things including pocket watches and time pieces, tobacco pipes, fishing rods, reels, and lures, coins and currency, farm tools, and various other things. Each collection is as vast as his knife collection. Going into his house is sorta like walking into a museum, and now we have no choice but to sell it all off including the house and the land. Damned insurance companies!!!

Again, thank you for your time.