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Thinning out the collection

Those words send a chill down each of our spines I know. BUT, we have all seen it happen and possibly had to do it ourselves.

How do you make the decision, what stays and what you are "willing" to part with? Is there a certain manufacture you are NOT willing to part with?

How do you decide??

Tags: Selling, knives

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Permalink Reply by Bryan W on September 7, 2015 at 21:45

Best two cents I can offer is the following:

My best friend died 2 years ago. Spent an entire weekend with his wife going through his collection shortly thereafter. I sold 90% at a knife show later that year, but holy cow what a project. She was completely lost and thanked me repeatedly for the help. If not for me, she would have made just pennies on the dollar, if even that much.

I'm not hyping up or bragging about what I did - not at all. I think many of us would do the same and help a friend in need. BUT if you have a large collection, keep good records of what you have and values. Update that list AT LEAST yearly. When you have hundreds or more of knives to dispose of, and you're not around to do it, it will fall on someone else. Secondly, add into that list several people that you know and trust that can help purchase and/or dispose of your prized collection. While some pieces will be kept, the hard truth is that most of it will be sold off at some time.

Since that experience I have tried my best to keep my own collection to a reasonable amount. I have simple records of the pieces and what I paid, and plenty of contacts of persons that would buy and/or sell the collection if need be. Are my records perfect? No, certainly not, but the basics are there. I do find myself selling off more often to "thin the herd" and keep things "in check" so to speak. While this might be hard to digest for some, the harsh reality of going through a close friend's undocumented collection was a real wake up call for me personally. Its a blast to buy, sell and collect, but remember, you can't take it with you. Share some of it with your family and friends, and make means to dispose of the rest if need be.

Ok enough of the seriousness here, but I do hope some of this long narrative gives a few of you some reason to pause, think, and enjoy this awesome hobby with a bit more planning for the future, as well as one less thing to worry about at night.

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FeaturedPermalink Reply by Charles Sample on September 8, 2015 at 22:02

I use a computer program called NM Collector to inventory my knives. There is a free version but a lifetime license for the full version is only $30. I bought the full version. You can store a wealth of information about each knife. The software can be customized. You can change the field names and there are blank fields to which you can add your own names. You can store as many pictures of each as you want. I have stored as many as eleven pictures of each knife including the receipt from where I bought it.

Also this software can be used to inventory anything. I use it for my guns and am going to do a whole household inventory with it. You have folders for major headings such as knives or guns or anything you chose. Then you can have sub folders to further group similar items. For instance under knives I have sub folders for brands and patterns.

Another thing I like about the software is that you don't have to load it on your computer. I loaded it on a flash drive and loaded all the pictures of my knives in a separate folder on the same flash drive. I can run the program from any computer without the program being loaded on that computer. I have an external hard drive and once a week I back up the flash drive on the external hard drive.

You can get a 30 day free trial of the full version. If you decide not to buy the license it reverts to the free version.

I recommend the NM Collector software.

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Permalink Reply by Bryan W on September 9, 2015 at 19:13

Hi Charles

I have been curious how well that program works - I downloaded the free app a while back and have not had a chance to try it out. I'll have to give it a shot. Sounds like a nice program. Cool.