All the knives on eBay

Over in one of iKC’s discussion areas, Scott had this factoid about “All the knives on eBay” and his post made me begin to think about. It made me think a lot of how eBay has driven this business without much concern for the wishes or needs of buyers and sellers, or more importantly, the historical manor knife buying, selling and trading occurred prior to their existence.

Few of us can say we have not used eBay ourselves… It is the new 24/7 knife show. Or that’s what it was in the beginning. But is it an auction site or another catalog site like Amazon.com?

I have tracked several categories over the past year to see what was happening to the market. It is the best place available to get a feel of our market. Is it really? Are you getting a manipulated look at the market?

I saw where Ken Mundhenk asked the other day why the Great Eastern Cutlery Subsection on eBay was so skewed to “Buy Now” only listings. As I write there are 85 (active) gross listing and only 25 are true bid auction listings. But with the eBay store listings there are 138 represented as “Buy Now”

Those are the type factoids I have been pulling for a year and I have some of my own opinions about eBay and I want (and I think all) would benefit from hearing yours. Not just about eBay but search engine results and what can specific items be purchased for outside of eBay at fine internet sites like TSA, Shepherd Hills, SMKW etc.

It is true that now, other than a few Internet dealers the vintage knife market is eBay’s. The statistics there show a different eBay. A real auction site for on average 80% of “vintage knives” are true bid listings. For it’s really no surprise. Experience collectors know what they are putting out there and they know honest market forces will bring them an acceptable price if not better. Just this morning I saw a 2002 Halloween Muskrat (the first SFO for Halloween Case knives) at $480.00 with 24 bidders and 32 minutes left. The seller’s reserve was $150. I missed the close so I do not know if it ran higher in the last few minutes but that’s real auction selling and it’s exciting to see.

Where do you stand with your buying dollars? Do you depend on eBay? If you have a special collector interest or subcategory of knives and want me to do some market research there? Send me a note. Are there trends on products you’d like to know more about, like Elephant Toes or Seahorse knives (popular around our community here) send me a note. Sound off about your likes and dislikes about eBay or Internet retailers. Who do you do your business with?
So ergo “All the Knives on eBay” a blog…. But it’s not all about eBay. This is I hope a market barometer of opinions from you, research and factoids about the market that will let us all learn to be savvy buyers and sellers.

Many thanks to Scott King for encouraging me to blog on this subject. My blog’s success is as driven by you as it is me. So please let me know what you want to know.

Thanks and I look forward to being a resource to you and to the collectors here at iKnifeCollector.

Frank