My apologies to the board

Rick · 11th July 2006, 08:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick

Rather than stay away from knives one way to get a general idea of value is to search completed auctions on Ebay using the name for each knife identified by the membership here .
This isn't a totally foolproof method as some pieces end up selling for inflated prices on Ebay ; but it's a decent way to get a general idea of what to offer the seller .

Did you miss this post ?

Mark · 11th July 2006, 10:10 PM

Another good way to get a feel for value is once you have found a few completed auctions with what you are looking for, and see perhaps one that sticks out as being very high or very low, post a link here and get people's comments on it. Discussions such as that generally do not run afoul of our unwritten (well, I guess written now

) rule against talking money, since they come down to "great deal for the buyer" or "great deal for the seller."

I think the practice of not talking $$ here grew out of all of our frustration with those occasional incidents when someone came to the forum only to get a free appraisal of something, so they can then sell it for as much as possible on e-bay or somewhere. It sort of makes you feel used. Personally, I have had a couple people take my helpful (sometimes charitable) comments about the value and general worth of a piece and use them almost, but not quite, verbatum in an e-bay auction - my speculations about age, value, etc. became the word of an "expert," and charitable reassurance that the thing wasn't a total piece of crap became assurance it was a rare antique. I think once the forum was even mentioned specifically in an auction as having somehow endorsed the authenticity or age of something.

Anyway, clearly you did not come for that, and that was not the nature of your post, DD. I, too, hope that you stick around to enjoy, learn, and teach.

PS: Andrew was just grumpy before because he needed a vacation, but he is OK now.

11th July 2006, 10:10 PM	#2
Mark Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 987	Another good way to get a feel for value is once you have found a few completed auctions with what you are looking for, and see perhaps one that sticks out as being very high or very low, post a link here and get people's comments on it. Discussions such as that generally do not run afoul of our unwritten (well, I guess written now ) rule against talking money, since they come down to "great deal for the buyer" or "great deal for the seller." I think the practice of not talking $$ here grew out of all of our frustration with those occasional incidents when someone came to the forum only to get a free appraisal of something, so they can then sell it for as much as possible on e-bay or somewhere. It sort of makes you feel used. Personally, I have had a couple people take my helpful (sometimes charitable) comments about the value and general worth of a piece and use them almost, but not quite, verbatum in an e-bay auction - my speculations about age, value, etc. became the word of an "expert," and charitable reassurance that the thing wasn't a total piece of crap became assurance it was a rare antique. I think once the forum was even mentioned specifically in an auction as having somehow endorsed the authenticity or age of something. Anyway, clearly you did not come for that, and that was not the nature of your post, DD. I, too, hope that you stick around to enjoy, learn, and teach. PS: Andrew was just grumpy before because he needed a vacation, but he is OK now.