Commemoratives

Knife Collecting: Commemorative knives seem to be very popular among the knife buying public. You could build an entire collection with them.

Certain knife companies issue more commemoratives than others (you can probably guess who I'm thinking of). It seems like when they ran out of designs and materials to differentiate their products, some marketing guy came up with the idea of commemoratives!

I have truly expected to see a commemorative, commemorating the day Ralph Johnson got his truck stuck in the corn field. They could have a picture of it on the knife. Or the day Ralph got stung by a bumble bee (picture of a bumble bee). Then after they sell one thousand of the Ralph Johnson commemoratives, they could issue a special limited edition commemorating the one thousand sales!
.

Picture this:

"insert sarcasm here"

The Board of Directors of the WeSellaGazillion Knife Company are in the board room, drinking champagne, celebrating record sales of the Ralph Johnson Mishap collection. They are lifting their glasses and making toasts. The more they drink, the more ridiculous the toasts become. "Here's to the time old Ralph had too much to drink and fell off his horse." "Hey, we can make two knives out of that, one with a bottle of whiskey and another with a picture of his horse!"

After they run out of ideas, no wait, they never run out of ideas, they name one after each state. Then they name one after their favorite TV show. Then their favorite actors from the TV shows. Then football teams, race car drivers...

I apologize for being sarcastic. My sarcasm stems from my experience with guns. The commemorative guns have not done well at increasing in value. In fact, some have not done well at holding their value. There have been times that I was tempted to buy a commemorative gun to use as a shooter. I never did.

I owned a 1978 Silver Anniversary Corvette many years ago. I drove that car for about five years. One day I was at my mechanics shop talking to him about the value of my car. Zeke only worked on Corvettes and knew more about the cars than anyone else I have known personally. I reminded him that it was a Silver Anniversary car, he told me that "every Corvette was an anniversary edition". His point was well taken.
 

• Knife Collecting - The internet provides a market - First, it allows the collector to more easily find (or buy, sell or trade) whatever he/she collects. In this case we're concerned with collecting pocket knives. There are auctions where pocket knives are bought and sold daily. I will provide some links later. If you are looking for a hard to find knife with very specific characteristics, chances are that sooner or later you will find it on the internet.
• Pocket Knives - The internet publicizes market values - Secondly, it's easier than ever before to find out what something is worth. This has an upside and downside for collectors.
• Knife Handles - The internet practically insures that you can find the knife you want to buy, but there may be fewer "bargains" to be found. This is because everyone can see what others are selling for. The internet also practically insures that you can find a buyer for the knife you want to sell, but there may be more competition from other sellers that may hold down the price you can get.
  
  In the old days, if you were the only person in your geographic area with a particular knife for sale, you might get a higher price because the buyer may have to go to great expense just to locate another one. Not so today!