CASE CHEETAH Anomaly

[zp4ja]

Only 12,000 bucks for something I think is a shaved down saber blade to a flat blade. Blade looks flat not concave. Look at how thin the nail nick is. Not normal. Even if it was real, worth 2.25 as much as a actual stag proto? Not likely. Good story though in description.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Case-ten-dot-c ... SwALtaVWRl

Jerry

[Mumbleypeg]

Interesting story in the listing. Says he has his "don't want to sell it" price on it. Wants feedback from collectors about it.

Ken

[danno50]

Interesting story in the listing. Says he has his "don't want to sell it" price on it. Wants feedback from collectors about it.

Ken

He would have been better off to post it on AAPK, and save the ebay listing fees.
Dan

[espn77]

I sent him a message telling him to do just that. Hopefully he will.

[btrwtr]

Blade looks like it has been re-ground to me. Does not look like a factory finished blade.

I have a hard time relating to people that say "it has never been taken apart". I have done my fair share of knife work I can say that I often can't tell that a knife I have taken apart has been taken apart. Maybe someone else can but I can't.

[zp4ja]

I didn't see the "Stainless" portion of stamp last night so I retract my ground down saber blade statement. Those were not stainless.

Blade does look very odd to me for some reason still. Don't like the nick either.

[TwoFlowersLuggage]

I'm having a hard time with his "factory error" explanation. A Cheetah is not a cheap knife and I don't think they make that many of them. It is also a fairly complex knife compared to your average peanut or sodbuster. It seems odd to me that something as obvious as the model number stamp would slip through QC for a knife like this. I mean, come'on - wouldn't they be closely examining the swing guard area looking for misalignment? They would be looking right at the tang!

[mikek]

At $500:00 for shipping I can only imagine what insurance would be.

[olderdogs1]

I believe the point the seller is trying to make is the fact that the 10 dot 1970 stag, which is super rare, does not have a pattern number. I could be wrong but to me that seems to be the inference.

Tom

[zp4ja]

I'm having a hard time with his "factory error" explanation. A Cheetah is not a cheap knife and I don't think they make that many of them. It is also a fairly complex knife compared to your average peanut or sodbuster. It seems odd to me that something as obvious as the model number stamp would slip through QC for a knife like this. I mean, come'on - wouldn't they be closely examining the swing guard area looking for misalignment? They would be looking right at the tang!

First off, I don't feel the OP knife is correct. That knife CASE never produced. CASE never made a stainless bone handled knife up to 1981' and prior. For darn sure never in the seventies. Hence the anomaly in the thread title. Beyond 81' can't tell you.

Secondly, CASE did have 2 swing guard factory errors in the USA era. These were not one offs. Likely a few hundred knives and I have seen 10 or so of each. I own one of each. One has no model stamp and the other has an extra 1 in the model number. Call it what you want, advertising gimmick, factory error but still an factory error production knife.

Additionally, the CASE 10 dot Cheetah Prototypes all have no model number and never heard any mention of factory error. Made that way.

The above is stated is not applicable to the OP knife in my opinion. Modified blade like installed in a bone handled knife. Lunch box employee build or done outside of factory, still not a factory production knife in my opinion.

Jerry

[TwoFlowersLuggage]

Thanks Jerry!

[QTCut5]

I bet he would sell it in a heartbeat if some wealthy Saudi crown prince or billionaire Chinese industrialist clicked "Buy It Now" and paid his asking price.

~Q~

[XxTestedxX]

I bet he would sell it in a heartbeat if some wealthy Saudi crown prince or billionaire Chinese industrialist clicked "Buy It Now" and paid his asking price.

~Q~

May sound funny. But I'm aware of a foreign buyer that has taken 100's of top rare case knives..
Lost to US buyers/collectors forever

[espn77]

Knives in general. With the amount of research that people before us have done and the amount of mechanicing that goes on. How have we never seen or heard of this knife before? I know there are prototypes but usually more than one was made. Especially being as recent as 1970. Just seems like a far fetched story that it came from the factory the way it is.

[QTCut5]

My comment was not intended to be humorous...I was responding to the seller's comment, "...on this knife ! I have my do not sell it price on it." suggesting that his asking price was so absurdly high that no one would ever actually purchase it.

Personally, I feel he should have used a different forum other than eBay if all he wanted to do was show off his knife and/or solicit comments or information about it from collectors. I feel using eBay for that purpose essentially amounts to false advertising, i.e., listing an item with a selling price that you have no intention of selling. To be perfectly honest, when I understood what the seller was doing I felt like clicking "Add To Cart" even though I had absolutely no intention of buying it. Obviously I didn't, but I wanted to because I don't appreciate a seller presenting an item for sale only find out he's not really selling it. I don't like having an item held out as if being offered only to have the offer rescinded anymore than I suspect a seller would appreciate a buyer committing to purchase an item with no intention of paying for it. My feeling is that if you want to sell a knife, put it on eBay; but, if all you want to do is show off your knife or get information and opinions about it from collectors, then put it on an appropriate knife forum. I feel eBay is a marketplace not a museum. Is that wrong of me or too harsh?

~Q~

[QTCut5]

With the amount of research that people before us have done and the amount of mechanicing that goes on. How have we never seen or heard of this knife before?

Generally, I tend to agree with that sentiment because I'm a firm believer in the old adage, "If it seems too good to be true, it probably is." But, when we hear stories like the one about that controversial Leonardo daVinci painting, Salvator Mundi, that recently sold for $450 million (https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesig ... ator-mundi), it makes it tempting to believe that just about any diamond-in-the-rough discovery story could be possible regardless of how unlikely or fantastic it may seem. Apparently, the seller of this admittedly 'unusual' Cheetah was using eBay as a sort of unofficial research tool to get the attention of collectors and solicit a wide variety of opinions, expert or otherwise. Personally, as far as I'm concerned, I feel doing that is disingenuous, lazy, sloppy research at best and deceptive or possibly even nefarious at worst since any credible or legitimate analysis would obviously require more than a few photos and the owner's explanation of the provenance in a (poorly written) eBay description. Surely I can't be the only one who feels this way.

~Q~

[TwoFlowersLuggage]

Q: I agree completely. I suspect he was using eBay in order to get someone to message him directly so he could sell it outside of ebay and avoid the fees. I think the entire "asking for feedback" thing was BS. This is the downside of ebay moving to a "free to list" model.

[98src]

The 11 1/2 CASE over XX pattern has been a "mine field" for me. I bought 4 off fleabay before I got a real one. Two things to look for: 1).Is the blade thinner than the backspring and 2) under 20X magnification are the letters in the CASE over XX engraved ( telltale circular marks at the end of each letter ). I think one of the pictures shows that the blade is thinner than the backspring which means that the pattern number could have been ground off.

[knifeaholic]

I'm having a hard time with his "factory error" explanation. A Cheetah is not a cheap knife and I don't think they make that many of them. It is also a fairly complex knife compared to your average peanut or sodbuster. It seems odd to me that something as obvious as the model number stamp would slip through QC for a knife like this. I mean, come'on - wouldn't they be closely examining the swing guard area looking for misalignment? They would be looking right at the tang!

I agree...the "factory error" excuse is used by a lot of people selling fakes/reworks. ZERO ZERO ZERO chance that the posted knife is a factory error.

Some sort of "lunch box" knife, possibly.

[zp4ja]

I agree...the "factory error" excuse is used by a lot of people selling fakes/reworks. ZERO ZERO ZERO chance that the posted knife is a factory error.

Some sort of "lunch box" knife, possibly.

I agree Steve. Thanks for chiming in. Lunch box knife or post factory hack as I said. Nothing in my research or documents do I show that knife existed. It is just not right when I look at it either. Funny thing is that the seller says "I also thank the collectors who have offered to give it a new good home , I am sure I will have to let it go someday , but for now I enjoy showing it to my friends".

Sounds like BS and at what price? The mentioned collectors need some more book time in my opinion unless they are looking for a novelty item for their collection at a crazy price.

The 11 1/2 CASE over XX pattern has been a "mine field" for me. I bought 4 off fleabay before I got a real one. Two things to look for: 1).Is the blade thinner than the backspring and 2) under 20X magnification are the letters in the CASE over XX engraved ( telltale circular marks at the end of each letter ). I think one of the pictures shows that the blade is thinner than the backspring which means that the pattern number could have been ground off.

Welcome to the forum 98src! Stick around, you will enjoy it here.

Curious if you have some pics of the 3 duds you bought? If so please share them. Reason I ask is that I extensively researched this pattern for the last 6 years and only have seen one other fake besides this. I own about ~35 CASE 11-1/2 examples at this point. Three of four knives that you purchased from ebay and only one authentic sounds odd if I may say so with no offense intended. Could be totally off but not an easy knife to fake, that I know.

However, I do not live on ebay and don't buy from there so I maybe incorrect. That said, a shaved tang is pretty obvious but I would not get too deep into reading the stamps with a 20X loupe. Think of all the double tap stamp knives (tang struck twice with date dye) from the 11-1/2 knives in the 70's. I have one or two. Authentic nonetheless. Stamp is the last thing I look at when I determine authenticity.

Not trying to be abrasive but as I said, hard knife pattern to fake. Appreciate some pics of fake examples you may have. If not, no big deal. Just wondering if I missed some crap floating around. Important to know for all. A good CASE Swing Guard thread here. Post some pics of the good or bad ones if you like in addition to on this post.

viewtopic.php?f=66&t=30906&hilit=CASE+Cheetah

Regards, Jerry

[98src]

I fortunately was able to get my money refunded on the three fakes. It was not as easy in the early days on ebay to get a refund as it is today. Back then ( in the late 90's ) you had to get a recognized "expert" to agree with you that the knife was fake. I used Tony Foster a lot. Getting back to the stamp.....it is easy to tell the difference between an engraved "stamp" done with a rotary cutter and a stamp that is struck with a die. Each letter in the engraved version, under magnification, will show circular marks at the end of each letter where the cutter stopped. Nothing to do with a double stamp.