Case Set ID and Value Request

[Adapptiv]

Hello all.

I’ve dipped my toe into eBay sales and will be selling some knives here soon as well. TRULY appreciate the help I’ve already been given here and I thank all who have and continue to assist.

Here’s a set we brought out of storage, wondering if the gang here can ID these for me and give me an idea of what the retail value of this set might be. Thanks again for all your help guys and girls!

God Bless...

Chris

[kennedy knives]

Case's 1976 4 dot Razors Edge set , most people call them the Gray Etch set Value is a big guess it some time depends on how many people are bidding . Should bring $1500.00 and maybe a little more nice set . Hope you have the sheath it will make a difference .
Gary

[Sharpnshinyknives]

You might get more money by selling the pieces individually. It’s a tough go trying to get a set of knives sold, believe me. On Ebay, Silverladdie has broken up sets many times and I see those individual pieces bringing pretty good money.
There are a lot of collectors that will simply refuse to buy a set like this because it has patterns that they don’t like. You have to wait a long time for the right buyer to come along. You could try it as a set first and then sell it off individually if that doesn’t work.
Good luck.

[1967redrider]

Great looking set, and the posts here are right, unfortunately. You will get more by breaking up the set.

[Adapptiv]

Thank you all for the replies, it’s much appreciated.

When selling knives like these separately, what do buyers expect price wise without a box and/or sheath?

I’m sure the value would be diminished, but by how much? 20%?

Lastly, anyone have any experience selling the display cases themselves? I have over 30 of sets like this or bigger in cases.

Thanks again, you all rock!

Chris

[Mumbleypeg]

Until the mid-1980’s Case did not individually box knives. They were individually wrapped in velum paper and shipped in boxes of half-dozen or a dozen knives. So for knives made earlier than that the box will not be expected by serious collectors (some newer collectors may be unaware of that however). There are a few notable exceptions, like the Knif-Ax sets for example.

Values for empty display cases are all over the place, depending on size, age, and other factors. Put them up for auction on eBay with a low starting bid and let the bidders find their relative value. Unless you need the money I’d caution against “flooding the market” by putting too many up for sale at a given time. Too many within a timeframe will likely depress the price (economics of supply and demand).

BTW I occasionally see complete sets on eBay, typically as a BIN or best offer listing. They do sell, eventually. But sometimes it takes a while to find a buyer with sufficient financial resources. As others have alluded it’s easier to find 10 buyers having $150 each than to find one with $1500. Personally, for the sake of historical preservation I always hate to see the factory sets broken up, but I understand the economic reality of it.

Ken

[peanut740]

You might get more money by selling the pieces individually. It’s a tough go trying to get a set of knives sold, believe me. On Ebay, Silverladdie has broken up sets many times and I see those individual pieces bringing pretty good money.
There are a lot of collectors that will simply refuse to buy a set like this because it has patterns that they don’t like. You have to wait a long time for the right buyer to come along. You could try it as a set first and then sell it off individually if that doesn’t work.
Good luck.

Silverladdie gets much more than the regular Joe Smow on Ebay.

[Sharpnshinyknives]

You might get more money by selling the pieces individually. It’s a tough go trying to get a set of knives sold, believe me. On Ebay, Silverladdie has broken up sets many times and I see those individual pieces bringing pretty good money.
There are a lot of collectors that will simply refuse to buy a set like this because it has patterns that they don’t like. You have to wait a long time for the right buyer to come along. You could try it as a set first and then sell it off individually if that doesn’t work.
Good luck.

Silverladdie gets much more than the regular Joe Smow on Ebay.

Amen to that Roger. He bought a knife from me that I had listed for over 4 weeks and I had a “buy it now or best offer”. I was curious about this knife so I kept watching and sure enough he listed it w/ a starting bid of .99 cents. He got 85 dollars more than I did for the exact same knife. Literally he got nearly double the price.
Chris, I don’t think the lack of boxes will take away from the prices you will get. I do think that 1500 estimate is high. I would be very surprised if you got an average of 150 per knife. If you were a well known seller, then you might get close but it would be tough. I hate to say this but Case knife prices are very soft. Unless you have a unique, old, or very limited production knife, you just aren’t seeing very good prices. These might be old enough that they could bring some decent prices, but I think you might be in for a surprise on the low side. I’m not knocking Case in any way, it’s just that they have produced a lot of knives over the years and the commonality of them hurts the prices.

[knifeaholic]

If I had this display I would at least try to sell it intact first.

There are loads of the 1976 gray etch knives out there, the market is saturated.

Case made a number (I have no idea how many) of those counter displays so that a dealer that already had a Case display could easily merchandise the gray scroll stags when they were released in 1977.

Very few of these displays remain intact.

So, selling it as a display might be kind of a "novelty" that may generate more interest.

Just my $.02.

[ken98k]

Just wanted to say WOW! Beautiful set!

[Adapptiv]

Again, thank you all for such excellent information.

As I’m not hurting for the money right now, I have the luxury of being able to experiment and see what works. I will probably try to list it as a set on eBay and see what happens from there.

I will let you all know what happens!

God Bless ....

Chris

[Adapptiv]

Silver Maddie bought a couple of mine as well.

Need to watch that guy and see what he does!

Chris