All About Pocket Knives

To Any and all:
In particular, How much percentage would owner attribution of a deceased former actor with documentation add to a good name brand collectible knife? As a fake example; Lets say a Buck 110 that would sell on ebay for in neighborhood of $50, at his demise it had belonged to some actor who played a big screen and a TV character. With the knife you would received signed documentation that it was his along with a couple of other items of no consequence. Would, in your opinion it add anything and if so how much to the current value of the $50 knife. I am looking toward the item as an investment for lets say 20 years. Now thats what you call optimism.
moss

For myself, personally, it would not add any value. I am sure for some people it might but I wouldn't count on it. Just my opinion.

Dan

Thanks Dan:
I am in borderline agreement with your thinking for current value. I do not think it could do anything but improve the long range value though as it might increase the cross collection demand for the knife.
moss

I am inclined to buy the knife, not the story. If this is part of the group I saw on eBay recently, I was a fan of the character he played and I just barely recall his playing the character. Not a big plus to me and in 20 years no one will remember either the character or the actor, IMHO.

As another, more factual, example, a seller has been listing two or three knives on Ebay repeatedly over the past couple of years. He claims they belonged to an actor that was "The Lone Ranger" or something like that. I always thought Clayton Moore was the Lone Ranger, but that is not the name he states.

At any rate, I'm not sure he's ever actually sold any of the items, because they keep coming back up.

The reason I see them is that one of the knives is a Robeson.

Charlie Noyes

Charlie and Moss,
That was the seller to whom I referred in my post. Clayton Moore was the Lone Ranger but for a very short while the other guy filled in due to a contract problem or such. He was not well received in my circles.

Ray

Thanks for your thoughts.
moss

Well I am always doing the wrong thing. So this will be the same...

Elvis was an actor. I am sure if he had lots of pocket knives the value on them would be up for sure. I am sure his wife would give a paper with them when she sold them. She likes lots of money...$$$$ Ka CHING. I do see many John "THE DUKE" knives by Case. They seem to sell as well as John Deer knives by Case.

So my guess is if you invest in the right name of the actor like Selvester Salone "Rambo" made by Lile this would be a good investment also.

Lots of nuts out there that do strang things. Just go in some of those anteak stores... one mans junk is another mans gold. In fact we all wish now, why didn't grand-dad or dad just buy more knives and just save them.

Well thats about all I have to say. If you think they will go up take the chance unless it takes food off the table.

JMHO Ken (sorry about the spelling)

General rule, as Paladin said, buy the knife, not the story!

On the other hand, having...let's say Michael Jackson's long time EDC pocket knife (with undisputable proof) would probably be very financially interesting!
(Stupid example. I don't think he was much of a knife guy. Would he even know how to open the blade..?)

For long time investment I would be very cautious. A pop star on the cover of all the magazines in 2010 may well be forgotten five years from now!

John Hart played the Lone Ranger. Clayton Moore replaced him as I recall. Clayton was a circus performer pryor to the series.
Bob

I once knew a man who could provide you with a certificate of authenticity for any knife stating any history that would make it desirable to a collector . As a matter of fact I once owned 5 of his knives of which I had certificates stating that only 2 were made and a lady offered to sell me 2 more . I would be leery about purchasing any knife "alleged" to have been owned by a famous personality regardless of the "paperwork" . As Froggyedge said , the value of the knife would probably rise or fall with the popularity of the former owner (if , indeed the authenticity is valid) .

Bob R. (RIDGEWOOD CUTLERY)

From the Lone Ranger Fan Club comes the following: In 1949, Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels brought the Lone Ranger and Tonto to life on television. John Hart replaced Moore for the third season (1952-53).
The show ended on June 6, 1957

Lot of variables to this one. A few:

Maker, quality, and condition of the knife.
Name recognition and fan base of the actor.
Quality, quantity, and authenticity of the documentation.
History of the knife's usage in stage, film, and/or TV.

I came up with that off the top of my head and I'm sure there's more. Plus, the older the item in question is, the more checkered tracing its history of ownership becomes. For example, how about a knife purported to be carried by actor John Wilkes Booth when he jumped from the balcony to the stage of Ford's Theatre after he shot Lincoln? There's a lot of knives around that are that old but none that I know of that would have an accompanying succession of notarized legitimate documents with it going back to Day 1 when it was taken from Booth after his capture. And THAT documentation is what's needed, legitimate, legal, registered paperwork, not some shysters "Certificate of Authenticity" which, IMHO, are ALL pure BS.

Eric

I buy a knife for its story and where its journey has been, i.e. geographical not personal. Who may have owned it doesn't mean a thing to me but others may feel differently and I respect that too.

I have a friend who has a knife that is civil war vintage, an English made multi-blade knife with ivory handles, 3 1/2", that has a folk art scrimshaw on it that has the name "Lt. ?????? and ?th Ala Cav on one side with the Confederate flag and a little more on the other. He got in touch with the Alabama Dept. of Archives and History and spent 20-30 bucks for the history of this fellow. The man ended up getting to Colonel and then after the war was the Mayor of one of the major Alabama cities, Montgomery, I think, but it could have been Birmingham. My friend lives a couple hours drive from me, I think I just might give him a ring in the morning and see if he's around so I can run up there and get some pics of this extremely interesting knife so you folks can have a looksee at a real-deal oldie. The only provenance I know of prior to his ownership is that it came off ebay years ago and the seller said it came from an old Mobile estate and the seller was from Mobile. I bought it for him back then because he didn't internet but liked knives. But that's been quite a spell back, '02 or '03, I think, and my memory's getting worse daily. More to come...... Hope to post again on Sunday.......

Eric

I have the knife and pics of it and have continued this thread by starting a new thread in the Knife Lore section AAPK where I felt a knife of this nature really belonged. Here's the link to the new thread:

http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kni ... 35&t=19821

For me, this is the really fun part of this great hobby, sharing and "just showin' off" the good stuff.

Eric