The Best Reference for 20th Century Pocket Knife Values

[miklobe]

I am looking for an excellent, reliable reference book for collectible pocket knife values (current price guide).

I will appreciate any recommendations from AAPK members.

Thanks, in advance.

[SFC ADP]

I prefer "The Standard Knife Collector's Guide" by Roy Ritchie and Ron Stewart. 5th Edition (c. 2007) is the latest edition.
Does not list as many prices as you might expect, alot of it provides tables to figure out your own values, so your options are much broader to figure out all kinds of knives.

[orvet]

miklobe,
I think the day of the printed price guide, as we knew it, is almost gone.
Given the fluctuation of prices on ebay, by the the time a price guide is printed, the prices on ebay may have doubled or fallen to 30% of what they had been just a couple months before.

And like it or not, ebay does a lot to set the prices in knife collecting. Some of the rarer knives are probably not as affected by ebay, because they are rarely seen on there. Though I do know collectors who get super bargains on very rare knives through ebay, because the majority of ebay buyers are not extremely knowledgeable in the rarer pieces.

On the other hand, there are the people on ebay who get a bidding wars and drive the prices up, even if temporarily. Sometimes new collectors get a bad case of "Knife Lust" and bid far beyond a reasonable price for a knife.

Some knives such as the more common Old Timers do not even bring the 2004 MSRP, when Schrade closed. The rarer patterns often bring 3 or 4 times the last MSRP.

My recommendation for prices on the more common brands & patterns, is to do a Completed Listings search and see what the knife has been selling for in the last 30 days.

Just my $.02, I hope it is helpful,
Dale

[jonet143]

what dale said - real world advice.