I am unfortunately considering selling some knives due to financial hardships. I have a Swick original first run I am gonna list on the 'bay more than likely . Its the original Swick mint unused condition with box with no spyderhole , stonewash finish and has a serial number of 002!! It also has a factory Kydex sheath which I guess only the first run came with before they discontinued doing that. so what do you all think is an accurate value for this knife? I dont know if it has collector value and I dont want to be innacurate in pricing
The Swick is an odd duck when it comes to the collectors club numbering. There were about 480 of the first gen Swicks made. Of those, a maximum of 200 could have gone to collectors club members (though the number was likely far less, as there weren't nearly that many CC members) and the knives are numbered with each collector's number. So the numbering is all well and normal.
Where the knife gets odd, is that the V usually signifies that the knife is a variant of a model. Normally, a knife may come in plain edge and serrated, one of which is designated the "Main" model and only gets the CC# (no V), while any others will get a V added on to the number, meaning it is a variant of the original "main" permutation. For some reason, the Swick got labeled a Variant, even though it was a new model with a new SKU number and therefore wasn't a variation of any previously existing Swick. There is some speculation that the Spot, which preceded and led to the development of the Swick, was considered the Main model and that the Swick was its spiritual successor, and therefore a Variant of the Spot lineup. So that may explain why the original Swick has a V.
Hope that wasn't too confusing of an explanation! :)
so a V means a limited club member run? of which an unknown but small lot was made and individually numbered?
does this increase the value of the knife then?
Since only about 480 were made and less than 200 were numbered for the Collector's Club, some buyers might think the numbers, indicating rarity, enhance value. But some, more knowledgeable, buyers prefer not to have "somebody else's number" on their knife (each club member has his or her own number) so it really depends on the buyer. In any case, if it's in mint condition, it should be valuable to a collector, but they're so rare it may be hard find out what they're selling for. I could speculate about auction pricing, but since I've never sold anything on the bay, I think I'll defer to somebody with hands-on experience :D
K-390 on hand: Mule Team 17, Police 4 G-10, Endela (burlap micarta), Endela backup, Endura (canvas micarta), Straight Stretch (now blade-swapped with G-10 Stretch), Delica Wharncliffe, Dragonfly Wharncliffe, & Dragonfly Wharncliffe shorty mod Note to self: Less is more.
I sold a leaf version a while ago, and I regularly hawk those knives on ebay. they typically go between $100 and $150.
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