Does anyone have a good idea of what my Delica collection is worth?

[RIOT]

Without making this into a "im selling something thread"

I have run into real tuff times and someone asked what I would sell it for and I can not put a dollar amount on it at all.

Id say its about 95% of all Delicas ever made, around 90 different Delicas.

I dont know if Id get more money piecing them out or selling the collection whole, given I did pay a pretty penny for many of them because I was impatient and had the money to buy them, now I dont.

wondering if its not worth selling and to just keep it instead of losing my butt on it.

if i could put a number on what I paid for everything i would assume around 10k maybe more maybe less whatever that means.

my only idea was to slap them on ebay with a decent sized reserve and see what happens.

I couldnt see anyone paying 5k+ for the **** thing.

[Slash]

Off the top of my head I would think after all the selling fees and such you could have an adverage price of about $50 per. Just make sure you seperate the rare (carbon fiber, Ti, damascus, etc.)so you don't let them go to cheap.

[WalzAaronFFG]

If it was me I would try to sell them on bladeforums. You can get people to pay PayPal fees and shipping, and they will be worth more to enthusiasts. I would break them up into sections. Either by year or blade steel, or something.

There are a lot of delicas I missed out on that I would like a shot at, but I could never afford the whole lot, nor would I want all of them. For example I want the Blue bone damascus with titanium bolsters, but as for most others I would pass.

I think most people would be like that. I would do them 1 by 1 if it was the most financially beneficial. You could post them all in 1 thread and just clear house one section at a time.

[RIOT]

If it was me I would try to sell them on bladeforums. You can get people to pay PayPal fees and shipping, and they will be worth more to enthusiasts. I would break them up into sections. Either by year or blade steel, or something.

There are a lot of delicas I missed out on that I would like a shot at, but I could never afford the whole lot, nor would I want all of them. For example I want the Blue bone damascus with titanium bolsters, but as for most others I would pass.

I think most people would be like that. I would do them 1 by 1 if it was the most financially beneficial. You could post them all in 1 thread and just clear house one section at a time.

no blue damascus deal to find ? i see them all the time on ebay (havent looked at prices though)

Its very hard to break up the collection for me, Id rather sell it as a whole then to part it out, once i sold some, the collection would be broken. Very hard!!!!!!

[The Deacon]

Its very hard to break up the collection for me, Id rather sell it as a whole then to part it out, once i sold some, the collection would be broken. Very hard!!!!!!

Problem with that is, it effectively limits your market to speculators who will be looking to pay you as little as possible in order to maximize their return when they break up the group and resell the knives individually.

That's especially true of Delicas, where only a handful out of all the variants made, are of real interest to collectors. With some models, a serious collector might buy ten knives to get two or three he really wanted because he knows there's enough interest in the others that they will make excellent trading stock. But even there, they'll probably be looking to pay below market value.

At least that was the case for me, back when I was interested in expanding my collection. The largest "group" I ever gave serious consideration to purchasing was around fifteen pieces. The largest I ever purchased was ten. Those ten were Q's, where there is at least moderate collector interest in every variant and the price was too good to pass up.

Harsh reality is, that, aside from the 4 CF versions, the various pink ones, the titanium, the three bolstered versions, and perhaps one or two others, Delicas don't attract much in the way of collector interest. They're perceived as being just too common. Slash's $50 average for 90 Delicas is probably a fair estimate of value, but whether you'd find anyone willing to pay anywhere near it is questionable.

[jossta]

If it were me, I would pick your favorites and sell the rest individually. You could probably make more money keeping 20 or 30 of your favorites and selling the rest by themselves than you would selling all 90 as a package. That way you're not losing out on everything.

[jackknifeh]

Without making this into a "im selling something thread"

I have run into real tuff times and someone asked what I would sell it for and I can not put a dollar amount on it at all.

Id say its about 95% of all Delicas ever made, around 90 different Delicas.

I dont know if Id get more money piecing them out or selling the collection whole, given I did pay a pretty penny for many of them because I was impatient and had the money to buy them, now I dont.

wondering if its not worth selling and to just keep it instead of losing my butt on it.

if i could put a number on what I paid for everything i would assume around 10k maybe more maybe less whatever that means.

my only idea was to slap them on ebay with a decent sized reserve and see what happens.

I couldnt see anyone paying 5k+ for the **** thing.

First of all you never know what someone will pay for things. If buying each knife individually would total $5000 for a collector it may be worth it to buy them and COMPLETE his/her collection by having every model made. You never know. Six years ago I'd never have paid $100 for a knife, now look! :eek:

Good luck with it,
Jack

[Pinetreebbs]

You can give selling a lot a try, but you are looking for a serious Spyderco collector that does not already have many Delica models and has the $$$ and motivation to buy.

Most collectors and people that sell and trade knives will offer less to resell/trade the extras and not lose money.

If you don't want to sell the off individually, break them into smaller lots and include one or more desirable knife in each lot. There are a lot more collectors with the money to buy smaller lots to get a special knife than an entire collection.

Prayers for better times.

[DemskeetSkeet]

I'd avoid eBay with something this large.

They'll charge you for a lot of pictures(which you'll need a lot!). Then a reserve fee which is based on the reserve amount. Then a listing fee(sometimes). Final value fee which is around 10-13 percent. Plus paypal takes 3.5 percent upon receiving payment.

Forums would be your best bet to sell as many as you can then possibly eBay for the rest.

Good luck & I hope you pull through whatever is troubling you.

Take care
-Matt

[Mwalle6]

I'm in agreement with the majority here. Selling them piece by piece is the way to go. Keeping the collection whole may be great for someone else, but you need to put your family first if you are in a tough financial spot. As others have said you may get $50 per blade selling them bundled, from your guess of what you paid you are around $110 each. No way you will get that as a bundle of 90+ blades.

Forums are going to be your best bet for selling these since they don't charge a fee. I'd put a few (maybe 10) up each week or so. If you flood the forum with these it might drive the prices down.

As Jossta said, pick some of your favorites and keep them as long as possible. Maybe you can make the money you need and still have some cool pieces for yourself.

Maximize your earnings! Good luck to you and your family!

[dbcad]

I won't offer selling advice as many more knowledgeable folks are doing that. I am not so complacent to think that hard economic times cannot visit me either.

This is the toughest work environment I've experienced in over 30 years of working. Don't know if that's the cause you need to urgently raise funds, but I feel for you.

[Blerv]

Frankly I would put together a comprehensive photobucket, flicker, etc site for them. Bomb it at the local forums and see what happens. If you do find someone interested make sure it's a safe method of payment, shipping, etc.

Otherwise you would have to individually sell the 90 knives which may very well make you more money and recoup some of your investment. Chance are you will still be far ahead of most tangible investments due to the price of steel/labor, etc.

It's a bad time that's for sure. Sorry for your situation friend /

[RIOT]

hmmm, thanks for all the replys, some very good points made. i can see how ebay would be a big pain, and i also see that the desire of the Delica isnt as great as others.

think im going to just hang onto them and pray for a job, times arent really that bad but living here in CA isnt cheap and my parents want me and my brother to move to Fallon NV in farm country if SHTF and I just cant adapt out there.

LOL its almost been 2 years of vacationing without a job and im getting to the point that i need to start looking and stop dicking around. still scared to get a pay check of 1k every 2weeks after getting a 15-20k paycheck every month. B.S. lol

still when i see a Delica i dont have i cant buy it lol

[Fred Sanford]

If it were me, I would pick your favorites and sell the rest individually. You could probably make more money keeping 20 or 30 of your favorites and selling the rest by themselves than you would selling all 90 as a package. That way you're not losing out on everything.

Best advice yet....

I agree with this!

[kawr]

I think your best bet would be to pick out the desirable Delicas and make groups of 5-10 delicas with 1 desirable Delica per group and try selling them in small groups at good prices. I'm sure you would make more piecing them out individually but that would take considerable time and effort to do and it would take a long time to sell them all. Also the money saved on postage alone might make it comparable to what you would make piecing them out. Best of luck.

[Elvis]

I have over 7,000 feedback on eBay as a seller.

List them over the course of a month, starting and ending at the same time. Studies show that Sunday evenings are when the most people are on eBay, time your auctions for sometime on that day.

$9.99 with no reserve on all your auctions. This encourages bidding. No reserve prices, and no outrageous shipping fees. Lots of pictures. The eBay and Paypal fees are a part of doing business. Some people worry about that stuff too much. You'll be pleasantly surprised when a few items sell for way more than what you would have asked for on Bladeforums.

Sell each item separately. It's easier to find 100 people wanting to spend $100 than one person with $10,000.

Go to Uline.com and buy boxes. This way you can charge $3-4 for US first class shipping instead of $6 for USPS Priority Mail; they're actually the same thing. Less shipping fees makes buyers happy and want to bid on more.

An Endura in an 8 x 6 x 4 box weighs 8 ounces. As an example it costs $2.56 to ship from California to Connecticut via first class rate. A Priority mail package would cost $5.83. They take the same amount of time to arrive. So if you charge $4 for shipping you're saving the buyer $2 in shipping over Priority Mail, and you almost a buck in "handling", even when figuring in the 50 cents you paid for the box.


Go onto Craigslist.org and search in the "free" section for moving supplies. People are giving away bubble wrap, paper wrap and styrofoam peanuts. Use these materials to safely pack your items. Buy a digital postal scale at your local office supply store, or eBay. Use their shipping/label printing option, which actually costs less than standing in line at the post office, and is naturally less aggravating and time consuming.

You're selling these to make money. Treat it like a job and use the necessary products and take the necessary time to do it correctly.

[WalzAaronFFG]

no blue damascus deal to find ? i see them all the time on ebay (havent looked at prices though)

Its very hard to break up the collection for me, Id rather sell it as a whole then to part it out, once i sold some, the collection would be broken. Very hard!!!!!!

I haven't seen them anywhere, especially not on ebay. Maybe I'm just not seeing them. I want to buy the Orange bone damascus when it comes out, so I would like to have the blue one too. Someone else said they made a 3rd damascus, bone, with Ti bolsters, do you know what color that one was?

Edit: Sorry not trying to hijack, just curious

[rycen]

Only two damascus bladed delicas. You might be mixing up the ann. delica with damascus bolsters,bone handles and polished blade.

[TBomb]

hmmm, thanks for all the replys, some very good points made. i can see how ebay would be a big pain, and i also see that the desire of the Delica isnt as great as others.

think im going to just hang onto them and pray for a job, times arent really that bad but living here in CA isnt cheap and my parents want me and my brother to move to Fallon NV in farm country if SHTF and I just cant adapt out there.

LOL its almost been 2 years of vacationing without a job and im getting to the point that i need to start looking and stop dicking around. still scared to get a pay check of 1k every 2weeks after getting a 15-20k paycheck every month. B.S. lol

still when i see a Delica i dont have i cant buy it lol

That changes things entirely...

2 years without a job? Or even looking for one? Must be nice! :D

And yeah, I'm sure going from a $250,000/year income to $0 might require a little bit of a lifestyle readjustment

Anyway, knowing this info, it sounds like maybe you aren't as hard up as it originally sounds. I'm not going to judge, but I would say hang on to that collection because you will probably regret selling it later on once you're back on your feet. You can always take that measly $1000 pay check every two weeks and scrape by for a while if you need to. Your knife collection is only going to net you 5 paychecks if you're lucky, then you'll be back in the same boat.

Just my $.02 and all that...

[Onionman]

Breaking them up and selling them on ebay would probably get you the most money, but if you wanted to do it all at once, I would do some research on ebay or other forums for the sale price of each type of delica you have, add them all up, and do a "buy it now or best offer" on ebay. Either they will pay your price or someone will make you an offer you can live with. While the item is being listed on ebay, you can use craigslist, bladeforums, and other sites to advertise your ad, communicate with potential buyers (and possible get an idea of how much they would pay) , then tell them to check out your ebay listing and accept the offer you want.

Good luck!