First Sharpening - What's it Do to Resale Value?

[Bolster]

Most of my Spydercos are users, but a few are 'vintage' or rare and still have the factory edge. What percentage does that first user sharpening drop the resale value of a Spyderco, if you had to guess? Obviously there's variability, but what's your guess of the average percentage decrease in resale value after the initial sharpening? For discussion, assume a careful, minimalist sharpening (not a messy, aggressive sharpening, or grinder, or belt sander). Is a user-sharpened knife like a car that loses a substantial amount of its value* when you drive it off the lot? (*www.ramseysolutions.com/saving/car-depreciation)

I also assume a large portion of forumites don't care if, or how much, the % value drops -- the value comes from using -- I get it, that's how it (mostly) is for me too. But I'm still curious.

[Bolster]

...and if your name is Shawn Houston or Larrin Thomas or Eric Glesser, does the knife value actually go UP when sharpened by those users? I'm joking, a little, but I'm curious...maybe expert sharpening adds value.

[bdblue]

I think it depends on the knife. If a person wants to buy a somewhat rare knife for a collection then they will want the factory edge. If a person is buying a knife to use then they won't care if they have the factory edge but a resharpened knife can be a negative depending on who resharpened it. The way I look at it a factory edge will likely require a little bit of reprofiling when I first sharpen it. This is not hard for me to do but takes time. If someone has resharpened an edge then you don't know what you are getting. To resharpen it you might have to take a long time, or remove a lot of material, to get the edge that you want. If someone has obviously put on a very good edge then maybe that is as good or better than the factory edge. I've bought used knives before with polished edges that were done very well, I've bought factory edges that took a lot of work to get even bevels on.

[Coastal]

I've wondered this myself. It might be possible to approximate an answer by comparing what brand-new knives sell for on eBay with the cost to buy "like new" or pristine-looking pre-owned examples of the same knives. Of course there's no way of knowing whether the latter have been sharpened once, or even at all. Still, it's a comparison of a knife that's new to one that's almost new.

[spoonrobot]

10-20% for a "good" edge.

Something like an Edge Pro mirror edge with great photos can be closer to 0-10%. Sharpmaker sometimes the same, depends on the model. I think serrated edges take a bigger hit.

I've seen people attempt to sell knives with really good mirror edges for a premium but it doesn't seem to work out much for them.

[Wartstein]

Tough question... I practically ALWAYS sell knives that already have been sharpened by me, since I get them for really using and trying and THEN deciding if I´ll keep them or not.

If I BUY a knife myself I do not care if it has been sharpened or not, except one did a really bad job (let´s say one bevel extremely different to the other one, so that it would take me reprofile work or multiple sharpenings to even that out)

[Evil D]

I'd say it drops value considerably if it's strictly for collecting, and if it's just a user then it would depend on the skill level of who sharpened it. If they used a pull through edge scraper I'd have to low-ball them since I'd have to immediately reprofile it.

[jmj3esq]

Sorry, this is not meant to be spam, but an example of your question. I currently have a Spyderco Advocate for sale of ebay. The knife is totally new and original, showing no signs of use or wear, besides the knife has been professionally sharpened to a mirrored, razor edge. Alos comes with original box, documents, foam insert and sticker. Whoever sharpened this knife did a fantastic job and it has perfect mirrors with no scratches. It's been listed for 2 days and has a few watchers, but at my price I thought it would fly off the shelf. I expect even though this is a real nice sharpening job that it will decrease my return. The people want all original stuff, even though the sharpening may have improved the knife. We'll see.

Here's some pics of that mirror edge:

[Evil D]

Sorry, this is not meant to be spam, but an example of your question. I currently have a Spyderco Advocate for sale of ebay. The knife is totally new and original, showing no signs of use or wear, besides the knife has been professionally sharpened to a mirrored, razor edge. Alos comes with original box, documents, foam insert and sticker. Whoever sharpened this knife did a fantastic job and it has perfect mirrors with no scratches. It's been listed for 2 days and has a few watchers, but at my price I thought it would fly off the shelf. I expect even though this is a real nice sharpening job that it will decrease my return. The people want all original stuff, even though the sharpening may have improved the knife. We'll see.

Here's some pics of that mirror edge:

What I immediately see and what would bother me is how much steel is already sharpened off. See your pics vs this random I searched for.

It seems like some of them came from the factory with a bit more bevel ground off than that one but I bet many people look at this when considering a used knife.

[apollo]

Personally i do not mind a if a knife is sharpened already. It does not decrease value in my eyes if it is done properly. Its hard enough finding older spydies as it is. Let alone if those can not be sharpened yet.
My only problem with older spydies and values are people that think any model triples in price in a few years.

[cjk]

Sharpening a knife should decrease the value to collectors as it's no longer new, it's used.
Really, most stuff which is sold as NIB or LNIB or 'mint' is "used".
If you've cut a sheet of paper with it it's used.
If you've moved the clip, it's used.

[Evil D]

Sharpening a knife should decrease the value to collectors as it's no longer new, it's used.
Really, most stuff which is sold as NIB or LNIB or 'mint' is "used".
If you've cut a sheet of paper with it it's used.
If you've moved the clip, it's used.

Yeah, you can bet that many of the BNIB knives have even been carried a while before being sold. I have a few that are literally "dealer new" that I have never taken out of the bag or box, and that's what I consider to be legit BNIB.

[RustyIron]

Sharpening diminishes the value. Why would anyone choose a knife that is not original, when they can just as easily buy a knife that is fresh from the factory?

This even applies to hard to obtain knives. If offered two identical knives for the same price, everyone is going to choose the brand new one over one that had been handled and resharpened.

Even if the knife was sharpened on the left side by Shawn, the right side by Larrin, and then splashed with holy water by Eric, the first time you use the knife to scrape gum from your shoe and slice your ham sandwich, the blade is going to be like any other.

[wrdwrght]

This question turns, I think, on what a collector is trying to collect. Some, but not all, collectors want their acquisitions to be brand-new, and so sharpening will certainly lessen what these collectors will pay.

Not me. While I won’t turn my back on a brand-new Spydie, I will consider, at the asking price, any UNCOMMON Spydie I want, even if it has been carried, sharpened, and used, so long as I think I can bring it back to the state of Spydies I have bought new and since carried, used, and sharpened.

One of my many satisfactions in having Spydies, whatever the model, is not only to use them, but also to bring them back from the precipice with proper maintenance so I can use them again as if they’re right out of the box.

I doubt I’m alone in this kind of collecting; I imagine my used Spydies would, were I to sell them, find buyers near my asking prices, which I gear to get back what I put in.

[Bolster]

Even if the knife was sharpened on the left side by Shawn, the right side by Larrin, and then splashed with holy water by Eric, the first time you use the knife to scrape gum from your shoe and slice your ham sandwich, the blade is going to be like any other.

How can you say that. That's just insane.

If a knife were sharpened on the left side by Shawn, the right side by Larrin, and then splashed with holy water by Eric, gum would leave your shoes out of respect, even if you left the knife unopened in your pocket. Wave that knife in the air, and your ham sandwich would part itself in awe, like the Red Sea under Moses' staff. "Blade like any other," he says. You probably think the same of Excalibur.

[RustyIron]

If a knife were sharpened on the left side by Shawn, the right side by Larrin, and then splashed with holy water by Eric, gum would leave your shoes out of respect, even if you left the knife unopened in your pocket. Wave that knife in the air, and your ham sandwich would part itself in awe, like the Red Sea under Moses' staff. "Blade like any other," he says.

And that, good sir, is why I would never pay more than MAP for that knife. Such a blessed blade would surely sense the scarilegeous rants of this unrepentant infidel, spontaneously severing my blasphemous head from my heretical body. Without the head/mouth mechanism connected to the neck, tequila shots on Taco Tuesday would never be the same.

[jwbnyc]

[Airlsee]

Sharpening ALWAYS hurts resale value.

[JD Spydo]

If the sharpening is expertly done and there are no scratches on the blade or handle I can't see how anyone would even know it had been sharpened. If the knife had been sharpened by David ( Evil D) or any of the guys I know here that are well trained in the art of sharpening it wouldn't bother me in the least. But if there are any marks or smudges on the blade or handle then that changes the game entirely.

Overall if you've got a real collector piece it's best to just leave it alone and play it safe.

[Wartstein]

Funny: Hard to do, since 95% of the joy to me is immediately try, test and use ANY Spydie I get - the rarer it is, the more so... - but if I still tried to imagine myself being "just" a collector: It would matter even less if a knife had been sharpened already. I mean, if I would not actually use that edge anyway, why care how it's sharpened?!