The News from ElephantToenails.com

Earlier today I was doing a little tweaking of ET.com’s keywords for those all important search engines (sorry for the geek talk) and ran across a timely bit of info. A real live old time public Auction. But not just any ole auction (like what I do) but this one’s got Toenails in it!

On March 30th, there is an auction with a fair amount of toenails/sunfish. The Auctioneer bills the sales as a “PRIVATE COLLECTION of at least 500 knives, such as: at least 15 Antique Sunfish knives, plus more than 100 newer collectible Sunfish knives; over 100 collectible pocket knives and more than 150 Antique pocket knives.”

Here is the link to the Auctioneer’s website. There you will find an inventory and pictures. The auction is being held in Liberty, PA at 10:30 AM. I don’t think they are putting these online for bidding but may allow phone or proxy bidding.

There are newer ones, like Case (from the ’70’s & ’80’s), S & W, Primble, Bulldog, Canal Street, Fight’n Rooster and maybe some others. Plus there are some old ones too, like Case Bros. Camillus, Harris Bros., Union Cut. Co, Hammer Brand (NYKC), HSB, OVB, Cattaraugus, etc.

There are lots of varieties and because it is an “on-site” auction I would guess some bargains are to be had. If you are going shoot me an email I may get you to check a couple out for me

First off let me thank those of you who participated in our first ET.com poll. I put it up right after launching the new The News. I wanted to try out the new toy that allowed me to poll you guys- so here is a summary of the results.

The question was: How long have you collected Knives?

• 10% indicated they had only been collecting 1-3 years
• 10% indicated they collected from 4- 8 years
• 30% indicated they collected from 9- 15 years
• The largest percentage of voters (50%) indicated they have collected 16 years or more.

I find this very interesting- as you know for the most part, the folks who come ’round ET.com are a fairly specialized group of collectors. I would speculate (maybe another poll topic down the road on this) that most older collectors have specialized and have branched off into a higher caliber collectible (more valuable/more expensive) than the newer collectors who have yet to focus. I haven’t compared but have observed toenails do tend to cost more than an average old knife. (We know there are many reasons for this- sheer size for one!)

Most ‘older’ collectors have settled in and focused on a particular pattern (like toenails) or brand (like New York Knife Co, or Napanoch), or even a subset within a pattern (like stag handled toenails or simply jumbo swellcenters). When I was a new collector….I was spending just as much, if not more, but was buying anything and everything made by this one knife company. The result of a concentrated focus is a better allocation of financial resources- by being more selective and having a smaller universe of collectibles, many collectors can afford to “invest” a higher dollar amount in each knife, as opposed to what I had experienced.