buying -and paying the price

My collection is build like a deck of cards with suits in it, each suit/group has its unique characteristics and each group has sub groups within it. My goal is to add more knives to each category or group of knives, the search for new knives never ends .

WHERE TO BUY  your next knife ?
Its imperative that you will thoroughly research the subject before you attempting to purchase your next knife, incomplete research can result with you either being taken advantage of by some bad "dealers" or making a bad deal.
Past history is a good predictor, the first place i will search for a new knife, is the past sellers i dealt with and found them to be fair and honest, preferably private collector that sales pieces from his own collection. this breed of sellers are becoming rare and hard to find, its getting harder to find, it takes years to build a network within the collectors.
If you are new to the field, or with not so much network, you will benefit from researching not only the knife you want to buy but also the person you are buying from. In other words, try to learn who is the seller.  Don't hesitate to ask ask questions, and know that as important as is to ask the questions its important to learn and understand the answers.  For example last month I was in big gun show, I was looking at some of the knives on one of the table and I saw F-S, Beaded & Ribbed, 9 rows, the asking price was around $1000. I asked the seller what led him to ask for such a price, I was thinking maybe the seller researched the knife online and found it to be a rare knife. It's a common knowledge among experienced collectors that the Beaded and Ribbed knife's rarity stems from the number of raw's on it. Beaded and Ribbed knives with 9 rows are common,  one can find such a knife for around $500 online. So...After you heard the seller's answers and compared it to what you know or to other knives from the same group you concluded that this specific seller does not know much about the items on his table. Just for your knowledge, the rare example of the Beaded and Ribbed knife is the 6 or 8 row's not the 9 rows. (bottom photo)
It's also important for the sake of the bottom line to find out if your seller is a dealer or a private collector, due to the addition of commission and such, unavoidably you will pay more when you buy from a dealer. With that being said, I believe I know most of the dealers out-there, some of these dealers  are honest and knowledgeable and they make the buying experience a fun one.

PAYING THE  PRICE .
Your ability to assess how realistic is the asking price for a knife, depends on your knowledge and the research you have done. without knowledge and without research you end up paying the asking price regardless if its justified or not. The sellers goal is to sale the knife for the highest price, he can say many things in order to achieve his goals, such as the knife is very rare and hard to find, is that true? one of the most important questions when it comes to fighting knives that you need to ask, is this knives consistent with the war's time period. In conclusion you need to know your stuff and know your seller enough to feel that you can trust him/her.

LEARN THE MARKET   
Last but not least, learn your market, go over the sold price for the knives online, not the asking price. At the end of the day, the value of the knife is truly the price that someone is willing to pay for it.

The most important is: trust your self, don't let some "expert" decide for you ! continually learn, research  and strive to expend your knowledge. 

              
         

WW2 Floyd Nichols fighting knife

When i started collecting knives, i took every knife i could put my hands on, my collection had no real direction, until i found that for me the the real joy is finding a named knife, a knife that i can attribute to a specific soldier. There is an added dimension when you know who held the knife and you can research the fights they took parts in and the units they were belong to. Its almost as though , a new world that has been closed so far is open up, like the old saying "if only the knife could talk".

since then i added a few named knives in to my collection, some are very rare, and some have history behind them, these knives  are the core of my collection.

Personally I'm not a big fan of knives that are in a mint condition, most likely i will pick a well used knife with name associated with over a mint condition nameless knife, i guess it depends on each collector's preference.

Here is new knife i added a few months ago with the help of a good friend and collector. Not many collectors are aware of this knives, its known mainly in the North America's market. this knives were not mas-produced, it believed that only around 1300 or so where made, hand crafted in David City NE.

This knife for example is one of the early produces knives one , i believe its early production based on the 1937 Indian coin on the pommel,  later on the coin on the pommel was replaced with a stamp that said, "NICHOLS DAVID CITY NEBR".

Part of the reason these knives are unique is the fact that the sheath and the knife are hand made .
each sheath made for a specific knife, and is an integral part of the knife from day one. The sheaths were made by Alfred Cornish from Omaha.
my knife came from LT Col(M,B) served with his knife in WW 2 and in Korea War During WW 2 he served in the US 507th PIR of the 82nd Airborne Division and lost the tip of the knife on D-DAY. (I'm not using the full name as using it involves getting the family's permission)
       
               

Complete Set the name on the cross guard and named sheath 

Special marking on the sheath it self is the 82nd sign makes it very unique 

The Early Indian Head Coin