There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
My collection wouldn't even come close, but maybe I'll let them all out at some point if I can find the time
In the mean time, wanted to thank you for sharing the personal story with your grandfather. It's always great to have a personal, sentimental tie in with something you love.
I have one in a box somewhere, probably the crappiest knife i haven't gotten rid of (and never will). A no name Buck style back lock that belonged to my grandfather, ground down to the point that there's edge visible when the knife is closed (partly from his many years of use, mostly from a dumbass 10 year old (me) who had access to a coarse grinding wheel and no idea what the hell he was doing lol) But it was the knife he let me use every time he took me fishing, till he eventually told me to hang onto it. 40+ year old piece of "Stainless China" junk, but it will still always mean something to me
Of course, once the model is discontinued or even just altered, value rises. There are other variables that might cause a knife be even more valuable, and if you get lucky just once with a proverbial 0777 (if you're not familiar with the ZT vs Microtech/Marfione 0777 saga, read up on it, it's pretty amusing), then everything else in a collection could be scrap metal and youd still come out ahead. But I think for the most part, the knives I've spent big $$ on--helllllloooo Microtech!--will at least have kept up with inflation so that I get my money back.
I like a sure bet though, so I'm slowly moving to buying custom knives. It's not easy because I have to buy them on whatever installment/layaway is offered, which means I paying repeatedly and getting nothing, and nothing, and nothing...
I found two the two old slip-joints my grandfather carried amongst his mountains of stuff. One was a stockman pattern, and the other was a trapper, I think. So beat and full of grime that it was only after I'd cleaned them off that I saw the Camillus shield, and realized that was the brand they were; best I could tell from info online, they were bought some time after 1960 and before 1975. But as I already had a number of good keepsakes, I gave those knives to my brother.
Speaking of cool keepsakes, it seems everyone was more interested in my grandfather's story than my knives. Which completely appropriate and not at all surprising, since I've found the folks around here to be almost universally of good taste, and history lovers, which is redundant, of course. But I think I might have to make a trip to the safety deposit box to retrieve my favorite keepsake for show and tell. Stand by.