TSA knives maybe

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kBob

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I watched a few You Tubes last night of folks that bought knives allegedly from TSA seizures by the pound.

First it astounded me that folks that seem to know as little about knives as the presenters would even imagine they might break even on such a deal.

Second several felt the whole box o' knives thing was a scam and they had been had.

Third If it WAS actually seizures it just goes to show a lot of folks carry knives ... and cheap crappy ones!

I think around here we forget that for most folks a knife is just a tool... and most folks don't buy the best.

It also made me wonder if folks were going like "what the heck, I will carry this POS and if I don't get caught by TSA still have a knife and if I do, no real loss"

One thing that struck me is that one handed openers and "leatherman" like tools FAR out numbered the old common folding knife slip joint.

I also wondered if the reason no "good" knifes were showing up might be because the seized knives get culled by TSA knife affecianados for their own collections and or sales value

What do you guys think.

Me I learned not to buy a pig in a poke a long time ago, but some folks like cats.

-kBob
 
Most branded items are sold individually - maximize return. The “junque” stuff is sold by the pound / box / etc. to maximize the movement (get rid of it...), since the individual pieces will not sell. Typical auction practice....

https://www.eyeflare.com/article/where-buy-goods-confiscated-tsa/

As for @bikerdoc, I agree. Separately, I have been correctly “spanked” twice for getting into TSA stories (typically for straying pretty far from the original post - still searchable). There are plenty if you travel enough.
 
Inconsistency by tsa is rife. Sadly enough to veer into urban legend and apocrypha--all of which veer off topic for THR.
Whether the employees have a side hustle in rifling the trashcans into which they pitch offending items, is also of never-mind to me (and will derail this on THR).

I've carried a Victorinox Classic, well under the 6cm limit, through any number of PreCheck reviews, only to have them picked up under "enhanced" security standards at a given airport. But, that Gentleman's Companion I can replace in a couple days and for ten bucks, I'm ok with (I have gotten on eBay on the phone to replace a couple while waiting on the plane at the gate).

The people with brush hooks, pitchforks, and the like beggar my imagination.
 
I've bought confiscated SAKs on eBay in lots. The keychain knife comes out to less than $5 per knife. More expensive SAK models can also be had individually, cheaper than new. I don't know if they are actual TSA confiscations, but they're listed as such.
 
The wife and I were flying together about a year ago, and her purse went through the x-ray machine and was almost handed back to her. At the last moment, the TSA agent changed his mind decided to hand search it. He dug around and around, and finally found the tiny little Case XX knife that I had given her. She had forgotten it was there, and even though it was a ~$90 knife, we let them confiscate it since trying to mail it or call a friend or family member would have meant missing our flight.

I felt so much safer knowing that her tiny little folder wasn't on the plane with us, NOT.
 
I watched a few You Tubes last night of folks that bought knives allegedly from TSA seizures by the pound.


Third If it WAS actually seizures it just goes to show a lot of folks carry knives ... and cheap crappy ones!

I think around here we forget that for most folks a knife is just a tool... and most folks don't buy the best.

It also made me wonder if folks were going like "what the heck, I will carry this POS and if I don't get caught by TSA still have a knife and if I do, no real loss"

One thing that struck me is that one handed openers and "leatherman" like tools FAR out numbered the old common folding knife slip joint.

I also wondered if the reason no "good" knifes were showing up might be because the seized knives get culled by TSA knife affecianados for their own collections and or sales value

What do you guys think.

Me I learned not to buy a pig in a poke a long time ago, but some folks like cats.

-kBob

I've bought lots of TSA surrender SAKs and have always made money on them at shows. I buy them looking for parts for builds or the odd rarer knife. They rest I just take to the next show and price them at a point to pay for the lot. I've never lost money. I never just buy mixed lots since that's flea market level stuff. Good knives do show up from time to time, but those get sold in small lots or individually to maximize profit. Also consider that people paying for $50-$200 knives pay a lot more attention to what they take into the airport than disposable knife users. Frankly, I've walked into the airport and gotten to TSA and remembered a knife I didn't want to surrender and dashed to a point I could stash the knife. Do that once or twice and you start to pat yourself down before even driving to the airport.

As to TSA personnel pawing through the surrendered items, not much. I was involved in the early TSA stupidity on prohibited items and knives and such get dropped into a bin for them and the airport authority either sells them or destroys them. The penalties for stealing anything out of those bins is severe. I'm sure it happens that things get pocketed before going in the bin, but I'm nearly certain that no one is pawing through the bins for "good stuff" since the airport authority wants companies and people trying to buy the knives on the off chance of a good one being in the batch.
 
I've bought TSA lots on EBay a couple of times, usually trying to get one particular knife in the lot.
The few times that I've won the lot it has worked out fine - I get the whole lot for less than the price of the knife that I was after.
I've given some of the other knives to my co-workers.
Well, not 'given'. I never give a knife to anyone that's not family. It's bad luck. The recipient has to pay something, even if it's just a penny... .
 
There have been many times where I needed to use a knife on my way to the airport, cutting luggage tags, tape and whatnot. So much I now have an airport knife that I let TSA take away while my nicer knife sits in a checked bag or at home. "Oh no I forgot about that one in my pocket. Yeah just toss it." I much rather lose a $1 knife from the dollar store than a $100 Benchmade.
 
Checking a bag can be an issue when day traveling by air for work. So, the verisimilitudes of tsa can be vexing.
It would be nice if 6cm meant 6cm.
I've often wondered about the auction lots labeled "tsa" for living within 5km of DFW airport, and not seeing much in the way of stuff auctioned off, directly.
 
I have 1.5 million miles with AA and a lot of stories. I've forgotten to remove my pocket knife 5-6 times and I've only surrendered them when I was in a hurry. It sucks, but it was my fault.

Still not sure why you need a badged government employee to harass you about the size of your shampoo bottle
 
There have been many times where I needed to use a knife on my way to the airport, cutting luggage tags, tape and whatnot. So much I now have an airport knife that I let TSA take away while my nicer knife sits in a checked bag or at home. "Oh no I forgot about that one in my pocket. Yeah just toss it." I much rather lose a $1 knife from the dollar store than a $100 Benchmade.

Since the creation of TSA I’ve kept a little Crayola rounded scissors in all my carry bags and packs.
 
Went to Louisville on business but on a break went to the Louisville slugger factory with a group from the convention. They sell a miniature bat as a souvenir. They have a big sign saying it is not TSA safe, check it. At the airport checkpoint, there is a barrel of souvenir bats.

Mine is in the tchotchke collection.
 
A knife in my personal collection. Not a speck of metal in the knife or the sheath. A dedicated violator could easily wear this on a plane. I think the TSA has bigger fish to fry than little folding knives, tools that amount to fingernail clippers.
//// Please be clear, I am not advocating or condoning any illegal activity!! ////

Having said that, TSA intercepts in the neighborhood of 3000 firearms in carry on luggage a year.

carbfb1.jpg carbfb.jpg
 
A knife in my personal collection. Not a speck of metal in the knife or the sheath. A dedicated violator could easily wear this on a plane. I think the TSA has bigger fish to fry than little folding knives, tools that amount to fingernail clippers.
//// Please be clear, I am not advocating or condoning any illegal activity!! ////

Having said that, TSA intercepts in the neighborhood of 3000 firearms in carry on luggage a year.

View attachment 981810 View attachment 981811
The new full body scanners are not metal detectors, and they will show that knife if carried anywhere on your body.
 
A knife in my personal collection. Not a speck of metal in the knife or the sheath. A dedicated violator could easily wear this on a plane. I think the TSA has bigger fish to fry than little folding knives, tools that amount to fingernail clippers.
//// Please be clear, I am not advocating or condoning any illegal activity!! ////

Having said that, TSA intercepts in the neighborhood of 3000 firearms in carry on luggage a year.

View attachment 981810 View attachment 981811


And a double warning to potential " fool around and find out" folks is the type of scans in most Us large airports uses back scatter" scan "technology which picks up any MATTER in possible weapon form and they are algarythm aided to look. Used to do non metallic a few years back. No more ! Now a chop sticks are culturally exempt. The little too pointed titanium set I had stopped flying. I do fly the Kabar one s :) they are the .25acp of defensive weapon. Ya get two shots too
 
The scanners are a joke. If it can't see through more than one layer of cloth or a piece of paper in your pocket, what value are they? Even the backscatter scanners that use x-rays (close your eyes when going through one of these) don't play well with cloth with metallic threads in them.

Not that the TSA manned x-ray machines for carry luggage are of any great value either. I lost a knife once upon a time and when coming back from a trip the TSA found it in my carry on, underneath the bottom part. When I asked if I could throw it away, or snap the blade off before handing it over, I was told that wasn't allowed. Guess some TSA personnel got to pocket it or someone got to sell them.
 
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I lost a knife once upon a time and when coming back from a trip the TSA found it in my carry on, underneath the bottom part. When I asked if I could throw it away, or snap the blade off before handing it over, I was told that wasn't allowed.

They discover you have a knife you weren't supposed to have. Why would they put it back in the hands of a possibly angry you?
 
Dumb mistakes happen to entirely honest and lawful travelers.
Good people have legal (yet prohibited) items slide into far corners of their luggage.

Provisions should be made that one could exit security line to secure onsite mailing facility.
It should be a courtesy extended a maximum of once annually and only three times in total.

Even make it crazy expensive. Many would pay $150 to return "family heirlooms" home.
That way those who accidentally bring junk could still just have it surrendered and destroyed.
 
They discover you have a knife you weren't supposed to have. Why would they put it back in the hands of a possibly angry you?

For some strange reason, I had to hand it back over to them after they showed it to me, I guess to give me the option of taking it back out to my vehicle or something. I wasn't going to go do that and possibly miss my flight (this was before the TSA PRE program), so I then had to surrender it back to them. You can't make sense of government processes.
 
all of which veer off topic for THR

Prophetic since it didn't take any time at all to veer off topic into TSA complaining instead of sticking to the original topic of buying TSA confiscated knife lots.

Post no longer visible, that's why or we got off on scanners and detectors.
 
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