On the contrary, in the world of custom knife collecting purchasing a blade from one of the renowned masters of the craft is seldom a poor investment. I dont think anyone who's spent that much for a Bill Moran or Howard Hitchmough or Bob Loveless or Don Fogg has ever regretted it. These aren't production pieces or machine made replicas or anything, they're pieces of artwork and Jake Powning is one of the best.

Yes, Caveat Emptor just as with anything, if you don't know what you're buying, then you can get burned. But if you do, then something made yesterday can be just as good if not a better investment than something made a thousand years ago.