My guess would be for every profiteer there are ten or more regular guys who buy a few for trades or to give their friends a shot and to make a couple bucks doing something we love.

If all of us here had spent the time we do here at the yard making minimum wage we would make a heck of a lot more money than we ever could selling knives.
I probably spend 8 to 10 hours a day talking ,polishing ,sharpening ,trading reading about ,giving advice on shopping for and looking at knives.