First of all,
why did the OP have only 15 seconds to photograph them. Unless he was doing it without the knowledge of the owner maybe?
I had 15 seconds to photograph them because I was looking at them when my father and his boss (the manager of the location we were at, and of other locations) were looking at other things, my father and I were just travelling through and just as my father said we should leave it dawned on me that I should take photos and put them on gunnutz to see what these rifles are.
Then it seems when the firearms were identified, the visions of sugarplums, (in the form of dollars,) seems to have entered his head. To quote,
"needs to get them into my possession." Add to this, the disrespect of an elderly man,
"the old fart", by the OP, makes his later remarks a bit suspect.
Like I said, I did not mean to offend with the old fart comment, hell I even call my father an old fart(and he isn't event terribly old
)
Lets take the 1905 Ross for example. If the wood furniture is original, it is worth $250 to $400 alone, maybe more depending upon the unit stampings on the butt. A rear sight is $75-$100, and there are a lot of members that would pay a $50 bill for a good original nosecap. Add another $75 for bands, screws, and other metal pieces, and the price jumps to about $400-$450 AS IS. If you buy a bolt for about $200, then you could easily get $750-$1000 with a little bit of clean up effort. Not bad for a ridiculously low buying price of $25 to $50.
A full set of wood furniture for a No. 1 SMLE is $150 and up, depending upon condition. $40 for a Magazine, $40 for a complete bolt, and don't forget the small metal parts. So, $200-$250 for a couple of hours clean up. Not a bad profit.
And so on with the other rifles.
Like another poster suggested, I am going to ask the owner what he would want for them, if he says take them good for me, if he says something higher then I will need to build up some money. simple as that. This is me thinking out loud here, but say he decides to take them into a gunstore to sell them, what is the store owner going to offer? A ross with a missing bolt(as far as I know), rusted and so on. I wouldn't put it past the store owner to only offer him $50 with all the work that would need to be done to the rifle. But I could be way off with that figure.
And as far as the Universal Carrier is involved, the OP seems to be thinking only of a way to make a profit from his discovery. If he can't buy it himself, why not suggest to the old man that a gift of it to a Military Museum would be appropriate? And it would also be tax deductable.
I really don't think he would ever sell the universal carrier. And how did you get out of what I said that I would be in for it to make profit? I said if I had the money for it (I don't even know what market value is for these things) I would try and buy it. Who wouldn't want to own one?
And last is the OP's justification for such unfair low offers is that
" the old man is a Millionaire, so he doesn't need the money.
I was just saying that because after looking at my posts I didn't want to give people the idea that I am going to grab these rifles from some old man that barely can afford to keep a roof over his head. For all I know he could have 100 more rifles sitting in a closet in his basement.
What ever happened to respect, honor, and fairness when dealing with people?
Well, at 70 years old, I, too, am an OLD FART. And I'm not buying the story. I am 400 miles from the Hat, but it almost seem that I am detecting a faint odor of Greed through the overpowering aroma of Bulls**t.
.