'53 Springfield Garand Mint. Price?

waldo

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Hi there,
I'm not much on Garands but I came across one that, in my confused youth I sold to a friend. Probably 25 years ago, and I'd forgotten about it. Anyhow, he'd like 1500 for it now. I admit its mint and crisp and original in every respect. You'd be hard put to say its had even a box through it. This isn't a repark or a parts gun. Just don't know if any Korean era Garands are worth that much. Anybody know?

thanks all.
W
 
A lot of people are asking 1200-1800 bucks for their garands these days. What they actually get for them is another question.

I'll leave this one to the regular posters though...but I can tell you they are going to want lot's of pictures. It's hard to judge a rifle based on words alone.
 
If it was truly mint and crisp in original finish with the original parts, he might be able to get $1500 since Garands seem to be good sellers, but for a Korean war era I think that's pushing it at least for me, the WWII USGI stuff will always be more valuable. Same goes for all U.S. militaria, WWII commands a premium. It's extremely difficult to find a nice collector grade WWII M1 Garand that is all original, so I'm sure the nice Korean war Garands will only rise in value.

-Steve
 
Hi there,
I'm not much on Garands but I came across one that, in my confused youth I sold to a friend. Probably 25 years ago, and I'd forgotten about it. Anyhow, he'd like 1500 for it now. I admit its mint and crisp and original in every respect. You'd be hard put to say its had even a box through it. This isn't a repark or a parts gun. Just don't know if any Korean era Garands are worth that much. Anybody know?

thanks all.
W

How do you know it was Korean War era???

I suppose you have checked out the manufacture date with the serial number??

If that rifle is minty, as you state, it will easily bring $1200 to $1500.

People were lining up at the Chilliwack show for one in about 95% condition last weekend. I feel that if the seller had price it higher, he would have gotten a couple of hundred dollars more for it.

Then again, it all depends on location and the maker of the rifle. Some makers, bring higher values as well.
 
Well if a 1953 barrel it could be post-war replacement or a post-war rifle.

H&R rifles etc. were only made for Korea - so pretty easy to date.

WWII and pre-WWII rifles usually command higher prices but most Garands in Canada sell for $1200+

More people north and south of the border are giving Korean rifles more attention as a result of increasing prices.

The neat thing about many Korean War rifles is they are 'all matching' - original parts/barrels/stocks. Many WWII rifles have been in one or multiple refurb processes. Even the most serious US Garand collectors state that an 'all matching' WWII Garand is very rare. One of the few examples I know of was a British Lend Lease rifle and is selling for 2K US.

I think the price $1500 is probably reasonable for a Korean War (1953) rifles, especially if all matching with good stock cartouches/proof marks. I know Milarm recently sold an HandR rifle for $1800.00
 
Most of the post-WW2 Garands were produced after the Korean War with peak production in 1954-55. In general the post-war Garands tend to be in better shape with more original parts than the wartime rifles, most of which went through one or more arsenal overhauls during military use.

There are 2 Springfield Garands of 1954 and 1955 production still listed on the EE which have now been sold. The asking price was $1300 each. These look to have been from the lot that were being sold at retail in the 2007/2008 timeframe. These included post war Springfields, IHCs and HRAs with a sprinkling of WW2 rebuilds as well. I believe that they were surplus from either the Saudi National Guard or Jordan judging by the fine "sands of Arabee" that could be found in the internals. As a group they were in not too bad condition and I bought a number of them. All showed original finish and some mis-matched parts of mostly post- WW2 make. Wood was pretty much toast or replacements and there were a number of broken and unserviceable parts. Most barrels were good, altho I did get one that was bulged at the muzzle at a discount. I lucked into a nice takeoff barrel of the correct vintage which I installed as a replacement. A lot of the parts needed re-Parkerizing, but all in all they were pretty good value for money. I was able to find a couple of scarce variations among them incl 2 IHC rifles built on SA and HRA receivers which were supplied to IHC on contract.

It seems that the baseline price for any decent Garand of any make or period(good barrel and wood and no rust/pitting) is around $1200 nowadays. You can add on more for those in better condition, especially for rifles with original receiver/barrel/stocks and correct parts combinations. Wartime Winchesters and Springfields command a premium, all things being equal, followed by the post-war IHCs, HRAs and Springfields. IHC produced the fewest rifles of any of the US makers. Many IHCs wound up in Iran as military aid in the 1950s and are not likely to return. I believe that Morocco also got a bunch of IHCs as military aid. The Breda and Beretta build/project rifles that folks are playing with nowadays are basically worth the sum of the parts used to put them together. Original parts-correct Breda and Beretta rifles are quite scarce and should command a premium as well, assuming that they remain in nice overall condition.

It's tough to pin down absolute prices on Garands as it depends on the condition of the individual piece as well as the preferences of the individual buyer, but I'd peg $1200 as a reasonable baseline in today's market. Two things are for sure; they aren't making them any more, nor are they importing any more of them. I'm taking an armful of various makes down to the big Chilliwack show next weekend so should have the chance to fine tune my price estimates after that.
 
An 'all matching' W.W. II Garand that hasn't been made that way by somebody with lots of time and money is rare.
Mint means unfired and exactly as it came out of the factory. Those are even more rare than an 'all matching' W.W. II Garand.
Got any pictures? Preferably the barrel stamps, the receiver heel and any other markings.
 
It seems $1500 is fair market asking for a good + rifle. You might sit on it for a while though depending.
Selling a VG model for $1200 is giving it away in the current market, imho.
 
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