On the eve of 1914… what will happen to WW1 milsurp values?

vermintrex said:
Don't get me wrong.....there are some really great guys who have gone out of their way to help me out with advice, technical info, and most important enthusiasm and encouragement. But there are some who have some deep seated resentment for anyone trying to get in on "their thing".

It's an expensive pastime....I'd venture to say that those of us getting into it now...at todays prices....are possibly more committed than some of those, looking down their nose's at us, who enjoyed the vast selection of collectable pieces that were to be had in the 50's, 60's and 70's.

Yeah...absolutely there are some new collectors that went out and got their PAL the day after watching SPR or finishing COD and wanted an M1.......to that I say SO WHAT ?!?!

at least they learned a bit...are coming into the hobby with an interest in history and preservation of history.

times are a changing.....wouldn't it be better to introduce a new generation however possible so these pieces continue to be revered....than sneer at them, turn them away....and soon no one cares ?
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I hate to burst your bubble but to collect pieces today with what people make is a lot more affordable. My first real collectible Mil-Surp was in 1985, a Mosin Nagant Sniper for $450.00 dollars and at the time I was making $11.50 a hour(40 hrs working to pay for it)
Nowadays you can buy a sniper for what $600.00? Lets say you have a middle of the pack job at say $30.00/hr that equals to 20 hrs to pay for it.
 
For me it wasn't movies, games etc that got me into it. It was my Grandpa and Dads old 303 sporters, combined with an interest in military history. Then one day in an antique store I found an old Port contract K98 bayo that now belongs to CanadianAR. That sparked it. I spent all of my holiday money that year looking at every antique shop in the Okanogan for militaria and got my PAL immediately after returning home.

I'd love to see a mini series done as well as the Pacific or BoB but focussing on WWI Canadian troops. That would be an instant favorite.
 
mr.e moose said:
I hate to burst your bubble but to collect pieces today with what people make is a lot more affordable. My first real collectible Mil-Surp was in 1985, a Mosin Nagant Sniper for $450.00 dollars and at the time I was making $11.50 a hour(40 hrs working to pay for it)
Nowadays you can buy a sniper for what $600.00? Lets say you have a middle of the pack job at say $30.00/hr that equals to 20 hrs to pay for it.
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When i saw my first SMLE for sale it was $50, my wage was $45. last time i was on a wage (2004, self employed these days) i was getting $800, a SMLE is about $450 to $650 today, so much cheaper these days only the numbers are bigger.
 
mr.e moose said:
I hate to burst your bubble but to collect pieces today with what people make is a lot more affordable. My first real collectible Mil-Surp was in 1985, a Mosin Nagant Sniper for $450.00 dollars and at the time I was making $11.50 a hour(40 hrs working to pay for it)
Nowadays you can buy a sniper for what $600.00? Lets say you have a middle of the pack job at say $30.00/hr that equals to 20 hrs to pay for it.
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no bubble to burst.

Mosins, SKS and Tokarev's are a different story right now....there's a fair supply, and we are getting more.

Name another milsurp like an SMLE, No.4 Mk1, K98 (any variant),G98, M1, M1903, M1907 etc....that would be cheaper to buy now than in the 50-80's (adjusted for inflation)
 
vermintrex said:
no bubble to burst.

Mosins, SKS and Tokarev's are a different story right now....there's a fair supply, and we are getting more.

Name another milsurp like an SMLE, No.4 Mk1, K98 (any variant),G98, M1, M1903, M1907 etc....that would be cheaper to buy now than in the 50-80's (adjusted for inflation)
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Not to hard. In the 60's my grand father was making $52.00 every 2 weeks which equals to $5.20 a day. He had to work 3 days to pay for that Lee Enfield out of a barrel back then(before taxes).In the 1980's SKS's were over $300.00 and I was making as I stated in my previous post $11.50/ hr.
 
MiG25 said:
I doubt the monetary value will get much of a boost. WWI has pretty much past from living memory. It might as well be the War of 1812.

I think the movies that we might possibly see are a remake of "All Quiet on the Western Front", an aviator movie, and I predict, a movie following a young Hitler. Or Rasputin.

Another extremely interesting story from that exact time is the Endurance Expedition. They left when soldiers were marching off with flowers in the muzzles of their rifles and people believed the war would be over by Chrstmas.
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Forget that noise, I want to see a modern hollywood movie about the Battle of Jutland. Will never happen though. No Americans were really involved :(
 
vermintrex said:
Maybe...just maybe... some of "my" generation aren't being led by the nose by a hollywood movie.....maybe some of us actually have a lifelong interest in the history of the times and the instruments of war that were a part of it.

Sometimes the condescension and contempt for new collectors shown by those who managed to "chose" to be born at a time that WW1 milsurps were sold for a few dollars out of a barrel is a real turn off.

Maybe we won't to see an sharp increase in WW1 era milsurp prices more due to the already high cost...not because of disinterest or lack of respect for the history...or because hollywood hasn't told us to care yet.

I have 2 WW1 SMLE's.....but I had to wait and save and spend carefully. I don't have the funds to rabidly buy up pieces just because I watched Joyeux Noel.

But if the "real" collectors want to smugly believe that they are the only legit collectors cause they didn't need Steven Spielberg to tell them to care....fine. Enjoy the illusion.
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Wow… did you ever misinterpret this thread! Just… wow.

Nobody is looking down their noses at new collectors, but it is a hard fact that the prices of WW2 guns more than doubled after good movies were made about the war. So clearly, some people's interest was because of Hollywood influence. Nobody is saying that is bad, in fact, I'd love to see the same phenomenon happen ref WW1 stuff.

Most kids these days have little awareness of the Great war. I knew vets personally, but to younger folk, as was stated, it might as well be the war of 1812.

PS: I'm not that old. I was too young to buy guns in the 1970's out of barrels - sadly.
 
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Claven2 said:
Wow… did you ever misinterpret this thread! Just… wow.
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wasn't a comment about the thread in general.....if you look back you'll see it was in response to a specific post.

and I made a point of stating that not all collectors have this attitude...in fact many great guys on this board have been very helpful...to the point of sending me hard to find parts and giving me tips on potential purchases.
 
Values may go up on some of the more sought after items and not just on firearms either I'd expect prices on medals specifically named medals for valour such as MC, DFC, DSO etc to go up in price as well as cities may pay more for something from cities and its former residence maybe. Right now that is my speculation but we shall have to wait and see what 2014 brings.

Happy New Year all
 
vermintrex said:
regardless of where this debate goes...

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE !
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And a Happy New Year to You. May all your Mil-Surp purchases be wise ones(along with the rest of us).Happy New Year also to smellie and to claven 2 and to nabs and albayo and all the rest of us good boys and girls on this site.
 
Maybe we should have the Aussies make a WW1 movie about canadians, for us, they seem to do a good a good job of it, (Gallipoli, Beneath HIll 60) better then what canadian film studios seem to be able to do anyway
 
mr.e moose said:
Rest assured the prices of Military rifle's from the First word war or from the Second will continue to climb.I'm old enough that I remember looking at the barrels of No.1's, No.4's and No.5's at the Army & Navy stores.Dont get me wrong $9.95 was a lot of money back then. If you are serious about something,you can turn it into a shooter.Reloading is the key and the hard part is bullet moulds for most of the "unpopular milsurps".Finding a mold for a .43 Mauser or a .268 Carcano is a challenge.I already have every thing I need for most but some times you just need that one last piece that will get you going.It's a hobby that only someone that cares about history, or someone that wants to make a quick buck off of someone interested in history will invest their money into.
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I have to concur...prices have only gone "up". Interest hasn't waned in general, in fact there certainly seem to be more interest in these gems. Get your rifle to star in a popular video game, and prices will climb some more.

vermintrex said:
no bubble to burst.

Mosins, SKS and Tokarev's are a different story right now....there's a fair supply, and we are getting more.

Name another milsurp like an SMLE, No.4 Mk1, K98 (any variant),G98, M1, M1903, M1907 etc....that would be cheaper to buy now than in the 50-80's (adjusted for inflation)
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Adjusted for 80's inflation? I'd have to suggest straight pull Styers seem to have plateaued to name just one.

Now that a few generations have passed, more n' more younger folks who have a want-on for "glorious war history" will want one of these beauties...
 
This observation may be a bit OT and I'm not a collector of per. sec. but my "drive" is Mauser oriented.
I think anything WW1 / WW2 will increase with time as with all things, the more original the greater the increase.
As far as interest waning it doesn't seem so to me and one of the reasons I say this is my grand children and their
buddies (you know the computer war games crowd) know more about the arms used in wars than I do. They've all started
to collect what they can afford and I for one will be the last to discourage their efforts. --- John
 
Ok...guess I have to admit I was wrong...my apologies, wasn't trying to piss anyone off.

Seems the general consensus is that milsurps cost less now, are just as plentiful and interest in them is at an all time high because of video games and SPR....also there is an all time high disinterest in WW1 cause the current generation hasn't seen a big budget movie about it yet.

Now that that's cleared up, gonna go drive some brake-cleen through the crack in the fore stock of a 1918 BSA
 
I'd bet if Call of Duty or Medal of Honor produced an award-winning WW1 FPS, that might also help ;) Yes, I know, some people have used those engines and produced aftermarket skinned WW1 games (like Verdun), but they aren't mainstream and can't be bought at EB Games.
 
Claven2 said:
I'd bet if Call of Duty or Medal of Honor produced an award-winning WW1 FPS, that might also help ;) Yes, I know, some people have used those engines and produced aftermarket skinned WW1 games (like Verdun), but they aren't mainstream and can't be bought at EB Games.
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Fair enough...but I think that WW1 hasn't been seen as a viable story line for most developers due to the nature of trench warfare. Months of stalemates, achievements in metre's and death by dysentery have been hard to wrap up into an "instant" gratification game.

Yes, I may be throwing my peers under the bus...and even lending creed to the seemingly general consensus that we don't care about WW1.....but as a video game, WW1 would probably be best suited to a RTS game....which don't typically appeal to a younger crowd. No paratroopers, no helicopter gunships, slow and mostly over-heating tanks, no large formation sustained daylight bombing runs, no plasma rifles or ninjas..and of course...no Nazi's.

Stagnant wars of attrition are a tough nut to crack when your primary market is used to seizure inducing, frenetic gameplay, a la HALO.
 
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