what is a minty all matching with all the dirty birds and a german barrel ...post war east german rifle worth ...very small vopo mark ....95% blueing bore bright and shiny blond laminate stock ...I have had this rifle for 20 plus years sorry no pics ....thx
another whats it worth....if RC k98s are worth 1000.00 plus
- Thread starter 36 hamon
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Most real collectors still scoff at them, myself included. LOL. But only if compared to a matching original, unmessed with rifles. Totally mixed up, reblued, shellac stock.....no good data other then barrel codes for study, but If looking at what they actually are, a ww2 german rifle, reworked, excellent to learn on, and good for shooting, they are great. But I wouldnt put it in the same safe as my matching ones hahahah
Coyote Ugly
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
A RC K98 is a truck gun. Drag it through the swamp and gravel. Hunt with it. No collector value as it's been dinked real hard with the belt sander by Anastasiya, Ivan the Nazi bird peener, Olga the reblue dip job, and Boris the Grinder and Renumberer to make this rifle All Gooder and Bestest what the Germans couldn't do the first time!
Honestly, I wouldn't pay $200 for one as that's what they sold for when the turds floated up on our shores.
Think about it, are you gonna grind a Long Branch Sniper No4Mk1(T), an 1866 Winchester Rifle or 1911 or SAA Colt Pistol and hope to improve it's value, and hope it appreciates over time? Dealers set the prices.
You can polish a turd all day long, but at the end of the day it's still a turd.
Buy the best you can afford, but avoid the turd!
And Now you know the rest of the story!
Honestly, I wouldn't pay $200 for one as that's what they sold for when the turds floated up on our shores.
Think about it, are you gonna grind a Long Branch Sniper No4Mk1(T), an 1866 Winchester Rifle or 1911 or SAA Colt Pistol and hope to improve it's value, and hope it appreciates over time? Dealers set the prices.
You can polish a turd all day long, but at the end of the day it's still a turd.
Buy the best you can afford, but avoid the turd!
And Now you know the rest of the story!
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Well, for the rest of us that weren’t able to buy matching k98’s and longbranch snipers 20 years ago at a price that let us fill a safe, a RC Mauser at $700 is a mighty fine rifle.. who gives a damn what old gun snobs think of these “turds.”
I bought an RC K98 this summer from Lever, damn thing shoots as well as my K31! At $625+hst I think it was bargain. Everything is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Back to OPs question - I think it would be worth the same as an RC since it is not a wartime rifle. I suspect most buyers would prefer a wartime rifle, regardless of pedigree.
I know there are collectors who like the East German reworked 98K. I would think it would go for similar to the Russian capture reworked 98K. Based on same conditions of each. By the way I am used to seeing a small coat of arms stamped on East German barrel, But not war eagles or both. You might have something unique.
maple_leaf_eh
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
The only drawback on this is the postwar East German stock. If a mismatched Russian Capture ex-salt mine stored 98K is the low end of the Mauser scale, anything with all matching numbers increases the value. A good bore makes it desirable as a shooter. A "very small" Volkspolizei sunburst just adds to the story. Because the supply of RC98s has stopped, and demand keeps going up, your rifle seems like $1500 at the minimum.
maple_leaf_eh
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Thanks for your opinion. Lighten up!
The issue in the original question hinges on supply not whether you personally like them. The original poster didn't grind anything off! He respected the rifle enough for the 20 years it has been in his gun locker. Your accusations about grinding, standing, sanding and peening happened long before Russian capture rifles appeared here. The Soviets had collection points, disassembly lines, and reassembly lines long ago that destroyed any all-matching collectors' value.
Old fashioned collectors scan the tables at the arena gun show, are surprised by the choices, then gripe about prices. But we have lots of new shooters in the hobby, and they have money. They all read the internet which turned retail pricing upside down. Every new war movie or video game sparks new interest in old guns. And that is great for the sport.
I am with you on that. My son is 22 and loves WW2 history to the point of having helmets and associated kit. No way can he afford anything or other than a Mosin Nagant though. The RC's are still beyond him, but will suffice once he gets the scratch to buy one.
Don't get old and crotchety, man... it's a bad look. Just saying...do as you wish
Coyote Ugly
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
East German and Czech Reworked and Norwegian conversions are at the top of the list for refurbs, and are worth more than a RC.
Yugo is in the middle.
RC are at the bottom for price....bottom feeders as has been said before due to what has been done to them in the Russian Butcher Shop, I mean Machine Shop, if you want to call it that...
The more Dinking done to a rifle, the lesser the price.
Yugo is in the middle.
RC are at the bottom for price....bottom feeders as has been said before due to what has been done to them in the Russian Butcher Shop, I mean Machine Shop, if you want to call it that...
The more Dinking done to a rifle, the lesser the price.
I actually prefer an RC over Czech, EG or Yugo as they all did a lot of grinding the renumbered. I’d rather original numbers but mismatched over scrubbed and renumbered. But that’s me.
With no pics the OP rifles gonna be $500-1000. Not helpful really lol.
Whew! Some feeling put into a few posts. I guess I'm not a "real" collector. The OP's rifle sounds like a nice one. Would love to see some pics. Funny how a Finn "captures" don't seem to draw the negative fire that the Russian ones do. If anybody doctored up rifles, it was the Finns. I have quite a few M91's that are a glorious jumble of makers' parts and Finn fixes. RC's are still 98's, carry the history with them. As some have posted, they do make good shooters.
Dare I make a suggestion on the value? Sure. First of all, it is always safe to put a "value" on a rifle when there is no chance I'll ever get to actually buy it. I would say the rifle should sell for $600-$850, or, better yet, whatever the buyer is willing to pay.
Dare I make a suggestion on the value? Sure. First of all, it is always safe to put a "value" on a rifle when there is no chance I'll ever get to actually buy it. I would say the rifle should sell for $600-$850, or, better yet, whatever the buyer is willing to pay.
Whew! Some feeling put into a few posts. I guess I'm not a "real" collector. The OP's rifle sounds like a nice one. Would love to see some pics. Funny how a Finn "captures" don't seem to draw the negative fire that the Russian ones do. If anybody doctored up rifles, it was the Finns. I have quite a few M91's that are a glorious jumble of makers' parts and Finn fixes. RC's are still 98's, carry the history with them. As some have posted, they do make good shooters.
Dare I make a suggestion on the value? Sure. First of all, it is always safe to put a "value" on a rifle when there is no chance I'll ever get to actually buy it. I would say the rifle should sell for $600-$850, or, better yet, whatever the buyer is willing to pay.
Don't get to concerned about the biases of other people. That's the beauty of collecting. I can remember a time when people only collected receivers, without bolts, because they took up less room in their basement. I bought a few dozen rifles from such collectors, minus the receivers of course. Most were in excellent condition. That was back when these rifles could be purchased for under $20.
RC98s are an historical fact. They weren't rebuilt to be sold for surplus. Many of them were taken off the battlefields and off the streets after being abandoned. Many were new out of warehouses captured after the war but because of the damage to the buildings, had to be stripped down and refinished. Many of those rifles went to Korea, Viet Nam, and other places where the Communists were trying to arm supporters.
The Soviets never threw anything away that may prove useful later. A lot of the RC98s we come across didn't come out of Russia but were stored by satellites for war emergency purposes, until other more suitable firearms became available.
Let me give you some examples. Member Purple has commented on more than one occasion about the sidearms he encountered during his UN tours and other postings around the world. The pistols the Finns carried were some of those. They were their model 1923 Lugers, converted to 9mm. Shortly after he saw them, they were all refurbished and went into emergency reserve storage. Most had been converted to 9mm from their previous 7.62 mm.
In 1969, some Portuguese/Angolan police and even some of their Militia were issued Lugers in 9mm.
The Finn Lugers were sold a few years ago on the surplus markets. Back in the eighties a few Portuguese Lugers were on the markets.
Look at Canada, we're still issuing a very decent/serviceable P35 HiPower that was built during WWII. Many of these pistols were sold off as surplus in the sixties, NIB. Many of the retained pistols have been rebuilt. It was mentioned here that many of them sport new Belgian replacement barrels and parts.
It's all part of their history. It's the choice of the collector whether or not to include these examples in their collections as representative pieces.
I know a couple of members on CGN that can't afford to collect milsurps but still like them so they collect representative pictures in albums that have a spectacular number of pic of the different variants.
It's all about being in the right place at the right time.
Many of the older collectors are on their way to the afterlife. Their collections are usually being broken up and sold off. We get the chance to care for these pieces for a short time, then it's someone else's turn, usually at a significant price.
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^^^Well said. I am on a downhill run now, and am having to face the fact that I may not live forever. One thing does help, that being that my stuff will go to younger people who will appreciate and enjoy the rifles from my pile.
