Are we in an SKS price bubble?

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1bigrn

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As per Wikipedia An economic bubble or asset bubble is trade in an asset at a price or price range that strongly deviates from the corresponding asset's intrinsic value.
Historically we have seen stock market bubbles, gold bubbles, beanie baby bubbles and the famous tulip bulb bubble (if you dont believe me look it up0.

Most recently we have seen significant moves in the price of the SKS's on the EE I have seen unfired Yugo's and SKS-D's being solicited for sale for $950, unfired Chinese Military being solicited of $425, Yugo SKS's $525 USD ($700 CDN). Even the ones going now for $239, probably would not have gotten $179 a year ago, or $149 two-years ago.
Many individuals buying up these functional rifles have at least 2 or more in their locker. For many years the SKS was cheap shooter and surplus ammo is still relatively cheap compared to other 30 cal offerings. But that ammo is also going up in price and will soon dry out.

So my question to everyone is are we in a SKS price bubble? Why or Why not?
 
Are you saying it's like a housing bubble and the price will plummet? How can they go cheaper? Or are you saying the price will skyrocket? In my keyboard ninja ability I would think the price will go up 30% in Canada to match the dollar. So $275 will be the target price and creep up to $300 by 2018.
 
Mosin Nagant said:
Are you saying it's like a housing bubble and the price will plummet? How can they go cheaper? Or are you saying the price will skyrocket? In my keyboard ninja ability I would think the price will go up 30% in Canada to match the dollar. So $275 will be the target price and creep up to $300 by 2018.[/QUOTE
I officially have no opinion, I had a question to the collective.
So my question to everyone is are we in a SKS price bubble? Why or Why not?
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I was gonna ask the same thing after seeing 2 sks's on EE for 950.00. I wondered if they were a rare gun but a yugo and a norinco didn't sound all that rare to me.
 
I saw those as well, and though they look in excellent condition, I haven't been following the prices of Yugoslavia and d models. Good to know.

To answer the OP's question, I think people are jumping on the coming price increase bandwagon and hoping to get as much out of their guns as they can. I don't think supply had drastically changed in the last year.
 
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They don't make more of them so the supply side of the equation is gone. The only problem is demand still exist, hence price goes up with the existing demand.
 
Not sure about any bubble, most I ever paid for an SKS was $210, once, my average cost per SKS is right around $170. Bought 3 in the last 3 weeks, 2@$156 and 1 @ $175., SKS are worth what you will pay, but when you sell you have to know, others may not see the value that you did!
 
1bigrn said:
Both these rifles would have been lucky to fetch $500 a year ago. But I guess what you ask and what you get is distinctly different.
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In all fairness, the SKS D has been hovering around the $650 mark for a couple years now. I agree that the Yugo SKS have been coming in at $500 for the last few years though, when they popped up on the EE.

There is definitely a bubble...the value of these rifles has been sorely under appreciated in Canada and has been kept artificially low simply on account of supply. Now that the supply is disappearing, the market is correcting itself and the true market value (what people are still willing to pay) is showing itself. There's a trend of early birds on the EE right now trying to flog the nice, "all matching" or unrefurbished SKS from the high 3's up into the 400's already, despite the fact that there are many retailers who are still selling the same rifles for $220-250. Westrifle was the first to come out and say it, and Frontier confirmed it...prices are going up.
 
FSB said:
They don't make more of them so the supply side of the equation is gone. The only problem is demand still exist, hence price goes up with the existing demand.
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Yeah and there's only 150 million more to be sold. Totally explains the price increases.
 
Philthy1 said:
You guys still have those cheap Canadian Tire deals? They'll be gone soon.
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They're long gone from the west coast from what I've seen. Went to Chilliwack CT yesterday and they were all mismatched mags and just rough. There were a few that were completely sanded down with stock repairs, rusted parts and generally pretty beat up.
 
If someone can source the Chinese ones again in any quantity, I think the price will come down. There must be at least 250,000 units in Canada now. I bet that those rifles are owned by about 100,000 firearm owners. If no new rifles enter Canada than prices will rise. Ammo supply has to remain constant for these rifles to rise in price as the sks is often an entry level purchase
 
DsrtRat said:
I was gonna ask the same thing after seeing 2 sks's on EE for 950.00. I wondered if they were a rare gun but a yugo and a norinco didn't sound all that rare to me.
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Yugo with the grenade launcher sight might be rare in Canada and command between 5-600, and the Norc might go for 300.

In the States J&G Sales is selling Yugo's with the grenade launcher sight for 450 USD.......
 
Yes let's hope the Chinese taps open up again, they have millions. Upon millions of them sitting in warehouses, maybe Canam could source some again, North Sylva just brought in refurbs and new ones but the new haven't hit the shelves yet! I think what will hold the price of a regular SKS down, is that the will soon reach close to the price of a new firearm and the ammo is sneaking up too. Once that happens, less folks will buy the SKS!
 
rkr said:
just don't buy them and a price correction will follow
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That's the real answer. It seems that people are panic buying SKS rifles right now, and as much as I like SKS rifles, at a certain price point I would look at different rifles for just a little more $$.

I think I recall a dealer here mentioning that the CHinese wanted too much for their SKS rifles in a market saturated by $200 or less Russian rifles. Perhaps when the domestic price hits a certain point importing the Chinese rifles will be viable.
 
Canada has had a high supply of SKS rifles .... at one point Chinese and then Russian and while there appears to still be lots of rifles in china, Russia, Ukraine, etc, it looks like there are problems exporting from some of these countries for political reasons or shipping problems or high costs. The dollar is down as well and there are poor countries in the world that compete to buy these rifles for their police or military .... we've all seen the SKS picture threads where these are still in service in parts of the world. Bottom line, there are less SKS rifles coming into the country at the moment, but this could change. Most of the SKS around right now are not in great shape. The supply is going down and the quality is going down.

If you watch YouTube, Americans appear to pay $500-600 USD for the nicer rifles (I'm not sure, if that was during the panic buying phase though). Clearly, people that are not used to $200 prices still value these rifles at a higher price point.

If people are willing to pay more or accept rifles of lesser condition, we would likely see more rifles again.
 
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