This may me a stupid question but I need to know. Im going to Egpyt and I have heard that you can find antique guns in the markets there for cheap!! My question is, Can I somehow send the antique home back to Canada because I know how strict they are with anything that looks like a gun o weapon. I may be outa my mind but I thought I would still ask. What are my options? no options?
Bringing back antiques from the middle east
- Thread starter brooksy
- Start date
you need to check on the export laws for Egypt. The guns you find may be prohibited export as antiques and they may further be extremely regulated export simply as guns similar to the US. You also need to find out what Egyptian law is relative to foreigners possessing guns/antique guns. Finally I would expect that many of what you see could be anywhere from low quality to high quality knock offs made either locally or in India/Pakistan
cheers mooncoon
cheers mooncoon
And you want to know that the arm is in fact an antique, not smething that aquired it's patina under a pile of camel dung with all it's fresh made antique siblings.
There is a booming trade in making "antiques" to sell to the tourists. Some are just low grade trash, some are fairly convincing.
To give you some perspective, there are new-made forgeries of "Khyber Pass" arms being made and sold. Forgeries of copies. Whoodathunkit?
Tread carefully.
Cheers
Trev
There is a booming trade in making "antiques" to sell to the tourists. Some are just low grade trash, some are fairly convincing.
To give you some perspective, there are new-made forgeries of "Khyber Pass" arms being made and sold. Forgeries of copies. Whoodathunkit?
Tread carefully.
Cheers
Trev
All legal issues aside...having worked and lived in Egypt for a period of time, I can tell you that Egyptian antique market vendors are merciless when it comes to foreigners. They know you have the money, their job is to extract as much of it as possible from you. Be prepared to drink lots of tea and bargain hard (but courteously).
You won't find good deals on real antiques of any sort in the big markets in Cairo, it's best to get a local to help you find a non-tourist shop. Of course, by bringing you to a dealer he gets a cut that's factored into the final price, just like the restaurant and hotel touts...
If you do make a purchase, get in a cab and back to your hotel as quickly as possible, so the police (or people posing as police) don't get wind of it and hit you up for a bribe.
Bottom line, unless you speak Arabic or have a trusted local friend with you it will be difficult to get a really good deal. I wouldn't try it myself unless I was quite confident in my knowledge of antique firearms (which I'm not).
You won't find good deals on real antiques of any sort in the big markets in Cairo, it's best to get a local to help you find a non-tourist shop. Of course, by bringing you to a dealer he gets a cut that's factored into the final price, just like the restaurant and hotel touts...
If you do make a purchase, get in a cab and back to your hotel as quickly as possible, so the police (or people posing as police) don't get wind of it and hit you up for a bribe.
Bottom line, unless you speak Arabic or have a trusted local friend with you it will be difficult to get a really good deal. I wouldn't try it myself unless I was quite confident in my knowledge of antique firearms (which I'm not).
