Cost of sks for importation, or milsurps in general

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ceilingcat

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Hey everyone, reading some other threads lately got me thinking: how much do dealers make off each single unit of surplus rifle imported?

I mean the sks is basically dirt cheap for the awesome rifle it really is.. and that's why many take it for granted. So how much are they really worth to the dealers?

Can everyone give their guesstimates & opinions?

My guess is that most of the money is in shipping and importation.. so for example

$200 sks for sale

dealer buys each rifle for $40 bucks a piece

$50 bucks in shipping and fees etc/ travel?

the rest is pure profit ( at least 50%)


also i really doubt the sellers in the other countries care more or less about how "rare" an item is, but they just want to get rid of them for some cash, so the more hard to find milsurps would have a even higher return?

Please be clear that I'm not scrutinizing dealers, I really have a genuine interest, and I have a strong feeling that milsurps for dealers do very well in terms of investment return compared to new guns
 
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I would imagine dealers may be a little reticent about displaying their pricing/profit model.
Just saying
 
$40 dealer cost???

If that was even close, the importer would have to be buying it for $0.50 to make any money.

No dealer or importer is going to publicly discuss their margins with you on CGN. If they're not making at least 30% on milsurps like the SKS they're probably not going to be in business long.
 
Stevo said:
$40 dealer cost???

If that was even close, the importer would have to be buying it for $0.50 to make any money.

No dealer or importer is going to publicly discuss their margins with you on CGN. If they're not making at least 30% on milsurps like the SKS they're probably not going to be in business long.
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well i did say in my post that i doubt dealers would say anything, so this is supposed to a discussion on people who own and enjoy surplus, what their thoughts are... I know they probably at LEAST make 30%, in my original post I mentioned that my guess is 50%

You misunderstood me, what i meant is they pay the foreign suppliers 40$ per rifle, the rest of the cost is in shipping, duty, blah blah blah

I think 50% profit is fair, that's not the point, my point is how much are they really worth in bulk as an international good, since they are already DIRT CHEAP here!
 
No, I didn't misunderstand you. I read what you wrote. If you mean importer, don't say dealer.

The vast majority of Canadian firearm dealers are not importers. Some importers also sell retail, some do not.
 
This is a free enterprise market just like any other market, the adage "Greed is Good" applies. If a importer/dealer can flog a $150.00 SKS for $500.00 all the power to him. PT Barnum had a saying there is a sucker born everyday.............
 
There is way more to this than you've outlined and you really can't look at it that way. What about all the associated costs running a business? Storage, staff, taxes, misc supplies, utilities, flights overseas searching for products, etc. Even for a web-only business there are a ton of costs not outlined in your sample.

Once you try running your own business you'll understand.
 
Stevo said:
No, I didn't misunderstand you. I read what you wrote. If you mean importer, don't say dealer.

The vast majority of Canadian firearm dealers are not importers. Some importers also sell retail, some do not.
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what I wrote WAS "dealers make off each single unit of surplus rifle imported?"

you did misunderstand me, because you think I'm saying importer, but DEALER was the subject in my question... I'm saying dealer because I DON'T mean importer
 
jimbo14 said:
There is way more to this than you've outlined and you really can't look at it that way. What about all the associated costs running a business? Storage, staff, taxes, misc supplies, utilities, flights overseas searching for products, etc. Even for a web-only business there are a ton of costs not outlined in your sample.

Once you try running your own business you'll understand.
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That's true, I only thought about costs for what the dealer needs to pay to get the rifles in stock first, never thought about the cost of advertising and sales etc
 
My guess would be they buy them for 15-20$ from Russia and ends up being about 50-60$ a rifle when it gets here. Like jimbo said even then they aren't making a load of cash of us there's paying for a warehouse to store the thousands of rifles once they are here, giving enough room for the retailers to make money to, employes, and the mountains of paperwork and taxes and all that bs
 
Here are a couple of stories from times past. The first big surplus sale after WW2 in the UK involved 1.1 million guns, which sold for $1 million. Rifles, pistols, you name it. As is, where is, get them moved out and gone. By the time the Lee Enfields retailed in the US, they were $10 each.
In the 1960s, a dealer I knew was selling brand new M1A1 Thompsons and MP44s for $125 apiece. He showed me his paperwork. He was paying $35 each, FOB Alexandria VA.
 
tiriaq said:
Here are a couple of stories from times past. The first big surplus sale after WW2 in the UK involved 1.1 million guns, which sold for $1 million. Rifles, pistols, you name it. As is, where is, get them moved out and gone. By the time the Lee Enfields retailed in the US, they were $10 each.
In the 1960s, a dealer I knew was selling brand new M1A1 Thompsons and MP44s for $125 apiece. He showed me his paperwork. He was paying $35 each, FOB Alexandria VA.
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thanks for the anecdote, just what i was looking for. I'll bet those thompsons were flying off the shelfs too!
 
ceilingcat said:
what I wrote WAS "dealers make off each single unit of surplus rifle imported?"

you did misunderstand me, because you think I'm saying importer, but DEALER was the subject in my question... I'm saying dealer because I DON'T mean importer
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You can't talk about the "dealer cost" being $40 without including the importer in the equation. I said in order for the dealers to buy it for $40, the importer would have to pay 50 cents for the rifle in order to make a decent profit.

Here's what you said, note the bold parts. If you actually meant "dealer" and not importer, your cost analysis is even less realistic.

Your "foreign suppliers" are the folks who sell to the importers, not directly into Canada. There are many fingers in the pot on importing rifles, especially from the old East Bloc. They pass through 3-5 hands before getting into yours. Everyone has to make a profit.

Hey everyone, reading some other threads lately got me thinking: how much do dealers make off each single unit of surplus rifle imported?

I mean the sks is basically dirt cheap for the awesome rifle it really is.. and that's why many take it for granted. So how much are they really worth to the dealers?

Can everyone give their guesstimates & opinions?

My guess is that most of the money is in shipping and importation.. so for example

$200 sks for sale

dealer buys each rifle for $40 bucks a piece

$50 bucks in shipping and fees etc/ travel?

the rest is pure profit ( at least 50%)
Click to expand...
 
Not really. This was close to 50 years ago. $125 was serious coin. In those days buying a machine gun was no different than buying a pistol. Exact same procedure.
 
Not sure about the wholesale cost if the rifles we have today but during the summer of 2007 I couldn't find 7.62x39 anywhere on Vancouver island and retailers where "rationing"/ limiting sales of what they had in order to be able to still sell the SKS they had.

So I went straight to Europe dealers...
The cases of milsurp Sellier and bellot ammo was selling for $25 CDN to $30 CDN per case...add a zero to that once it got on the shelves here in Canada. IIRC the rifles wholesaled around $120 CDN.

Buying in bulk is the name of the game as well as having good reliable contacts.
Not to mention having ones paperwork done.
 
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The cost of shipping is horrendous, Payment of permits, fees, legal and taxes, and add in one or two return flights to a soviet or former soviet country with accommodations. That said, you still need to have your personal contacts and associations to even discuss the deal. Your staff needs to be paid, your warehouse has rent, and it needs heat and power. It costs thousands of dollars per year in legal fees and accountants just to be a Limited Corporation. Who is coming up with the capital investment of tens of thousands of dollars or more for the six months that it takes to start and expedite the deal before it finally arrives in Canada?


If anyone really believes that you can bring rifles to Canada for 40 bucks your as naive as a little boy in a ### bar.
 
there is a mountain of paperwork getting shooting irons and ammo out of Eastern Europe, corruption to deal with (bribes sometimes) and you need secure warehousing, and even security on the Trucks and Boats involved at times. That being said the price of 7.62 x 39 is ridiculous. If you buy it by the pallet load here, the price gets pretty reasonable. How about a Calgary group buy? :ar15:
 
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