Last edited:
Guns Magazine 1959. Get your orders IN..
- Thread starter K98ACTION
- Start date
Why must these things remind us???
Parker-Hale Mike
CGN Regular
- Location
- Beautiful Victoria
I used to see adds like that and think why are we getting screwed. I did research on the wages back then only to find out I make more in the first 15 minutes of work than my grandpa did in eight hours back then. For me now, it is not the prices, but the lack of availability of those items that is the painful one now.
longbranch*
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Victoria,BC.
1959
Damn, snipers for $44! Should have picked one up....except I was just born that summer!
Geoff in Victoria
Damn, snipers for $44! Should have picked one up....except I was just born that summer!
Geoff in Victoria
not sure if those are really deals for the time. most of those rifles are probably several days pay for joe average.
i've got a feeling that garands @$700 today is cheaper than @$100 in 1959.
i have nothing from the 70's, but the 80's flyers from international firearms seem to have more deals in them. try "6 all different" mosin nagant M91's for $150. i never could talk my dad into getting me something from those catelogs even though a swede M38 for $60 or many other rifles listed were within my financial reach. he figured a winchester 94 in 30-30 was the only rifle a guy needed (or would ever need).
really strange thing in those 80's flyers, chinese sks' cost more than russian ones and 7.62x39 ammo was not cheap.
i've got a feeling that garands @$700 today is cheaper than @$100 in 1959.
i have nothing from the 70's, but the 80's flyers from international firearms seem to have more deals in them. try "6 all different" mosin nagant M91's for $150. i never could talk my dad into getting me something from those catelogs even though a swede M38 for $60 or many other rifles listed were within my financial reach. he figured a winchester 94 in 30-30 was the only rifle a guy needed (or would ever need).
really strange thing in those 80's flyers, chinese sks' cost more than russian ones and 7.62x39 ammo was not cheap.
I'm using U.S. figures because they are easier to obtain, also, our dollar value was pretty much similar back then.
Average wage of U.S. worker in 1959: $3,855.80
Adjusted to inflation (2006): $25,961.37
Average U.S. wage today (2006): $38,651.41
Price of M1 Garand in 1959: $97.50
In 2006 Dollars: $656.61
Difference in average salary, then and now: $12,690+
So the average Joe makes $12,690 more today than in 1959, and the price of a Garand has stayed pretty much the same, as you can buy Garands for around $650 from P&S Militaria, or anywhere else... add $200 for one in good shape, and we're still ahead of the game, because we make much more money now.
The only real deals would be the No.4 Mk1 T, or any of the dirt cheap No1. Mk 3's, but not by much. Personally, I don't feel like waiting 50 years to make a few hundred, or a thousand dollars profit on any rifle.
My advice? Don't invest in Milsurps if you plan on making any money, unless you feel like waiting 50 years for a moderate profit.
Most milsurps are CHEAPER now when we consider inflation and increased wages. So QUIT WHINING!
Average wage of U.S. worker in 1959: $3,855.80
Adjusted to inflation (2006): $25,961.37
Average U.S. wage today (2006): $38,651.41
Price of M1 Garand in 1959: $97.50
In 2006 Dollars: $656.61
Difference in average salary, then and now: $12,690+
So the average Joe makes $12,690 more today than in 1959, and the price of a Garand has stayed pretty much the same, as you can buy Garands for around $650 from P&S Militaria, or anywhere else... add $200 for one in good shape, and we're still ahead of the game, because we make much more money now.
The only real deals would be the No.4 Mk1 T, or any of the dirt cheap No1. Mk 3's, but not by much. Personally, I don't feel like waiting 50 years to make a few hundred, or a thousand dollars profit on any rifle.
My advice? Don't invest in Milsurps if you plan on making any money, unless you feel like waiting 50 years for a moderate profit.
Most milsurps are CHEAPER now when we consider inflation and increased wages. So QUIT WHINING!
In '59, M-1 rifles were not common at all. They were still standard issue, and very few had been released as surplus. The first surplus M-1s to reach the US were from Britain. These were the rifles supplied early in the war, for Home Guard use. Most were never issued. They are among the very few early war, entirely unaltered, all original parts, never rebuilt M-1s in collectors' hands in the US. At the time, some collectors removed the red bands on the forends. These rifles advertised may have been from this batch.
If so, they would now be worth a LOT more than the average M-1 these days.
The first large lot of .303 rifles sold surplus by the Brits in the '50s went for about $1 each, for about 1 000 000 rifles. By the time they had been gathered up, packed, shipped, and distributed, the retail was $10 or so.
In the '60s, I saw an invoice at a dealer's shop for an unissued M1A1 Thompson and unissued MP44. He had paid Interarms $35 each, FOB. He retailed them for $135 apiece.
The prices in these old ads - and there are even older versions - seem to be very low. But everything cost less, and people were paid less than. In '69, I bought a brand new Toyota Corolla station wagon for $2100.
If so, they would now be worth a LOT more than the average M-1 these days.
The first large lot of .303 rifles sold surplus by the Brits in the '50s went for about $1 each, for about 1 000 000 rifles. By the time they had been gathered up, packed, shipped, and distributed, the retail was $10 or so.
In the '60s, I saw an invoice at a dealer's shop for an unissued M1A1 Thompson and unissued MP44. He had paid Interarms $35 each, FOB. He retailed them for $135 apiece.
The prices in these old ads - and there are even older versions - seem to be very low. But everything cost less, and people were paid less than. In '69, I bought a brand new Toyota Corolla station wagon for $2100.
