Have milsurp prices ever crashed/substantially dropped?

bearhunter said:
Milsurp prices follow the economy in general. Depending on the area you live in and its economic viability has a lot to do with pricing. Government pressure also has an impact on prices. For instance NRCAN makes it very expensive/difficult to bring surplus ammunition for some types of milsurps into Canada. Then again, look at the prices on French milsurps. There was a time, maybe a decade ago, when you couldn't give one away. Now, depending on condition prices are right on up there with Lee Enfields. I use the Mle 1886 rifles as an example. The same can be said about Japanese milsurps. The prices on those have gone up close to 1000% in the last ten to fifteen years.

When the economy tanks, prices on milsurps tanks. The other factor is as mentioned ammo availability but that is a very narrow view based on certain individuals that are only looking at these rifles to go bang in the general direction of the target. I have noticed a lot more serious collectors are emerging than there were even 20 years ago. Imported ammo from Yugoslavia has filled a niche market, albeit at high cost, for hard to find ammo. This allows people that want to collect as well as occasionally shoot their pieces to have their cake and eat it to.

The South American Mausers were once relatively cheap. Less than five years ago 1909 models could be purchased in VG condition under $400 without to much trouble. That same rifle today will bring close to $900.

A very under appreciated and under valued milsurp IMHO are the Kropatscheks. Made for Portugal in four different models by Steyr, they are marvels of machining and fitting. IMHO well above the quality control of even the South American Mauser designs/models. The 8x60R ammunition is almost impossible to find in shootable quantities so reloading is the best option.

As witnessed recently the AR platform rifles have dropped dramatically in price. Ruger, S&W, Mossberg and a dozen private as well as offshore companies have brought the price of them down under $800 delivered to your doorstep. Some of the offerings are still high but the market is flooded at the moment and some of the lesser known/quality types are relatively cheap.

A lot depends on the times. As for movies, there certainly is no lack of media material where AR type rifles are used in quantity. Still, in Canada, restricting the model has kept demand and ownership levels relatively low.
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Be careful what we tell the masses is undervalued! Next thing you know supplies dry up and our collecting becomes a lot more difficult!

I kid I kid, but interesting note on those Krapoetcheks. I have been eyeing them up lately myself.
 
Sir Plus said:
Here are the crashes that I noticed
The k31 bubble topped at 1200 then fell pretty fast after that and it has stabilized since
The Type 56 sks fell from 350 to 250 when some new imports came in
Swedish Mausers seemed to be pushing for the high 500s for a while but they came down to normal again
If this was the stock market these would be considered huge crashes in percentage.

Some guns are undervalued right now and are due for a market adjustment.
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I’m surprised Swedish Mausers came down a bit. I think they are quite undervalued. Lovely shooting, well built, and beautiful. They should be at least commanding RC K98 prices.
 
I think the Swede's don't command the same value because there's a ton of them out there and they never saw combat use (except for a few used by the Finns). So as much as they're great shooters they just don't have the same level of collectors appeal. Of course you can also say the same thing about the K31s and I can't believe what's happened to prices on them.

The Krops are cool rifles, and beautifully made, although a lot of them seem to be in pretty rough shape. They did actually see combat use in WW1 in Africa in the hands of Portuguese Askaris too, so if you get one of the colonial models with the upper handguards it is a legit (potential) WW1 vet. And they sure look impressive when you stick that huge bayonet on them!
 
I have sks and mosin but want to jump into a larger collection but I am terrified about getting crap or over paying. I would love to buy 10 of one type, say Enfield or Mauser to get a so called deal. Is this possible? Any suggestions?
 
Taking everyone else’s words in account you also gotta look at supply and demand
I bought an svt40 when they where not common place a month aftward every dealer had surplus ones comming in and I sold at a loss. Now they can be almost double what I paid
 
commissar_lubi said:
The conventional wisdom is that milsurp prices keep on rising because of their collectible value and increased rarity over time, but is that always true?

For instance, Martini-Henry rifles are extremely old yet they still go for under 1000$. In comparison, some ww2 milsurps are well over 1000$. Does age matter that much when compared to rarity?

Cheers
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The Martini-Henry hasn't even hit 150 years yet.

No where near "extremely old."
 
Rocket_James said:
I have sks and mosin but want to jump into a larger collection but I am terrified about getting crap or over paying. I would love to buy 10 of one type, say Enfield or Mauser to get a so called deal. Is this possible? Any suggestions?
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If you buy a quality gun with correct parts and a good bore, don’t worry about over paying. Buying 10 usually just gets you good prices on junk. Research, research, research. Then buy quality. You’ll never go wrong.
 
The biggest drop in milsurps was when the firearms act went into being. For example all the pistols which became 12.6 instantly dropped in value and continue to decline as the population of purchasers gets smaller.

If you are doing this strictly as an investment you need to consider future firearms laws that will likely continue to restrict and prohibit milsurp pistols and rifles. To think they will "only go up" or that no more bans will occur is probably naive.

For now though things seems to be going okay.

Regards,
-Steve
 
Coffice said:
If Carcanos ever go up in price I'll be rich fellas, rich!
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I also bought a lot of them when they were easy to find at about 125$. Like 8 years ago. Few book had been written and a lot of research since then, but they are still easy to find at an honest price
 
commissar_lubi said:
The conventional wisdom is that milsurp prices keep on rising because of their collectible value and increased rarity over time, but is that always true?

For instance, Martini-Henry rifles are extremely old yet they still go for under 1000$. In comparison, some ww2 milsurps are well over 1000$. Does age matter that much when compared to rarity?

Cheers
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They only keep going up if someone is willing to spend the money. ...so I guess it boils down to what's it worth to you.
 
"If you buy a quality gun with correct parts and a good bore, don’t worry about over paying. Buying 10 usually just gets you good prices on junk. Research, research, research. Then buy quality. You’ll never go wrong". This is a good quote by Pinky Plinker.

Steve is also correct about the 12/6 thing, god only knows how much I,ve lost with good quality phrohibs.

Main thing is with prices is I like a good deal just like the next person and don't mind paying the good dollar for quality firearms ,if all the good firearms go for cheap then don't expect your own collection to be worth much.

Where it will all end up who knows as long as you enjoy doing what you are doing in your respective collecting field and add a few nice ones every year. Good for you.

Would only be a dream to believe the Government off the day will buy us all out at face value, would be nice but not going to happen anytime soon.
 
We'll be seeing an end to milsurp shipments pretty soon I think. I have a feeling that most governments will be destroying their retired firearms rather than selling them to civilians, not to mention practically everything coming into retirement now will be full auto.

We got lucky with the VZ 58 series, but everything else will be off the menu for us Canadians.
 
Rocket_James said:
I have sks and mosin but want to jump into a larger collection but I am terrified about getting crap or over paying. I would love to buy 10 of one type, say Enfield or Mauser to get a so called deal. Is this possible? Any suggestions?
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If you want to collect 10 of something I'd say collect Mosins.

There are so many around and it's fun to find neat ones for cheap prices. Over the last couple years I've been buying mosins as they come up and I really like them. They are at every gun show and often I buy them for $200 or less for a 91/30. Hard to beat that.

Lee Enfields were a dime a dozen decades ago and even 5 years ago they were 1/3 what they go for today. As supplies of Mosins go down i bet prices will go up.

If you want bulk pricing then I suggest you spend a lot of time at your local gun shows and meet the local dealers. As they get to know you and know that you buy you'd be surprised the deals you can often get.

And also like others have mentioned buy quality. Quality, correct matching guns are never a poor investment. When I started collecting I bought many rough examples of guns I was interested in. As time and money permitted I often bought mint examples of the shooter grade guns I had and keep those in the rack. That way I can still enjoy shooting my guns without worrying about damaging the really nice ones.
 
PinkyPlinker said:
I’m surprised Swedish Mausers came down a bit. I think they are quite undervalued. Lovely shooting, well built, and beautiful. They should be at least commanding RC K98 prices.
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I'm surprised at this too. Supply seems to have dried up. Its just a matter of time though and they will be back in style ;)
 
And I paid $39.95 plus shipping for a Finn-marked early-production SVT, so I guess I haven't done too awfully badly.

Buy when they are cheap and hold onto them; they WILL go up.

There are more of US all the time, and do remember that they stopped making Vetterlis in 1892, stopped making Lee-Metfords in 1896, stopped making SMLEs about 60 years ago...... and ALL of those hit the market so cheap that Bubba had a field day. Now we are TRYING to find examples which are not TOTALLY screwed-up.
 
smellie said:
And I paid $39.95 plus shipping for a Finn-marked early-production SVT, so I guess I haven't done too awfully badly.

Buy when they are cheap and hold onto them; they WILL go up.

There are more of US all the time, and do remember that they stopped making Vetterlis in 1892, stopped making Lee-Metfords in 1896, stopped making SMLEs about 60 years ago...... and ALL of those hit the market so cheap that Bubba had a field day. Now we are TRYING to find examples which are not TOTALLY screwed-up.
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Well, to my knowledge India was making SMLE variants right into the mid seventies. I've been wrong before though.
 
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