How much does SIN number degrade the value of rifle

It is degraded to me

Love the rifle, but wouldn't pay normal used price for a gun that has been defaced.

I would own it for the right price.
 
If I just wanted an inexpensive shooter that was or might get beat up I would expect a discount of 10-20% but I wouldn't sweat it. On a beautiful high grade gun like this it made it worthless to me. I wouldn't buy it at any price, I would look for a nice one.
 
I've owned old beater rifles in the past with SIN #'s everywhere. Could care less as they were old Lee Enfield sporters and Savage 340's etc....that grade of gun. $150-$350.
They lose little value as they are just utilitarian tools.
For a quality gun it just ruins it as it feels like an insult you cant take back.
 
hunter5425 said:
Used to be a common thing to do to firearms when I was growing up
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That is the most insane thing I've heard all month. I for one have never heard of it.

When I first saw the pictures I was thinking this was a military service rifle with a service number on it. I don't know anything about mannlichers. When I saw the pictures my reaction was to wonder why someone would do such a thing.

In this day and age it seems a horrible horrible idea.

jimmyjazz said:
So a friend has a Steyr Mannlicher 1956 in great shape and I want to buy it from him but it has an old SIN engraved in 4 places.

1 - the loading port
2 - Receiver ring
3 - scope
4 - side mount scope base

Does this devalue it a lot or just a little, he is a good friend and I want to be fair but at the same time I don't want to put myself in a spot to lose too much if I ever sell it.
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If it was my grandfathers rifle, and it was my grandfathers SIN, I would say the engraving enhances its value. But then its value would be 'priceless' either way.

If the SIN is connected to some person of significance, personally or historically, then it wouldn't bother me. If its an unremarkable firearm owned by an unremarkable person who took the odd step of carving something into the finish, then I would suggest it diminishes its value. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

I do own several firearms which have things carved into them, that in my view diminish their value. But all of the firearms were purchased at mere fractions of their retail value as a result, so I am not at a loss.

Love it or leave, the engraving is part of the firearm. It wouldn't make sense to spend the money to have it repaired. Either embrace the engraving as part of the firearms story, or move on. Value you it for what the firearm is or will be TO YOU, and price accordingly.
 
As a hunter it wouldn’t bother me, but I’d only be willing to pay hunter prices! Although engraved I don’t find this nearly as offensive as the guys who spray painted Colt AR’s then posted them for sale with disclaimers that “the paint doesn’t significantly reduce the value”. Yes it does dummy, anything you do outside of stock that isn’t removable with a screwdriver or Allan key in factory tapped holes significantly reduces the value of a firearm. With that, I’d buy that gun and enjoy if I could come to a price I was ok with.
 
It's "numbers all matching"..... :)
Looks like a nice rifle and at least the artist had good electro penmanship.

Detracts value for sure but I've seen worse and as others have pointed out it is period correct for many Canadian guns from the 50's.
 
I wouldnt care about it. but im not a picky guy. I buy guns to hunt with, so markings and the like mean very little to me. I can understand why it would bother some people though.
 
So the story goes, a good friend of mine acquired it from his dad's estate and he is not a hunter just target shooter.
His dad got it from the original owner who moved to Canada in the 60's and brought it with him from Europe, he was apparently told back then to do this to all his guns incase they ever get stolen and he did.
Sadly he also has a beautiful Belgian side by side with the same treatment.

I do like the gun and I am going to buy it, just trying to decide on what's fair.
I will probably just leave it as is and hunt with it.

JJ
 
Cameron SS said:
That is the most insane thing I've heard all month. I for one have never heard of it. ...
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I am 65. I grew up in Central, then West Central Saskatchewan. Very commonly done, certainly in 1960's. The fact that you have never heard of it, does not make it insane, at all, at that time. As mentioned multiple times, RCMP were advising people to do this - most detachments even had the engraving pencil to lend out to put your SIN on various valuables, not just firearms.
 
Potashminer said:
I am 65. I grew up in Central, then West Central Saskatchewan. Very commonly done, certainly in 1960's. The fact that you have never heard of it, does not make it insane, at all, at that time. As mentioned multiple times, RCMP were advising people to do this - most detachments even had the engraving pencil to lend out to put your SIN on various valuables, not just firearms.
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Yes I will admit I am judging the actions of the past through the lens of the present.

That said, Part of what I find insane is that people didn't think it was insane at the time. Its not likely identity theft or social insurance fraud is new.

Just goes to show you the RCMP aren't new to making up bad ideas either. Curiously, in 1960 there was no firearms registry, so not withstanding the fact that the RCMP can't look up a SIN number, the SIN number you engraved on your firearm is what made it traceable back to you.

I guess people following the advice of the RCMP back then is no different then people who voluntarily registered their firearms in the Quebec registry in 2019. I just don't understand why people would do it.

Its not like the RCMP giving bad advice was new in the 1960s either.
 
I pity the fools who are so easily talked into defacing their own property. There's no excuse for it, IMHO. And I question their mental stability.:p
 
I suspect you would struggle with a lot of things from 1960's in small rural Saskatchewan. Railway Station Agent, Bank Manager, even Grocery Store owner were generally IMPORTANT PEOPLE, as was local "Town Cop" and RCMP. It would surprise me if 25% of adults at the time had completed high school. Many kids I went to school with spoke another language at home - not English. Major sources of information, as I recall, were the Western Producer and the Star Phoenix. Television amounted to an English language CBC channel, a French language CBC channel and not much else. TV, such as it was, went off the air not long after midnight. Different times... Brought to us mainly by the folks who had been overseas during "the war".
 
grew up in the 70's-80's

my grandfather put his SIN on my skateboard because he was worried it would get stolen from me
I just got rid of an aluminum ladder from my FIL. I had to take a dremel to take off his SIN

Id be shocked if at least 1 gun in the family collection doesn't have a SIN engraved somewhere

its surprisingly common even in Ont.
 
Potashminer said:
I suspect you would struggle with a lot of things from 1960's in small rural Saskatchewan. Railway Station Agent, Bank Manager, even Grocery Store owner were generally IMPORTANT PEOPLE, as was local "Town Cop" and RCMP. It would surprise me if 25% of adults at the time had completed high school. Many kids I went to school with spoke another language at home - not English. Major sources of information, as I recall, were the Western Producer and the Star Phoenix. Television amounted to an English language CBC channel, a French language CBC channel and not much else. TV, such as it was, went off the air not long after midnight. Different times... Brought to us mainly by the folks who had been overseas during "the war".
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None of what you describe is difficult to understand. Much of it is consistent with what my grandfather had taught as a kid. To this day I wouldn't describe the 'town cops" as being unimportant. Unimportant is one thing. Unquestioning of authority is something else. Especially for a generation who had just witnessed first hand millions of people get genocided simply because some self important authority had said so.

I guess the more things change, the more they stay same. In any event. It was no way my intent to cast aspersions against an entire generation. Just the practice of defacing your property because someone whose job it is to seize your stuff from you said so.
 
SIN never used to be something that was guarded like it is today. Back in '69 I but my SIN on just about every part on the inside of a motorcycle engine as they had a habit of disappearing around that time. I don't know where that scooter is total but it was probably scrappped long ago.
 
My grandfather put his WWII Canadian Army service number on everything and I mean everything. All of his tools, guns, equipment etc. The grandkids that have his stuff now know the significance of the number. I've seen SIN on guns going back to the 70's and always thought it devalued the firearm.
 
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it would not bother me at all
I would buy it and hunt with it - nice rifle...what calibre?

But I would be offering hunter rifle prices not collector rifle prices
 
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