Just me or has the milsurps EE really slowed down a lot...

sledge said:
I wish we could put SKS's and sporterized Enfields in an entire EE section of their own.

I find the good stuff comes in waves. For almost a year there were no SAFN-49s. In the last few weeks a few ones have popped up and got snagged fast. Same thing with Springfield 1903s. Months go by without one...then a few really juicy ones.

But I do get sick of all the, well for lack of a better word, "junk". Now a full metal sporterized Enfield is worth salvaging with new wood. The restore projects are really well done and to the guys doing them - keep at it! But the minute the barrels are cut down it's never coming back. Put it in the hunting EE. The SKS's...well I see them in ever gun store, every range, and even my hippie neighbor has one! With probably a million of them in Canada alone they are as collectible as my undershirt.
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I've seen a couple No4 Enfields that were barrel cut being converted into Jungle Carbines. A forgery, but not nearly as hideous in it's previous state.
 
I think listings have dropped off on the EE milsurp page. It could be a natural outcome of the success of the page in the past.

In the past it seems to me that their were more listings and sales but prices were way more reasonable. Over the last two or three years prices have risen a lot (ie. LE #4 prices doubling for similar rifles in three years). Maybe what has happened is that buyers aren't willing to pay the prices asked, but sellers now have higher expectations of of value. Perhaps a stalemate has been reached where buyers loose interest and sellers are pi**ed off at the "lowballers" "tirekickers" and "cheapskates". In other words, maybe what we are seeing is a classic example of the law of supply and demand.
 
flying pig said:
Seems like a few years ago there was a ton more action in the milsurps EE. It seemed like there was a new listing in there every few minutes. Now seems like only one or two new listings a day. Also not as many interesting listings, to the point where I haven't seen one piece I've really been interested in in months. What is everyone else's take on it? Am I just over the EE craze now?
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Many factors contribute as to when and why a gun goes up for sale: Bad and Good Economy, Negative Cash Flow, Death, Old Age, Health, Estate Sale, Lost Interest, New Hobby, Financial Crisis, Upgrading, Downsizing, Divorce, Purchase of a home or car, etc.

You're riding the EE Wave on a surf board on the Banzai Pipeline. Sometimes you're riding the top of Crest and sometimes you're down in the trough.
 
You think the EE is bad. Try buying/selling locally. Someone just listed a 1886 45-70 built in 1911 on the local classifieds for 10,000 dollars. Where would he haul out a number like that? I tell ya people are crazy ;)
 
davemccarthy707 said:
You think the EE is bad. Try buying/selling locally. Someone just listed a 1886 45-70 built in 1911 on the local classifieds for 10,000 dollars. Where would he haul out a number like that? I tell ya people are crazy ;)
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I've seen a Henry Martini listed locally here for $5000 recently! There's crazy people everywhere it seems. Ive bought most of my milsurps locally, I find the prices are WAY more reasonable!!
 
There's a reason the EE has slowed down. Holiday season is over, and guys aren't being pressured by the wife or the credit card company to sell a couple guns and pay the bills. It's time to go out and shoot, not sell :) Expect it to pick up again a little once the weather gets nice, and a couple guys figure out that they don't own what they thought or wanted. Then, sit tight till hunting season, when everyone sells to buy a new hunting rifle. After that, ads will spike again right before and for a little bit after Christmas.
 
I don't let SPF discourage me. If it's something I really want, I'll message anyways offering to buy if the original buyer flakes out. It has worked a couple of times now. Of course I offer asking price.
 
One thing I notice lately is I'm seeing less rare / unusual stuff in the milsurp section. Lots of SKS, M91/30s, Swede Mausers, but I'm seeing less variety and less stuff to interest the more advnaced collector. Or at least it seems that way. Then again, I also just made a deal on a pre-Communist Yugoslavian M24 that I'm shocked no one else moved on in the week or so it's been up! Maybe what interests me doesn't interest as many others.
 
Nyles said:
One thing I notice lately is I'm seeing less rare / unusual stuff in the milsurp section. Lots of SKS, M91/30s, Swede Mausers, but I'm seeing less variety and less stuff to interest the more advnaced collector. Or at least it seems that way. Then again, I also just made a deal on a pre-Communist Yugoslavian M24 that I'm shocked no one else moved on in the week or so it's been up! Maybe what interests me doesn't interest as many others.
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I agree 100% Everybody is different. I could not see paying any money for a RC K98. To me its not worth anything. Unless it has been converted to 7.62 or something. Even then it would just be for the cheap ammo factor. That being said I have no problems throwing out 450 bucks for a decent Finnish M39.
 
Nyles said:
One thing I notice lately is I'm seeing less rare / unusual stuff in the milsurp section. Lots of SKS, M91/30s, Swede Mausers, but I'm seeing less variety and less stuff to interest the more advnaced collector. Or at least it seems that way. Then again, I also just made a deal on a pre-Communist Yugoslavian M24 that I'm shocked no one else moved on in the week or so it's been up! Maybe what interests me doesn't interest as many others.
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I saw that rifle on the ee & if there was more money & space in the desporterizer household, it would have disappeared last week. So would the 98/22 last month and claven's 1903.
 
my big problem with the EE system is the use of feedback. There is not enough use of the 'neutral' feedback function. [you can leave feedback for anyone at any time - tire kickers, slow payers, people who mis-represent etc] They don't have to buy from you or sell for you to leave an opinion AND THOSE HELP THE REST OF US WHEN BUYING/SELLING TO/FROM A NEW PERSON. There have been a few situations where I would not have bought if I had 'the full picture' before hand.

- twice I said "I'll take it" and got an email back saying the best offer had gone up, but the item was still up for sale for several days following. These seller's were obviously auctioning the items.
- I've had people not mis-represent items, but then again not give 'full disclosure' - I'm saddled with some militaria which is just junk because of bad pics and me not asking the appropriate questions and a gun that was the victim of 'selective' photography, not showing the parts that give clues as to what it really was.

I'm guilty of not leaving the feedback as well - I left neutral feedback on one of the deals, but positive on the other... I should have said what I meant.

we all need to start doing this to let the newer members [myself one of them] know that they will get spanked of they #### around with the buyers and sellers, gives everyone a better chance of selling at a fair price and buying at a fair price with the least amount of wasted time.

I've gotten some good guns and great deals here [love you Nabs, weimajack - you sold me my first gun :) pocketfisherman, I'll die with that M1, Claven.. I love to haggle, respect to someone who knows how to play the game, I still cuddle that 1909 from time to time :)] but I'm not sure I'll pop for anything over $800/$1000 anymore unless I know the seller. EE is very much buyer [and seller!!] beware. that uber collector piece is not on EE, the good stuff is found VIA networking and being in the know.


just ranting, no real solutions.
 
On top of being tired of seeing all things SKS, I've become a bit disillusioned with EE just recently as well, with two sour deals. Both have been "non-full disclosure" issues, one more serious than the other. Actually that one could be construed as out-and-out deception. Yes, technically the bluing is in "very good" condition.... because it's been very obviously refinished at some point!

I am partially blaming myself for being too eager and not asking harder questions before committing. And no, I did not buy it thinking I was getting an incredible steal. The moral of the story is: if the person has more than one negative, even if they are one of these prolific traders with hundreds of feedbacks and are at "98%" or so, be very VERY wary of hijinks.

Let's say I would like to scratch that itch and leave negative or even neutral feedback. What is to prevent the person from posting a retalitory negative feedback of some kind, even if I think I have no misconduct on my part? Doing some "feedback sleuthing", I'm pretty sure I've seen retalitory feedback take place. For someone like me, this would be a disaster.

Sorry if this is OT, but Sean's post above just got me going....
 
I guess I'm an oddball, I've had only good transactions with other gun nutz. But I ask for more pictures before I proceed. If the gun sells before I give an "I'll take it" then so be it. There's always more guns to be had. I'll also give a phone call and have a chat with the seller. The one gun I bought on here was in BC and I'm in Manitoba. The seller phoned me and we talked guns for over an hour. He said straight up that he's no milsurp guy so he wanted to send me more pictures so I could have a good look at the gun. After that talk I sent him the money, I knew that he was a good guy from our chat and I felt comfortable.

It is buyer beware, ask for more pictures, that way a seller can not use selective photography. This way you can see every inch of the gun and make an offer based on that.
 
The only flaw in the "ask lots of questions; ask for more pictures" strategy is that we have people who say they hate that "tire kicking". Add to that the annual thread in the OT where everyone wants to be able to leave negative feedback to buyers who "waste their time" by asking questions and not buying and you make the EE an even bigger crap shoot.
 
Tinman204 said:
It is buyer beware, ask for more pictures, that way a seller can not use selective photography. This way you can see every inch of the gun and make an offer based on that.
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In both cases I did not ask for additional photos when I should have, buyer beware.

From now on if someone wants my $500 they are going to have to take photos and answer some questions & like you say ~ "There's always more guns to be had"
 
OK, another pet peeve. I Post a LOT of photos of my guns when I sell them, typically. I get PM's from ppl like this:

Very interested in your pistol, pls send photos to john.doe@makebelieve.com

HUH?!? If I posted 5 photos of the gun and you ask for photos without being specific, I'm likely to just not respond. If I didn't show something you wanted to SEE, at least take the 10 seconds to articulate what you want me to photograph before requiring me to spend 45 minutes setting up, hosting and posting more photos - all these folks make me do is ignore them, 90% of the time they are tire-kicking anyhow. Or collecting pictures for their milsurp photograph file. (which would be OK if they came clean about it).
 
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