It all depends on how well the smith did the job upon conversion.
A lot of surplus 98s were made into some very nice sporting rifles after WWI.
In Europe there were dozens of cottage type smiths, with some extensive professional training building rifles on 98 receivers/bolts immediately after they were first being produced. Same goes for 93-96 actions.
They would order directly from the manufacturer and build on them according to the orders they received.
They come in varying degrees of customizing to absolutely utilitarian in just about every cartridge available at the time.
OP, there is nothing spectacular about the rifles in your pics. Getting $500 out of either of them would be a stretch IMHO.
That stock appears to be one of those offered by Bishop, back in the 50s-80s
Intersurplus/Lever Arms is offering very similar rifles in the $300 range, but most of them need work.
Zastava/Husqvarna/Parker Hale/BSA etc commercial 98s, with all the bells and whistles, much better finish and triggers can regularly be picked up for between $400-$500 or less, depending on the moment.
I recently picked up a lovely Husqvarna commercial Mauser in a modern composite stock, chambered for 8x57 for $450.
Those rifles were dreams of people back in the couple of decades post WWII. There was a thriving demand all over Europe and North America for the stocks, surplus rifles etc to make up such works of art. Some of them actually are.
Those days are mostly gone, except for a few old farts, such as myself, who see the usefulness of such firerms as well as their utilitarian style.
I recently built a rifle that looks very similar to the 270 in your pic, the stock is very similar, the bolt shroud has been switched with a commercial type and the original trigger and trigger guard were swapped out with a very pretty Brno double set trigger group.
The barrel was a take off surplus 8x57 and the receiver is also surplus.
I've had all of these components in the bins for at least 35 years and during a bored long dark evening last Fall, I rooted through the bins to see what I had that would go together well.
I was very surprised and happy with the results.
It shoots better than I can hold. It loves 196gr Oryx, round nose bullets loaded to 2600fps and if I do my part off the bench, will shoot sub moa groups consistently.
Yesterday I built a 7x57 on a surplus 98 action/after market stock, claw type scope mounts and a lovely Timney after market trigger. It turned out very well.
The barrel is from a 1935 Brazilan, whose receiver (98) actually failed (receiver ring cracked) when I tried to pull this barrel from it.
First time for everything.
It's all come together in a very nice package more appropriate to todays preferred style.
Waiting for the bedding to set up hard for a couple of days and then test the ammo I loaded for it today.
The brass (Norma) was also in the bins, in original boxes labeled as "unprimed cases" and priced at $2.29/20
These rifles are absolutely dependable and if the job is properly done, as accurate as anything available today.
