One of the main things that has brought the price of decent originals or even armory refurbs up is how many were just disposed of because of the apparent lack of value back in the hay days.
I've seen thousands of surplus rifles of every type stripped of all their viable parts to put into bins and be sold off to keep other rifles functional.
Canada sold of untold thousands of Longbranch No4 variants to many offshore nations, such as Greece, India, Pakistan, Italy and European countries. Many were just left behind after WWII to help those nations arm their police and militaries with firearms that were readily available as well as readily available ammunition. There was actually a shortage of 8x57 military ammo immediately after the WWII ended and it took years for factories to start loading again.
A lot of those parts became liabilities and were often sold off as scrap or to nations such as Canada that bought No4 rifles and spare parts out of Pakistan and India as well as other countries. Many were just sent to the smelters or dropped into the ocean because that was the cheapest way to dispose of them.
I've seen truck loads of new in the white No1 and No4 barrels sold off as scrap to be welded together and used for rebar posts. I did manage to salvage a few but don't have any left. I gave the last one to a friend who had it installed on a lovely build. It had one of the tightest bores I've ever seen.
I was lucky enough to be able to check the bore dimensions on twenty or so of each type before they got hauled away.
The other factor is that there are more collectors and shooters out there than I can ever remember.
Cheap milsurps were almost always fair to less than good in grade. Not all but most and you had to be able to pick through them to find the decent rifles.
Many of them, especially the Mauser variants were battlefield pick ups and hadn't been touched or cleaned since being laid down during surrender or in the field and it showed.
Good or better were always more expensive as they were often cleaned up before storage but only to minimal standards.
Very good rifles came out of captured armories or out of minimal refurbs.
New in the crate rifles came out of captured long term storage facilities.
Many rifles went through FTRs after the war, sometimes several of them as long as they stayed sound.
When nations get rid of rifles they do so for a good reason. There just aren't enough parts available to keep them in working order as they get desroyed or otherwise made unserviceable under field conditions or they're worn out, or they no longer have enough to go around, or they are obsolete to the point they become a liablity to their troops.
We get the left overs and there are a lot of people looking to get their hands on them.
