Seems that I have a delay or time lag with my appreciation of prices. Recently I sold off a few of my Webley pistols. I had picked them up over the years at gun shows or from dealers who had put them aside from me. These 'old army pistols' although functioned perfectly, they were not the best examples and showed wear on the finish. I figured that I could flog them off and continue my search for nicer ones. I got what I thought was big bucks, then I discovered how much it would cost to replace them. Serves me right for not researching more thoroughly.
But then again, most people don't realise as to how much money that they have sunk into the hobby. As an exercise, just make a list of your collection with conservative pricing. You will probably be suprised at the net value. Most people (including me) don't have insurance even though their collection is probably worth as much as their car.
And I got into collecting mil surp rifles cos it used to be a cheap hobby.
And yes John, those were the days. It was common in my little village to see hunters walking in the streets with rifles slung. Last fall in North Bay, Ontario police were called about a man in the streets with a gun. Seems that he wanted to buy smokes and went into a 7-11 type store with his rifle slung. When the SWAT team arrived, he explained that he didn't want to leave it in his truck in case of theft, so he kept it with him. No arrest or charges, it was unloaded and trigger locked. He broke no laws yet the police gave him a hard time and were threatening him with a charge of 'public mischief'.
Seems only like a few years ago I used to ride the back roads on my motor bike with an uncased shotgun slung on my back looking for grouse. Got pulled over and stopped by the cops once, they just wanted to ensure that the gun was unloaded. They even told me where they had seen some birds. My, how things have changed!
An older neighbour of mine tells me of when he was a kid, he and his friends used to take their .22 rifles to school and put them in their lockers. On their way home, a local farmer would pay 5c for every groundhog tail that they brought him.
So ya, prices realised for these old rifles is sometimes a suprise. But it is all to do with supply and demand. The hobby is getting to be popular and the supply is limited, prices will no doubt go up even more. That is my excuse for buying at least one of everything.
