SPECULATION THREAD - Marstar's 70,000 SKS identification

Claven2

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I was thinking about this last night and have some speculative conclusions.

First, some facts:

1) Marstar has acquired 70,000 SKS carbines overseas.
2) these are different from the Chicom military SKS carbine sthey are about to concurrently offer.
3) You cannot import Russian or Chinese SKS rifles to the USA.
4) When Marstar bought up vast stocks of Yugo SKs carbines, most of their inventory was shipped to the US at wholesale - a smaller quantity was retailed in Canada.

Speculation:

1) Canada cannot absorb another 70,000 SKS carbines at current price point, and perhaps not even at half the present price.
2) Marstar intends to sell some portion of these 70,000 carbines in another market, probably the US.

Conclusions drawn by me:

1) The carbines cannot be primarily russian or Chinese as John would not pay the expense to pin and ship the rifles from overseas if he had to move all 70,000 units in Canada.
2) This means they must be made in one of the following countries:
- Albania
- East Germany
- Yugoslavia
- North Korea
- Romania
- Vietnam

Of the above possibilities, I am discounting the Karabiner S from East Germany because it is so rare that it would have leaked by now, and because the East Germans scrapped nearly all carbines in inventory rather publicly in the 1980's.

I am also going to discount Vietnam since they didn't make very many and most were used to the point of destruction in the Vietnam War, after which they switched to the AK.

Albania is also unlikely as they did not make very many at all. Probably less than 70,000 carbine stotal.

That leaves Romania, North Korea and Yugoslavia. We know the guns in Yugoslavia are gone, but they exported A LOT of Mausers to African countries - maybe some SKS as well? Definitely a possibility.
North Korea is also likely since African countries are some of the very few place sthat will do business with that regime and they always need hard currency in NK.
Romania is less likely because the US importers bought pretty much all remaining guns from there in the 1990's.

My vote is for primarily export model Yugo SKS's mixed with some well used Russian and Chinese guns.

Thoughts?
 
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Oh man. Good sleuthing... probably more Yugo's.

However, if there were North Korean SKS's, Wow! All 70,000 would be gone quick!!
I wonder though, the US (and Canada) probably have something in place to not allow arms from N.Korea into the country, no?
 
US embargoes everything from North Korea.
My stamp album, printed in the USA, does not even have a page for NK
 
Is Marstar the only one importing SKSs? I am trying to sketch out a supply and demand curves for fun. I think the equilibrium price is $250, I could be wrong.
 
Instead of speculation why not ask John at Marstar, straitup........

Not yet. A smart business owner loves to create suspense and speculation on his upcoming products to generate excitement and exposure. Looks like the marketing strategy is working.
 
Is Marstar the only one importing SKSs? I am trying to sketch out a supply and demand curves for fun. I think the equilibrium price is $250, I could be wrong.

No. There at least 5 companies importing Russian SKSs. As for the Chinese ones only one that I've heard of lately. Many more could if they wanted to. So to answer your quest Marstar does not have a monopoly on Russian or Chinese SKSs. As for other countries,we'll know when they show up.
 
If they are from Africa

you can expect Russian, Chinese, East german, North Korean, and Yugoslavian sks carbines to be in the mix. Collectors would really pay allot for some of those examples. all of those guns have shown up there. But you can be sure someoend from Marstar has physically seen them and could answer your question
 
NO WAY will Marstar answer that question until the guns have left Africa and a firm delivery date is established. That's not how they work after they got burned on the VZ58S pre-announcement.
 
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