Surplus Garands from South Korea westrifle.com

Lets start with if I had know. When started the post about M44/M38 I believed I said 600-800 dollars in my original post and then people were saying if you had them at 250-300 that will be great. Well I did not buy them at that price of 200 or 300 so this is why it is priced at 525 for pre orders and 625 after all the per-orders were filled. I satisfied the people that really want them and could pay for it, I will not bring those in again unless I have confirmed pre-order list. I want a Mercedes at 20 000 dollars but the truth is that it is 65 000 to start. M38 or M44 is luxury item at the market right now and only the people who pay top dollars will have them. Same goes for Garands if we are ( the dealers ) are not willing to pay for those items then it will be sold off to other countries in EU or New Zealand. All I am saying is I heard what you guys want and at which price, if I can win a tender at that price I will bring it in. If not then someone else will bring it at higher price.


It's one thing to be enthusiastic about a rifle without being told what it costs, and it's another entirely to bring them in and say "alright guys, I know you wanted these, but they are this much" which was the case here.

Yes, we were all enthusiastic about M38's and M44's coming in. $625 is too much for most of us though, even if they are the last batch out in the wild. It's great West Rifle was able to source them for those that could afford, but let's not insult the CGN userbase with scenario's that DIDN'T happen. I can guarantee you if Sergey had known their landed cost and posted it in the Mosin thread, there would be a lot less interest than there was.
 
As always, it is up to us as consumers. Ultimately, we will buck up or the garlands will buck off to a market that will.
Win, or lose it's up to what we are willing to pay.
I could see paying up to $1000 for the best available.
It's very hard to say without actually seeing what condition they are in.
$800-$1000 would clinch it for us I recon, $300-$500 I think is getting a bit low.
 
Wow so many ideas for weekend talk.
1. M1 Garands are coming to Canada one way or another. Who will bring them and how much those will be sold for it depends on Importer. There is 4 importers that submitted a bid for those rifles as far as I know.
2. When and how fast those be here and in what quantities depends on the person who wins this bid. It is 190 000 rifles that I know of available right now. In total there is 800 000 rifles that stored in surplus warehouses.
3. Would I or any other dealer bring 190 000 rifles? I don't think so :) It is suicidal to do so. I think 5000 to 10 000 pcs at the time is acceptable. We are not USA we can not handle 190 000.
4. Ammunition in Surplus is hardly available and even if you find some it takes around 2 years to get it approved with Natural resources Canada.

I will answer any other questions as long as it is not confidential information.

спасибо, Sergey!
 
$700-1000.
With all this talk about Garands flooding the market..anyone notice the number of people now trying to sell their garands befode the high prices drop?

Yep. Had a real good laugh when I saw someone was trying to get $2000 for a Breda... WWII matching Garands in good shape sell for that, or less!
 
The way I see it, is distributers should look at it like the Steam model of sales (i.e. Valve's PC distribution platform):

1. Buy as many as you possibly can
2. Sell them as cheap as you can
3. By selling them cheap, you are putting it into a price range most people can't say no to, nor can they not afford, therefor reaching a price-prohibitive customer base that would have otherwise not bought anything
4. You sell exponentially more keeping the prices low, refreshing your inventory constantly

Selling 10,000 rifles you bought for $300 at $500 in one week.

Versus "the K98 model"

1. Bring in limited quantities at a time
2. Sell them for ridiculous prices
3. By buying them from the supplier (Russia) for ridiculous prices, you are therefor less likely to sell a small amount of rifles within a short period
4. You sit on a bunch of rifles for a long time negating a small portion of your investment while they sit in your inventory.

Selling 10,000 rifles you bought for $300 at $800 in five months.

Which makes more business sense? I'd say the former. But then again, I'm not a firearms importer.

Turnover-if your landed price is $250(cost,shipping,customs etc.)-your retail price for a "good" rifle has to be @$500-to cover cost+ overhead+(God-forbid)-profit-in order to continue to do business-better condition?-higher price...
 
Well this is scenario that is not likely to happen. I read the same kind of comments on US boards when they thought they were going to be getting them last year, and no one expected to see them at the ridiculous levels being suggested here. I believe that the bid that the South Koreans had before the deal was nixed was about $300.00 per rifle for 87,000 of them. That is sitting in a warehouse in Korea so realistically they are going to be at least $600.00 cost to just get them here. By the time you sort through them there is going to be a certain percentage that are junk, which again drives up the unit price of the ones you can sell.


It's one thing to be enthusiastic about a rifle without being told what it costs, and it's another entirely to bring them in and say "alright guys, I know you wanted these, but they are this much" which was the case here.

Yes, we were all enthusiastic about M38's and M44's coming in. $625 is too much for most of us though, even if they are the last batch out in the wild. It's great West Rifle was able to source them for those that could afford, but let's not insult the CGN userbase with scenario's that DIDN'T happen. I can guarantee you if Sergey had known their landed cost and posted it in the Mosin thread, there would be a lot less interest than there was.
 
but with the junk... there is still good parts.... and they can make profit with these parts.... !

Personnaly I expect a 600-700$ price for a good rifle
 
It would be a keen idea for the firearm importers of Canada to combine their resources for one big group buy.

No one wants to see any more overpriced RC K98s.
 
I hate to say it, but it sounds like the dealers will be buying for a select few who will part with the money. ( this is only if it happens at all!) I think they are setting up to be closer to $800-$1300. I would say that is what's going to happen. Just one opinion!
 
Well this is scenario that is not likely to happen. I read the same kind of comments on US boards when they thought they were going to be getting them last year, and no one expected to see them at the ridiculous levels being suggested here. I believe that the bid that the South Koreans had before the deal was nixed was about $300.00 per rifle for 87,000 of them. That is sitting in a warehouse in Korea so realistically they are going to be at least $600.00 cost to just get them here. By the time you sort through them there is going to be a certain percentage that are junk, which again drives up the unit price of the ones you can sell.
Looking at the prices on the EE and down south I think the importers want to be frugal or lose their shirts, cgn not withstanding, the Canadian market is a very small one and our disposable income is diminishing!
 
Looking at the prices on the EE and down south I think the importers want to be frugal or lose their shirts, cgn not withstanding, the Canadian market is a very small one and our disposable income is diminishing!

Better be. With certain other companies offering inexpensive import services, local companies need to price accordingly.

As an example, there is a milsurp handgun for sale in the EE right now for $800. Hard to find right now locally, but could be imported for around 400 from the US easily in the same condition.

The US market is a factor.
 
but with the junk... there is still good parts.... and they can make profit with these parts.... !

Personnaly I expect a 600-700$ price for a good rifle

Indeed, the is now a decent market of people in Canada needing Garand parts, not to mention our neighbors down south. No rifle would go to waste, no matter the condition.
 
People hear surplus and want it for nothing so they can brag they got a rifle worth $800-$1000 for $300. And buy 10 of them.

It is peoples greed that will kill this deal. No one wants to pay what they are worth.
 
People hear surplus and want it for nothing so they can brag they got a rifle worth $800-$1000 for $300. And buy 10 of them.

It is peoples greed that will kill this deal. No one wants to pay what they are worth.

Sorry to burst your bubble but if they indeed do bring in 1000's of beat up surplus M1's from Korea
They will not be $800 to $1000 rifles . And the current M1's that sell for $1000 plus will take a nose dive in value.
Supply and demand . Not to mention there is No surplus 3006 ammo left to buy
 
For the guys who think it will cost $300 to import a $300 rifle I think an exercise can be performed. 1. find out the cost of a container from Korea to Vancouver. 2. take the likely cost of the rifle and find out the customs duty applied. 3. 5% for tax.

Brokerage is minimal spread over a whole can of rifles. I would say $100/rifle for shipping and brokerage if that. The key factor is going to be the minimum order quantity and the price per rifle.
 
People hear surplus and want it for nothing so they can brag they got a rifle worth $800-$1000 for $300. And buy 10 of them.

It is peoples greed that will kill this deal. No one wants to pay what they are worth.

Sergey asked what people were willing to spend, and we're telling him. It's called "gauging the market". Like I mentioned previously, it's all about supply and demand. We now know there is a large batch of rifles in South Korea, and few bidders. Probably more than enough rifles for the small markets in Europe, New Zealand, and Canada. By telling him what we're willing to pay, we're helping Sergey avoid bad business decisions like such:

a) Sergey listens to a small number of people willing to pay $1000 per rifle. He goes out and orders 10,000 rifles for $700 a piece. He sells them for $1000 (landed) a piece, and the initial surge of buyers with that money ends quite abruptly. Sergey is left with 8,000 rifles in his inventory collecting dust, selling a handful of rifles at a time over a long period of time.
b) Sergey listens to the people willing to pay $500 per rifle. He goes out and orders 10,000 rifles for an offer of $300 a piece. The auction house decides to sell them elsewhere for more money (say $700 a piece). Sergey is not out any money. We lose out on a relatively small order of EE-priced Garands. Whoopty-do, if you want to pay EE prices, buy a Garand from the EE.

and hoping for:

c) Sergey listens to the majority of people willing to pay $500 per rifle. He goes out and orders 10,000 rifles for an offer of $300 a piece. He sells them for around $500 (landed) AND UP a piece depending on make and quality, and not only is he capturing the lower income market, but the rifles are cheap enough that collectors are building multiples at a time. 10,000 rifles sell out in a few weeks, Sergey has more money to buy more rifles from Korea.

What we're trying to avoid - as customers - is the K98 situation we're in. Russia seems to think they are sitting on a pile of God's gift to military surplus, rotted out junker Mausers that are worth their weight in gold. They aren't. They sold for a little while they came in, but the sales are almost stagnant at this point, yet the prices aren't coming down. Supply vs. demand. There are plenty of K98's out there, we know that, we don't want them for $650. Trying to trick people into thinking the supply is low by importing a handful at a time to keep the prices high is B.S. We're nearing the exact same crossroads with Korea and their Garands. We tell Korea how much they are worth, not the other way around.

Personally, I just think there are a bunch of Garand owners in here trying to keep the prices artificially high so the value of their guns doesn't drop catastrophically.
 
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