Part of the reason for the excitement/optimism may be related to the fact that there seems to be a reasonably consistent number of "reliable sources" who opine from some better position of information that "that they are coming".
You are lucky that you have such a source of information, while the rest of us are left with conjecture.
Spending the time I have in the crowd I have has given me some little ins. Yes, I would love to add one or two or even three more Garands to my collection. It would be nice to get a Winchester and IHC, but also I am still in need of a M1D.... Maybe luck out and kill two birds with one stone! But, I know that getting hyped up about these guns is pointless till there are here and up for sale. Like I said, the subject of these Garands has been there for at least 12 years. Unfortunately, there seems to much talk on this subject, and it has spread like wild fire. So, there are lots of people with high hopes thinking that these guns are going to be much cheaper than market value as of right now. Look at what the prices have been on some of the junk Garands.... I know of one such situation where a guy bought two Garands (this is going back 5-6 years ago) and after getting them, found that it was better to strip them down and build one that was MAYBE 55-65% OK, and sell one complete Garand at $1,800 (Average at that time was around $900-1200 here in town) and he sold off the receiver for most likely the arm and leg. I have seen the "measuring contest" go on when it come to comparing and pricing rather than using the blue book idea of pricing. Best example was 4 years ago with Israeli K98K's in .308, in one day looking at them online IN CANADA for sale by different sellers, the prices ranged from $450 to
$1300! It was like "Well, he is asking $450 for that, BUT mine has better wood! $650" and the next guy looks at this
"Well, hell, mine has a PERFECT barrel, so it must be worth $700 and then next guy looks at all this
"Crap, MINE still has the MAUSER emblem stamp on the stock and a perfect MAUSER banner on top center of the receiver ring.... AND IT'S MAUSER.... MAUSER I TELL YOU!!! ONE MILLI.. I Mean One thousand dollars!".
But I have seen the other guys from the other side of this as well, "Oh, well, that old junker than Grandpa left you has surface rust in these two places, the barrel is a little dark, someone has hammered a "P" on the under side of the pistol grip, and hammered some french crossed cannon thingy on the left side of the stock. Someone has hammered their initials "NM" on the top back end of the Op-Rod, Drilled out the rear sight to add in a drum like hood with a smaller hole... and it is only made by International Harvester, if it was Springfield, Winchester or even H&R Arms it would be worth a bit more, but IHC.... I'll give you $500 for it. I doubt I can sell it in this shape, but I can probably make use of some of the parts...." <- this guy is no ones friend and has a special place in hell waiting for him!
That said, I will not try and say what these thing are or are not worth. Being 30, I got in with a group of guys that are much older than I am, and screamed at them to teach me what they know, kept asking questions, and showing that I wanted to learn. It paid off in a number of ways, the most fortunate ways has been the stuff IN my collection. Have I paid what the book said all of them are/were worth? Not always, usually, there have been the dope deals of trade work for GIC (Gun In Closet), a couple times, I was just down right lucky and got the deal of the century because it is know why I want the piece, to collect and even let others shoot when out on the firing line, and put up on display at the local gun show. Are there guys out there that are driving the prices up for unreasonable personal gain? I would suggest looking towards the 2 yellow banners at the top of every page on CGN and ask what really started that whole issue... one business owner getting bent out of shape because he found out there was competition over his pet project and tried destroying the competition's business by calling Dudley Do Right. I just think back to one guy at the Calgary Easter Gun Show that had a cobbled together M1D (it was a standard barrel with a reproduction mounting block) with a $3500 price tag and a Remington 1903A3 with aluminum aperture lyman sight on the back end and a rigged up globe front sight (With a $1000 price tag on it) and tried saying it was an original Army/Marine National Match rifle....
