The Somewhat Infamous GB Sales Report

[boomer34]

OK, here is the truth about the Russian prices paid by real buyers from the GunBroker auction site that I have monitored daily for the last two years. I will attempt to post 2011 from Jan to November, December is still underway and being posted. I try to post the results around the 1st of the month. I don't know if this site will allow the eleven images to be posted at once, but I will try.

The data is posted in order of the sales that were made. I post the year if it is availabe, whether it is a refurb or a nonrefurb (original for OO) and the price. All are Tula Arsenal except where I note "Izhevsk" for Isvhesk Arsenal. If the rifle is bubbad I note it. I also note ex DDRs and Letter Series. Letter Series Russians may not have been discussed here yet and that is a discussion in and of itself for a later time.

I carry seperate columns for nonrefurbs, DDRs and Letters to be able to get an average for them seperate from the general sales. I make a note of the price ranges of the rifles sold in a column to the right on the XL spreadsheet as well as note the numbers for the special breakouts sold.

Across the top is a record of the various month's number of sales and the high, low and average for that month. I have looked at other popular auction sites and I find them woefully lacking in the number of Russian rifles offered. Therfore I base my numbers on GunBroker where there are from 25-55 Russians on a daily basis that are up for auction. You can say what you want about schill bidding, bidding to boost prices, etc. I have no way to determine that. Many, many rifles are relisted for as much as a year or more.That is just the way the market works.




The month below is April not March









There is a lot of info here. You can observe high prices for rufurbs and some low prices for nonrefurbs, but not usually. A Letter series can slip through because people do not recognize it, either seller or buyer. A big problem is with the presentation the sellers make, not enough pics or pics of the right kind for a collector. Izzys in general do not escape attention. I think the averages both monthly and the running average I calculate are very useful. An individual rifle that you may be interested in can either show a previous sale much above what you think it is worth and much below at a price that you cannot get it at at this time..

[martin08]

Great work, as always Boomer. Information like that takes a lot of time and effort to compile, and I know that a lot of people watch for your reports each month over the last couple of years.

[MN Fan]

Count me in as a new subscriber. That's amazing Boomer, thank you for doing it. I am starting to consider getting a SKS and your report gives a great perspective.

Very nice!

[OLD OUTLAW]

Way to go Boomer!

[Jumperwire]

Ya' know, This made a whole lot more sense when I realized we were talking SKS. Yep somebody's been up way too long.

Nice work Boomer

[Junk Yard Dog]

I need new glasses, I know something good is here and I can't see it on this tiny piece of shit monitor we have here in the shop. OH well, I will save it and look it over next week when the home pc is running again and I can see it in on the big screen.

[Drago]

Excellent work, as usual, Don!

[boomer34]

At year end I will try to break some of the numbers out so the number of ex-DDRs, Izzys, Letters, nonrefurbs and refurbs, etc. can be seen against the total sold. It will be an interesting comparison and will show that ex DDRs, Izzys and Letters are not that common much less the good nonrefrub (original for OO).

Overall most of the sales will be between $300 and $499. There will be more sales over $500 than under $300. A few moon shots and the high this year is $961 so far for a 54 Tula refurb.

[Drago]

I already have a "rarity" scale of Russian SKS's that I just updated on Friday. I can save you the trouble and post it tomorrow, if you want.

[millman]

This makes me feel good about my DDR marked 54 Tula refurb for $275.

[Drago]

$275 is a great price for any Russian, let alone a DDR. They only account for a little over 4% of all Russians. And yours is a beauty.

[Bareassmeagain]

Our investments seem secure with these reports Boomer. Thanks as always for your detailed work

[boomer34]

Drago-The rarity scale would be most interesting to see. How far did you go back with your numbers to derive it?

[MN Fan]

Boomer, I am going to try something here shortly. There's a nice Russian SKS for sale at a local pawn shop. I figured out what these guys do is simply look on GB and whatever auction is currently running for a similar model, that's the price they slap on it. I tried to explain to them that a listed item that has zero bids does not necessarily reflect the actual value. I am going to print out your report, decipher it as to this particular SKS, show it to them and see where we end up...and then make that offer to them.

I am considering Drago's ex-DDR first, but after that, it would be interesting to see how this data can be used as a bargaining tool

[Drago]

Drago-The rarity scale would be most interesting to see. How far did you go back with your numbers to derive it?

Since I only have collected sales data since last March, it only goes back since then. But, it still gives a pretty accurate snapshot of where each Russian variant falls as far as rarity. With that large collection of Russians on GB ending in a little over a week, and the prices rather on the high side, it will skew some of our selling data, but not the rarity scale. There are a couple very rare rifles being sold though. A stunning '49 and a rare '53 Izhevsk non-refurb.

I'll post the rarity scale thingy in a separate post so as to not detract from your work here.