Lee-online wrote:A month ago there was a local m28/30 for sale for $850. Seller stated it was worth this because of what they sell for on GB. The two he referenced have reserves of more then $850 and still haven't sold as of today. I don't know if the local one ever sold, I didn't ever make an offer.
Yes, this is how it starts, those who know realize that the rifle is overpriced, but to someone who is not so experienced may tend to think it must be worth that of others wouldn't have paid it. The next time something like it sells it's over a grand, then two grand as the feeding frenzy builds. It ends when someone who has bought very heavily at high price has a reversal of economic fortunes and puts the rifles out to sell at bargain prices. In the case of cars it was the collapse of the Bush era economy, suddenly the party was over and there was nobody willing to give you three million dollars for the Hemi Cuda you bought when things were flush. Once it started the bubble burst very quickly. A friend of mine has a '68 Barracuda ragtop, 318 car, meticulously maintained one owner car since new with 490,000+ miles on it. This car looks brand new, and he had an offer as high as $150,000 for the car in 2005. Absolute stupid money for a well preserved car, but one that was otherwise ordinary. Some city boy saw it at a show and kept after him, but he would never sell it, didn't need the cash and plans to drive until he dies. This sort of example was common at the time, sound familiar? Fortunately I have my collection and have no plans to add to it except by chance. I never went for the "rare" examples, as a collector of history the ordinary infantry rifle is what attracted me the most as such rifles were what made that history. These days I spend more on my antique Fords than I do on guns. If we are going to see a US milsurp, or Winchester lever rifle style feeding frenzy happen even with Mosins, once treated only with distain by " real" collectors, then I plan to sit back with my popcorn and watch

Leave it as it is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.
Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.
Theodore Roosevelt