The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

I saw this rare rifle last week after it was listed and knew it was a special rifle. I tossed a bid on it knowing and prepared for it to got higher. Within 24 hours it was over $2k so I knew I was priced out.

Well it just sold for just shy of $4000.00. This must be one of the most expensive Mosins sold.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewIt ... =414282028

This is why it is rare. I wonder if the seller really knew what he had? I bet he didn't know it would sell for this much.



I hope it shows it face on one of the forums.

Checked out the seller's feedback and he's been selling some nice rifles in addition this one.

Seller knows exactly what he has. He's a 30+ year employee of Century Arms.
He will be putting an SAT M91 with finger rest up for sale within the next three weeks (his words). In the mean time, he's putting up one Finn a week until he sells off his self hand-picked crop of rifles-right as they came in the door at Century.

Ah, for rifles of these quality I would assume he would post more pictures and a little better description.

I see he is the seller MT just got his trainer from.

The Question = What makes this a $4,000.00 Rifle???

The RIIHIMAKI marked barrel is a civilian sales M28/30 that according to one popular information site claims that no known examples exhist in the United States. I would be interested to know if that information is still accurate, besides this rifle of coursel

Lovely, now Mosins are about money not history, I watched that happen to Winchester rifles, and Colt revolvers. Shame that.

Considering the difference between the winner bid and the runner up, I would imagine some one is a bit ill.

Considering that the winning bidder may have been prepared to go much higher all the runner up could have done is possibly send the price into the stratosphere.

You make a good point, but the price was pretty much there already.

When you win you only win by proxy bidding $5 over the highest amount. If I am outbid by an amount less than $5, I know that was the other persons max bid.
I wonder how many other m28/30 see this and assume their rifle is worth more than it really is?

One of the bidders ( Sparky) gave it a good run for the money, he also bought a side mount all matching Finn Capture PE sniper for the seller that came close to this one and was the opening bid on my trainer.

He is working on building one great collection

Lee-online wrote:When you win you only win by proxy bidding $5 over the highest amount. If I am outbid by an amount less than $5, I know that was the other persons max bid.
I wonder how many other m28/30 see this and assume their rifle is worth more than it really is?

All of them, this is what happened with antique cars not too many years back. It started as a group of car enthusiasts and ended up a bunch of wall street money men who wouldn't know what to do with a socket wrench. The bubble burst after prices reached insane heights, two million dollar hemi cars, that sort of thing. A lot of idiots got stuck trying to move things and finding out that they might get 1/3rd their " investment" back.

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.

So the seller works for CAI and probably gets these for the base price and turns around and makes
major profit reselling them. I guess knowing what to look for is working out well for him.

So much for some of the old ads about getting those "untouched" cases of Mosins. The
importers have to put their marks and serial numbers on them to sell them and if they are
getting hand picked before being recrated, those who can afford to purchase an entire crate
are never going to get anything special. Those rifles are long gone.

I have to agree he could do a lot better with the pics. May be now he can get a decent camera.

Yep, cosmoline guy, this has been a working theory for awhile now, and I am afraid you might be right.

Cosmoline guy wrote:So the seller works for CAI and probably gets these for the base price and turns around and makes
major profit reselling them. I guess knowing what to look for is working out well for him.

So much for some of the old ads about getting those "untouched" cases of Mosins. The
importers have to put their marks and serial numbers on them to sell them and if they are
getting hand picked before being recrated, those who can afford to purchase an entire crate
are never going to get anything special. Those rifles are long gone.

Try and tell that to the idiots going out and buying cases yet today! Don't people realize this happens at all levels of the system too?

Lee-online wrote:When you win you only win by proxy bidding $5 over the highest amount. If I am outbid by an amount less than $5, I know that was the other persons max bid.
I wonder how many other m28/30 see this and assume their rifle is worth more than it really is?

You will not be able to count the amount of people who will try and sell with just that precedent and the real kicker is you won't be able to believe the amount of people who will buy at those ridiculously high prices. First smell of something being a good investment and people who have more money than brains will start making uneducated buys trying to salt away the best of what is out there. If they sell before sanity sets back in then they are smart and lucky. Look at any collectable range and you will see what results from this, things like baseball cards, stamps, whiskey bottles, and perfume decanters have had their runs and if you got out at the right time you looked like you knew what you were doing. I really feel most times these people who rake in the profits were just in the right place at the right time and were very lucky. Me I buy high and sell low, that is my secret to success and why I am worth so much today! Bill

bunkysdad wrote:The RIIHIMAKI marked barrel is a civilian sales M28/30 that according to one popular information site claims that no known examples exhist in the United States. I would be interested to know if that information is still accurate, besides this rifle of coursel

There are few known examples of civil series rifles. I have seen maybe 4 different examples on different forums.

I would guess the number in the US is probably under 100 specimen on the whole.

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