The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

People jumped out of the woodwork this month for the Jan GB sales. 48 rifles were sold and some high priced ones at that. Leading the way was a 53 original Izhevsk that went for $1380. Tied with it was a 54 Izhevsk original that went for the same price. A little curious there since the next one in line is a 54 Izhevsk original that went for $850. Go figure.

The average price for Jan was $450. If you take out the three moonshots the average was $427 somewhat above the average for 2011 of $417. Seven originals were sold for an average of $759 and if you take out the moonshots is was $426. Five Letter series showed up for an average of $400. Only one ex DDR made it to the auction block and drew $555.

There is a general upwards pressure on Russian sales with originals getting the most attention. There are still plenty of Russians that can be had in the $350 range and buyers who took advantage of putting in a bid at the "Starting Price" (14) were rewarded this month in getting those rifles at that price with no competition. This is an overlooked advantage that more buyers interested in Russians should use. If someone outbids your starting price, just try again with another one. Only three Buy It Nows made it to final sales.

This month I have left in the info showing averages from July through Dec and the year end averages. I will keep those references until I run our of room with the current year.

The rarer collectors items are on the rise again for the good condition ones it appears. But, for anyone
wanting a nice Russian to shoot or just have, there were a lot of decent deals. Some of those refurbs I saw in
January may even not have been fired since import. BBQ or not, there were some nice ones.

I have read quite of number of posts on the net from guys interested now because they have tax refunds coming.
Happens every year for about three or four months I guess. As I recall, both of the $1380 guns were sold by the same collector liquidating.
Isn't that correct? I think it is Boomer. February, March,and April will be interesting again I am sure. As people chase an original, they seem to most miss a beautiful refurb. Heck, I found my 1949 Tula refurb last year during this time. I will be on the hunt again this month!

That's awesome Boomer, thank you. I feel even better about my '51 now. I didn't get a bargain, but I didn't over pay either. Actually I seemed to be right in line with your summary. Not bad for a rookie

Your reports are always useful information that several can benefit from. Thank you for doing it...and sharing it!

Thanks Boomer!

MN Fan wrote:That's awesome Boomer, thank you. I feel even better about my '51 now. I didn't get a bargain, but I didn't over pay either. Actually I seemed to be right in line with your summary. Not bad for a rookie

Your reports are always useful information that several can benefit from. Thank you for doing it...and sharing it!

Thanks Boomer!

Well, you are not entirely a Rookie now. You are now 1 rifle above Rookie. But, you are learning rapidly grasshopper.

lol, thanks Outlaw. You're great when it comes to sharing your experience and helping out when there's questions to be answered.

I am still looking for #2!

If the guy I talked with you about the other day would ever reply to my email, I would jump to 3 spots above a rookie with one trip!

Calm down now. He is just trying to get you hooked real good before he raises his price.

Just to make you feel bad, how's about this deal. I traded a totally mis-matched Romie for a nice in the box Chinese M21.
Arsenal 0296.It is still packed full of Cosmoline. Has not been cleaned of nor fired since import. Even trade.
Should be in my hands in about 10 days. Hmmm, wonder what I will find some where next.

Nice horse trading over there my friend! Yep, you got the better end of that deal. I look forward to your report and photos

Congratulations Outlaw!

Just like the newspaper and a hot cup of coffee in the morning, I always look forward to Boomers monthly Russian newslwetter/ sales report . Props to Boomer

Was the 54 Izhevsk that went for 850 much differant then the 54 that went for 1.380 ?

Thanks all, nope, the two 54 Izzys were pretty much the same.

Thw first 54 is priced about right

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewIt ... =266454266

The second one is the expensive one.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewIt ... =266347084

The pricing for the 53 is about where it should be. Which one would you buy at $1380? I know many will say neither but a few of us would seriously consider giving that for the 53, if we had the funds to do it.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewIt ... =266455431

OO, actually the $850 '54 Izhevsk and the $1380 '53 Izhevsk were the same seller. The '54 Izhevsk that sold for $1380 was another guy. Not that it matters, because it was the buyer's that made the sales.

January was a record sales month as far as number of rifles sold. I wonder if we'll see as many or more sell this month?

Thanks for the report Boomer. I've been following it for a while now and I appreciate the effort that you put into it.

I think OO's comment about tax refunds and people looking to invest in a Russian are spot on. A FFL buddy of mine has three Russian Tula refurbs that are unfired since import w/ box and accessories that he's been holding on to for a while. He asked me the other day if it would be a good time to sell one. I advised him to give it some time until tax refunds were starting to roll in. Then take lots of detailed pics and put it on GB in a low starting bid. I told him he should get $350 to $400 if he does a good job on the pics and the write up, but who knows, it could go for more.

For whatever reason, those in their original boxes sometimes draw a crowd of bidders, sometimes not. There are sales prices that exceed what they should be for a given rifle if the box is attached. Tell your friend to protect his investment with a reserve. It is all according to who is looking when and some sellers get caught letting their rifles go for under what they should bring.

The most glaring mistake sellers make is putting the starting price too high. Starting a run of the mill Russian refurb at $400 is a mistake, even $350 is sometimes too much to get the ball rolling. Most bidders like the "no reserve" hopeing they can get an SKS really cheap.It amusing to follow an auction like this for a pretty good SKs and call up who the early bidders were and see them dropping out like flies when the bid gets to $200 for a very good Russian, refurb or not.

Here is a good example of the above. This is a 53 Tula with the box and accessories. It has the handguard stamped with the seral number which make it an exDDR candidate. I can't see the /1\ to the left of the serial number but it may be below the stock line. Someone wanted it real bad.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewIt ... =271435379

Boomer what is your opinion of refurbs with a painted receiver, and unpainted bolt, like the one in the auction, vs a painted receiver and bolt. Then compared to a refurb rifle with blued metal? Which model do you call BBQ?

bunkysdad wrote:Boomer what is your opinion of refurbs with a painted receiver, and unpainted bolt, like the one in the auction, vs a painted receiver and bolt. Then compared to a refurb rifle with blued metal? Which model do you call BBQ?

I know you asked Boomer, but my opinion is that some rifles were deemed to need a full paint job, verses others only having some parts painted. It's interesting, because when the rifles first hit the US, a lot of people were passing up non-refurbs and rifles in the blue, for the painted ones. I have talked to a lot of guys that paid a premium back in the day, for the "Heavy BBQ" painted ones. As far as a collector goes, the Heavy BBQ (fully painted action AND bolt/bolt carrier) are the least collectible. A "Light BBQ" (Painted receiver, but white bolt/bolt carrier) might be a tad more desirable, but both BBQ'd styles are the bottom of the collector rung.

BTW, that rifle that sold for $705, was more like a $400-450, even with the box. It is a DDR, however, so perhaps on the higher side of $450-475 as it includes original accessories and KBI importers box. I have a few of these, myself, but I would not pay $705 for them.

What Drago said about the paint job.

I would put this sale today in the wildcard pool. We had a 54 Izhevsk nonrefurb that went for $1380 last month that I would put in the same catagory. These show up from time to time. Maybe it is tax refund money talking. But, there seems to be an upwards pressure on all SKS prices in the last year. The ones with boxes get a lot of attention.

That is what you call an inflated price for a 53 BBQ Rifle. DDR or not. Wow

This continues to be very interesting to me. Nice job

I don't usually post this, because I don't want to detract from Boomer's hard work, but because a lot of you guys are still getting a feel of what is going on in the SKS world, I thought this might aid you along with Boomer's monthly sales data.

If I did this correctly, you should be able to click on it and then clearly see the data.

I have been collecting this data since March 2011 and the way I do my monthly sales, you have access to the actual Gunbroker sales if you type the auction numbers on the search bar on Gunbroker, for up to 90 days. I also grade each rifle using my own feelings on a 1 to 5 scale. In addition, if you are looking for trends such as better times of day to sell, or better days of the week to end an auction, I have that data, as well. Some folks like to see how many bidders there were for a particular rifle, I know I do, so that was something I felt was important. I like to separate the average sales amounts between the refurbs and the non-refurbs, so that is tallied at the very bottom.

Again, not trying to 1-up Boomer, but since last month was pretty wild, I thought you might like to view this.

I particularly like the description on each gun sold. That allows people to better understand a sale based on condition of a rifle.