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(1/8/00 DAVE)
Guns shows never cease to amaze me. Maybe I take the whole affair too seriously, but I experience a wide range of emotions in just two hours of poking around. The profound frustration of listening to vendor after vendor trying to fill my head with utter garbage and lies will completely evaporate in the light of elation when I spot a rare and unique piece. I'll go from nonchalant browsing to mind (and budget) bending lust to repugnance and back, all in a span of five minutes. Three things strike me most when it comes to these bizarre bizarres: the baffling economics of the gun trade, the detestable and blatant misinformed sales techniques of some dealers, and the beauty of hard to find items.
In my spare time over the past few months, I've been combing the shows looking for a beater Chinese or Russian Simonov. I have some heavy modifications in mind, and I do not want one that even resembles a collectable piece. It needs to either have parts missing, barrels shortened, finish ruined, or holes drilled to qualify. The only thing I require is a decent barrel and matching receiver, bolt, and carrier. It doesn't seem like it would be hard to find a deal on something matching this description, right? WRONG. They're out there. I find them all the time, but the people selling them absolutely refuse to let go of them for a reasonable price! Why do these insane dealers think it is reasonable to charge for a beater what they charge for a complete weapon?!?!
Here are two noteworthy examples. The first I found was a Chinese with the gas tube and piston completely missing, a mismatched stamped trigger group, and the barrel was illegally tapped at the end. Perfect for what I need because I want to shorten the barrel (completely eliminating the front sight and the poorly done barrel threading) and I want to add a DC Engineering gas tube. The stock was beat up and the poor thing has touches of flash rust on the flat surfaces and caked cosmoline pouring from every crevice. This clearly indicates the original owner didn't properly clean the firearm before firing it then poorly maintained it when he did shoot it. What would you have offered for this piece? I was feeling particularly generous because of this lucky find and offered him $150. The guy actually laughed in my face and told me the lowest he could go was $275. $275!?!?!?!?!?!?! I laughed too, but the levity quietly trailed off when I realized he wasn't kidding. I could not express now completely and thoroughly offended I was at his price and his demeanor. It is still for sale if anyone is interested in feeding this man's crack addiction (this encounter has me convinced he's on serious drugs).
There are others, but another shining example is the Russian I found last weekend. This rifle has a Chinese receiver cover which tells me it formerly had a receiver cover scope mount and the original was lost. It has holes in the receiver from a previous bolt on scope mount as well. I've never seen a Russian with such a rough finish. It looked like the former owner had this carbine tied to his leg and used to drag it across the carpet behind him as he would move from the couch to the refrigerator to the restroom and back. It also has a grungy ATI Monte Carlo stock on it ($35 NEW) which I offered to let the dealer keep to sell separately for a quick $20. The inside of the barrel looked good, so I asked how much they'd take for it. $250 was his reply. I wasn't too shocked, this is how some of the best deals start, but after a while the guy confessed he couldn't go lower than $225. It was apparent that this particular dealer knew he was asking too much, but he was standing firm at $225. I even flashed $160 in cash, and flashed my CCL (this means he won't have to deal with the hassle of calling in the federal background check), but again, he was standing firm at $225. Apparently, he had paid too much for it himself and didn't want to take a loss. Of course the deal didn't happen. I have my own lapses in purchasing judgment to cover, never mind bail this poor guy out of his previous rotten deals.
Now this is the part I don't get. I'll go to seven shows in a row an see the same exact dealers with the same exact grossly overpriced weapons and I wonder how on Earth these guys can show up weekend after weekend and not loose their collective asses. It would take five minutes to convince me that most of these guys are actors pretending to be dealers who really get paid off the admission ticket sales. I'm completely serious when I tell you I'm starting to successfully guess who runs a table based entirely off of which "tore up from the floor up" firearm that appalled me from the last fifteen shows is lying on the table in question. Why can't these guys do like any other legitimate business and take a loss one month so they can regroup and restock for more profitable deals in the future? Why on Earth do they hold on to these crappy arms so tightly? Money which isn't earning them a dime is tied up in these bad deals. Why can't they understand that they need to free it up so what's left can go to work for them. An overpriced dealer with 100 rifles on a rack will make less than a dealer with only five profit earning weapons next door.
My best guess it this: ignorance keeps them motivated. They're probably counting on the fact that someone with money to burn is not going to know any better and pick it up. It probably happens juuuust often enough to keep these shysters going with the taste of easy money from a sucker. It must not happen that often though judging from the repetition I see in their offerings. There's this one guy who's selling a Enfield for $150. This MarkIII is literally falling apart. Someone took wire and wrapped it around the barrel in a few places to keep it all together. The wire makes it highly recognizable and it catches my eye every time I'm out. Does it sell? Nope. There are SMLE's present on other tables in far superior condition selling for half the price.
Then there are the guys who try selling Romanians SKS's for Russian prices. I don't know if it's because I'm paying more attention to them or not, but the biggest rip off's I see are with SKS's. Last weekend some guy has a Romanian in a folding stock that was anchored to the table with a $400 price tag. As Jesus is my savior, I swear to you this (at the time illegal) rifle was selling for $400. There were $150 Romanians all over the floor and this guy thinks he can get by with that big a mark up. I stress enough how this concept absolutely amazes me. More than likely, some guy is going to go to a show not knowing average market values dead set on buying a Simonov. At that one particular show there won't be many and the crook is going to laugh all the way to the bank.
Honestly, it's not necessarily the crook's, er, dealer's fault. Many people don't know where to begin assessing Simonov prices as they aren't published in the standard pricing guides. It seems the only protection anyone really has is arming themselves with the facts and sticking to their guns. The best place for this sort of information is from the other Simonov enthusiasts in places like message boards and internet forums. If you aren't sure about a deal, DON'T do it. Get contact information, do your homework, and go back. Odds are, if they can get the better of you they will. So what happens when someone finds out they've paid entirely too much for a weapon? Chalk it up as a learning experience and try not to be too hard on yourself. There is probably a long line of people who were taken to the cleaners long before you were and the phenomenon continues. These guys wouldn't do it if it didn't pay.
Finally, just when I think I've had enough, that I just can't take associating with these people for one more second, something will come along and completely revive me. Just last weekend (it was a good show for me, ok?) I saw the finest example of a M39/44 that I've ever seen in my life. I'm entirely convinced that it is either unissued or a reproduction. And they don't make reproductions. The edges were razor sharp, the finish superbly flawless, and the action virginal. The furniture was so perfect that I could actually feel the grain with my fingertips. The edges of the furniture was as crisp as the day this rifle came off he factory floor. I experienced a sensation just short of outright salivation. The dealer wanted $250, which is not too bad of a price for a piece in this condition for someone who is a collector. If I ever define "pristine" in the glossary, this Mosin would be the definition. My head finally clears and my knuckles regain feeling when I get hit with a second military beauty queen. I got to hold an actual Chinese Type 84 SKS, my first at the time. These are the incredibly rare modernized Chinese Type-56 Carbines. The barrel is shortened to paratrooper length, the magazine is that of an AK-47, and the bolt carrier has a bolt locking button. To top it all off, the condition of this carbine was 95% or better. The stock was just like any other Chinese stock, only this one was of hard wood and the magazine well was widened for the larger magazines. The mag well was also lined with a steel sleeve so the ammunition feeding device would glide in and authoritatively lock into place. There is a small button on the bolt carrier located about a centimeter in from where the charging handle meets the body. It only protrudes about 1/4 of a centimeter and doesn't take much to engage. Just pull the handle back, push the spring loaded plunger down, and release the handle to lock it into place. It's released like any other magazine stop: simply pull the handle back and release. I looked for a little select fire switch on the trigger group, but no such luck. I knew it was going to be pricey, but I w-a-n-t-e-d this rifle. I look at my watch and realized I had plenty of time to empty my bank account, call in some favors, pawn my American Historical Society SKS, sell my blood plasma at three different locations, and beg on a street corner for a good two hours before the show closed, so I was confident that I was going to be able to tuck this baby into it's own little bed next to mine that night. Sadly, the little fantasy went *POOF* when he stated he wanted $950 for it. That's about what I paid for my AR-15 with the Springfield Tactical scope tuned to . 223 and I knew there was nothing I could do or say to get his guy down to the $500-600 range (yes, I'd have paid that much). I went home heartbroken that night, but at least I've got my memories.
(I'm going to win the Oscar for mellow-drama this year, count on it!) |
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