[Fosgate5]

So I go to the gun show in Hastings NE this morning with low expectations and a shopping list of stuff to look for. Gun socks, Magazines, Suppressor adaptors etc. I walked in as doors opened and immediatly startied skimming the isles for items of interest and crazy prices. CAI Yugo M76 for $1900, Polytech Underfolder AK in the Styrofoam for $2400 (HA!). Then my second isle I hit a Russian Tula Manufacture SKS says unfired (yeah right) it still had cosmo on it no chips or flakes, looked really good and was the typical refurb brought in the 80's. Price $375! Cra p! I told the fiance I would be nice today so I set it down and kept walking but for about 4 Isles it was hard to concentrate on what I was scanning the tables for. Finally I decided I'll come back after I walk the tables and if it is still there when I come back I'll buy it. Half hour 45min later I come back and there is a guy with his kid checking it out. I set back and listen while the guy is going over it with his kid pointing out the markings. Crud! He's probably going to buy it, so I hang back watching to see by chance if he is going to set it down. I know at this point I want it, I could just grab the dealer and stuff my cash in his fist and have him tell the guy it's sold. Nah, normally I would do it in all is fair but with his kid with him not only would I look like a Richard but the guy is sharing an experience with his kid. The guy offers him $350 and I almost laugh outloud as I see the dealer refuse and price was firm as the guy set it down (I'm on the opposite side of the table trying not to be noticed.) If I would have been next to him I would have picked it up at that point. But he said ok about 30 seconds later, (29 more than I needed to take it from him.) I knew it was a steal seeing how Cabela's just sold their similar SKS with worse condition for $600 two weeks ago. The dealer then noticed me and came over to see if he can help. I just simply told him I was going to buy it if the other guy was not. Told him it was the only thing I saw in the entire show with a good price on it out of the last two. Dealer told me he had checked prices on it GB before he left and didn't think the prices for SKS's were fair on GB and that he originally sold that particular SKS to the guy he picked it up again from. Said sold it in the 80's for $70 and thinks the value of them is inflated. Definitely going to keep an eye on this guys booth in the future.

So, That's my story this morning How I saw a deal and I hesitated, stupidly. (What, is there going to be another one in similar shape for less). If the guy who bought it is reading this congratulations and thank your kid. If it wasn't for him that SKS would be in my hands now.

 

[Clackinator]

Ouch!

 

[dou 44]

i jumbed on my deal last week. local gunshop just took in a tula 56 and wanted to get rid of it for what he had in it . i got a matching rifle for $28o and by the time i bought the ammo with it also it came to $400 total

 

[Turtlewolf]

You have my sympathy, although here in Canada we still have plenty of Russians for $200 or less and even some brand new Chinese. Last year I was at a favorite store of mine with the family and noticed a pair of laminate dressed Russian SKS carbines so of course I had to have a look.
Imagine my surprise when one was a 1954 Izzy so I had to ask what the price was.
Now even here a laminate is usualy $250-275 especialy the Izzy.
Price out the door?


$160


Now at this point I had been without an SKS for about 4 years having sold my minty all matching Chinese like an idiot but being the upstanding father that I am I set the SKS back on the shelf and shakily turned to my fiance.
I told her what it was.
Long story short I got the deal of a life time, I love laminate furniture on firearms and I love the SKS carbine.
cheers

 

[Louie]

This is what they would cost here if Clinton hadn't banned certain Russian weapons, and banned Chinese stuff. Dear Pres. Bush did nothing to rescind any of these executive orders, so what we have is what is here. Similar to the 86 law banning further new made civilian auto weapons. Importers who I know have told me there are tons of SKS and SVT's still in storage in the former USSR. Problem is we can't import them! In the mid nineties SOG, used to sell them for 99-129.00 all day long. At gun shows you could get them for under 100.00 at times. Now it seems like ages ago.

 

[rio nueces]

Never take your wife, fiance, or 'significant other' to a gun show if you have more than $10 cash or credit in your wallet. Period.

 

[PRIMO1]

Interesting. i never see Russian SKSs for sale here for under $500. All run of the mill refurbs at that.

 

[rio nueces]

Saw one (Russian, 'run of mill refurb', not bubba'd) for $350 the other day in Houston pawnshop....sadly, I passed on it.

There ARE bargains out there.

 

[lmc8541]

I missed a 60 Romanian at the Big Town Gun Show in Texas for $289 out the door this last weekend. saw an Albanian in cosmo for $595

 

[point]

I just picked up my 3rd SKS last week. A nice 55/56 Russian for $190. The only thing we have over our American cousins up here in Canada is price and availability of SKSs and SVTs, We can't get AKs and ammo is almost twice your price. Mosins run twice the price generally and Mosin carbines surprisingly are priced about the same. I guess we can't have it all

 

[Hal O'Peridol]

I just picked up my 3rd SKS last week. A nice 55/56 Russian for $190. The only thing we have over our American cousins up here in Canada is price and availability of SKSs and SVTs, We can't get AKs and ammo is almost twice your price. Mosins run twice the price generally and Mosin carbines surprisingly are priced about the same. I guess we can't have it all

I look at those SKS rifles every time I go into Lever's. Let my PAL lapse several years ago though. Ammo, at least that NICE Czech 7.62x39 is much cheaper in Canada, we cannot even get it here. The Yugo 8mm they have is pricey though. I just got two cases of the same thing from SOG at about .20 a round.

 

[Sidney Smith]

I've learned a long time ago that if you see something and you think its a deal, buy it right then and there, or this exact scenario or something similar will play out, then you're the guy on the outside looking in....Shame you lost out, but look on the bright side, the other guy didn't! So by proxy you made his day, even if he is unaware you did so....He's probably sitting back saying...."man I'm glad I jumped on that one ".......