Surplus Rifles with Best Price Appreciation Potential?

[Sandy Flakeman]

Please post opinions on what readily available surplus rifles (over the past 5 years or so)  that have the best potential for price appreciation.  My choice would be the:

Albanian SKS (made in very small numbers)
Swiss K-31 (528,230 Total Military Production)

I feel these will double in 5 years or so.  I could be wrong but it's just my opinion.

Some very low priced rifles from 15 years ago were the Swede 96's, Swede 38's, Eqyptian Hakims, Egyptian Rashids, Blue Star M1 Carbines, Russian SKS and even the Norinco SKS.  These are all selling (retail) for higher than the rate of inflation. 

Opinions welcome.

[S.S.]

Prices will indeed go up, But only until a stash is found and another influx hits the market.
Then prices drop at an incredible rate. As an example, I can remember when a Hakim would easily cost over $1,500.00 ! They were that rare and were almost impossible to obtain. Then a boatload hit the U.S. shores and they were selling for around $200.00. That is a $1,300.00 loss practically
over night. There are so many of most kinds of surplus firearms on the scene now that prices will
increase very, very slowly now. people simply are not willing to pay these incrediblly high prices anymore for something that is so common now. These types of firearms would be a poor choice
as an investment I think. The returns will be small in comparison to most investments. Very few of these firearms will appreciate faster than the inflation rate. Possible some of the Martini-Henry rifles that have just come in to the country will. But that is the only one I can think of right off hand.
There are now just so many of everything, that "RARE" no longer applies.

[Sandy Flakeman]

Here is one that may appreciate, the Albanian SKS.  Check back in 10 years and see what these are selling for:

Estimated production of Albanians over the years is shown in this chart, with figures gathered and put together by Glen Burton:

1967- 980
1968- 570
1969- 2800
1970- 2980
1971- 2620
1976- 160
1977- 660
1978- 4960
1979- 800
Undated- 420

There were an estimated 16,950 produced. For unknown reasons the Albanians destroyed or gave away nearly two thirds of them and it is believed that only 5700 are left in the world today. There have been reports that US Government led efforts "encouraged" the Albanian government to collect and destroy over 130,000 Albanian small arms (their SKS included) during the mid to late 1990's. This may be why we see limited numbers of them in the world market today.

[mikedb]

Why not just buy Elvis commemorative plates or some special value pre release special mint coin tht is selling for $19.95 limit of 5.  Remember the release price will be $39.95.  Or pokemon cards.   

[R.W.Dale]

Why not just buy Elvis commemorative plates or some special value pre release special mint coin tht is selling for $19.95 limit of 5.  Remember the release price will be $39.95.  Or pokemon cards.   

rC

Collecting milsurps for monetary gain is like collecting beaie babys.

 Somebody may in fact make money off them but it's not going to be you.

[1911crazy]

When the yugo sks's dryup(this is suppose to be the last batch) all the other sks's will get a very big price increase.  The unissued/excellent grade yugo's are gone already.  The prices on the russian, the chinese, the romanian and the albanian sks's are hovering between $225 to $400 right now and just wait and see were there going to go when the yugo's dryup.

The swede and the 7mm mausers are slowly going up right now depending ion which ones you have.  The hakims are hitting $500+ now,  the rasheeds/Ljungman are pushing $750. Look at the FN49's lately?  Most of the local gun shops are cashing in on the surplups too now its the last hurrah.

The way it looks to me within the next 5 to 10years the surplus military prices will be out of site.  This hobby that was once affordable will do a complete 180 and get very expensive because they ain't making any more plus we will see no more being imported thats left out there too.  I think the UN and the European Union will see to that and we won't see anything comming to our shores.  Or the next president will shut us down too.  Its a horse race as to who will put the k bash on our hobby first.  My point is remorgage the farm, sell the dog and get what you can now before its too late.

I remember the $59 chinese norinco sks NIB and the $79 Albanian sks not too long ago too.

The end is comming soon on the military surplus guns.  Even the mosins will runout too. If history repeats itself you should go to an antique blackpowder gun show and see there prices were they are today.  In a few years our surplus guns will be maybe halfway there??

I don't collect for the future investment, I collect now for the future generations of my family so they will enjoy them too. I planted the surplus seed.

[S.S.]

There are few true collectors out there now, In the future it will be hard to find a real one.
When some of us go to sell our Mil-Surps, it will probably be to someone who is going to "Bubba" it into something else. The history aspect will mean little to them. Sure, you may make a couple of hundred bucks for a 10-15-20 year investment, But that is not much considering that you must maintain and store that investment over those number of years. Not to mention that in the next few years it may make you an outlaw to even have it. I am going to let you in on a secret to make you some real money over the same amount of time. Invest in Copper and Canadian Power companies. Not enough time to type the details.