Is an RC just an RC?

[Calfed]

I've got several RC's that are a little more interesting (to me) than a "run-of-the-mill" RC.

One is a Portuguese 1941, apparently one that was turned over to the Wehrmacht when the contract was cancelled.






The other is a banner Mauser standard modell





Is an uncommon RC just an RC, because it has been through the capture process, or do the uncommon ones have any additional value?

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[Patrick Chadwick]

Is an uncommon RC just an RC, because it has been through the capture process, or do the uncommon ones have any additional value?

An interesting puzzle. Beauty is supposed to lie in the eye of the beholder. And value seems to lie in the eye of the collector. But thinking it through quite slowly, an uncommon item remains an uncommon item, even if RC-ed.

[Calfed]

I guess what I meant to ask is how much value, if any, does an uncommon receiver/barrel add

[Patrick Chadwick]

I guess what I meant to ask is how much value, if any, does an uncommon receiver/barrel add

- And what I meant to say, is that collector values are highly subjective. Inasmuch as there is any logic at all in values, then there are so many RC-ed K98s that the value, relative to other RC-ed K98s, ought to have a similar ratio to the value of a non-RC-ed Portuguese example compared with non-RC-ed K98s.
In other words, if worth twice as much in non-RC condition as other non-RCs, then in RC condition still worth twice as much as other RCs. Personally, I would value the condition as being more important than the RC mark, and it seems to be in fine condition.


Patrick

[Johnny Peppers]

A local shop got a RC K Date Luger, and after looking up prices for K Date Lugers ask a hefty premium. The pistol never sold until the price was cut to that of run of the mill RC Lugers. I have a feeling that if the condition of the K Date had been above your average RC, it would have brought a slight premium.

[Patrick Chadwick]

So what's a K date?

[Aragorn243]

Part of the issue is that collectors want "original". So an RC is removed from that equation immediately. They were stripped, cleaned up, re-blued, rebuilt, re-serialed which makes them the RC that they are.

Logic would say that a rare receiver should still bring a premium over a non-rare receiver but that's basically all you got. The bolt is different, the stock is different along with all the other parts.

I have heard that some guys are buying RC's to complete or add to their collections based on place of production, year, etc so there is going to be a market in the future at least if not at present. Rare pieces should start bringing premiums when more of this starts happening.

[Sarge]

I think that the RCs fill a niche of their own. The purists don't like them, But ---
I have 65/70 K98k rifles and RCs & Isrreali rebarrels account for at least 40 of them.
To get what I wanted in original rifles would have been impossible and the cost of what I found in matching, or even bolt mismatches, would have been out of my reach $$ wise.
I collect Steyr (bnz), Borgiswald (S/243) and Erma (S/27) rifles. I now have ALL the Borgiswald rifles and am only lacking an S/27G of having all the Ermas. Styers are a totaly different deal, I have about 25 and know of at least 20 other variations that I do not have.
Were it not for the RCs I would probably have about 20 rifles.
I am however, very fortunate in that I got most of my RCs from a guy I was working for. We had about 400 K98ks that had been totaly disassembled, only the bbl was still in the rec, everything that would come off was in tubs. We were reassembling the mess some idiot made. This was fortunate because we sorted the parts by receiver code and reassembled the - still mismatched, though I did match a few parts - bbl'd recs with matching factory proofed parts.
Thus my 40 or so RCs are numbers mismatched, BUT they are all factory proofed matching.
I assembled the rifles I wanted first so I had the pick of parts. None of them are pencil etched either and some don't have either the RC X or an importers mark. Nice to have the pick of the litter!
When I stumble across a matching or bolt mismatch at a reasonable price I will replace my RC. As an example I recently found an S/243G that was a bolt mismatch for a steal. It's now in my collection.
Sarge

[Johnny Peppers]

So what's a K date?

The K Date Luger was the first military P.08 made by Mauser. Instead of using the date of manufacture, Mauser used a letter code for the date, which was K in 1934. The same date code was used on the 1934 K98k rifles.

Slightly less than 11,000 K Date P.08's were made, and in original condition they bring a hefty premium.

[Patrick Chadwick]

Thanks Johnny, that shows the value of these forums!