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I have been looking to pick up a WWI Enfield and have seen several for sale by this seller. Starting bid is always pretty low and I have chased a couple with no success. The photos and descriptions leave a lot to be desired. I was wondering if people have purchased these rifles and what their impressions were on the rifles they received? Thanks for any information.
Highly recommend you query the keyword on britishmilitaria.com, gunboards.com, and the internet before you buy in. There are a lot of comments out there that will answer the question you raise.
While there is indeed a lot of well earned (in my opinion) commentary on his business practices out there, he comes up with some very nice stuff. My one and only transaction with him resulted in me paying a hefty sum for an extraordinary rifle (again, my opinion...on both the sum and the rifle). All in all, I walked away from the transaction a very happy camper.
Bottom line...like anything else, know what you are looking at, and what you want to pay for it.
I have dealt with him. His prices are sometimes very high (rumors of shill bidding are out there, but the fact is that shill bidding is pointless if it puts the price to one that noone will actually pay)... He he has some great and rare stuff also. When it comes down to it - Caveat emptor- not just him but everyone and everything.
There was just some discussion on another site about a Lithuanian FN Hi-Power that he sold. It has been pretty-well determined that the mag and stock are both faked. YMMV.
I bought a matching 1931 Ishapore SMLE from him some time back----all was correct and no attempt had been made to "improve" the saleability of the rifle. (Ala Keedysville, for instance.)
The pack of raging peek-a-poos that inhabit other fora and gather occasionally to savage "grey blanket" are at least as intelligent as they are dangerous and powerful attack dogs.
From the pack swarm at the Lithuanian HiPower thread---
"That happens. Several years ago I was at the Colorado Gun Collectors show in Denver. A guy (a reputable dealer) I know (whose name I will not mention) purchased a Finnish Hi Power that had a matching numbered stock. (Finnish Air Force if I remember correctly.) I took pictures of the pistol and especially the stock by itself and with one of my stocks. I did not say anything but when the guy got home his friends did comment. He was finally able to rese;; it, but it took him a bit. Some poor person purcahsed it and will always say that it is real because he got it from "X"."
(Emphasis added)
...and there in a nutshell, ladies and gentlemen, are the two-faced ethics of the Peek-A-Poos.
-----krinko
Hmmm.........not sure of your motive here, but you happened to pick out an off-hand comment made by that poster to illustrate what can happen years down the road when a faked piece gets sold. You are also trashing the poster, who happens to have one of the largest collections in the world of Hi-Power pistols and knows more about them than most people short of JMB himself. And the "pack of raging peek-a-poos" that you're deriding have pretty conclusively proven that the object of this post has sold a pistol with a deliberately faked magazine and stock. Did he fake them? I don't know, but I would be very wary about parting with any of my funds for any of his wares. Your friend "grey blanket" has been rather well-savaged, and my take-away has been that it seems to be deserved.
But hey, other members here are free to go read the full thread concerning the "Lithuanian Hi-Power fetches handy price" thread that can be googled.
Can't seem to edit, but I meant "the object of this thread", not "the object of this post". I'll stick with the rest.
Well...the only comment I can make is based on my area of knowledge, which is Irish SMLE rifles. The chap mentioned did have a couple of questionable SMLE Mk I*** rifles, that is rifles that showed signs of being restorations. Not all but a couple of the rifles had features that screamed this. Of course this interpretation is subject to debate, as the degree to which the Irish would use MKIII parts on the SMLE MK I rifles is not conclusively decided one way or another. In any case these questionable Irish rifles stopped showing up on his site once a discussion started about them on this site. coincidence?
The folks that seem to be the most against him are the K98K folks. Now if you check on Gunboard forums, you will find that there are a lot of folks that collect K98K rifles and really spend a lot of time figuring out what is real and what is faked. Because K98K rifles are now big money if matching, there are a lot more fakes. In any case if someone wants to pursue this, you can look him up on that site. There is quite a discussion about him and his wares on that site. Draw your own conclusions.
Now that doe not means he is guilty of anything but selling guns. I have brought items from him, such as a CLLE and it was a nice item. I also bought a Indian DP that was a good deal. His communications are clear and he has a good rating from those who bought from him. The problem is he has items that are rare, which means that they are more likely to be faked. No one can be an expert in all areas, so a seller of rare guns in many areas is likely to come across faked arms in his search for reasonable priced arms to resell.
"...to illustrate what can happen years down the road when a faked piece gets sold. You are also trashing the poster..."
First part wrong, second part right.
The poster won't name a "reputable dealer" who is known to have deliberately sold off a fake, yet participates in an attack thread where it is assumed reisel knew he was selling a fake and implied that he made the fake himself.
That's the bloody illustration and if it is "trashing the poster"---he drew it himself, I only put a frame around it.
-----krinko
Hi folks ... :)
Let's try to keep it relatively civil, or we'll have to lock the thread and move on .... ;)
Feedback about sellers for the benefit of all collectors is welcome here, but let's be as factual as we can and use empirical data where possible. Innuendo, speculation and unsubstantiated hearsay can be damaging to everyone involved.
Thanks for listening .. :cheers:
Regards,
Doug