Look at the medium-to-long term
There is a general, long-term trend in the market for old service rifles that should not be overlooked, especially for the K98k.
1) They don't make them any more.
2) These forums frequently throw up comments to the effect "when I was a kid you could buy those for XX dollars", often forgetting that the XX dollars may have been a week's wages way back then*.
3) Others on these forums enthuse about having dozens of examples of the same type of rifle - so no wonder that the market is ever-so-slowly getting tighter!
4) Good examples are disappearing into the gun cabinets, and will only re-emerge when death or disability leads to a dispersal of the collections.
5) Just ask yourself what the purchasers are doing with those fake stamps that appear to be readily on offer in the USA.
6) Just ask yourself if it is really plausible that, while Germany was collapsing and making last-ditch Volkssturmgewehre out of whatever scrap wood and metal could be found, that they were simultaneously hoarding K98ks in mint condition for the benefit of collectors 70 years later.
7) And ask yourself why these "mint" Mausers turn up where you are, and not in Mauserland.
And then you will understand why I am pleased to see an original un-"restored" K98k. One day it will be worth much more than the dubious rest.
As a result of all this, I recommend: get it, clean it, don't "improve" it, keep it.
:wave:
*My first paid work was for 2 shilling and sixpence three-farthings per hour. Turn that into todays's money!
