Will Buyers Ever Get Smarter?

[tenOC]

The high quality fakes got bunches and bunches of experienced people.

[imntxs554]

Wandering about today looking over completed sales.
Same old things guys paying big bucks for obvious 'Replicas'.
And paying way too much for some mixers.
I commented on another forum that some here may frequent, so this might be a re-post for some.

I can't get over how the Hell S-T-B takes L&S tweeked receiver dovetails and re-parks with supplied repro parts put in NEW STOCKS (all with the same color) then adds their fresh stamps and sell for + or - $3 grand.
It's been years now and guys just keep buying this crap.
Is this where the Stimulus and extra $$ unemployment funds are going ?
Seems insane that everyone knows about the Riverbank boys but none catch on about Ole Sammy.

I also came across a past sale on a WRA 5,7 rebuilt mixer in a SA stock and M4 leather bayonet that recently sold for $3,225.00.
I looked over the 45 bids it had.
Look over the Bid History on this one.
Does anyone get the 'Shill Bid' feeling from this one ?
Seems odd, but IDK.
I just can't believe the final sale price, especially after looking closer and seeing what I believe is the NPM Punch mark near the W stamp on the WRA barrel.

GunBroker.com - Login

It was GB # 874215734

Crazy Out There........ Crazy !

CH-P777

Charlie this is a Great Post and needed to be said. I remember the days that just about everyone who collected knew to stay away from Riverbank, but now when you see someone new that have started to get into Carbines and they post one and some even show the parts you can tell a lot of them are fake and even tell you they have found and bought parts from Riverbank and it seems like they don't care even when people post that they Sell fake parts. I think he's selling a lot of parts these days. I've even seen people awhile back buying Sam's Carbines and spending lots of money on them. What has changed nowadays that people don't care or will spend LOTS of money on fake parts. It's Crazy !!!

[DaveHH]

Let's say that you made the decision to buy a carbine because they are really cool handy little rifles. You start looking for one and on some web site you find a couple and several look great and seem to be like new. You've been to 10 gun shows and haven't seen one yet. So you pick out a nice one and consider it a wise move since you've not seen one anywhere. If the ugly ones are $1000 then the $3000 for a near mint one is reasonable. You are so happy with your new toy you show it to friends who also know nothing about carbines either, they say it looks neat and how you got it for a great price. You need a sling and look on the internet and find a guy with hundreds of brand new ones for a lot of money. That was easy and the sling looks like it is new too. Then you find out that all of the parts are hallmarked and .......well, it's off to the races.

In the valley of the blind the one eyed man is king....

[jimb16]

I've got an original NPM rear flip sight that I've been thinking about selling. It is a bit beat up, but you can still see the letters RN on the base, but they are a bit hard to make out. The reason I haven't put it up for sale is that some newbie would probably opt to by a new looking fake for $150 rather than pay a fair price for a beater original!

[tenOC]

I can't remember the record for the highest price paid for a fake rear sight but it's well over 200 bucks. Seems like they've sold for $265 n ebay.
The perceived values aren't in sync across the spectrum. So a real sight with problems and a clean fake sight aren't necessarily worth what we think they are to someone who is ignorant of what they're looking at. But that ignorance in the hobby has allowed several of us to pluck a gem here and there while people get fleeced biting on fakes.
I know a real IP sight has sold on ebay for $400. I've paid 350 for a stellar one. And I've paid around $20 for an excellent one too. It was in a lot of 1903a3 sights that could've been sold to make it free instead of giving some away. Gave some away last year.

[USGI]

I know a real IP sight has sold on ebay for $400

I hope I'm not breaking any rules - here's one from 8 years ago. I have the rest of the pictures from that auction. - Bob

[tenOC]

Yeah, that's the one. IIRC, I didn't even bother to bid on it since it had eclipsed my goal when it was time to bid.

[lboos]

Some people just would like to have a small piece of history, maybe what they can afford, maybe not correct, but still a part of history. they may not be into details as much as a serious collector like some of of you, this dose not mean they are to stupied to vote, or are so broke and ignorant that they spend there stimulus and extra unemployment funds on the wrong parts.
I started to put up a pic. of Audie Murphy's WW-2 Carbine to see what you experts could find wrong with it, I'm sure it would be a lot.
Anyway, there are people who would just like to own a WW-2 carbine even if not perfect, and then there are the ultamate experts who want one as it came from the battle fields of WW-2.
Sure would like to see a pic. of one of your perfect M1 carbines, Thanks

[W5USMC]

this dose not mean they are to stupied to vote,

Not really sure WTF this even means????

[tenOC]

Some people (like me) don't care if they can afford it. They're going to buy it anyway and not care who cries about some other person getting a bigger piece of birthday cake than they got. I still haven't cashed my stimulus check and I don't have a pension. Wanna pay my credit card bill? At least I got the stones to make a move on things I want.