I Feel Like I'm Going Through Some Sort of Withdrawel

[Frederick303]

Well, I did not feel ill-used as there is really nothing I am looking for; my collection is pretty much complete.

That said, I could not believe what stuff was put out for price wise; or how new collectors can get in the game. There was a sanded 1942 Malby in decent shape for 500. Had a post war MK I rear sight, clean but not mint as it had been sanded. The kind of gun that would have been priced 150 or 160 (at most) a decade ago. 500 was the asking price, and it sold, though I do not know what the final figure was. The prices are such that I do not see how the young chaps can put together a nice collection for a reasonable sum of WWI or WWII rifles.

I recall when I first got interested in getting some rifles in 1981. I was initially interested in civil war muskets, but a rough example was 250. So instead I focused on the cheap guns I could buy for 65 dollars and less, which was an awful lot in the period from 1982 to 1985, especially in the WWI era guns. In any case here I am 34 years later and I still do not have a 1861 contract musket or a 1860 Colt revolver, both arms I really wanted as a 17 year old.

Now I notice going to the shows that the prices of civil war arms have dropped over the past 5 years, the old guys sell off their collections accumulated in the 1950s through the 1980s. It seems there are less collectors coming at the price point today than are getting out. I wonder if that will occur sometime in the old milsurps, after all I see very few collectors who are not grey haired.