Quote Originally Posted by neoisprettycool View Post
I am a pretty avid collector and I personally still see a desirability in mismatched K98s. (Especially if it is just the bolt)
I think there can be a distinction here, and this can apply to other military rifles. If the gun is numbers matching, with a mismatched bolt, but the bolt itself is matching (sear, safety, bolt handle, firing pin, etc), then it is possible the gun was captured (and not arsenaled).

I was friends with a man who served in WWII. He said that towards the end of the war, US troops would surround (superior numbers of) Germanicon troops, and they'd just surrender. They had no will to even fight. His CO said, after a rather large group of German troops surrendered (and, I am paraphrasing):

If any of you f***ers want to sleep tonight, you'll get these Krauts to put they're guns in one pile, and leave the bolts with us.

There would be piles of k98s with no bolts. Some would be taken, but no one spent time sorting bolts to make a matching rifle. There is no question an all matching gun is more desirable and valuable, but I do see value in guns with mismatched bolts (that themselves are matching), just for this reason.