Bro bought a K98, want to make sure he wasnt ripped off. Sas told to come here (pics)

[Ridolpho]

Everyone is fallable and things can backfire for the con-artists. One frequent seller at local shows who I now know to commonly sell fakes sold me a very collectable gun for about 1/3 to 1/4 of its worth because he hadn't done his homework. In fact he thought the gun was a "khyber pass" (which he didn't come out and say as he sensed I wanted to shoot it!) but having, by sheer coincidence, recently read several detailed threads on Kyhber pass guns on this forum I was 100% sure it was not. It actually took me several weeks to figure out what it really was and to find out I had stolen it. Point is there's no rational way to prepare for buying at a show unless you stick religiously to a make you truly know well (or don't have a day job). These days I'm buying most of my rifles from one of several good on-line sellers or on the CGN forum where all sellers have feedback ratings. Much safer and way better selection than one gets at shows. Not surprisingly, these on-line sellers rarely throw out wild stories about the gun which would be available for the world to see (and laugh at).

Ridolpho

[Sarge]

Well, one thing is for certain - None of you guys know what you are talking about as far as this rifle is concerned!!!
THAT IS A RATHER UNCOMMON 42 DATED BNZ SINGLE RUNE RIFLE!!!
Even as an RC it is worth $4-$600.
I would need more & better photos to know exactly what it is, but the following info would help - Is it matching, if not how badly mismatched? Are there importers marks on it - usualy on the bbl by the front sight?
Sarge

[WarPig1976]

SS rifles have waffenamts.??

[Aragorn243]

I have no stake in this as I don't have a clue what markings are on what but I did out of curiosity look up images of single rune rifles and none have waffenamts on them. Only BNZ rifles without the single rune have them. Ball's book doesn't show any either. Backbone is currently on the bottom of a huge stack of books and it isn't exactly accurate anyway.

[Detmer]

Very very shiny?

[mac1911]

Ok so your brother traded his gun plus 200$ for the gun in question. Now lets just say I don't know much about mausers out side of buying shooters and less expensive rifles that look decent.
1. I assume from the get go your brother was looking to up grade?
2. What was his rifle worth or what did he have.
3. The rifle in question looks pretty nice. I don't see many k98 mausers reguardless of RC, Original or "shooter" grade for much less than 500.00?
4. It sucks this happened. Now unless you got a really low ball trade in on. Brothers original rifle. Its par for the course when you really don't know enough. Been there with other rifles and collectsbles.
5. One other point is did your brother know what the gun he was tradeing worth?
I might have missed it ......what was the total cost of this rifle?
Could have been worse, like paying 2800$ for a ?4000$? Rifle ghats worth 400-600.

So how does it shoot.

[Badger]

Everyone makes mistakes...

Early in my collecting career, I bought a $2,000 rifle that was a fake and actually worth about $500...

The worse situation was that I didn't even know it was a fake until I had sold it.....

Anyway, it's one of the reasons we started this site almost 8 years ago, which is intented to help new collectors research their pieces, hopefully before they buy, or if afterwards, at least validate them the best our Advisory Panel, can so the owner can enjoy peace of mind...

Regards,
Doug

[Calif-Steve]

When I lived in Wash DC I would hit the Pikesville, MD show all of the time. I would see a dealer who had exotic Mausers like I had never seen. Kar98a's with Nazi proofs and Gew 98's with 1940 dates. I asked him one day where this stuff was coming from. He looked around and softly told me he had a gunsmith stamp it up. Nobody knew and keep that to yourself. I never spoke to him again. There is a guy out in Huntington Beach, CA with lots of exotic stuuf and I question all of it. Buyers must be aware and if the deal looks to good to be true it likely isn't true.

[kar98k]

When I lived in Wash DC I would hit the Pikesville, MD show all of the time. I would see a dealer who had exotic Mausers like I had never seen. Kar98a's with Nazi proofs and Gew 98's with 1940 dates. I asked him one day where this stuff was coming from. He looked around and softly told me he had a gunsmith stamp it up. Nobody knew and keep that to yourself. I never spoke to him again. There is a guy out in Huntington Beach, CA with lots of exotic stuuf and I question all of it. Buyers must be aware and if the deal looks to good to be true it likely isn't true.

i hate those people more than anything. ruining history to make an extra buck. jackasses.

[Patrick Chadwick]

1) Stamps are freely available, and their only function is for faking.
2) Rifles with certain stamps are more valuable than others.
3) The rarer, the more profitable for a faker.

ergo

4) The rarer, the more know-how you need to have before buying.
5) If it looks to good to be true, it usually is.
6) Verbal descriptions are not worth the paper they're written on.