Will Buyers Ever Get Smarter?

[tenOC]

Thank you to the people who helped me when I started. Some of you are still here and some don't even post anymore (like M1-TA, Norwich93).

With some Carbines I got 'weird' about swapping anything that most people would swap. A couple I have came with the wrong stock and I leave them that way. Some I even already had a stock that would be a good fit for it, but I don't swap it.

Pretty sure they were correcting stuff in the 1970s, especially stocks and trigger groups. I wouldn't know what they called it back then, but I came along way after the better faked parts were in full swing too. Riverbank had one of the most returned internet search results when the bug bit in 2011 or thereabouts, and plenty of fake parts shown. But my interest was more about quantity than quality, so I'd buy the import carbines several at a time if the price was good enough. Still, I bought lots of desirable coded parts in the same way I used to buy things like Pontiac Super Duty or Ram Air stuff. Carbine parts replaced Pontiac because parts are lighter and smaller and the value hadn't tanked when the economy did in 2007-2009. Some Carbine parts were cheap then. I remember a spring tube Blue Sky Winchester on GB that wouldn't sell for $550 (not cheap at the time) offered by the pawn shop in Florida that's now known for super high priced import Carbines on there (Pawnman). I bought it. Didn't keep it. Didn't make money on it either. Traded it and $330 for a DPD Inland. Neither was a good deal, but find that Winchester today for double that price just 7-8 years later.

The first fake flip I got in my hands a mentor explained that I was describing a fake. So the fake went back to that other collector who was focusing more on quality and better assumed correctness. Similarly, it didn't occur to me at first why there is a nice flip-staked bare S'G' receiver for sale. It's gonna be expensive to restore, but that's the direction I was going anyway. Now they just make me sad to look at in my safe as projects I haven't completed. Dang, I bet this thing was a super nice original before being parted for an IP.

And still even with the focus I've had on flips, there are flips I wish I knew more about. But I pass along the help other people gave me. But also to note, when I first started all the obviously known first rip-off parts I was sold were from other collectors on the forums you're supposed to trust people on. A couple of things I believe people didn't know until we discovered it together, but others were blatant. It was my pleasure to share my experiences with those shady ones with the better quality collectors.